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[SCB3]

I wish Lance Reddick was not Sylens, I cannot not hear Zavala from Destiny and it keeps throwing me off, especially before Witch Queen launches tomorrow

 

[Fox Mulder]

after about 10 hours, i wouldn't give more than an 8 out of 10, visually stunning but rest is so similar

solid sequel but didnt take the extra step for me. but again not my final outcome, maybe game does new stuff later

I loved the gameplay and combat of the first one and this is better in almost every way. Cutscenes, music, and npc models are great. It’s what sequels should do.

The climbing didn’t change, but I also don’t need total freedom to go climbing on walls and shit that don’t go anywhere anyways. Climbing is mostly for puzzle platforming or to get some collectible.

 

[Huevos de Oro]

I wish Lance Reddick was not Sylens, I cannot not hear Zavala from Destiny and it keeps throwing me off, especially before Witch Queen launches tomorrow

My daughter is a big Destiny fan but knows nothing about Horizon. She walked in front of the TV while I was playing and Sylens was talking.

She was like WTF ZAVALA.

 

[BadBurger]

Took down a mammoth. The designers made it hard for one to trick it into lumbering over traps - for a big huge monster it really keeps its distance and does 99% ranged attacks. But a few clever traps, a tripcast, and a little planning and it went down in about 30 seconds. Tore away it's best armor, got it to walk around a rock and over a trip cast, and it sort of staggering into my traps. Then it was just three or four well placed shots in slowmo.

One of those hippo things fucking ate me though. Aloy did warn me before the fight, saying to herself it was tough and should be left alone but I thought I knew better lol.

 

[Salz01]

I haven’t made it too far in yet, but are the t rex machines from the first one in this still?

 

[Con_Z_ǝdʇ]

I haven’t made it too far in yet, but are the t rex machines from the first one in this still?

 

[Low Moral Fibre]

GG did just post this. They are coy about what visual issues means but hopefully good news for those of us not happy with the IQ in performance mode.

 

[RafterXL]

Just tested this. I have zero difference in the UI speed of weapon selecting or in the messages showing up in the crafting log across all slowdown settings.

Well, I can 100% reproduce it on the PS4 and both modes on the PS5, and have gotten similar feedback on Reddit, so consider yourself lucky.

Here is a PS5 video of me opening the wheel and rotating the right stick, same speed both times. The second time through, not only does the wheel rotate slower but it skips entire weapon segments. You can also clearly see the text lag when crafting. Finally at the end that's just me tapping L1 and you can see how much faster the UI opens and closes when set from "slowest" to "none".

 

[BadBurger]

GG did just post this. They are coy about what visual issues means but hopefully good news for those of us not happy with the IQ in performance mode.

If they are not referring to the HDR oddness, I think there might be some bug some of us are experiencing with performance mode that others are not. I thought perf mode looked OK at first, like obviously lower res but not horrible. But as I got further and further into the game and began comparing resolution to perf mode in more places, it became apparent that it looked way worse in the "busier" and more detailed areas than it did earlier in the game. Which is to be expected to some degree, but seriously the base resolution seems to be way lower at times than what they advertise, and the washed-out look on terrain seems to get even worse at even modest distances - especially along the coast and some interiors.

For example - in a lot of areas I turn on perf mode, the game basically looks like a PS4 game. Still a good-looking game for PS4, but not even how good some games with great PS4 Pro treatments looked. This cannot be on purpose, IMO.

 

[samoilaaa]

I gave it another shot. Here are some thoughts so far.

Negatives

• The climbing is improved from HZD, but after BOTW it feels old. It’s basically a better version of Uncharted, which is fine, but to see it in a big open world game like this is disappointing.
• Ashly Burch seems to be purposefully deepening/aging her voice. In the first game she basically sounded like Ashly Burch, while in the second it’s like someone told her to change her voice. I don’t like.
• Ally talks to herself too much. I know that medicine is going to the stash. I’ve been playing for like 12 hours.
• The melee combat, at least so far, is still bad. I was really hoping they would fix what was one of the worst parts of the first game, but for some reason they didn’t. This is exacerbated by the fact that the machines are much more aggressive than before and encounters often end up in close quarters combat much more frequently than in the first game.
• The FOV is not wide enough. I can’t see what’s going on when things get crazy and I end up getting thrown around with no sense of what’s happening.
• Machines have been made way too aggressive, imo. The best part of HZD was the “combat puzzle box” nature of the encounters. You were encouraged to think situations out and were rewarded for careful planning. In HFW, however, machines go to RUSH RUSH RUSH ATTACK mode in 0.3 seconds, turning the game into a generic third person action game when this happens.
• I don’t like how instead of having an elemental sling with multiple types of ammo, you now have individual slings for each element. Maybe this changes down the line, but right now it clutters my inventory and essentially eliminates the benefits of having six weapon slots in the wheel
• It feels like Aloy gets knocked down way too easily. Make combat annoying at times.
• The skill tree is just too god damn big. I understand the desire to expand it, and I certainly appreciate that some things that required unlocking before are now available by default, but they went too damn far.
• Why the fuck did they feel the need to add machine strike? At no point while playing HZD did I think to myself, “You know what this game needs? CHESS!” They spent time on this instead of fixing performance mode.
• Fast travel should be free, not requiring packs. This may be one of the things that changes later, similar to HZD, but right now it’s annoying.
• The default setup for the focus is horrendous. Luckily you can change it to work more like the first game.
• Why do I have a limit on the number of traps/tripwires?
• The weapon upgrade system was not needed.
• Performance mode IQ looks like shit. The CB rendering combined with the massive amount of geometric detail leads to a ton of noise/aliasing on my 80” 4k screen. It’s a noticeable downgrade over every other PS5 game I’ve played with a performance mode, like AssCreed Valhalla, Demon’s Souls, or Ratchet and Clank. It’s not something you’re really going to see in screenshots or low quality YouTube videos, either, which makes discussing it online frustrating. You really need to see it in motion on a 4k display, even better if it’s a big one.

Positives

• FUCK ME THE CHARACTER MODELS HOLY SHIT.
• The overall presentation and storytelling is from a completely different planet compared to the first game. Dialogue scenes don’t feel weird or stilted anymore. The writing is also somehow even better.
• This may be the best looking/designed open world I’ve ever experienced. It doesn’t feel like there’s miles and miles of empty crap or copy/pasted environments. There’s something to look at or do almost everywhere. Just seeing a new area is a joy in itself.
• Ranged combat is even better than before. It just feels so much tighter and more fun.
• The quests are really some of the best I’ve seen in an open world game.
• Everyone is so fucking horny for Aloy. Thirst King Avad, amirite?

I think a lot of my negatives may go away as I play the game more, but it feels like they didn’t listen to the main criticism of the first game, namely that it took too long to really get going. It also looks like the negatives outweigh The positives, but I’m just being hypercritical because I just played the first game on PC, so it’s fresh on my mind.

i dont see a better story here to be honest , its kinda the same as the 1st one , maybe it gets better towards the end ( im about 15 hours in ) but for now its still as boring as the 1st one and i hope in the next game they add more combos for the melee combat , but yeah the graphics are amazing and the voice acting is top notch

 

[nowhat]

Are there Watchers anymore in the game or have they completely been replaced by Burrowers? Watchers are hardly a challenge so I'd understand omitting them in that regard, but they're also kinda iconic, I miss them.

 

[Darklor01]

That's stutter caused by OLEDs fast pixel response time.

Well that sucks. Thanks for the response!

 

[Darklor01]

Are you playing in game optimiser mode?

Try turning off VRR and turn on motion pro to either low or medium. To my eyes, those settings seemed to help make bearable at 30fps

Thanks! I’ll give that a try!

 

[BadBurger]

Are there Watchers anymore in the game or have they completely been replaced by Burrowers? Watchers are hardly a challenge so I'd understand omitting them in that regard, but they're also kinda iconic, I miss them.

Yes, I got some kind of trophy for killing the only one I came across.

 

[Fess]

Even with an offscreen video and after YouTube compression the shimmering is very obvious in your video. If you don't notice it then great but literally every place I've looked has people complaining about it. If you sit far enough back or have poor vision you probably won't notice the aliasing and shimmering but go a little closer to the TV and honestly tell me you don't see it. Stand close to your TV to simulate having a huge TV filling your FOV then do the exact same thing with literally any other Sony first party game (maybe not Returnal) and if you don't see a huge difference in image stability then I would seriously see about getting glasses as you maybe have astigmatism or something.

I honestly can’t see it and no I’m not going to sit closer to my TV than I usually do to see whatever issues people complain about. Might use the projector tonight.
But yeah my eyes are bad, glasses are just a couple months old though but I’m getting old so it is what it is, for once it seems like I struck gold there lol, for me the game looks awesome and runs beautifully

Resolution mode is a little oversharpened but looks otherwise great but I tried all weekend to get my brain to accept the motion at 30fps and it won't so it is 60fps or bust for me.

Yeah that I can agree on. I’ve tried with motion blur on but it just makes it look blurry and still stutters too much. It’s cool if people can adjust but it’s not for me. Several years of performance modes on X and also PC gaming has made 30fps unusable for me. All I see is stutter and less details when something moves.

 

[cormack12]

Question - is the underwater gear main campagin or side quest? Im just entering plainsong with the gravedigger and there are a few places i cant explore yet. Just want to know if I need to go find a specific sidequest I've missed/not come across yet...

 

[SlimySnake]

GG did just post this. They are coy about what visual issues means but hopefully good news for those of us not happy with the IQ in performance mode.

Cant fix performance issues just like that. Unless they somehow find more performance like Insomniac did, but Insomniac was working on brand new tech like ray tracing whereas GG has been working on the same rasterization methods for years. Very unlikely they stumble upon 50% more performance which is what they need in order to go from 1800p cb to native 1440p. They would need an engine rewrite for the PS5 which is clearly something they didnt do for this game.

Regardless, I am dropping this game for now. It feels way too janky and visually unimpressive in latter parts of the game. Especially the desert sections. I fought my first trex and unlike the first time I fought the trex in HZD, this one felt frustrating. Hes way too aggressive and spent almost the entire 30-45 minutes on top of me. He turns around too fast so I could dodge him charging at me, turn around and boom he's already facing me. Keep in mind, I fought this guy almost a 1000 times last month in the PC version of HZD when I was grinding for coils. So I know a thing or two about Thunderjaws.

Game feels a bit too janky. Nothing game breaking but not the polished AAA experience I have come to expect from Sony games.

If they are serious about fixing issues, I'd like these fixed over the new few months:
- Make enemies less aggressive. I can tolerate weakpoint only combat but dont put weakpoints at their rear and then have them turn around in seconds.
- Change the damn lighting in the desert areas to make it look more like the original trailer.
- 30 fps mode needs to be more responsive. It's not my OLED either. I played Spiderman and Ratchet in 30 fps. Guardians in 30 fps. They all feel smooth.
- Make the 30 fps mode less sharp. It strains my eyes.
- Introduce a 40 fps mode at native 1800p if there is no overhead.
- Introduce a 60 fps 1440p mode. Reduce graphical fidelity if needed, but focus on IQ over visual settings. Right now, PS5 version of Horizon ZD looks better because it's cleaner.
- Fix the damn platforming. Especially in indoor story missions where they make you climb all the time. make her more magnetic like she was in the first game.
- Fix the rain. It does not look good. Why does it rain all the time in Plainsong anyway. It stopped and started raining again within 3 minutes once.
- Removing components should immobilize enemies for a few seconds.
- Allow us to tap R3 to make parts glow. Holding and scanning during fights is impossible. Why change this from the first game?
- Melee is still useless even after fully investing in the first tier of the melee skill tree. Though this is one of those RPG changes that only let you become OP in the end game/post game.

This isnt just about graphics. The game feels janky and unpolished in ways games like Metro and Dying Light feel. It is at odds with just how polished the cutscenes feel. The difference between the first settlement and third settlement just showcases how its a tale of two games.

 

[Kenneth Haight]

I wish Lance Reddick was not Sylens, I cannot not hear Zavala from Destiny and it keeps throwing me off, especially before Witch Queen launches tomorrow

Brings me back to the wire

 

[Low Moral Fibre]

I honestly can’t see it and no I’m not going to sit closer to my TV than I usually do to see whatever issues people complain about. Might use the projector tonight.
But yeah my eyes are bad, glasses are just a couple months old though but I’m getting old so it is what it is, for once it seems like I struck gold there lol, for me the game looks awesome and runs beautifully


Yeah that I can agree on. I’ve tried with motion blur on but it just makes it look blurry and still stutters too much. It’s cool if people can adjust but it’s not for me. Several years of performance modes on X and also PC gaming has made 30fps unusable for me. All I see is stutter and less details when something moves.

Yeah with hindsight ignore my unnecessary aggressive post definitely don't go looking for issues if they aren't obvious.

I have astigmatism and it is like nature's TAA.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Cant fix performance issues just like that. Unless they somehow find more performance like Insomniac did, but Insomniac was working on brand new tech like ray tracing whereas GG has been working on the same rasterization methods for years. Very unlikely they stumble upon 50% more performance which is what they need in order to go from 1800p cb to native 1440p. They would need an engine rewrite for the PS5 which is clearly something they didnt do for this game.

Regardless, I am dropping this game for now. It feels way too janky and visually unimpressive in latter parts of the game. Especially the desert sections. I fought my first trex and unlike the first time I fought the trex in HZD, this one felt frustrating. Hes way too aggressive and spent almost the entire 30-45 minutes on top of me. He turns around too fast so I could dodge him charging at me, turn around and boom he's already facing me. Keep in mind, I fought this guy almost a 1000 times last month in the PC version of HZD when I was grinding for coils. So I know a thing or two about Thunderjaws.

Game feels a bit too janky. Nothing game breaking but not the polished AAA experience I have come to expect from Sony games.

If they are serious about fixing issues, I'd like these fixed over the new few months:
- Make enemies less aggressive. I can tolerate weakpoint only combat but dont put weakpoints at their rear and then have them turn around in seconds.
- Change the damn lighting in the desert areas to make it look more like the original trailer.
- 30 fps mode needs to be more responsive. It's not my OLED either. I played Spiderman and Ratchet in 30 fps. Guardians in 30 fps. They all feel smooth.
- Make the 30 fps mode less sharp. It strains my eyes.
- Introduce a 40 fps mode at native 1800p if there is no overhead.
- Introduce a 60 fps 1440p mode. Reduce graphical fidelity if needed, but focus on IQ over visual settings. Right now, PS5 version of Horizon ZD looks better because it's cleaner.
- Fix the damn platforming. Especially in indoor story missions where they make you climb all the time. make her more magnetic like she was in the first game.
- Fix the rain. It does not look good. Why does it rain all the time in Plainsong anyway. It stopped and started raining again within 3 minutes once.
- Removing components should immobilize enemies for a few seconds.
- Allow us to tap R3 to make parts glow. Holding and scanning during fights is impossible. Why change this from the first game?
- Melee is still useless even after fully investing in the first tier of the melee skill tree. Though this is one of those RPG changes that only let you become OP in the end game/post game.

This isnt just about graphics. The game feels janky and unpolished in ways games like Metro and Dying Light feel. It is at odds with just how polished the cutscenes feel. The difference between the first settlement and third settlement just showcases how its a tale of two games.

You seem to be playing the game wrong, I have none of these issues lol

 

[J3nga]

GG did just post this. They are coy about what visual issues means but hopefully good news for those of us not happy with the IQ in performance mode.

At least they acknowledge there are issues and they're fixing them. People setting camera settings just having placebo effect nothing will make up for real 60 fps. 30 fps just sucks giant hairy ass.

 

[Con_Z_ǝdʇ]

 

[GymWolf]

I like the game but it’s so bloated. So much open world crap and combat is annoying.
Gear system is a bit too confusing, skills are pointless.
So much resistance and weaknesses. You even have to shoot explosive barrels with right arrow… cmon.
So I carry 3 fucking bows with me and bunch of other crap weapons.

I enjoy some of it but it’s too complex… in a wrong way. And I am at 18% after 20 hours. Who are these super long games for.

And it’s not like you can explore. Playing main story first is essential before exploring and side quests. Then I find myself 2 levels below recommended and grind side quests…. This game did not had to be an rpg. And don’t get me started on stash and cost of tear arrows crafting. Wtf.

Story, graphics, production are all great

Time to put the game on easy, old man.

 

[GymWolf]

Hunting ground challenges offer pretty shit rewards. Just do side missions which give you 2 skill points each.

In the previous games getting all the gold gave you the most powerfull weapon in the game, i doubt about crappy rewards when you do all of them...

 

[GymWolf]

In these modern times?

A black chick with black hairs of course.

 

[SlimySnake]

You seem to be playing the game wrong, I have none of these issues lol

Perhaps. At least when it comes to the gameplay issues. With these WRPGs, you typically dont see the full picture until you fully level up so maybe the combat will start to make sense at the end of the game.

But for the rest, you will get there. I’m much farther ahead than you guys are. You guys said the same thing when I was complaining about the platforming and now everyone is complaining about it. People kept saying how the game looks stunning in Performance mode but they were in Chainscrape while I was exploring the open world with far bigger areas with really bad shimmering and aliasing. When I was complaining about the 30 fps issues, I was pretty much alone and now even Vincent Toeh is like yes, even the 30 fps mode has issues. Most of you guys havent fought a thunderjaw still, and Im sure when you get there you will see what I am talking about.

Same goes for the desert tribe settlement. It is shocking at how low effort it looks compared to Chainscrape and even Plainsong. It's not that the game is bad, it's just not at the level of quality I expect from Sony games.

 

[GymWolf]

im addicted to photo mode.

Incredible shot dude, this is gonna be my new wallpaper on pc.

People in the elden ring topic shitting on horizon art design lmao, fuck them.

 

[sloppyjoe_gamer]

• Ashly Burch seems to be purposefully deepening/aging her voice. In the first game she basically sounded like Ashly Burch, while in the second it’s like someone told her to change her voice. I don’t like.

Was IMMEDIATELY noticeable and i fucking hate it. Are there some bluehairs on the team trying to manify Alloy?

 

[SlimySnake]

In the previous games getting all the gold gave you the most powerfull weapon in the game, i doubt about crappy rewards when you do all of them...

For early game. They are crappy. you wont get the best weapon in the game until you have unlocked the entire map anyway so why waste hours trying to get gold in the first hunting ground only to get some materials?

 

[Bitmap Frogs]

I just walked into the titular West proper and I’m getting my ass kicked… hearing aloy mutter “my arrows are barely doing any damage” was weird.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Perhaps. At least when it comes to the gameplay issues. With these WRPGs, you typically dont see the full picture until you fully level up so maybe the combat will start to make sense at the end of the game.

But for the rest, you will get there. I’m much farther ahead than you guys are. You guys said the same thing when I was complaining about the platforming and now everyone is complaining about it. People kept saying how the game looks stunning in Performance mode but they were in Chainscrape while I was exploring the open world with far bigger areas with really bad shimmering and aliasing. When I was complaining about the 30 fps issues, I was pretty much alone and now even Vincent Toeh is like yes, even the 30 fps mode has issues. Most of you guys havent fought a thunderjaw still, and Im sure when you get there you will see what I am talking about.

Same goes for the desert tribe settlement. It is shocking at how low effort it looks compared to Chainscrape and even Plainsong. It's not that the game is bad, it's just not at the level of quality I expect from Sony games.

Im still not getting the platforming issues. Slow down and be more patient. It’s not as forgiving and can seem janky as a result.

I’m going through a lot of side quests and hunting grounds, etc, not just rushing through the main story.

Slow down a bit and progress your character more. None of the battles I’ve been in have been an issue. I like the fact that the game is more engaging with aggressive enemies, makes it way more fun to play.

 

[GymWolf]

i think i found master chief!

The poor bastard saved the galaxy a bunch of times just to have a redheaded chick doing the ahegao face on his corpse...

 

[SlimySnake]

Im still not getting the platforming issues. Slow down and be more patient. It’s not as forgiving and can seem janky as a result.

I’m going through a lot of side quests and hunting grounds, etc, not just rushing through the main story.

Slow down a bit and progress your character more. None of the battles I’ve been in have been an issue. I like the fact that the game is more engaging with aggressive enemies, makes it way more fun to play.

Yeah, I figured that was the problem and thats why I am now 5 levels above the next story quest that takes your further west. Like I said earlier, the slicing Hunter Bow really helps but it is hard to be patient and slow down with enemies jumping around and charging at you at all times. Try the thunderjaw battle tonight. It's by the lake. Let me know how it goes. It was very surprising to see it turn around in an instant after charging at me. By the time i would recover from my dodge, he would already be facing me. Being unable to freeze him (hes no longer weak to Freeze arrows) just made things harder and I basically had to remove his components one by one since body damage is no longer a thing in this game.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Yeah, I figured that was the problem and thats why I am now 5 levels above the next story quest that takes your further west. Like I said earlier, the slicing Hunter Bow really helps but it is hard to be patient and slow down with enemies jumping around and charging at you at all times. Try the thunderjaw battle tonight. It's by the lake. Let me know how it goes. It was very surprising to see it turn around in an instant after charging at me. By the time i would recover from my dodge, he would already be facing me. Being unable to freeze him (hes no longer weak to Freeze arrows) just made things harder and I basically had to remove his components one by one since body damage is no longer a thing in this game.

I’m sure it’ll be difficult but that’s kind of the point for some of the biggest dinos

If it was a breeze there’s be no challenge. Try mixing up your play style and not just rely on the bow.

What weapon perks are you using? I use the knockdown perk and critical hit valor

 

[SlimySnake]

I’m sure it’ll be difficult but that’s kind of the point for some of the biggest dinos

If it was a breeze there’s be no challenge. Try mixing up your play style and not just rely on the bow.

What weapon perks are you using? I use the knockdown perk and critical hit valor

Hmm. I totally forgot about the knockdown perk. Thats the last one in the hunter skill tree right? I think I might have skipped that one since it required 5 skill points. I did unlock the critical hit valor so will give that a shot against the trex.

What does Acid damage do to enemies exactly? Took me forever to apply an acid effect on the trex since thats the only thing its weak to, and it didnt really do much. I expected it to work like freeze damage in the first game where it increases your damage by 3x while the enemy is frozen.

 

[ANDS]

I'm definitely not happy about the image quality in this game but really am annoyed at people like DF for not pointing out the obvious when they will often do 400% zooms on stuff no human would ever notice.

John literally tells you to play the game in quality mode.

 

[evanft]

A couple other things are bothering me.

• You can activate your own traps. This isn’t fun and only discourages me from using traps and tripwires. Did they not play test this?
• The crafting system, if you can even call it a system, is still just a recipe list and a button press in a menu. What’s the actual point if you can’t mix/match components/ingredients to really customize your armors, weapons, etc.? It just adds friction to the experience without adding anything of value

What’s really bothering me is the same thing that bothered me about Red Dead Redemption 2. Instead of refining what was there and fixing the issues that were present, they decided to overwhelm the player with MORE MORE MORE. MORE stats. MORE upgrades. MORE mini games. MORE weapons. But none of it really does much to actually make the game MORE fun. It’s like the whole is less than the sum of its parts.

And I think the reason this happened is that HZD was lightning in a bottle for Guerilla. Before that game, Guerilla was a mid-tier studio on a good day. Sure, the Killzone series was a technological showcase, but for the most part it was a pretty forgettable series of brown shooters in an era where those were a dime-a-dozen. They somehow were able to get their shit together for HZD, but they lacked the competence to refine it further and instead leaned into the MORE MORE MORE trope that plagues too many AAA titles.

I really contrast this to TLOU2. The gameplay in TLOU2 is essentially a more refined version of TLOU1. While not much is necessarily new or added, what is new is in service of refining the underlying experience. Everything feels tighter and meshes better than it did in TLOU1, which results in the whole game being much more fun to play. There’s not a lot of unnecessary fluff or elements that are added just for the sake of adding them.

 

[GymWolf]

Cant fix performance issues just like that. Unless they somehow find more performance like Insomniac did, but Insomniac was working on brand new tech like ray tracing whereas GG has been working on the same rasterization methods for years. Very unlikely they stumble upon 50% more performance which is what they need in order to go from 1800p cb to native 1440p. They would need an engine rewrite for the PS5 which is clearly something they didnt do for this game.

Regardless, I am dropping this game for now. It feels way too janky and visually unimpressive in latter parts of the game. Especially the desert sections. I fought my first trex and unlike the first time I fought the trex in HZD, this one felt frustrating. Hes way too aggressive and spent almost the entire 30-45 minutes on top of me. He turns around too fast so I could dodge him charging at me, turn around and boom he's already facing me. Keep in mind, I fought this guy almost a 1000 times last month in the PC version of HZD when I was grinding for coils. So I know a thing or two about Thunderjaws.

Game feels a bit too janky. Nothing game breaking but not the polished AAA experience I have come to expect from Sony games.

If they are serious about fixing issues, I'd like these fixed over the new few months:
- Make enemies less aggressive. I can tolerate weakpoint only combat but dont put weakpoints at their rear and then have them turn around in seconds.
- Change the damn lighting in the desert areas to make it look more like the original trailer.
- 30 fps mode needs to be more responsive. It's not my OLED either. I played Spiderman and Ratchet in 30 fps. Guardians in 30 fps. They all feel smooth.
- Make the 30 fps mode less sharp. It strains my eyes.
- Introduce a 40 fps mode at native 1800p if there is no overhead.
- Introduce a 60 fps 1440p mode. Reduce graphical fidelity if needed, but focus on IQ over visual settings. Right now, PS5 version of Horizon ZD looks better because it's cleaner.
- Fix the damn platforming. Especially in indoor story missions where they make you climb all the time. make her more magnetic like she was in the first game.
- Fix the rain. It does not look good. Why does it rain all the time in Plainsong anyway. It stopped and started raining again within 3 minutes once.
- Removing components should immobilize enemies for a few seconds.
- Allow us to tap R3 to make parts glow. Holding and scanning during fights is impossible. Why change this from the first game?
- Melee is still useless even after fully investing in the first tier of the melee skill tree. Though this is one of those RPG changes that only let you become OP in the end game/post game.

This isnt just about graphics. The game feels janky and unpolished in ways games like Metro and Dying Light feel. It is at odds with just how polished the cutscenes feel. The difference between the first settlement and third settlement just showcases how its a tale of two games.

Some things are true, some are just personal opinions like the melee being useless, i'm using melee way more than the first game against small-medium sized dinobots and it is ko\resonator galore, maybe you need to put more points into hit.

Enemies being more aggressive is a gift from heaven if you ask me.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Hmm. I totally forgot about the knockdown perk. Thats the last one in the hunter skill tree right? I think I might have skipped that one since it required 5 skill points. I did unlock the critical hit valor so will give that a shot against the trex.

What does Acid damage do to enemies exactly? Took me forever to apply an acid effect on the trex since thats the only thing its weak to, and it didnt really do much. I expected it to work like freeze damage in the first game where it increases your damage by 3x while the enemy is frozen.

Knockdown may not work for bigger enemies but it’s useful for smaller ones to immobilize them and remove components, same for tripcaster

Acid does damage over time and weakens their armor (so normal arrows do more damage to their body)

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Also there’s a different strategy if your goal is to get components vs take down an enemy quickly

I take out components I need first carefully then move on to unleashing maximum carnage

 

[SlimySnake]

Some things are true, some are just personal opinions like the melee being useless, i'm using melee way more than the first game against small-medium sized dinobots and it is ko\resonator galore, may

Enemies being more aggressive is a gift from heaven if you ask me.

Would you mind posting some vids of your play through? I know you are a ultra hard veteran of the first game. I’d also like to know why my melee attacks aren’t building up the resonator charge fast enough.

 

[G-Bus]

Didnt want to put the controller down last night. Just want to finish up around Chainscrape and the surrounding areas and head deeper into the map. I'm tired of desert.

Took a little bit but I'm right back into it like I was with the first. Little comments I've seen about the story have me really intrigued.

Enemies feel way more aggressive than the first. Just fighting a few scavengers at a time can be something.

Can't wait to get into this more. Wish I could spend a whole day playing.

 

[sendit]

The complaints about the combat are hilarious.

“What do stats do in a rpg game?”

"What are weaknesses?”

“What are weak points?”

“Why doesn’t stagger build up quick enough?”

“Why do I have different bows, the game is too complex”

At this point, you should probably stick to mobile gaming. You all have phones right?

 

[Fox Mulder]

Cant fix performance issues just like that. Unless they somehow find more performance like Insomniac did, but Insomniac was working on brand new tech like ray tracing whereas GG has been working on the same rasterization methods for years. Very unlikely they stumble upon 50% more performance which is what they need in order to go from 1800p cb to native 1440p. They would need an engine rewrite for the PS5 which is clearly something they didnt do for this game.

Regardless, I am dropping this game for now. It feels way too janky and visually unimpressive in latter parts of the game. Especially the desert sections. I fought my first trex and unlike the first time I fought the trex in HZD, this one felt frustrating. Hes way too aggressive and spent almost the entire 30-45 minutes on top of me. He turns around too fast so I could dodge him charging at me, turn around and boom he's already facing me. Keep in mind, I fought this guy almost a 1000 times last month in the PC version of HZD when I was grinding for coils. So I know a thing or two about Thunderjaws.

Game feels a bit too janky. Nothing game breaking but not the polished AAA experience I have come to expect from Sony games.

If they are serious about fixing issues, I'd like these fixed over the new few months:
- Make enemies less aggressive. I can tolerate weakpoint only combat but dont put weakpoints at their rear and then have them turn around in seconds.
- Change the damn lighting in the desert areas to make it look more like the original trailer.
- 30 fps mode needs to be more responsive. It's not my OLED either. I played Spiderman and Ratchet in 30 fps. Guardians in 30 fps. They all feel smooth.
- Make the 30 fps mode less sharp. It strains my eyes.
- Introduce a 40 fps mode at native 1800p if there is no overhead.
- Introduce a 60 fps 1440p mode. Reduce graphical fidelity if needed, but focus on IQ over visual settings. Right now, PS5 version of Horizon ZD looks better because it's cleaner.
- Fix the damn platforming. Especially in indoor story missions where they make you climb all the time. make her more magnetic like she was in the first game.
- Fix the rain. It does not look good. Why does it rain all the time in Plainsong anyway. It stopped and started raining again within 3 minutes once.
- Removing components should immobilize enemies for a few seconds.
- Allow us to tap R3 to make parts glow. Holding and scanning during fights is impossible. Why change this from the first game?
- Melee is still useless even after fully investing in the first tier of the melee skill tree. Though this is one of those RPG changes that only let you become OP in the end game/post game.

This isnt just about graphics. The game feels janky and unpolished in ways games like Metro and Dying Light feel. It is at odds with just how polished the cutscenes feel. The difference between the first settlement and third settlement just showcases how its a tale of two games.

It shouldn’t take 30-45 minutes to beat anything in these games. There’s a variety of weapons and traps that slice though enemies. I didn’t bother with hunting grounds in the first game until I was going for the platinum and was shocked at weapons and tactics I was ignoring.

It sounds like you’re playing a different game honestly.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

It shouldn’t take 30-45 minutes to beat anything in these games. There’s a variety of weapons and traps that slice though enemies.

It sounds like you’re playing a different game honestly.

I think he’s overly reliant on the bow and not using the full set of options, including perks and valor

This is meant to be played like a Ratchet and Clank game lol

 

[TrebleShot]

Hi everyone

PSA, for anyone with HDR issues, this person has nailed the donkey work.

https://www.hdrgamer.com/2022/02/horizon-forbidden-west-hdr-settings.html

 

[GymWolf]

Would you mind posting some vids of your play through? I know you are a ultra hard veteran of the first game. I’d also like to know why my melee attacks aren’t building up the resonator charge fast enough.

I'm too lazy to do that, i'm too lazy to even take screenshots in photo mode...

If you were talking about the melee, well i have like 3 points on getting the resonator faster, also i have a combo specific to build resonator, i heavily invested in the melee skill tree before anything else, you can't expect to be super strong if you are jack of all trade.

For the ko stuff, you just need to time correctly the charged r2 because it is a slow move, a lot of times you end with a ko with small-medium machines.

Sure this stuff doesn't work on heavy stuff like a thunderjaw, although i'm gonna try anyway when i meet one.

 

[AJUMP23]

Top notch title.

 

[SCB3]

This is starting to lose me a bit on some of the climbing gameplay, I'm up to the mission "Deaths Door" and inside an Ancient bunker, the fucking outdated climbing works so much against you that it becomes less of a puzzle gameplay wise and more fighting the controls as some of it is so inconsistent, it just feels very pre Assassins Creed and BotW and in 2022 its not longer accptable to just follow the Yellow, even TLoU2 knew this

For example: the press X to grapple to points, sometimes will do it on a jump automatically and sometimes you have to press it twice to activate Aloy's grapple, however if it already activated on the jump you jump off the grapple point again, this has led to me falling so many times.

Then you seem to get stuck on doorways and random stuff on the floor, it feels like when you get your pocket caught on a door handle sometimes.

Its a shame because I love the Robots, the combat is a lot of fun, the story is kinda cool and the world building is really good, but it is starting to feel like a chore in some of these sections and with big releases like Elden Ring coming up, I can see this getting somewhat lost

 

[Ass of Can Whooping]

A couple other things are bothering me.

• You can activate your own traps. This isn’t fun and only discourages me from using traps and tripwires. Did they not play test this?
• The crafting system, if you can even call it a system, is still just a recipe list and a button press in a menu. What’s the actual point if you can’t mix/match components/ingredients to really customize your armors, weapons, etc.? It just adds friction to the experience without adding anything of value

What’s really bothering me is the same thing that bothered me about Red Dead Redemption 2. Instead of refining what was there and fixing the issues that were present, they instead decided to overwhelm the player with MORE MORE MORE. MORE stats. MORE upgrades. MORE mini games. MORE weapons. But none of it really does much to actually make the game MORE fun. It’s like the whole is less than the sum of its parts.

And I think the reason this happened is that HZD was lightning in a bottle for Guerilla. Before that game, Guerilla was a mid-tier studio on a good day. Sure, the Killzone series was a technological showcase, but for the most part it was a pretty forgettable series of brown shooters in an era where those were a dime-a-dozen. They somehow were able to get their shit together for HZD, but they lacked the competence to refine it further and instead leaned into the MORE MORE MORE trope that plagues too many AAA titles.

I really contrast this to TLOU2. The gameplay in TLOU2 is essentially a more refined version of TLOU1. While not much is necessarily new or added, what is new is in service of refining the underlying experience. Everything feels tighter and meshes better than it did in TLOU1, which results in the whole game being much more fun to play. There’s not a lot of unnecessary fluff or elements that are added just for the sake of adding them.

Never get the comparisons with TLOU

TLOU1 biggest weakeness was it's gameplay. It was shit. Zero Dawn already had steller combat.

Obviously the former was going to feel like a bigger jump in the combat deparment than the latter. With Forbidden West they did set out to make those refinements where it needed them. Better traversal, adding more layers to the combat, better side quests, and improvments on the whole RPG aspects which it was weak at.