do i need to have played the first part to get into the story?

[Kirimai]

as above.

[PANDEMONIUM]

Nah a Story Recap Video for Zero Dawn will do the job did the same

[DJukor]

There is no harm in it.
First game is often on sale.
And its also a pretty good and interesting game.
Its actually 12$ on GMG right now (They are a legit non gray market key seller).
https://www.greenmangaming.com/games/horizon-zero-dawn-pc/
Its much cheaper to just play the first game as the games are more or less the same game-play.
And the first game still looks amazing today.

[i_pk_pjers_i]

You don't have to, but I would recommend it. The first game is great and the second is just as good if not better.

[Herr Starr]

I would highly recommend it just to understand about the world and the story so far. This is very much act 2, rather than completely independent. Lots of references to act 1.

[GlowWorm]

The first game is a great game! The only way the first game might feel "last-gen" is that the facial animations in the dialogs are really not up to what we should expect today.

I recommend that you NOT pass the first game by. Play it. It's a lot of fun, I had gone back and was playing the hell out of it in the weeks prior to the release of this sequel on PC.

[꧁☬⋆Angel of༒lKobane⋆]

u should really...while 1. part I is "for me" great game and story...and so understand you part II...while "u would ask u, why is she a machine"...and 2. part i is a little bit better in the story and game...a litte bit..and 3. you support pc gamer xD...while more buy and ps give us more exclusiv games smiles...next is ghost of tushima in mai..wonderfull..btw i did buy HZd1 on ps and pc..and same for Part 2 console and pc while i love this game...

[PlazmaBolt]

You don't have to have played Zero Dawn but Forbidden West is a direct sequel that plays off the first part constantly so you at least have to know the story, a cutscene compilation is good enough but the game is fun & you'll have a much easier time with the 2nd if you play the first (especially Frozen Wilds)

[SimplyRedie]

Originally posted by PANDEMONIUM:

Nah a Story Recap Video for Zero Dawn will do the job did the same

That recap skips like every single detail about the story.

If you are unwiling to play 1st game, you might as well skip the 2nd.