Horizon Zero Dawn [PS4, PC]

[djskribbles]

I am actually very surprised by how good the gameplay is. I assumed that there will be astonishing gfx and maybe good story. And it is all that, but the gameplay is a king. To me it is the best game since The Last of us, which is my all time favourite.

Played this at a buddies house because I'm not usually into open-world games so I didn't pick it up for myself. But this game has exceeded my expectations in every way. Particularly the gameplay and story/writing. I wasn't expecting this amount of depth to both the gameplay and story... both really well done.

I mean going into it, I was expecting the gameplay to maybe get a bit repetitive due to the limited amount of weapons, but the different arrow types and enemies, and ways to approach encounters really makes it fun and interesting every time.

Mind you I'm not really one to judge considering I haven't played any games other than Destiny lately, but I can easily see this being an early GOTY contender. I watched a few twitch streams and heard nothing but praise.

My only critique is the facial animations during in-game cutscenes are pretty stiff. I think they only stick out because everything else visually is incredibly on point.

 

[RenegadeRocks]

That was the bigger one

Glinthawks are somewhat manageable (but super annoying), just hit them with a fire arrow and then wait till before they take off again and shoot the ice chamber thing and they are done. Love how useful different types of ammo are in this game

Yeah glint hawks are fine ...this guy is a storm bird and kicks ur ass the moment u walk out of Carja fort ! Afyer 4 deaths, I whittled him down to half health but then ran out of everything and had to flee.....

I shall have my revenge ....i await that day !

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Yeah glint hawks are fine ...this guy is a storm bird and kicks ur ass the moment u walk out of Carja fort ! Afyer 4 deaths, I whittled him down to half health but then ran out of everything and had to flee.....

I shall have my revenge ....i await that day !

I've never been attacked by one and I've been over most of the map. It can't be worse than a Thunderjaw.

 

[RenegadeRocks]

I've never been attacked by one and I've been over most of the map. It can't be worse than a Thunderjaw.

That's strange! U get mauled by it right after you cross the vendor and trials guy after the Carja fort. I kept trying to take it down until i finally ran away. It is definitely OP and put there to scare u right at rhe entry of the new area.
Havent found one anywhere else yet. I still see it flying there... ...i will come for u, you shitty thing.

Btw, I got some time to play and did the next cauldron. Came out and made my sawtooth fight two other and the bugger took both of them down !.
Then I overrode trampler and he too took down two of his kind along with a watcher. Man I hope the game.finally let's u override a thunderjaw! Wouldn't that be awesome to have a pet Behemoth!

 

[Karamazov]

That's strange! U get mauled by it right after you cross the vendor and trials guy after the Carja fort.

I've still not been past the fort, i almost did yesterday but felt "no, you are not ready yet" and now i read your comment and think i was right lol.
Guess i'll keep training a little.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

That's strange! U get mauled by it right after you cross the vendor and trials guy after the Carja fort. I kept trying to take it down until i finally ran away. It is definitely OP and put there to scare u right at rhe entry of the new area.

I walked all the way to Meridian without any problems at all. At Day Watch they tell you path is safe and it was for me. I spent my entire journey gaping at the Arizona-style landscape and looking at the new wildlife.

Maybe it senses weakness on you? Maybe you should play My Little Pony instead?

Btw, I got some time to play and did the next cauldron. Came out and made my sawtooth fight two other and the bugger took both of them down !.

Overriding and using Corruption Arrows is fun as hell

Man I hope the game.finally let's u override a thunderjaw! Wouldn't that be awesome to have a pet Behemoth!

Third Cauldron (Cauldron XI) let's you override a Behemoth.

 

[BoardBonobo]

Played this weekend all the way up to the final fight in The Grave-Hoard quest. And there I'm stuck, the Deathbringer is very much living up to it's name... But I will be victorious

Considering this is Guerillas debut open world game I can't believe how well they've nailed it. The quests, the free roaming and hunting. The complete and utter feeling of terror when you run over a hill straight into a Behemoth or a herd of Tramplers... The sound of the Glinthawks powering up.

The whole world is so lush and solid feeling. Obviously there are a few corners that have been cut but man, who cares when the stories so good and the characters you meet are actually that. Real characters. Not as slick as Witcher 3 and not as expansive as Skyrim but it's also not 3 or 4 iterations into game. I can't wait to see what they do with further iterations of this.

 

[RenegadeRocks]

Lol I have no idea @DSoup how you did not encounter that Stormbird, it right there at the outset ! Maybe ur easy peasy normal mode removes it to let you passs by ! Real Nora Hunters play on hard.


The game is overwhelming me with things to do now. Everywhere I go I bag a quest ! My list is growing by the moment and I am loving each moment of it. Honestly, the game is so dense with emergent gameplay that you can lose hours and have fun just on the way to your quest marker.

 

[Rodéric]

Seen people playing it at the office, the game looks beautiful, villages look like old quest hubs (NPC don't seem to move ever ?), characters are really well rendered, the mobile climbing towers is a nice addition to the genre ^^
It seemed that using range weapons was much safer than going close combat, which I suppose makes sense.

 

[RenegadeRocks]

@DSoup I just got the bow which has corruption arrows. I had no idea I could make enemies fight each other from range ! I randomly clicked on "play video " for the weapon and realised what corruption does lol. I was thinking it was just another element or something and ignoring it till now [emoji14]
Holy moly tomorrow is gonna be awesome !

Sent from my SM-N920G using Tapatalk

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Lol I have no idea @DSoup how you did not encounter that Stormbird, it right there at the outset ! Maybe ur easy peasy normal mode removes it to let you passs by ! Real Nora Hunters play on hard.

I saw the Songbird, it just flies about looking lame. Probably hoping I won't shoot it's stupid arse out of the sky. I did try Hard difficulty but it's not hard it just slows everything down. Encounters take longer, which require more arrows, which requires more harvesting. It's not harder, just slower.

Difficulty levels are a bit of a bugbear with me because most difficulty levels just slow the game down because harder difficulty = bullet sponge mode. If by harder there were more enemies and/or the enemies were smarter I'd be in. Bear in mind I've put 40 hours into this game already, not sure how close to the end I am.

By the way, real hunters kill Thunderjaws and their Ravager pets out in the world!

The game is overwhelming me with things to do now. Everywhere I go I bag a quest ! My list is growing by the moment and I am loving each moment of it. Honestly, the game is so dense with emergent gameplay that you can lose hours and have fun just on the way to your quest marker.

Yeah there are a lot of side quests and errands. I have no idea if they impact the game world at all. The only things I've not done are the hunting ground trials. I'm killing enough robots already!

@DSoup I just got the bow which has corruption arrows.

Those arrows will save your arse on a few occasions. Bigger bots need more arrows if you don't invest in corruption mods. I'd also recommend taking the talent tree that nets you Tinker so you can remove and swap mods around otherwise you'll have a shit ton of weapons!

 

[RenegadeRocks]

Don't share the sentiment regarding difficulty in this one. Combat is deadly and dangerous on hard not slower or drab. The penalty for error is higher and hence leads to a cautious and skillful approach. The risk reward relationship gets strengthened as each risk taken can be deadly. It turns into a mind game of pre emptying attacks, dodging amd attacking on openings rather than just whittling down a health bar, very like Darksouls. In fact had there been a stamina bar, this would be very close in feel.

For me, at least, hard is essential to the experience just like it was for The Last of Us. It is integral to the experience the game's setting wants to convey. TLOU and this , both feel at odds with its mileu and very gamey on normal.

To me, I mean

Sent from my SM-N920G using Tapatalk

 

[Clukos]

I agree, hard is very well balanced. You can't just walk into any fight unprepared, which is also tonally correct with the game, these badass machines shouldn't be a cakewalk. But if you use strategy and come prepared (fight the machine with ammo it's weak against) you can turn the odds in your favor. I really enjoy how the game plays so far, only negative would be the human enemies, neither challenging nor fun to fight against.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Don't share the sentiment regarding difficulty in this one. Combat is deadly and dangerous on hard not slower or drab.

The combat isn't slower, the game is, because it takes longer to kill each individual enemy. This is because on harder difficulty levels enemies have more health. This is challenging if it's difficult to maintain concentration and situational awareness for longer battles. I tend to adopt a rhythm that I can keep up for a while.

At level 5 and 10 I tried playing Hard for an hour and you know what I found? I still walked out of combat with barely a scratch and little healing needed, the only difference was battles were taking longer. As much as I enjoy combat in the game, it's not in any shortage so making 10,000 skirmishes 50% longer isn't something I have time for.

If the enemies were more perceptive, reacted quicker or used better strategies then that would change the dynamic of combat but bullet sponge difficulties only prolong the inevitable. Taking down a Thunderjaw is exactly the same fight on Normal and Hard, only it takes longer on Hard. You need to use the second disc launcher or throw some extra damage in, traps, trips, elemental bombs, whatever your poison.

 

[BoardBonobo]

Killed my first thunder chicken or whatever they're called Man that was a long fight of attrition... They do some serious damage when you get them riled... Saving a camp from becoming pigeon fodder. Gave up on trying to kill the Death dealer in the hoard. So instead I went back a couple of saves and unlocked all the tall necks instead (found a town where the trader sells all the really cool weapons - but I don't think I was supposed to get there yet...) Now I'm all tooled up and ready to take on the hoard again (level 32 now). I want that last power cell to get the shadow weave armour, though the Nora heavy I've got now seems to do the trick.

 

[RenegadeRocks]

If the enemies were more perceptive, reacted quicker or used better strategies then that would change the dynamic of combat

The shell walker can one shot me with one of its ground attacks. That makes for a very short fight
I understood what you were saying back then but like I said I do not concur. and longer health bars wont be the only change, I am sure, and longer health bars doesn't translate "only" into a longer fight. A longer fight is more demanding by its very nature anyways. A longer health bar also means a bigger beast by its simple definition and implication. What is a boss fight? Like you said a linger fight requires a longer engagement of concentration and survival anyways.
Also you get lesser number of resources on hard mode, couple that with the longer health bars for enemies and shorter for you and each fight starts carrying weight. Managing with lesser resources isn't prolonging a fight, its making sure you make lesser mistakes and make most creative use of what u have. For example, in my case my most important skill unlock has been the one where I can pick up unused traps after a fight ! That would be a very low priority skill on an easier playthrough!
Higher damage dealt to player is also about perfect play and if anything it can shorten a fight and not prolong it. I did not hear any of the interviews to avoid spoilers, so do not what metrics exactly change for Hard, but I would guess it would also change stealth by making animals/enemies faster in perceiving ur presence. That seems a given.

Also, I was talking about the experience of being in a fight against a unflinching unforgiving metal beast with lesser weapons. It was the same for TLOU, the experience of survival in a hostile world , for me, just didnt happen on the super easy normal mode with the see through the wallls ability. See-through-walls is inherent in Horizon !

Of course, in my whole previous post, I said "for me". because its a experience, its always subjective.
In fact I enjoy it here so much because the game gives you toys to play with, its not a simple press X to attack game and that is why tougher encounters are much more memorable as u devise ways to survive a situaiton here. Had it been a God of War, I could ahve felt the same way as you as the tools provided aren't that creative at all and my mind cannot replace the blades of chaos !

 

[RenegadeRocks]

BTW, maybe I should take a break cos I played a bit last night and I was seriously getting impatient and that led to getting overwhelmed by enemies at every turn.

But then all i can think of is getting back into the game and doing some story missions.
Also Hunting logde girl wants me to take down that stormbird and a Thunderjaw which gives me the heebie jeebeis ! I really do want to take that stormbird down, that filthy piece of bullying machinery .

 

[RenegadeRocks]

Holy mother of ROFL!
So I saw this huge machine with guns, it was called the Deathbringer. Alloy said I will have to fight it......so the amazing me amazingly took out all enemies around it silently and then began work on my master plan. I put dozens of traps around him silently so that the moment I would whistle to the Deathbringer, it would die the funniest dumbest death ever by triggering all my traps at once ! What a glorious plan and all implemented to perfection!

Happy so happy I alerted the bugger and smug in knowledge of my inevitable victory I stand up and taunt him only to realise: the damned "Deathbringer" cannot walk!!!!!! It s a bloody stationary boss which shoots shit sitting smugly right in the middle of million tripwires and traps !
Boy what a fight [emoji14]

I took it down and it was too simple honestly. C'mon GG next time u name something Deathbringer , at least give it some teeth. All my traps wasted cos I crafted more immediately after placing them so couldn't even pick them back up. There lay all my ego scattered wasted on the ground ! [emoji38]

Sent from my SM-N920G using Tapatalk

 

[orangpelupa]

i just sold my smartphone for 150 USD so im ready for Horizon Zero dawn! yeeeeeeah!!!

now deciding to buy physical or digital.

@RenegadeRocks

does the disc version have lots of bugs that potentilly can be exploited to explore blocked-off/disabled areas?

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Killed my first thunder chicken or whatever they're called Man that was a long fight of attrition... They do some serious damage when you get them riled... Saving a camp from becoming pigeon fodder.

Longlegs. Every big new machine feels tough the first time: Sawtooth, Longleg, Ravager, Snapmaw, Thunderjaw, then you level up, use the right tactic, mod your weapon and bring them down faster in subsequent battles