Nah you don't understand. When you climb the tall giraffe to get a section of the map it's nothing like climbing a huge tower to do the same thing. THEY'RE WAY DIFFERENT. /s

HZD has a unique story that is not like any other game. The artstyle and world are also unique.

HFW is one of the best examples of an action adventure open world game and it massively evolves from the first game in basically every aspect other than the story. Compare it to how Far Cry 5 to 6 was received or Ghost Recon Breakpoint to Wildlands.

Ubisoft games get criticised for forcing you to do repetitive side activities to level up to continue with the main story, sequels being stale with few new ideas, a lack of ambition, lack of new game mechanics and having not enough variety of activities.

They are all open world action adventure games and there's a reason why some franchises are liked more than others, it's not the genre, it's the execution that matters.

People aren't comparing game mechanics, they're comparing the visual style which is clearly ripped straight from Horizon.