Horizon Zero Dawn, which comes to PlayStation 4 on Feb. 28, looks to be a game where players will be able to lose themselves for dozens of hours: foraging for scrap and upgrading their gear, hunting down dozens of types of machines, and embarking on no shortage of quests and errands. While much of Horizon will appear familiar, if not downright rote, from a gameplay perspective, its beauty and its mysteries will help it stand out among its open-world ancestors.

The result is a game that, for now, feels more Far Cry than The Witcher; more exciting for the experiences you create yourself or that drift along your path, than a world full of set stories to discover and affect.

In the hours I played, building up Aloy’s hunting tools alongside her innate skills filled the time very nicely, leaving me more than happy to leave scripted missions more or less alone. The lure of that next kill, an untested weapon, or terra incognita remained strong enough to keep me longing for more when I was pulled away from the controller – I’d barely scratched the surface of the game’s techno-zoology (there are seemingly 26 robot types to discover), and only just begun Aloy’s journey west across the map.

The question is how much more there is over Horizon’s horizon – if it can keep up that E3 demo pace, constantly offering the promise of new ideas in the player’s eyeline, its neo-neolithic world should more than make up for any story shortcomings.

I’ve been excited about Horizon for a while, and I’m glad that excitement wasn’t wasted. I can’t wait to learn more about Aloy and her world, and I’m most excited to keep refining my combat style when the final game is out.

Based on what I saw at the preview, I’m committing to more time with Aloy and her world. Horizon paints its concepts in broad strokes, but I think the end result is still an image that’s striking to behold.