HZD Frozen Wilds – AI Civil War for Control

I’m so sick of the cold now, aren’t you too Aloy? Let’s go somewhere warm and tropical instead!

With that being said, I have completed the Frozen Wilds DLC of this game and it was a lot more challenging than I thought with new machines and much more lore surrounding the Banuk as a tribe.

Aloy comes to what is called, the Cut out of pure curiosity much to the dismay of Sylens. Too bad dude, Aloy and I like to explore! I saved this DLC for the end after exploring GAIA Prime and saw there were more ties to the main story in terms of dialogue as I progressed through this DLC’s story.

The Banuk believe that something of unknown origin called the Daemon has infected the machines in the area, making them more hostile and powerful. The Banuk wish to defeat this Daemon in the mountain Thunder’s Drum.

I only saw the Banuk as the occasional stray shaman or traveller here and there like Brin, who wanted me to collect blood from different machines. Now I got to see the tribe as a whole where they worship the machines and their “songs”. They often talk about the Blue Light as well. This time, their shaman has gone missing since the last failed attack on the Daemon and the chieftain Aratak won’t lead any more assaults.

There’s plenty to do in the Cut and the first thing I did was free and climb the Tallneck because nothing else matters other than climbing my Tallneck! I also enjoyed the side quest with Gildun and the dam. He was a cheerful person who wanted to stop the flooding to regain access to Deep Din.

There are also Control Towers and I managed to destroy them all, some even from a distance without having to deal with the surrounding machines.

Speaking of which, I’m not completely in love with the new machines in this DLC. Frostclaws are annoying to fight. They are like giant robot bears that tumble around and sometimes even grab me. Their fire counterparts are no better.

I didn’t complete everything there is to do in this DLC, like I never bothered with the Hunting Grounds or The Claws Beneath quest. I had a feeling the latter was a Daemonic Rockbreaker and two corrupted ones in the base game was bad enough.

I enjoyed the challenge the shaman’s path had and once I found Ourea, in order to access Thunder’s Drum, I had to challenge Aratak and it was stressful racing against time to beat certain machines before him. But at least he conceded.

I didn’t like him at first, but he soon grew on me as all he wanted was to keep his sister safe. Then as the new chieftain we finally venture in to discover the Daemon.

Ourea seemed to believe that the Spirit she sought to hear is somewhat of a hostage to the Daemon as the latter blocks communications and the Banuk worship this Spirit as a God.

The final push for this DLC didn’t get exciting until the second part in the Cauldron. So many obstacle courses and although the final boss was difficult, the story was great as I learned soon who the Spirit and the Daemon really were.

The Spirit is actually CYAN, one of GAIA’s subsystems responsible for preventing a volcanic eruption and possesses many secrets and the Daemon is none other than HEPHAESTUS which I have not heard Aloy mention since I cleared the ZETA Cauldron.

It is said that HEPHAESTUS is responsible for constructing the machines and gained full control of them after GAIA’S sacrifice and went rogue. I always wondered what the Derangement was when I first heard of it from the Nora, until I learned that was HEPHAESTUS who turned the machines hostile as the new humans were constantly hunting them for parts. Why this is, I don’t know and this is why I need to play Forbidden West, stat. Nor does it seem clear why HEPHAESTUS was taking over CYAN but at least I was able to save the latter.

CYAN had much to talk about with Aloy and the latter told the AI that eventually she would have to travel further to find her answers to what happened to the world and how it can be saved. Aratak seemed saddened to part ways with Aloy but like everyone knows, she’s not the type of woman to settle down!

A great DLC with some surprises for sure. I think that’s enough ice and snow for a while!

👽Emily