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[SlimySnake]

I think the issue is the balance, they upped the machine aggressiveness and give them more health. When you couple this with Aloy being easy to stunlock and most of the really useful stuff being a reasonable amount of points in skills (elemental valor, fast plant traps, triple notch), it's a frustrating start unless you are really familiar with the combat. Then you get the missions that cheaply throw a machine in that's also ten levels above you because you have an 'AI' with you (that does fuck all except chuck arrows) it does lead to some frustrating battles close to one another.

That's why it's labelled 'hard' I guess, but I do feel it could be better balanced as normal is pretty difficult to find a challenge at all beyond level 10 or so. You can just sort of accept the difficulty as it is, but that doesn't mean it couldn't be tuned for a better overall experience. I think you can also find options that change how much damage you do, and the machines do as well? I haven't looked for them but I recall people in thread saying they existed somewhere as sliders?

I am almost 35 hours in on Normal with purple weapons and armor, and still burn through medicine berries in pretty much every fight.

Last night, played a mission where I had to take on rhinos who apparently have fire mortars with laser aim, 2 bellowbacks and a fucking flying robot. A complete mess of a fight. I used the chain reaction skill and all kinds of elemental damage and it was just too much. And I was 6 levels above the suggested level for that side mission.

My friend brought up a really good point the other day. There is no parry or blocking or shields in this game. Aloy has only one defensive move, dodge roll. I did this long side mission because they promised me a shield and it turned out to be the shield on a tripcaster. As if those will help against enemies who are constantly trying to ram you.

The grapple is also underutilized. Why cant they just do what Halo did and let me grapple anywhere? Even a returnal style dash would've helped. Sunhi's gifs were using the grapple everywhere but 90% of the fights happen in places with no grapple in sight.

GG is still making amateur mistakes when it comes to game design. I straight up dislike BOTW, and not a fan of the latest Halo and AC games, but they just said fuck it and designed their games around the freedom of unlimited climbing and grapple in Halo's case. Just stop trying to control my progress. It's obvious they want to tailor it because of their story mission structure which mostly revolves around exploring old buildings, but dont hold back the open world because of some dated linear story mission design. Just say YOLO and take the plunge. It might not work and I will admit, Halo, AC and BOTW are not great games IMO, but Horizon FW is and it wouldve been even greater if they just offered more freedom.

I mean 35 hours in and still no flying mounts. Come on.

 

[Mossybrew]

Last night, played a mission where I had to take on rhinos who apparently have fire mortars with laser aim, 2 bellowbacks and a fucking flying robot. A complete mess of a fight.

LOL. I love the chaos though in these big multi-machine fights. It can get pretty nuts.

 

[Dragon_Rocks]

How the heck do you get the Widemaw tusks to break off? Its super difficult to hit even in slowmo and they are blocked by so many things when they are exposed for the short time.

 

[cormack12]

How the heck do you get the Widemaw tusks to break off? Its super difficult to hit even in slowmo and they are blocked by so many things when they are exposed for the short time.

Have you got the bow with the tearblast arrows yet?

 

[Dragon_Rocks]

Have you got the bow with the tearblast arrows yet?

Not yet. Let me wait till I can get hold of that. Thanks.

 

[Con_Z_ǝdʇ]

Finished the story. Now for the rest....

 

[GymWolf]

Small tip: create jobs for every piece of equip that you want to upgrade, even for stuff that you are not sure about.
Doing that, everytime you analyze the dinobots parts with the focus, the ui tells you what part is required for an upgrade so you can work on stripping them from the dinos during normal combat instead of hunting specifically for them later.

Kinda like when you accept those small missions in MH where you need to collect honey, plants etc, you don't go to a mission specifically for them, you just pick stuff during normal gameplay.

 

[cormack12]

Yeah that is useful but I couldn't see a way to add quantity to it? For example I added suncaster wing outfit recipe as a job. I needed 3 but when I looted 1 the job was completed. I was most displeased.

Level 27 and just got Poseidon. The rockbreacker is an arsehole as well. Easily my toughest fight so far. Got some side quests bubbling and just need to pick up Demeter now. Still got a third of the map covered and now up to 33 hours.

 

[saintjules]

HDTVTest. 5:29 is his approach regarding HDR settings under LG OLED displays. I guess it all depends on how you calibrated your display to begin with.

• Brightness to -2
• Shadow to 0
• Highlights to -8
• Under Dynamic Tone Mapping, switch to off to maintain highlighted detail, but he recommends to continue using HGIG if selected, even though the game isn't HGIG compliant.

 

[DragoonKain]

I can't understand why the custom markers can't appear on the compass. I enabled guided locations in the settings, but I think it's handled pretty annoyingly. They pop up on the screen. Having it on the compass would be very useful and they don't pop up for me. Like if I highlight a question mark on the map.

What skills did everyone level up first? I've started like 75% melee and 25% bow and haven't touched anything else yet. So far my melee upgrades seem to have minimal impact on combat and using the bow to target weak points seems way more efficient. But sometimes I get bored of doing stealth and just run up and start slashing away.

Another question: does everything important appear on the map with a symbol of some sort? Or are there important things totally left off the map?

 

[GustavoLT]

I tryed my best to like HGIG on my Oled CX... but it´s impossible!!! way too dim!

 

[Deleted member 471617]

Question regarding the Coil Blaster. Potential spoiler for early on in the game. Anyone know why im having this issue?

Spoiler

Did anyone have trouble shooting the Coil Blaster against the Slingerfang boss fight that ends the tutorial/prologue section? Every button I press, Aloy drops the gun instead of shooting it.

 

[Dick Jones]

Level 30 ultra hard and finished the Embers City. (Saying that so there isn't any fear of spoiling). The boss fight there was a pain and I only copped during it that I could press and hold up on the d-pad that I could replenish my health berries.

 

[Bilbo Baggins]

This game just gets better and better. I've ignored the irritating side stuff like exploring the old world ruins and looking for vantage points. Fully focused on the story and side missions, which are fantastic.

Loved the story in Zero Dawn and I think this has been a very good continuation of it. The writing is strong. The revelations are right up my street. It's actually playing out the way I hoped it would, in most ways. Didn't anticipate the way the story is growing Aloy as a person though, but I like it and think it's working. The cast is great, both old and new characters, solid performances all around. I've enjoyed the pacing so far. Love the way everything is gradually moving Aloy further west. Every new main settlement has a few side quests which are located around the settlement, and they all feel unique. Not a single quest has been "go to the literal other side of the map, kill some dude then come back". Not one. Every side quest links in with it's surrounding area, then the main quest moves further west. Love it.

The combat has evolved in ways that I really dig. The machines seem to move faster and hit harder. It felt good at first, but now that I've got into synching Aloy's valour surges with her weapon skills and outfitted her with armour perks which boost her abilities, it feels special. Possibly the best combat system in any huge open world game of this kind yet.

I could go on and talk about the score, the wonderful art and sound design, the gorgeous setting, brilliant little additions like the shield-wing, but nah, to be honest I'd rather just get back into it for a couple of hours before bed All in all, after a little bit of an iffy start (in my opinion) the game has just went from strength to strength. It's an absolute banger. Bravo Guerrilla, you did it again.

 

[cormack12]

 

[Anos Voldigoad]

 

[MidGenRefresh]

Question regarding the Coil Blaster. Potential spoiler for early on in the game. Anyone know why im having this issue?

Spoiler

Did anyone have trouble shooting the Coil Blaster against the Slingerfang boss fight that ends the tutorial/prologue section? Every button I press, Aloy drops the gun instead of shooting it.

You pick it up with triangle. Wait for the pick-up animation to finish. Aim with L2 (hold and press) and shoot with R2. All heavy weapons work this way.

 

[MidGenRefresh]

I mean 35 hours in and still no flying mounts. Come on.

Flying mount straight up breaks the exploration in this game. No wonder you only get it almost at the end of the game.

 

[SlimySnake]

Small tip: create jobs for every piece of equip that you want to upgrade, even for stuff that you are not sure about.
Doing that, everytime you analyze the dinobots parts with the focus, the ui tells you what part is required for an upgrade so you can work on stripping them from the dinos during normal combat instead of hunting specifically for them later.

Kinda like when you accept those small missions in MH where you need to collect honey, plants etc, you don't go to a mission specifically for them, you just pick stuff during normal gameplay.

Pro-tip: you can tag the parts you need when scanning the machines. They glow purple and remain glowing until you take them out.

 

[Deleted member 471617]

You pick it up with triangle. Wait for the pick-up animation to finish. Aim with L2 (hold and press) and shoot with R2. All heavy weapons work this way.

I should have mentioned that I swapped the light/heavy attack buttons with square/triangle. Did a few other changes too. However, I picked up the weapon and while holding L2, I pressed R1, R2, triangle, circle, cross and square and all six times Aloy dropped the weapon. Either changing the buttons screwed something up or it's a bug because up to this point, no issues with anything in regards to changing the button configuration.

 

[TrebleShot]

In a side quest protecting some kid from not just a thunderjaw but a sodding storm bird too too much stress in that lol.

 

[Haggard]

Spoiler

Kind of pissed that you don't get to see what Faro turned into, exactly

 

[dorkimoe]

Is that the machine level when I scan it? I feel like the old one had machine levels visible? But this one is missing? I feel like the first game I could always see what the enemy was weak too? Now I have to scan cuz I keep forgetting and there’s multiple types

 

[ebevan91]

Is that the machine level when I scan it? I feel like the old one had machine levels visible? But this one is missing? I feel like the first game I could always see what the enemy was weak too? Now I have to scan cuz I keep forgetting and there’s multiple types

I think so because I saw the same thing and it's also on the human enemies too.

 

[DragoonKain]

Unless the middle to western parts of the maps are less dense with points of interest, I don't know how this isn't going to be at least a 80 hour playthrough for me. I haven't even reached the center yet and am still very early in the game and I've been playing for hours and I see dozens of POIs on my map I haven't touched yet and have already spent at least 8-10 hours exploring. But most people have said you can do everything in 50-60. I guess we'll see.

 

[Represent.]

Am I high or did the update remove Aloy getting wet when she gets out of water? Why would they do that

 

[Kagero]

Horizon forbidden dress

 

[ManaByte]

 

[Mossybrew]

 

[SlimySnake]

I noticed the game was bugging out and triggering Hero lighting in one of the story missions. It kept going in and out, but I was able take some screenshots. Looks absolutely incredible. Took some before and after pics.

Before:

After:

 

[sankt-Antonio]

How many story missions are there in total? Think I’m close to the end, still use the second bow I got the most. Somehow all the other trick weapons never clicked with me.

Yesterday I ran into the cloaked panthers in combination with robo monkeys at night in the jungle for the first time. Really great experience.

 

[SlimySnake]

Just killed a Dreadling in basically 2 shots. Used the critical hit valor surge to increase critical hit rate and critical hit damage, and the Braced Shot weapon technique to go on one knee for massive damage with a precision bow.

Got super cocky and tried the same thing with the first Thunderjaw you face and nope. That thing is still hard to kill.

 

[Magic Carpet]

Climbed the stand of the sentinel tallneck walking around the big trees. This entire area was a big puzzle to figure out While stalkers knock me around.
I need a bow that does better shock damage.
Still no legendary weapons yet.

 

[Represent.]

finally unlocked a few more mounts. have been using strictly the charger and on foot the whole game so far.

this game is incredible

and SlimySnake yes that lighting looks goddamn amazing whenever it kicks in.

 

[Dr Bass]

Not gonna go into details but getting further in the game. It’s really something. And unless my memory is wrong on the first one, quite a bit harder than that. Super impressive all around though. Yeah I don’t think it’s a perfect experience, but the highs vastly outweigh the lows.

 

[isoRhythm]

I really like that boomerang disc throwable, such a creative and cool weapon (especially against humans).

One of my biggest gripes with the combat is that the focus takes WAY TOO LONG to scan the enemy and identify elemental weaknesses and detachable weapons. Especially annoying in quests where you have very little time between the robo appearing and attacking you.

 

[GymWolf]

Pro-tip: you can tag the parts you need when scanning the machines. They glow purple and remain glowing until you take them out.

They tell you that in the first hour of the game dude

 

[GymWolf]

I really like that boomerang disc throwable, such a creative and cool weapon (especially against humans).

One of my biggest gripes with the combat is that the focus takes WAY TOO LONG to scan the enemy and identify elemental weaknesses and detachable weapons. Especially annoying in quests where you have very little time between the robo appearing and attacking you.

Literally never used the disc against humans lol.

Dinos offer bigger targets and on humans you lose the tearing damage usefulness because humans don't lose parts.

But yeah when you get that 4 explosive hit in it's pretty great.

 

[PuppetMaster]

Beat the main story. Man that took some turns!

Writing was pretty good overall. If not a bit verbose for a video game. But I guess a lot of the dialogue is optional. And some players are really into the lore.

For me the best parts were just exploring the world. And traversal puzzles.

Its crazy how many weapons they put in the game. Because I really only used the hunter bow 95% of the time. And the a sharpshootee bow the other 5$. I guess it allows players to play as they like.

 

[GymWolf]

I noticed the game was bugging out and triggering Hero lighting in one of the story missions. It kept going in and out, but I was able take some screenshots. Looks absolutely incredible. Took some before and after pics.

Before:

After:

Yeah no the second pic look like redheaded jesus coming to heart

 

[Con_Z_ǝdʇ]

How many story missions are there in total?

14 main quests. Not sure about side quests.

 

[BadBurger]

I am almost 35 hours in on Normal with purple weapons and armor, and still burn through medicine berries in pretty much every fight.

Last night, played a mission where I had to take on rhinos who apparently have fire mortars with laser aim, 2 bellowbacks and a fucking flying robot. A complete mess of a fight. I used the chain reaction skill and all kinds of elemental damage and it was just too much. And I was 6 levels above the suggested level for that side mission.

I am pretty deep in as well and it's still disappointing how little quality, useful gear one comes across. Everything needs to be upgraded a few times to even be truly versatile.

As for that fight you mentioned, I simply scanned the weaknesses of the first dinosaur, lured it into an appropriate trap as I hid, waited until it ambled off, then repeated until it died. Did the same for its buddy. Did the same for the bellowbacks. Then just popped out and wrecked the flyer while it was isolated. Normal difficulty, no deaths, didn't even take any damage until the flyer.

Just throwing that out there. Not suggesting that everyone should play the same way or that the design of the encounter was OK - that's just how I got through it.

 

[sankt-Antonio]

So 20h with two mission left in the main story. Haven't felt bored yet. Done one side mission by accident (auto started when I teleported to the place). Went to hunt for specific upgrade parts once two missions ago as I felt way underpowered. That's a plus for me, as I hate open world games with a lot of mandatory grinding built into them.

But I got to say I would have appreciated if weapons where introduced the way gadets where and somehow gave me a reason to try and use them, looks like I'll finish the game with a bow I bought 2h into the game.

Once the main story is done, I think ill explore more of the weapons. I was always cautions of upgrading gear as I thought I would get better stuff near end game and save materials, but that just isn't the case. Also don't know what to do with all these glowing green stones I keep collecting.

 

[GymWolf]

Is it normal that i'm like 35+ hours in and i only did one story related cauldron??

They doubled down the number of dinobots but after 35 hours i can only override the fucking bristleback...

 

[cormack12]

Is it normal that i'm like 35+ hours in and i only did one story related cauldron??

They doubled down the number of dinobots but after 35 hours i can only override the fucking bristleback...

I've only found two (one story), the other one I found on the way to poseidon I think. Was called Mu I think.

Spoiler: If you want to know what to prepare for in the cauldron itself....

Cauldron is quite simple until the boss, toughest enemy on the way down is a crabwalker.

End boss is a Widemaw, weak to purgewater, but after you get it 25% down another one drops in. Advanced Purgewater traps are a godsend if you don't have the purge bow and the valor in the machine tree for extra component damage. If you can't get round the back or have Purgewater it can be a long fight.

 

[GymWolf]

Not gonna open the spoiler but thanks anyway.

Did anyone finded the ropecaster that puts like a barrier on the ground against ranged attack? (Basically the cover in halo infinite but more quirky)?

There is a lot of experimentation with the weapons, not sure why people don't like this, you have weapons for literally any taste.

 

[GymWolf]

Small trick to build up the spear resonator (thanks to reeeee)

Love that you can build up a resonator charge with your spear by holding r2, then cancelling into a roll 4 times. So good


I was not aware of this trick, but when you upgrade the melee skill tree, building up the resonator is pretty fast anyway, so i guess it's more of a first 20 hours trick.

 

[Three]

Like someone else mentioned, there is also most likely some kind of dynamic res in play because it doesnt feel 1800p. IIRC, Ghost of Tsushima, GT Sports and Days Gone were all 1800p cb on PS4 Pro and they felt far cleaner than this. GOT and Days Gone werent even 60 fps like GT Sports and HFW so they shouldve looked worse.

It's VRS.

 

[ManaByte]

Is it normal that i'm like 35+ hours in and i only did one story related cauldron??

They doubled down the number of dinobots but after 35 hours i can only override the fucking bristleback...

There are only two story related cauldrons, three optional.

 

[kikii]

There are only two story related cauldrons, 4 optional.