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GI: Guerrilla Addresses Our Biggest Fears About Horizon Zero Dawn

Loudninja

Member
More in the link.

Story
We’ve mostly seen action-oriented gameplay in the footage Guerrilla Games has shown off, with only minor story beats teased. Guerrilla is deliberately keeping much of the story under lock and key, because so much of the experience is about discovering the answers to the game’s larger mysteries, such as why Aloy was cast out of her tribe at birth and why animal-like machines have taken over the world. The main narrative focuses on Aloy's personal quest to find out more about her origins, but also to discover a way to stop the dangerous machines from taking over. While we were at the studio, Guerrilla assured us that a compelling story is there for those who crave it. Not only is there a main quest, but there are also extra goodies to find for those don't who really get into the lore. “For people who are story junkies, for people who like to collect every audio log or text log out there, people who want to have a grand narrative to their game, I think they're going to be really surprised and delighted by what we have prepared for them,” says lead writer John Gonzalez.

Gameplay variety
Because we’ve seen a few gameplay demos now, it’s easy to think we’ve seen everything, but that's not the case. For instance, at the PlayStation 4 Pro event, Guerrilla surprised us by showing Aloy platforming up a gigantic Tallneck machine to hack it. Guerrilla also kept teasing there are multiple mounts you can tame that will change up the gameplay. Not to mention a bevy of weapons that Aloy will get later in the game, such as a rocket launcher. In addition, Guerrilla’s main goal has been to appeal to a wide variety of players by letting them play how they want and giving them options to build Aloy to their play style. When you upgrade her, there are three different tiers: Forager, Prowler, and Brave. Putting points into Forager gets you better materials for crafting and override skills, Prowler is centered on stealth, and Brave is all about upgrading your brute force with new melee attacks. When you upgrade these tiers, you gain access to new skills to change up the way you fight, from instant-kill attacks to certain bonuses such as stat boosts. New machines also pop up in different areas, forcing you to adjust your strategy and learn their weaknesses.

RPG elements

Aloy is an outcast who discovers that only she holds the power to unlocking the secrets of how this mysterious ancient technology works, but will she constantly be on her own? When we asked Guerrilla if any other faces will join her in battle, the answer was yes. She has a strong relationship with Rost who has taken care of her since birth, so we wouldn’t be surprised if he joined her at times in combat or was a prominent presence throughout the narrative. In addition, Aloy will meet various colorful characters on her journey through side quests and the main story. Remember, Aloy is searching for answers and a place to belong. We were told depending on the relationships and choices she makes, some characters appear again later in the story. We're guessing with all the people she meets in the different tribes on her trek, she's bound to foster some relationships.

While Horizon's RPG elements aren’t super complex, they are there. Various quests are scattered throughout the world and you can upgrade Aloy in various ways. As she levels up, you earn points, which can then be used to purchase upgrades for her. Furthermore, Aloy can equip modifications to her weapons and armor that can increase your attack power or resistance to certain attacks.

Because the game is more of a hybrid of the action and RPG genre, Guerrilla didn’t want to leave anyone behind. “What we wanted to avoid is complicated menus,” de Jonge says. “We also didn’t want to go too deep with the RPG features we were developing. We wanted to have a certain level of accessibility and understandability for players. We also didn’t want to go too hardcore with stats, so at some point we just cut it off and said we weren’t going to go any further because it would confuse players.”
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/featu...ur-biggest-fears-about-horizon-zero-dawn.aspx
 

Raptor

Member
Is not about a lot of gameplay variety but that the gameplay is fun.

You can have lots of variety but if the core gameplay sucks it will bring the entire game down IMO.
 
What about the protagonist's incessent chatter?

That was only for demo presentation purposes. People that have played the demo on their own have mentioned that she doesn't speak nearly as much. Which is expected as there's no way that Guerrilla, or anyone else for that matter, could program and open world game where the main character could describe everything that's happening at any given moment.
 
I don't have a problem with the story but I'm worried about the quality of the dialogue (with regard to writing and voice acting). The E3 demo did not impress in that regard, and it's enough to take me out of the game.
 

Inuhanyou

Believes Dragon Quest is a franchise managed by Sony
If they nail this game, Guerrilla will have made up for all the years of just making banal Killzone games
 
I think GG are going to nail everything but the story. I don't think the story will be bad but I don't think it'll be good either. Probably will end up being serviceable with some great side quests sprinkled throughout. And not necessarily the story itself but the execution will be what lets it down.

My thinking is that when you consider what we know about the game and how big of an emphasis is being put on the mystery surrounding the state of the world with robo dinos, GG are going to really need to nail the execution of the story and plot points to deliver something compelling.

Maybe it's the JRPG fan in me that makes me a skeptic, but I've seen plenty of games with great story ideas marred by extremely poor execution. And I'd say the execution of any given story in a game is probably the most important part.
 

Dovahking

Member
Guerrilla also kept teasing there are multiple mounts you can tame that will change up the gameplay.

giphy.gif
 

JimPanzer

Member
my biggest fear is that there won't be enough enemy variety...a huge part of MH is its huge lineup of monsters, which grew over years
 

labaronx

Member
The game certainly has people talking, even some of the non playstation people i know are amazed by it, and yeah while thats acedotal because its only my circle, the only ps game i can think of with similar feedback is the last of us
 

D i Z

Member
I'll believe it when I see it. There have been too many years of jank ass excuses for story and dialogue in Killzone to wash that taste out of my mouth with just a promise of something better. Better isn't a stretch. Something good from them however, very much is a stretch.
 

Loudninja

Member
well,what about combat against other humans?.Is it there?.With spears,only ranged...?.
It would be a strange, limited, open world/RPG game without it.
 

Dahaka

Member
this will also be an audio fest

Guerilla always delivered there.

Wavetracing in Killzone 2/3 via SPEs, "MADDER" in SF (through CUs afaik).
 
well,what about combat against other humans?.Is it there?.With spears,only ranged...?.
It would be a strange, limited, open world/RPG game without it.

There is nothing limiting about a game that doesn't have combat against other humans. It's not a requirement for open world games, or RPGs.

With that said, I'm pretty sure they've shown off some stealth against human enemies in one of the trailers.
 

Tagyhag

Member
My biggest fear is the framerate, everything else looks lovely.

Do wish the RPG systems were deeper but I understand why they have to keep them shallow.
 

GeoramA

Member
Being open-world, my only concern are bugs and technical problems. Other than that, I know GG has one hell of a game coming.
 

RoboPlato

I'd be in the dick
I don't think any other game has had such on point marketing. Guerrilla says all the right stuff in every interview.
 
I think GG are going to nail everything but the story. I don't think the story will be bad but I don't think it'll be good either. Probably will end up being serviceable with some great side quests sprinkled throughout. And not necessarily the story itself but the execution will be what lets it down.

My thinking is that when you consider what we know about the game and how big of an emphasis is being put on the mystery surrounding the state of the world with robo dinos, GG are going to really need to nail the execution of the story and plot points to deliver something compelling.

Maybe it's the JRPG fan in me that makes me a skeptic, but I've seen plenty of games with great story ideas marred by extremely poor execution. And I'd say the execution of any given story in a game is probably the most important part.
yea that's my only gripe, but it's still minor. The game looks so fun, so amazing looking, that I kinda want to roam around and discover without a main narrative taking me anywhere.

Like Dragon Age I haven't really liked the actual story since origins, but I play through them because the worlds are fun and have great moments and characters.

I think Horizon will have a decent story, if it has a great one, that'll just take it from a 9.5 to a 10 IMO. I think having very solid and compelling gameplay in open worlds is rare enough that the value for this aspect will be greatly appreciated by critics and fans.
 

sense

Member
I believe the lead writer is the one that worked on fallout new Vegas for what it's worth. I heard people loved that game's story
 

Memento

Member
Reading that quote about "mounts"... I wonder if there will be flying mounts? We do know there is that flying robot bird enemy, so... maybe? That would be fucking cool.
 
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