I first played this game at night with the sound turned up. My black cat sitting on my desk, watched as I crawled through black tunnels and stealthily made my way around enemy's. The story griped me as the hours ticked by and the plot became more then what I set out for. As the evening became early morning and my cat long since stalked off to sleep, I prowled the metro in search for the answers I needed to save my people.

I was afraid of every turn I took and jumped at every flickering shadow. The music played a haunting melody that only served to heighten the tension as I sat there in the dark, struggling to go on. I shivered in fear as I moved from tunnel to tunnel, alone with only my thoughts to ward off the terrors the lurked always just out of sight. The few times that I was blessed to have companionship, didn't last long as the evil of the metro always saw fit to take these brave souls away. Leaving me alone, weary, and sad for the loss of such good men.

I knew that my journey would be a lonely one filled with fear as well as terrified excitement. The metro is never a safe place and much of what dwells in its dark places wish only to see you dead. Only your wits, courage, and gun will serve to see you through this hellish landscape of a long forgotten time.

I sit alone in the dark now, trying not to shiver. I listen to the howls as they echo from deeper in the tunnels. I know I have to move but I am so tired..., So cold. They're getting closer, the howling. I ready my rifle and take a firm grip as I was taught so long ago. Is this where my journey ends, after I came so far, is this my time? The flame from my light starts to flicker and die as I prepare myself for the same. After all, it's what they've been waiting for....

Updated.
I can no longer recommend this game nor any from publisher Deep Silver due to the deplorable business practice of removing their game from Steam after a prolonged pre-order window. Then having the nerve to offer it on a different service for less then what was offered to everyone on Steam. Bad form from those that offer such a great series.

Silent as a soft breeze through the tall grass I crouch and I watch. The machine in the open field before me is a predator upon the plains that I hunt in today, dangerous and beyond deadly to hunters such as I. But the parts it will yield will fetch a good price in the markets for supplies for the coming winter, winters which can be just as cruel and unforgiving as the deserts of the far west.

The Ravager is guarding a pack of Grazers not far off and as I creep closer I know that I will have to be both fast and quite so as not to frighten the other machines which might attack. My pray is isolated and unaware so I lean forward preparing myself and my weapon for the the strike that will bring my tribe prosperity in the months to come. It has taken me hours to move into position, cautiously inching forward under the cover of the wind blowing across the plains, ensuring that not a blade of grass or tall weed is disturbed in my passing.

I let out a soft whistle to draw the attention of the Ravager so that it might come a bit closer to investigate the strange noise. Each tentative step it takes towards my concealed location is an eternity of of tensed up muscles and fear, fear that something will go wrong and that this will be my last hunt. My strike will have to be true, will have to be a killing blow on the first hit or the beast will lash out in all it's fury and put me down with the ease a man would a small child, and so will end my song as well as deny my tribe a spear for all future hunts.

As I wait with the patience of a hunter long versed in the art of stalking his pray I am reminded of my first hunt when I was a child many moons ago. My father trained me in the craft of spear and bow and how to read the signs of the machine so that it was they who were hunted and not the tribe. It was a Watcher and no real threat to an experienced hunter but I was just a child and it was my first. I remembered tossing a rock to draw its attention and while it was scanning I nocked my arrow and fired it straight into the machines central eye watching it explode into a shower of sparks. The pride I felt that day after my first kill was well earned and still felt even after so many years and so many other hunts that followed.

My attention brought back into sharp focus by the Ravager within range, dispels the cloud of fond memory. My hand tightens on the shaft of my spear, my fathers before me, and I lunge on legs made powerful by years spent climbing the snow covered cliffs of the mountains that I call home. I jab with a mighty thrust, the point of my spear deep within the vulnerable part of the machine where the armor plating parts just a small fraction to expose a weak point. The eye lenses of the beast go red with rage and focus on it's attacker, man and machine locked in a killers embrace, an embrace which will leave one dead and the other to hunt another day....

For your own story, your own song to be sung among the tribes of Horizon Zero Dawn, play the game and have as much fun as I did living within this world of both wondrous adventure and terrible secrets and mistakes. Go forth and make the this world yours as you explore and discover all that it has to offer... Just be warned, it'd as dangerous as it is beautiful.