Just platinumed this the other day, wanted to love it more than I did that's for sure I feel it needed way more polish and time in the oven..
Felt like an expansion which is a good and bad thing, and holy shit those climbing mechanics... no excuse to have such dog shit climbing and controls in a AAA game in 2022.
Melee combat is still terrible, you can only polish a turd so much unless you revamp it, and the camera angle does not help.
The I-frames when dodging are not long enough, especially with it being nerfed from the first game AND enemies having such huge attack boxes was a bad idea.. playing on very hard you just get knocked down and stuck in that stupid animation constantly.
They need proper mo-cap, you'd think that'd dial it up a notch but it's the usual flailing hands to portray a scene.
I'm being extremely critical because this should have been the Killzone 2 > Killzone of 2022.
Just platinumed this the other day, wanted to love it more than I did that's for sure I feel it needed way more polish and time in the oven..
Felt like an expansion which is a good and bad thing, and holy shit those climbing mechanics... no excuse to have such dog shit climbing and controls in a AAA game in 2022.
Melee combat is still terrible, you can only polish a turd so much unless you revamp it, and the camera angle does not help.
The I-frames when dodging are not long enough, especially with it being nerfed from the first game AND enemies having such huge attack boxes was a bad idea.. playing on very hard you just get knocked down and stuck in that stupid animation constantly.
They need proper mo-cap, you'd think that'd dial it up a notch but it's the usual flailing hands to portray a scene.
I'm being extremely critical because this should have been the Killzone 2 > Killzone of 2022.
lot of stuff got cut from the game and I've got the pictures to prove it..., trails leading nowhere can't enter this location..., underground areas... more..
All the armor and dye combinations are in this video, sadly there aren't any black legendary armors. The Carja Shadow comes close, but it's trapper focused.
When this game came out I said its funny to know nobody in the studio played Ghost of Tsushima.
they added it in. One of my biggest complaints. Some animations should be only during the tutorial. And then be turned off with the option to turn it back on.
Well, in 30 fps mode it looks like the best looking game out right now so clearly the talent is there. Though like the post below points out, the game got downgraded hard after the first reveal.
It could be that everyone senior in the company is on vacation after working five years on a game and the rookie employees have no idea what to do other than downgrade some settings. Though that doesnt explain why the game shipped with such an awful 60 fps mode. I also think the game was very similar to the first which is very surprising considering it was in development for five years. Longer than it took Cory Barlog to reboot God of War. It's absolutely bizarre that there is no aerial combat. It's bizarre that they add grapple to the game and dont let you grapple anywhere. It's bizarre that the game got a massive downgrade after the first trailer even though they had 10 rdna 2.0 tflops available to get it running on a PS5. Like wtf is the point of saying that trailer was captured on a PS5 when you are gonna downgrade it anyway? Like who thought it was a good idea to mocap and animate dozens of hours of pointless sidequest dialogue trees? Why was so much of the budget and time spent on that instead of adding new features? The fact that the final game doesnt feature the state of play mission is straight up weird like why would you do this? Not to mention the graphics downgrade from that gameplay demo too. If the lighting is too costly then just reduce the resolution to 1800p and get 40% GPU power back. Why make the game look worse just to hit some arbitrary native 4k 30 fps target?
I dont know whats going on over at GG tbh. Wouldnt be surprised if this game was in development hell.
one thing I find interesting about that trailer, isn’t it required by law to have the disclaimer at the bottom saying if it’s cg or in game graphics now?
i remember people going on about those crabs and I just wanted to see images and footage of those crabs once the game launched, seeings though I haven’t seen one proves that it was A cg b target render.
When this game came out I said its funny to know nobody in the studio played Ghost of Tsushima.
they added it in. One of my biggest complaints. Some animations should be only during the tutorial. And then be turned off with the option to turn it back on.
It's a nice option for those who want it and would help with speedruns for sure, but I'm also glad it's just an option. Might enable it from time to time, but other times I'd probably leave it off for personal preference of certain immersion.
EDIT: Also reading some of these latest comments, damn I am glad I'm not such a graphics whore. You could not pay me to be this nitpicky and catty about visuals. Are some of y'all playing with a can of vaseline smeared on your tv? Or did you forget this is still technically a cross-generational game (and in spite of that still one of the best-looking if not best-looking game currently on the market)?
The way some of you are talking you'd think this game on PS5 looks like Dark Cloud on PS2. The hyperbole's well beyond ridiculous
I just started a new game on hard and I’m really enjoying it again. I needed to give Elden Ring a break because I just don’t have the time for a game to be getting on my tits so often - Radahn is a joke.
I was waiting to see if it would get cleaner IQ in performance mode but it seems that it won't so I played it a fair bit over the weekend. Having a very good time but not sure I'd put it much above Ubisoft stuff. The only gameplay areas that I'd say are really poor are climbing and melee though I am finding that I'm getting bored of doing try-hard ranged combat using all the weapons and traps and tend to just use bracing shot from a bush but maybe that will have to change later on if there are more difficult things than Thunderjaws.
I'm definitely experiencing a lot of jank though that you don't normally see in 1st party games.
I've fallen through the world quite a few times which is fixed with a reload but still annoying.
And the lighting is really poor in a lot of places when you are actually playing and not just posing for photos. It can toggle on and off during cutscenes and added with the frame rate hitch and physics resetting on camera cuts can be distracting. I've noticed places where you see the lighting change in real time sometimes not that obviously but sometimes in a very unsubtle manner - I'm sure most open world games have to do this but they must hide it a little better as I can't recall seeing it outside of really eurojanky stuff. This is a particularly obvious example but even just going into caves or buildings can look wrong as you see the lighting phase unrealistically.
And as well as pop-in the game (very occasionally) fades to black for a second even in gameplay presumably as it streams stuff in - I've not seen this even on games on a 5400rpm HDD. This was apparently an issue with the pre-release patch but I'm on the latest version. The game is on the inbuilt SSD so it's not some knock-off SSD causing issues.
The development probably wasn't helped with COVID but definitely not the usual quality. I'd still recommend it if you like open world stuff and 100% recommend it if you enjoyed the first one as it seems like a straight upgrade. I do love all the new QOL stuff they have added and continue to add in patches and more devs should take notes here.
Added a few more examples for anyone that thinks I just cherrypicked a broken part of the game.
Brightness adjusting on the fly:
Character lit up like they are nuclear after going inside:
Lighting and effects toggling on and off aggresively:
Maybe a bit hard to see but I just picked the first conversation I had - lighting toggling on after a camera cut - it's part of a sidequest so tagged just in case:
The color can adjust on the fly too which is really obvious - look how everything goes orange and back again:
And the lighting is really poor in a lot of places when you are actually playing and not just posing for photos. It can toggle on and off during cutscenes and added with the frame rate hitch and physics resetting on camera cuts can be distracting. I've noticed places where you see the lighting change in real time sometimes not that obviously but sometimes in a very unsubtle manner - I'm sure most open world games have to do this but they must hide it a little better as I can't recall seeing it outside of really eurojanky stuff. This is a particularly obvious example but even just going into caves or buildings can look wrong as you see the lighting phase unrealistically.
lol the lighting is really poor in that area. No idea what they were thinking including a level like that. The desert levels dont look that better either but the snowy mountains, San Francisco and the forests later in the game look stunning.
The rain doesnt look good either. It's really weird because HZD was one game that looked good in every condition. I definitely think this game didnt have the same quality control as the first and while covid could explain the numerous bugs, it doesnt explain the lighting and art direction in that area or in the desert.
I just started a new game on hard and I’m really enjoying it again. I needed to give Elden Ring a break because I just don’t have the time for a game to be getting on my tits so often - Radahn is a joke.
lol I have grown to dislike Elden Rings so much I keep coming back to this game. I have a lot of issues with HFW, but compared to Elden Rings, this is like Citizen Fucking Kane in terms graphics, storytelling, and yes, even combat. I cannot believe they did not improve the combat even a little bit in Elden Rings. It's still got the same issues that plagued Dark Souls 1 and even the OG Demon Souls. Same janky hit detection and input lag. Hell, I am pretty sure the remake had better combat than this and that game was basically a 1:1 copy pasta aside from graphics. Im gonna have to buy it again, but I could swear the combat felt tighter in the BP remake.
The lighting is atrocious especially indoors. Again, I could swear bloodborne and Dark souls 3 looked better. The castle is a good level, but it looks like Dark Souls 2 after the downgrade. There is no indirect lighting. No light bounce. It feels like a PS3 quality game with that static lighting indoors. At least it looks serviceable outdoors.
Every time I think about this game, it's apparent it has faded more and more and more. There is nearly nothing memorable about this game that wasn't already achieved in the first game. Meaning, the world and enemies and combat are unique, but not in any way that differentiates them from Zero Dawn.
Which would be fine, but everything else is so, so forgettable. The story is thin, the ending is abrupt and atrocious, the endless dialogue fades instantly, and the character relationships either go nowhere, or are hackneyed and trite (see: Varl and.....Zo? I think it's Zo).
It's an accomplished, beautiful, well-made, ambitious piece of cotton candy.
Every time I think about this game, it's apparent it has faded more and more and more. There is nearly nothing memorable about this game that wasn't already achieved in the first game. Meaning, the world and enemies and combat are unique, but not in any way that differentiates them from Zero Dawn.
Which would be fine, but everything else is so, so forgettable. The story is thin, the ending is abrupt and atrocious, the endless dialogue fades instantly, and the character relationships either go nowhere, or are hackneyed and trite (see: Varl and.....Zo? I think it's Zo).
It's an accomplished, beautiful, well-made, ambitious piece of cotton candy.
I completed the story quite a while back, have since been clearing random open world fluff every now and then - I doubt I'll platinum it as I don't care for some of the fluff, but it's been enjoyable for the most part. I do have some issues with the story though.
But a question. I should have cleared all the rebel camps and outposts, but I think one of the outposts is bugged for me. It shows as cleared on the map, but it doesn't exist in the list of outposts in the quest menu. So... is there a reward for doing all of them (apart from a trophy which I don't really care that much about), am I missing something? If it's something featuring a cameo by Nil, I'll be very much angry.
It's a nice option for those who want it and would help with speedruns for sure, but I'm also glad it's just an option. Might enable it from time to time, but other times I'd probably leave it off for personal preference of certain immersion.
EDIT: Also reading some of these latest comments, damn I am glad I'm not such a graphics whore. You could not pay me to be this nitpicky and catty about visuals. Are some of y'all playing with a can of vaseline smeared on your tv? Or did you forget this is still technically a cross-generational game (and in spite of that still one of the best-looking if not best-looking game currently on the market)?
The way some of you are talking you'd think this game on PS5 looks like Dark Cloud on PS2. The hyperbole's well beyond ridiculous
I just returned to this thread since the game released and I'm like wtf is going on, I just replayed it for a few hours last night and it's still stunning
Every time I think about this game, it's apparent it has faded more and more and more. There is nearly nothing memorable about this game that wasn't already achieved in the first game. Meaning, the world and enemies and combat are unique, but not in any way that differentiates them from Zero Dawn.
Which would be fine, but everything else is so, so forgettable. The story is thin, the ending is abrupt and atrocious, the endless dialogue fades instantly, and the character relationships either go nowhere, or are hackneyed and trite (see: Varl and.....Zo? I think it's Zo).
It's an accomplished, beautiful, well-made, ambitious piece of cotton candy.
I feel much the same way, though 'West is certainly deeper and the open world more fun to explore.
My major issue with continuing past the story is how tedious it is finding quality gear and then upgrading it (and the time consuming upgrading extends to accessories). It feels like they designed it to be some kind of MMO meant to string along players for months paying a subscription.
Some of the stuff that would be really impressive in resolution mode looks PS3 level in performance mode thanks to the checkerboarding butchering the image quality. I think you'd struggle to find a bigger difference between 30fps and 60fps modes in a current gen game
And I'm still surprised no-one mentioned stuff like this in tech reviews:
This is a quest area and not some random cave in the middle of no-where.
Although despite my whining I am having a very good time and would recommend it to anyone that enjoys open world action adventures. I do agree with what BadBurger said above about bits feeling MMO ish but at least fast travelling around is instant now.
Every time I think about this game, it's apparent it has faded more and more and more. There is nearly nothing memorable about this game that wasn't already achieved in the first game. Meaning, the world and enemies and combat are unique, but not in any way that differentiates them from Zero Dawn.
Which would be fine, but everything else is so, so forgettable. The story is thin, the ending is abrupt and atrocious, the endless dialogue fades instantly, and the character relationships either go nowhere, or are hackneyed and trite (see: Varl and.....Zo? I think it's Zo).
It's an accomplished, beautiful, well-made, ambitious piece of cotton candy.
When this game came out I said its funny to know nobody in the studio played Ghost of Tsushima.
they added it in. One of my biggest complaints. Some animations should be only during the tutorial. And then be turned off with the option to turn it back on.
Platinumed the game, I think it's my 2nd ever platinum and was surprised by it as well as I never seek plats. There is literally no game at all that has this amount of quality acting for every fucking convo you get. I'm still confused why some people are still ok with games costing as much yet you get dead-interactions and text to read. Yes, looking at you JRPG, Souls games.
Platinumed the game, I think it's my 2nd ever platinum and was surprised by it as well as I never seek plats. There is literally no game at all that has this amount of quality acting for every fucking convo you get. I'm still confused why some people are still ok with games costing as much yet you get dead-interactions and text to read. Yes, looking at you JRPG, Souls games.
I’m going for the platinum now on my 2nd playthrough. I’ve had to stop playing ER because I kept questioning whether I was actually having fun and came to the sudden realisation that I wasn’t. But yeah, the characters in HFW are second to none and I just enjoy being in the world.
I got platinum on the first game and it really clicked. I just cant seem to get into this one. I skip the dialogue after halfway through just can’t seem to really care about the story. Sucks cuz I really enjoyed the first one.
NX gamer and DF really dropped the ball on this one. This is why critics need to be critical and not BFFs with devs for free PS5s or future interviews because then devs think they can ship a game that looks like this.
A 1440p 40 fps mode wouldve been a good compromise.
Every time I think about this game, it's apparent it has faded more and more and more. There is nearly nothing memorable about this game that wasn't already achieved in the first game. Meaning, the world and enemies and combat are unique, but not in any way that differentiates them from Zero Dawn.
Which would be fine, but everything else is so, so forgettable. The story is thin, the ending is abrupt and atrocious, the endless dialogue fades instantly, and the character relationships either go nowhere, or are hackneyed and trite (see: Varl and.....Zo? I think it's Zo).
It's an accomplished, beautiful, well-made, ambitious piece of cotton candy.
I liked the story. I think the main campaign missions had some excellent battles, and some memorable twists. I like Beta, the reveal of the villains and even the finale. Plenty of memorable story moments like when you first get the ability to fly, the first parle with all the tribes, and when Beta unleashes all the dinobots against villains. Carrie Anne Moss was also really good. I loved her talk with Aloy. In fact, I watched every single dialogue tree. TBH, the backstory to me was just as good as the first game and I looked forward to viewing every single dialogue option at the end of a story mission. Be it with Gaia or Beta or Carrie Anne Moss. The put in a lot of effort with the world building and I just love that about the Horizon franchise.
Some of the stuff that would be really impressive in resolution mode looks PS3 level in performance mode thanks to the checkerboarding butchering the image quality. I think you'd struggle to find a bigger difference between 30fps and 60fps modes in a current gen game
Ooh interesting. I checked this on a 1080p set. The aliasing is pretty bad with the set piece far out. Zooming in with like the bow cleans it up. Have to admit I didn't notice it during regular gameplay. You would think checkerboarding wouldn't be enabled on native 1080p. Might have to chalk it up to crossgenitis.
Working on platinum, got one trophy left, the fucking enduring bitch that shoots arrows out of nowhere that takes 80% of your health. Guess I should have paid more attention to the dumbass combos that I never bother to learn.
Working on platinum, got one trophy left, the fucking enduring bitch that shoots arrows out of nowhere that takes 80% of your health. Guess I should have paid more attention to the dumbass combos that I never bother to learn.
Just finished it and, I gotta say, I am a bit dissapointed with the game.
Game is still great and all, mind you, but its a bit inferior to the first game.If I went into details I would spend hours writing, so Ill just do it bullet point styles:
- Story was great, but it telegraphed A LOT of its big moments.Could have far more WTF moments in there.
- At least for Very Hard, combat is a bit unbalanced.A lot of times enemies hit you before you can even move(When on ground). Annoying.
- Upgrading equipment is a fucking nightmare.This game tries to be monster hunter, while it is also a open world game.
-I really hated the upgrading lol.In MH, the entire point of the game was to upgrade and get stronger. In Horizon 2, you have a story to tell, combat to fight, puzzle to solve and all the open world fluff.And god, some of them are really to acquire.
-Worse yet, you cant recoup said resources when you sell equipment.So it desincentivize upgrading early stuff, since the next town might have better stuff, and the loot might be better used there.
- The loot system is as trash as ever.Not exciting at all.
- Too much stuff to do, not enough unique stuff that is really exciting.
There are other few nitpicks here and there, but thats about it. I need to emphasize that I though the game was great, before people pile on me lol
It's a reward for finishing the Salvage Contract quest line. Find the four salvagers, do their contracts, return to the first salvager and you'll get it after a cutscene.
I only game weekends so I've only just completed the game since release. Just need to clean up a few things on the map for the platinum.
Also nearly every time I've booted up this game there is a new update, and with every update the game looks less like the visual orgasm the original day one release looked. Why have the developers done such a thing!
It's a reward for finishing the Salvage Contract quest line. Find the four salvagers, do their contracts, return to the first salvager and you'll get it after a cutscene.
lol I have grown to dislike Elden Rings so much I keep coming back to this game. I have a lot of issues with HFW, but compared to Elden Rings, this is like Citizen Fucking Kane in terms graphics, storytelling, and yes, even combat. I cannot believe they did not improve the combat even a little bit in Elden Rings. It's still got the same issues that plagued Dark Souls 1 and even the OG Demon Souls. Same janky hit detection and input lag. Hell, I am pretty sure the remake had better combat than this and that game was basically a 1:1 copy pasta aside from graphics. Im gonna have to buy it again, but I could swear the combat felt tighter in the BP remake.
The lighting is atrocious especially indoors. Again, I could swear bloodborne and Dark souls 3 looked better. The castle is a good level, but it looks like Dark Souls 2 after the downgrade. There is no indirect lighting. No light bounce. It feels like a PS3 quality game with that static lighting indoors. At least it looks serviceable outdoors.
This is probably not the best place to ask since it's a HFW thread but, what were your issues with Elden Ring, that aren't related to story spoilers or just general technical performance of almost all the versions outside the PS4 one (which IIRC runs locked 60 on PS5)?
Because a lot of general consensus is folks feeling ER is better than HFW altho it's felt odd to me to compare them since they're two different types of open-world games, and we already know none of the reviewers addressed ER technical performance issues. But what are things about it in terms of game design you have issue with, and whenever I'm able to (hopefully, when they're actually available) pick up a PS5 would I be better off picking up ER or DS Remake?
Again, probably not the right thread for the question, I'm just curious what some of you think between the two on that front.
Just finished the second act. I’ve been trying to stick to the main story missions since it isn’t worthwhile to get sidetracked too much early on, but that’s damn near impossible.
I have issues with it though. The image quality issue in performance mode is a real thing. Events in the main story veer dangerously close to being out right silly. Given how enormous the AoE of enemy attacks can be, the immunity frames on Ally’s dodge should be at least what they were in the first game. Worried that there isn’t some cracked weapon that you can lean on during a tough fight? Don’t be. Stamina abilities are in the same ballpark of broken shit. I’m happy to have my inventory overflow go to my stash, but there’s no efficient way to comb through all of it and sell the massive amounts of stuff I’ll never use.
Damn if I can’t stop playing it though. I loved the first game. This one isn’t as smart or reserved, but I like it enough to want to do everything in it.
I posted some of this in another thread but feel like it would be a better fit for the OT.
Going into HFW I expected a bit of sequel-itis. The story for HFW was all over the place so I'm glad I had set my expectations lower. The game gives us three different antagonists -- Regalla, the Zeniths, and HEPHAESTUS -- and none of them feel as particularly interesting as Helis and HADES did in Zero Dawn. I saw a review somewhere that said "Feels like they're desperately trying to be Mass Effect 2", and I agree. All the characters essentially had their own form of loyalty quests, just without the ME2 style payoff where loyalty mattered for the final push.
Story wise, my problems with the game centered around how the story in HFW erases everything that made Aloy unique in the world they had built. I will spoiler the examples just in case:
In HZD, only Aloy and Sylens had functioning Focus units, and Aloy's "gift of second sight" was one of her major defining characteristics. So much so, that second sight is referenced repeatedly in HFW. Yet in HFW, the game starts six months following the conclusion of HZD where Aloy has managed to find an entire bag of Focus units which she promptly hands out to any of her closest allies like Halloween candy. Meanwhile, Sylens apparently has found a treasure trove of them as well because he surreptitiously gets them in the hands of the Sons of Prometheus, who help teach Regalla's rebels how to 'tame' machines. And then we meet the Quen, a far east tribe whose entire culture is built around having Focus units (albeit outdated ones).
Beta being introduced as another Sobeck clone. This was the other major defining characteristic of Aloy: The fact that she alone was the genetic identical to Sobeck, thus granting her access to things in the world no one else could ever see. With the introduction of Beta, that uniqueness is gone as well. But they went a step further and basically rendered both Aloy and Beta redundant by...
Having HEPHAESTUS destroy the usability of Sobek's Alpha Clearance, thus requiring Faro's Omega Clearance. The ease with which Aloy retrieves Faro's clearance level means anyone with a Focus and some basic hacking skills -- like, say, Sylens or even Alva with her updated Focus -- could have done the same. And at the end of the game, with all but HEPHAESTUS and the destroyed HADES reunified with GAIA, Sobeck's unique genome is all but meaningless.
Kotallo was probably my favorite of the new companions introduced. I did like the concept of the Utaru and Zo's "Healing the Land Gods" was probably my favorite of all the 'loyalty' quests. I hated how Regalla's story arc felt hurried and I hated how little effort they put toward her character toward the end of the game. Angela Bassett did a great job voicing her but she could have been so much better. Carrie Anne-Moss as Tilda was okay but I couldn't help but feel like she was just reprising her role as Aria T'loak from Mass Effect. Seems like Carrie Anne-Moss is drawn to playing cold, calculated, narcissistic femmes who live for a thousand years, at least in video games that is (her only VG work outside of her Matrix Trinity reprisals are Aria and Tilda).
This will probably sound silly but I'm happy that both HZD and HFW don't have romantic subplots with Aloy. Even though it's clear characters like Erend, Avad, and Petra have feelings for Aloy, I find it nice that Aloy's general attitude is "I got too much important shit to do" so we don't get sidetracked with hackneyed romantic story arcs.
Also, with regards to how things wrap up,
I was not a fan of the APOLLO database being recovered. This gives GG an excuse to 'modernize' the game later and introduce things like guns. If Sylens was able to create the Zenith anti-shield device based solely on what he learned from HADES and his own wits, imagine what he could do with the totality of the APOLLO database at his fingertips. The story at the end spins it as a necessary thing for the forthcoming Nemesis fight, but meh... I would rather the group have to fight and defeat Nemesis in the next game with their own wits and knowledge than use APOLLO to inevitably introduce some 'old world' technology. Between the Faro story line and the recovery of APOLLO, HFW feels like it diminishes the really important revelations in HZD. This is a case where I kinda wish APOLLO had been lost to time.
Mechanically, I think everything except climbing mechanics were a step up from Horizon Zero Dawn. Combat felt better, weapons felt more satisfying, melee skill trees made the spear more than just an afterthought or a stealth weapon like it was in HZD. There were a lot of the Valor Surges that didn't feel particularly useful though and I mostly stuck to a revolving door of the same three or four throughout my playthrough. Climbing felt like utter dogshit and I don't know why they felt the need to change it. Most of my deaths playing the game came from climbing or the game thinking I wanted to climb as soon as I'd get near something with a grabbing ledge.
Other than climbing, my mechanical gripes come from the Arena and the Thornmarsh Melee Pit. The Arena, I feel, unlocks far too early for the player and/or is significantly overtuned. I played through the game on Hard but had to turn down the difficulty just to get through the Arena. I tried sticking with Hard, figured my gear just wasn't good enough, came back many levels later with better, fully modded gear, and still got my ass handed to me. After a while, I just came to the conclusion that it was poorly designed -- the machines are far too aggressive, the knockdown/knockback too strong, and the traps too weak for the amount of damage you need to do to hit the timers. As for the Thornmarsh Melee Pit, nothing shows how wonky the combo delays are like that particular pit. At no other point in the game did I get frustrated with the melee combat as I did there. Not even when fighting "The Enduring" with all her cheesy moves.
While I enjoyed the game enough to platinum it, I doubt I'll pick up the game and replay it again until DLC comes out. That stands in stark contrast to HZD, which I 100%'d twice on PS4 and then again on the PC release. HFW was a good game, better than a lot of single player story games that come out, but it was missing the spark that kept me interested in HZD.
Edit: And finally: Fuck Machine Strike. Gwent it is not.
I posted some of this in another thread but feel like it would be a better fit for the OT.
Going into HFW I expected a bit of sequel-itis. The story for HFW was all over the place so I'm glad I had set my expectations lower. The game gives us three different antagonists -- Regalla, the Zeniths, and HEPHAESTUS -- and none of them feel as particularly interesting as Helis and HADES did in Zero Dawn. I saw a review somewhere that said "Feels like they're desperately trying to be Mass Effect 2", and I agree. All the characters essentially had their own form of loyalty quests, just without the ME2 style payoff where loyalty mattered for the final push.
Story wise, my problems with the game centered around how the story in HFW erases everything that made Aloy unique in the world they had built. I will spoiler the examples just in case:
In HZD, only Aloy and Sylens had functioning Focus units, and Aloy's "gift of second sight" was one of her major defining characteristics. So much so, that second sight is referenced repeatedly in HFW. Yet in HFW, the game starts six months following the conclusion of HZD where Aloy has managed to find an entire bag of Focus units which she promptly hands out to any of her closest allies like Halloween candy. Meanwhile, Sylens apparently has found a treasure trove of them as well because he surreptitiously gets them in the hands of the Sons of Prometheus, who help teach Regalla's rebels how to 'tame' machines. And then we meet the Quen, a far east tribe whose entire culture is built around having Focus units (albeit outdated ones).
Beta being introduced as another Sobeck clone. This was the other major defining characteristic of Aloy: The fact that she alone was the genetic identical to Sobeck, thus granting her access to things in the world no one else could ever see. With the introduction of Beta, that uniqueness is gone as well. But they went a step further and basically rendered both Aloy and Beta redundant by...
Having HEPHAESTUS destroy the usability of Sobek's Alpha Clearance, thus requiring Faro's Omega Clearance. Sobek's unique genome is no longer required. The ease with which Aloy retrieves Faro's clearance level means anyone with a Focus and some basic hacking skills -- like, say, Sylens or even Alva with her updated Focus -- could have done the same. And at the end of the game, with all but HEPHAESTUS and the destroyed HADES reunified with GAIA, Sobeck's unique genome is all but meaningless.
Kotallo was probably my favorite of the new companions introduced. I did like the concept of the Utaru and Zo's "Healing the Land Gods" was probably my favorite of all the 'loyalty' quests. I hated how Regalla's story arc felt hurried and I hated how little effort they put toward her character toward the end of the game. Angela Bassett did a great job voicing her but she could have been so much better. Carrie Anne-Moss as Tilda was okay but I couldn't help but feel like she was just reprising her role as Aria T'loak from Mass Effect. Seems like Carrie Anne-Moss is drawn to playing cold, calculated, narcissistic femmes who live for a thousand years, at least in video games that is (her only VG work outside of her Matrix Trinity reprisals are Aria and Tilda).
This will probably sound silly but I'm happy that both HZD and HFW don't have romantic subplots with Aloy. Even though it's clear characters like Erend, Avad, and Petra have feelings for Aloy, I find it nice that Aloy's general attitude is "I got too much important shit to do" so we don't get sidetracked with hackneyed romantic story arcs.
Mechanically, I think everything except climbing mechanics were a step up from Horizon Zero Dawn. Combat felt better, weapons felt more satisfying, melee skill trees made the spear more than just an afterthought or a stealth weapon like it was in HZD. There were a lot of the Valor Surges that didn't feel particularly useful though and I mostly stuck to a revolving door of the same three or four throughout my playthrough. Climbing felt like utter dogshit though and I don't know why they felt the need to change it. Most of my deaths playing the game came from climbing or the game thinking I wanted to climb as soon as I'd get near something with a grabbing ledge.
Other than climbing, my mechanical gripes come from the Arena and the Thornmarsh Melee Pit. The Arena, I feel, unlocks far too early for the player and/or is significantly overtuned. I played through the game on Hard but had to turn down the difficulty just to get through the Arena. I tried sticking with Hard, figured my gear just wasn't good enough, came back many levels later with better, fully modded gear, and still got my ass handed to me. After a while, I just came to the conclusion that it was poorly designed -- the machines are far too aggressive, the knockdown/knockback too strong, and the traps too weak for the amount of damage you need to do to hit the timers. As for the Thornmarsh Melee Pit, nothing shows how wonky the combo delays are like that particular pit. At no other point in the game did I get frustrated with the melee combat as I did there. Not even when fighting "The Enduring" with all her cheesy moves.
While I enjoyed the game enough to platinum it, I doubt I'll pick up the game and replay it again until DLC comes out. That stands in stark contrast to HZD, which I 100%'d twice on PS4 and then again on the PC release. HFW was a good game, better than a lot of single player story games that come out, but it was missing a spark that kept me interested in HZD.
Yeah I agree.
Story was bad, characters were bad... especially the woke types. Kotallo was good!
The stuff you say about focus. Yep. I agree.
I think combat gets very repetitive too. You constantly scan and shoot parts. I also had this problem with first game.
Over all, I liked the first game better.
Also nearly every time I've booted up this game there is a new update, and with every update the game looks less like the visual orgasm the original day one release looked. Why have the developers done such a thing!
Cross gen. I don't understand people who were like juST bECause It'S CROSsGen DoesN'T MeaN iT WiLL loOk WorsE Durrrrrrrrrrrrr - motherfucker crossgen alwayslooks worse.
Cross gen. I don't understand people who were like juST bECause It'S CROSsGen DoesN'T MeaN iT WiLL loOk WorsE Durrrrrrrrrrrrr - motherfucker crossgen alwayslooks worse.
But it's always been cross gen yet looked amazing on release for the ps5. With each patch that has been released the fidelity has declined on the ps5. So being cross gen is irrelevant.
I did (most?) of the salvage contracts but there's apparently one that I haven't found yet. Like how is that possible. I have pretty much all of the map uncovered.
honestly all this nit picking the graphics is just fucking stupid.
theres nothing else even remotely close to this games overall visual fidelity. nothing in the same stratosphere. Theres some minor tech issues here and there sure. but holy christ, yall are nitpicking THIS more than you do ugly PS3-looking pieces of shit like elden ring? make it make sense.
this. game. looks. PHENOMENAL. and i dare anyone to show me an equal.
yet all i see is bitching about some minor bug. jesus
Cross gen. I don't understand people who were like juST bECause It'S CROSsGen DoesN'T MeaN iT WiLL loOk WorsE Durrrrrrrrrrrrr - motherfucker crossgen alwayslooks worse.
honestly all this nit picking the graphics is just fucking stupid.
theres nothing else even remotely close to this games overall visual fidelity. nothing in the same stratosphere. Theres some minor tech issues here and there sure. but holy christ, yall are nitpicking THIS more than you do ugly PS3-looking pieces of shit like elden ring? make it make sense.
this. game. looks. PHENOMENAL. and i dare anyone to show me an equal.
yet all i see is bitching about some minor bug. jesus
I do think this is probably the overall best-looking game out right now, but there are a handful of others somewhere in the same ballpark IMO. Even with its severe LOD pop-in issues I'd put FH5 on that list, and Flight Sim as well. And Rift Apart is basically a Pixar movie visually (not the same IQ for obvious reasons but it's getting damn close).
Finally, I don't think there's a racing game out right now with better lighting than GT7, I do hope they fix the behind-the-car camera tho it looks kind of stiff. But overall just weighing the technical side with the creative side and also having a personal preference for fantasy & scifi stuff, I overall give it to HFW. I wish Elden Ring was more technically polished or at least had the same fidelity as Bloodborne, because the art style is great.
Technical shortcomings kind of hold the artstyle back though; ER 2 for current-gen only can't come soon enough.
honestly all this nit picking the graphics is just fucking stupid.
theres nothing else even remotely close to this games overall visual fidelity. nothing in the same stratosphere. Theres some minor tech issues here and there sure. but holy christ, yall are nitpicking THIS more than you do ugly PS3-looking pieces of shit like elden ring? make it make sense.
this. game. looks. PHENOMENAL. and i dare anyone to show me an equal.
yet all i see is bitching about some minor bug. jesus
After playing ER for 100 hours and having nearly finished it I decided to pick up Horizon again. Bought it at launch but stopped in the first area. It didn't make that good an impression but I got to the West yesterday and the world at least looks more interesting. Gliding is a nice addition.
Too bad Alloy is such a smug bitch. How unlikable can you make a woman. She won't shut up either, always talking to herself. This bothered me in the original too but it's even more present now. Npc's are whatever, I don't even care about the conversations. They all sound and look like woke Americans.
Climbing, traversing still feels clunky at times too but the combat is okay I guess. Quest design is mediocre thus far, just your usual open world checklist work. I don't think it'll get better but I will keep playing.
The 60fps mode is just the worst 60fps mode out there. It looks like HZD pre-alpha reveal when it was a shimmer fest before final release. Seems like the 60fps mode was an afterthought and they needed more time to nail it.
The 60fps mode is just the worst 60fps mode out there. It looks like HZD pre-alpha reveal when it was a shimmer fest before final release. Seems like the 60fps mode was an afterthought and they needed more time to nail it.
Which is very surprising coming from Guerrilla. They are among Sony's best for technical ability. How this is still an issue is perplexing. I know they're not the same games, but when you compare Ratchet & Clank's performance mode to this.... it's just so damn night and day. So often I forgot that I was in that mode playing Rift Apart because everything was gorgeous, regardless. Forbidden West keeps slapping its pixelated dick in your face so you never forget.
That said, the game is so gorgeous in quality mode that I can forgive it running in 30fps. It's jarring at first going from 60fps to that but my eyes adjust and I start forgetting, for the most part, that it's only half the framerate. I'm always just so amazed at the density, detail, and effects.
Which is very surprising coming from Guerrilla. They are among Sony's best for technical ability. How this is still an issue is perplexing. I know they're not the same games, but when you compare Ratchet & Clank's performance mode to this.... it's just so damn night and day. So often I forgot that I was in that mode playing Rift Apart because everything was gorgeous, regardless. Forbidden West keeps slapping its pixelated dick in your face so you never forget.
That said, the game is so gorgeous in quality mode that I can forgive it running in 30fps. It's jarring at first going from 60fps to that but my eyes adjust and I start forgetting, for the most part, that it's only half the framerate. I'm always just so amazed at the density, detail, and effects.
The difference between 30fps mode and 60fps is just like eating a wonderful steak in a restaurant and you think:"Imagine how their desserts gonna be!", then you get one and it tastes like a turd pie.
The 30fps mode is insanely good, with some lighting issues here and there but overall it's the best looking open world game to me so far, with GoT being superior in its artistic approach though.
(I hope the stats on it are good though).
