Ask on the game forum, since the game is new it seems to be somewhat active. (you could check the Steam forum too) And of course contact GOG Support and remember the refund policy if needed.

Support ticket?

Since there's nothing to say to them and nothing to justify a screen shot, it will be the same problem I had when I couldn't log into multi play with another game. I think the download is corrupt, even though the file check part of install didn't see anything wrong. I should have got a "Free" copy from somewhere else to avoid this awful mess. I have 27 other GOG games that are OK.

At this stage, I'm willing to even try the cloud install or whatever it's called.

After a quick google search, this seems to be a common problem for many people even with the steam version. It seems like the problem started appearing after an actual patch, ironically. I can't provide you with a definitive solution here, because many different people fixed it differently for them. Something i have read repeatedly is that Windows 10 needs to be updated to version 1803 or above.

For right now, I'm letting the GOG thing install it. It's very very slow. it might continue after bedtime. my windows version is 10.0, build 19041

.....Well that was a failure with Galaxy. I'll install the off line files again, though probably still won't work. Like a previous post, some gamers had same problem after the 1.08 patch.

I did an online system check and my video card and mb processor failed proper specs. Then I found a video on a low end system and it ran fairly decent with somewhat lowered video quality. Could it be that the game has a built in feature to not even start if you don't have a really top rated system? ***l, it should at least start regardless, unless the 1.08 patch is at fault.

I read somewhere (sorry, forgot the source) that in some systems, the page file need to be increased to stupid ammount so the game not crash on start up. I believe I read 30 gigs.

This seems to be a commom temporary band aid to start the game.

Edit: Ensure you have the proper drivers to support DirectX12. Run DXDiag.exe and look at both System and Display tabb

Install the latest version:

HOTFIX 1.08.6 | 6118783 (25 November 2020)

Believe it or not, even though anyone's system is not at least minimum requirements, the game will install anyway. But because the system is not the minimum requirements, the game will not even start. Now that is cheap gratitude from the software !

So if I get you right, the latest hotfix didn't fix your problem, but it was about your system not meeting the minimum requires specs for the game, and that is why it failed to start? I guess you just need to upgrade your PC.

The installers don't perform any extra system check before they start installing, besides maybe trying to make sure you are in Windows and not in some other OS/platform. It makes sense it is the game itself which checks (or not) that you meet the system specs to _run_ the game. Or then even the game doesn't check it but just fails to run because your hardware doesn't support something that the game needs.

Frankly I'd prefer that games didn't have such OS and system specs checks at all because they tend to start failing in the future. Everyone knows how some old PC games refuse to install on a modern system because they think you don't have enough free hard drive space (while you have plenty), just because the game's free space check doesn't work properly on modern systems. Or some games tried to check that you have the proper OS, and fail to install because they don't recognize the new Windows version.

The less the games try to be "smart" about such checkups, the less error-prone they will be in the future. Just let the damn game install and run, and if it fails, it fails. Period.

the hotfix is redundant. Setting the desktop icon to run as administrator, double clicking the icon, message asks if I want to run it, saying yes, absolutely nothing happens. Therefore it has to be requirements. What galls me is the game not even starting ! ?

Did you try running it directly from the .exe?

Still unclear: did you try the hotfix or not? (I am asking because with my limited English skills "redundant" means something akin "I don't need that, I don't need to even try that.".)

Was this with or without Galaxy, and how long did you wait? I recall seeing reports there are some GOG games where there may be a long-ish pause before the game starts, if you don't have Galaxy installed (and are using the offline installers).

Also since you are convinced it is about your low system specs, so what are your system specs? It seems the game can run even on some old laptop with Geforce 920M, Intel i3 CPU etc. It will run poorly and slowly, but still run.

EDIT: Also:

https://www.google.com/search?q=horizon+zero+dawn+does+not+start&oq=horizon+zero+dawn+does+not+start&aqs=chrome..69i57j0i22i30l3j0i10i22i30.7051j0j15&client=ubuntu&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

https://gamerinfo.net/game/horizon-zero-dawn/technical-issues/

So just to be sure:

- update your graphics card drivers, and make sure your Windows 10 is up to date otherwise as well
- disable the antivirus
- blaa blaa blaa

I did an online test for HZD and both my video card and processor failed. I only have 12 gigs of ram. So I guess it's no wonder the game not even starting. I'm gathering information and maybe updating to what's called future update guard wherein the system isn't likely to need further update for quite some time.

Another gamer had the infamous game crash on startup and he explained that he only had 16 gig ram and the game was using 22 gig. So he increased the virtual ram to 20000/25000 to solve that. Now the recent patch 1.08.6 solves that.

In the meantime I'll watch the complete playthrough episodes and pretend that I'm actually playing the game.