Aren't every tallneck locations scattered with enemies to fight/sneak through ? All the while you have to figure out the tallnecks route and best location to get onto them. I thought it provided sufficient challenge and provided a nice twist on the formula.
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Horizon Zero Dawn |OT| The Land After Time
- Thread starter shinobi602
- Start date
- Status
Aren't every tallneck locations scattered with enemies to fight/sneak through ? All the while you have to figure out the tallnecks route and best location to get onto them. I thought it provided sufficient challenge and provided a nice twist on the formula.
iBlue
Member
Yeah thats correct
ISee
Member
Sanctuary
Member
Handling allows you to do a full draw much faster. However, it's still useless, because all it ends up doing is allowing you to waste more arrows faster, instead of simply shooting more damaging arrows. Also, Tear mods are actually not really all that great. If you want to remove a part, Tearblast will automatically do it. When it comes time to simply damage an area that's weak to "tear", a damage modded Precision arrow does the job better than it being modded for Tear.
For the Ropecaster specifically, handling *is* the best mod for it, if you're seriously going to waste time using that weapon in the first place.
Auto_aim1
MeisaMcCaffrey
It was too easy, just make a run for the ledge when the Tallneck approaches. The one in the desert was kinda tough with I think a few Snapmaws near the jump location but I just avoided all of them after messing up a jump initially.
GlamFM
Banned
There's your answer. The first number will now show how many arrows you have currently loaded, the second number how many arrows you have in total.
I am absolutely in love with this game but if I have 1 complaint is that the game's loot leaves a lot do be desired. I dont understand why they have like only 2 skins for each weapon. Yes I know the whole deal is modifications and the point is to use all weapon types.
But still I have been carrying the same looking weapons for 30 hours now. Its nice as you plow through a game to have a visual representation of your progress as well. Right now I visit merchants who just have nothing to offer me really... i have 7K shards and dont know what to do with them.
Other than this looting issue I am enjoying this game immensely!
But still I have been carrying the same looking weapons for 30 hours now. Its nice as you plow through a game to have a visual representation of your progress as well. Right now I visit merchants who just have nothing to offer me really... i have 7K shards and dont know what to do with them.
Other than this looting issue I am enjoying this game immensely!
Sanctuary
Member
After you end up with the best bows you can purchase, and the stealth/frost armors, there's not really anything worth spending the shards on other than health and full health potions. The 1350 shard mod boxes are a lottery that usually contain trash and they are also on a fixed list (after it's randomly generated at some point). Ended up buying twenty of them (all garbage), reloading the game and of course it was the exact same twenty in the same order.
Its just that I am using the same damn things for 30 hours now. I still visit merchants hoping they will have something new to offer or that there will be drops somewhere. (i know they wont and that there arent)
Looting is kind of an important aspect of an RPG for me. Its not a deciding factor of course, but it is always nice to keep updating your gear visually.
Even the damn lodge weapons are practically the same skin with just different color.
Bah! It kind of surprises me that they left this out, since the game is so meticulously crafted in every other way.
Watching Aloy climb, it's such a waste of time and talent. All of the animation looks gorgeous, it's a massive undertaking to get all of that to function right, they even have slow mo moments. And all they could find to do with it are the figurines and Tall Necks, the "gameplay" consisting entirely of holding down a button and a direction.
There's a lot of that in this game in general, superfluous mechanics that are, as far as I can make out, in the game because someone decided that's what this type of game should have.
boujeejamboree
Member
I really can't wait for a sequel, and I haven't even finished this one. The world is just so beautiful, and the robot dino combat is so fun. Only a few things could make this game better. Some things I hope they do in the inevitable sequel:
Flesh out side characters more. Having played the Witcher 3, the side quests haven't been as memoriable (so far) as that game. I'm truly enthralled by the world, it's back story, and some of its characters, but they can do always improve (especially when their is a clear path to said improvement).
Characters should actually roam the world (like in Skyrim but hopefully not as glitchy). It'd make the world feel more lived in. Imagine
Flesh out side characters more. Having played the Witcher 3, the side quests haven't been as memoriable (so far) as that game. I'm truly enthralled by the world, it's back story, and some of its characters, but they can do always improve (especially when their is a clear path to said improvement).
Characters should actually roam the world (like in Skyrim but hopefully not as glitchy). It'd make the world feel more lived in. Imagine
marching in Sona's war party, seeing them have a great battle, and then depart in formation back to Mother's Craddle as you depart.[/spoilers] That would feel better than them teleporting or having duplicates that are strapped to the earth.
Expand the cities and dedicate a significant portion of gameplay to urban environments. Some of the best parts of the Witcher 3 were in cities. It could vary the game up some and make the city feel more alive and interesting. Why can't I go into the majority of the buildings of this game? Let alone the city's buildings. Why can't I explore the sewers, palace, and beyond. No notable intercity landmarks?
Improve on the human AI. Make them more interesting to fight, give the bad guys some dialogue to say while I'm stalking them. Give them personality and tactics so I feel like I'm hunting an actual human and not canon fodder.
Rip a page out of Naughty Dog's book and depend less on prerendered videos to display the story and certain action sequences. The cutting from gameplay or cutscene takes me somewhat out of the immersion, granted this is an issue with any game with cutscenes.
Improve the parkour. They already have the best elements of Assassin's Creed's horizontal traversal, just make it climbing (vertical traversal) more challenging and widespread (in cities, mountains, everywhere). They could probably do something where you have to craft some climbing materials for climbing mountains (while standing on the ground) that have a limited life and random Uncharted like occurances.
Facial Animations (nitpicking)
All-in-all amazing first game in this series. Considering I disliked Killzone passionately, I was surprised to fall in love with Horizon so quickly and passionately. I'll never doubt Guerilla again.
Expand the cities and dedicate a significant portion of gameplay to urban environments. Some of the best parts of the Witcher 3 were in cities. It could vary the game up some and make the city feel more alive and interesting. Why can't I go into the majority of the buildings of this game? Let alone the city's buildings. Why can't I explore the sewers, palace, and beyond. No notable intercity landmarks?
Improve on the human AI. Make them more interesting to fight, give the bad guys some dialogue to say while I'm stalking them. Give them personality and tactics so I feel like I'm hunting an actual human and not canon fodder.
Rip a page out of Naughty Dog's book and depend less on prerendered videos to display the story and certain action sequences. The cutting from gameplay or cutscene takes me somewhat out of the immersion, granted this is an issue with any game with cutscenes.
Improve the parkour. They already have the best elements of Assassin's Creed's horizontal traversal, just make it climbing (vertical traversal) more challenging and widespread (in cities, mountains, everywhere). They could probably do something where you have to craft some climbing materials for climbing mountains (while standing on the ground) that have a limited life and random Uncharted like occurances.
Facial Animations (nitpicking)
All-in-all amazing first game in this series. Considering I disliked Killzone passionately, I was surprised to fall in love with Horizon so quickly and passionately. I'll never doubt Guerilla again.
FlutterPuffs
Member
Mod boxes works via RNG. It's possible to change the contents before buying, by going out and do something else before buying. Not worth it really.
Probably a fail safe system so no one savescums for good mods.
Agree with most but dont guards roam the lands? It's fun watching them get in fight with machines and joining to save their ass.
My dinos are routinely beaten the shit out of and they are usually in packs of the same type anyway. I don't think it would be overpowering.
The thing about attracting other machines is they may lock on to you and ignore your buddy and your buddy could very well ignore them. When one melee attack means a likely game over you don't want to depend on all things working out just right.
boujeejamboree
Member
Some guards do, but they're just no names. Like to see people that I do quests with walking home and stuff
Edit: Also, why don't open world games ever use a secondary, Ellie-like character. Imagine a companion that fairly intelligent, has a personality (so not Skyrim's pack-mules), and adds to the cinematic effect by chatting with your character. It could make you feel more like you're Frodo and his band of friends rather than just Frodo.
And yeah, I know some open world games do have companions (like Dragon Age) but they're missing that lively, chatty vibe that makes Ellie so great.
Maybe that's asking too much but whatever
Freeman76
Member
I know everyone classes this as an rpg but I cant agree. Its more of an action game with rpg dressing on the side. I think in future they can flesh the series out with some deeper mechanics in that regard and they wont feel out of place.
Its like when you get to Meridian, a huge city with zero activities or reason to explore much. It felt like they could do so much more with it, they give us this amazing city and aside from side quests give us little incentive to go there.
Kotaku article on the small aspects that make Horizon shine: Horizon Zero Dawn's Little Details Are Polished And Well-Styled
PintSizedSlasher
Member
I literally had a dream about the game last night. That hasn't happened to me with a game since Final Fantasy VII. Short after it launched.
This is one of those rare games that's on your mind 24/7
This is one of those rare games that's on your mind 24/7
I dont have issue with the Meridian thing. You can do in that city pretty much what you can do in other RPGs, which is buy/sell do quests and talk to a few characters. Come to think of it, apart from Gwent , there is not much else you can do in Witcher 3 cities as well. Maybe they feel more alive sure due to the amount of side quests that game has, but W3 villages are pretty much what happens with Horizon settlements. Buy/sell do a quest and move on.
But the looting thing is a problem because you dont even have to be a pure rpg to enjoy new weapons. We have even action adventure games offering that. And I am pretty darn sure no one would be mad if there were more weapon skins available for this game.
boujeejamboree
Member
They could also expand stealth (not that is bad) by taking the best parts of Metal Gear Solid's stealth minus the nonsense. This combined with an extensive parkour system would be amazing.
Imagine Aloy ripping some branches from a bush, making a makeshift Gullie suit, then climbing into a tree to follow the enemy siltently from above. Or using your makeshift suit to crawl, slowly across the ground (not too sudden movements).
In cities Aloy could hide behind walls, wait until dusk for the shadows, and crawl under furniture or on roof tops.
You could have smoke bombs to hide from robots who wouldn't be smart enough to notice it's an abnormality. On the other hand, smoke bombs would draw human AI's attention and would only be useful for getting away.
Imagine Aloy ripping some branches from a bush, making a makeshift Gullie suit, then climbing into a tree to follow the enemy siltently from above. Or using your makeshift suit to crawl, slowly across the ground (not too sudden movements).
In cities Aloy could hide behind walls, wait until dusk for the shadows, and crawl under furniture or on roof tops.
You could have smoke bombs to hide from robots who wouldn't be smart enough to notice it's an abnormality. On the other hand, smoke bombs would draw human AI's attention and would only be useful for getting away.
Sharpshooter I went with Damage. Allows it to be a great Utility weapon for when you fight human enemies.
For all your Tear needs use Hardpoint arrows they will get close enough to the same amount of Tear as the Tear arrows on Sharpshooter Bow with 3 Tear Mods, They Shoot faster and they dont cost wire to craft.
My Setup is
Hunting/Human encounters
Sharp shooter- Damage Mod to 1 shot Animals and most humans
Swap with
Shadow Ropecaster + 3 Handling Mods
Regular Encounters
Shadow Hunter Bow + 3 Purple Tear Mods, its a bonus if you can find Tear +Fire
Shadow CaJa Bow + 3 Freeze or Corruption Mods (Freeze from Distance
Shadow Tripcaster + Elemental Mods of your choice, typically Damage is good but Handling +Shock can also be handy when you are running trying to use your tripwires to create seperation between you and an enemy.
boujeejamboree
Member
Witcher 3 has a lot of urban side quests that take place solely in the cities. Not to mention they're larger, more varied, and have a ton more stuff to do. They also higher NPC counts and people actually moving. The cities also change depending on the time of day.
Meridian is just kind of frozen
Yes! Well-put. It all feels very sincere, and that holds my attention more than most "AAA open world" games of this caliber.
Maybe it's the primitive nature of the characters, and how every line is spoken deliberately.
There are no modern day interjections, and the few ironic pokes don't feel out of place with the world and setting.
Props to both the writing and delivery on this account. It also helps that the facial animation/lip sync is on point (even if some face models themselves straddle the uncanny valley). All adds to a feeling of cohesion and a convincing world that I want to get to know. Nothing rubs me the wrong way so far.
I said that there are more quests involved and that makes Novigrad feel more alive because you engage with numerous NPCs. For sure.
But i dont mind what is happening with Meridian. Its cool. Would be nice if there was something like a mini game/activity involved but i dont mind. City seems decently alive with a lot of NPCs going about their business , street performers etc.
My issue is looting.
I like the settlements and Meridian in Horizon, it's lean and to the point. They look awesome and there's just enough side questing to keep it from feeling like empty movie sets. I would hate to get stuck in dialogue trees for 3 hours in a game like this. It also preserves Aloy's impetus towards her goal, she's passing through mostly, this isn't Skyrim where you show up and it's time to join 4 different guilds and buy a house. The need is supposed to be pressing. Not to mention the overarching mystery of robut dinosaurs, city and geo politics feel minor relative to that.
That being said, I can feel the ubiquitous civil war BS looming over the horizon with the main quest line, which is a shame.
EDIT: There should absolutely be unique vendors in major settlements though. It sucks that almost everyone is hocking the same stuff for the same prices.
That being said, I can feel the ubiquitous civil war BS looming over the horizon with the main quest line, which is a shame.
EDIT: There should absolutely be unique vendors in major settlements though. It sucks that almost everyone is hocking the same stuff for the same prices.
S
Steve.1981
Unconfirmed Member
Well passed the 20 hour mark now. Guess I could finally head out of the Nora's land and progress the main story. I could do that... But I just bought the purple maps off my guy in Mother's Crown, so now I know where the vantage points and metal flowers are...
Ah, the main quest can wait a bit longer. There's no rush!
Ah, the main quest can wait a bit longer. There's no rush!
Man, this game...
I sort of wish there was less choice (or more clear choice for playstyles) about weapons and armor, I've got 4000+ shards and tons of trading components, but I just can't decide what to buy and what to use. Still rolling with the pre-order weapon and outfit at level 22...
Same goes with skillpoints actually, I've got 18 skillpoints waiting to be used cause I just can't decide what I should get hehe.
And I'm hoarding weapon mods...
Same goes with skillpoints actually, I've got 18 skillpoints waiting to be used cause I just can't decide what I should get hehe.
And I'm hoarding weapon mods...
ok I need a good session to wash off that last one last night, that one bummed me out man.
a combination of me forcing myself to hunt collectibles that I cnt find and get annoyed I cnt find (especially when people are saying they arent worth it) and a stealth based main quest that really pissed me off and I had to restart a bunch of times really soured me.
I need more Cauldrons, I loved that first one
a combination of me forcing myself to hunt collectibles that I cnt find and get annoyed I cnt find (especially when people are saying they arent worth it) and a stealth based main quest that really pissed me off and I had to restart a bunch of times really soured me.
I need more Cauldrons, I loved that first one
Gradly
Member
The only game, so far, I took 2 days off only to continue playing it
FF Seraphim
Member
You know after fighting more humans
how did GG create the AI for them? It is nothing like Killzone AI.
ok I need a good session to wash off that last one last night, that one bummed me out man.
a combination of me forcing myself to hunt collectibles that I cnt find and get annoyed I cnt find (especially when people are saying they arent worth it) and a stealth based main quest that really pissed me off and I had to restart a bunch of times really soured me.
I need more Cauldrons, I loved that first one
Regarding collectibles, they're pretty easy to find, set a marker on the icon on the map, and when you're in the world, the hight of the marker tells you at what height the collectible is located. next step is to look around after locations at that height, really narrows down your search area.
Thats dumb lol
Gradly
Member
Yea a lot of things are just confusing, I'm around 50 hours now and I still learn new things everyday.
Look at the weapons as just the basic uses/effects (fire, freeze, shock, corruption, tear, damage) + ropecaster as an exception. All weapons center around those but it depends on the amount of impact and the one you like to use, do you like to fire arrow or use slang fire bombs? They are all fire but it depends on your preference. I also use ropecaster mainly to tie big machines. I only use the tripcaster before I engage in a battle, temporarily. During the battle I have the 2 bows the one with tearblast (sharpshot) and the default bow (hunter), ropecaster, and the sling.
Also a pro tip in case some weapons didn't make it clear, if ammo needs blaze that means its fire, if needs chillwater then its freeze, and sparker means shock
innervision961
Member
What is it about this games story that just doesn't feel contrived to me? I mean come on, it's robot dinosaurs, this should be the cheesiest shit, yet it's not and it's delivered in such a way that I just HAVE to know more and more!
+1 for "I can't wait for the sequel and haven't even finished it yet" crowd. I already can't wait to play through this on hard.
One question, I saw a thread about GPU procedural generation on things like resources etc. Did they use this for campfire placement as well? I swear the campfire place is so weird at times. There will be one 10 feet from another in some place but then there may not be one for a long time when you need one.
+1 for "I can't wait for the sequel and haven't even finished it yet" crowd. I already can't wait to play through this on hard.
One question, I saw a thread about GPU procedural generation on things like resources etc. Did they use this for campfire placement as well? I swear the campfire place is so weird at times. There will be one 10 feet from another in some place but then there may not be one for a long time when you need one.
Cyborg
Member
What? So if I override a beast it fights for me? Didnt know that. I just ride them. Im 12% into the game
Gradly
Member
Not only that but one thing I noticed is that campfires are not safezones, yesterday I simply fast traveled to a camp and suddenly a Longleg, a Behemoth, and 3 Stalkers attached me but managed to survive despite that
Procedural doesn't (necessary, and not in Horizon's case) mean random.
It just means a little seed of data will go through an algorithm and from that you get much more data (i.e a section of bushes, flora and fauna). Every time you provide the algorithm with the same seed it will produce the same result.
This saves huge amount of space as well as loading time and time used by the games artists. It's a huge win. Likely a good reason for why Horizon only takes 45GB storage despite the size and complexity of its world.
The campfires are likely manually placed.
Its very useful on flying dinos too.
alexbull_uk
Member
I think I saw on the slide that it's ~4MB per m^2 of land. Crazy.
I don't get it either unless they simply barely use it. It's a main weapon that I never replace with anything else.
It doesn't just disable small enemy for seconds, but more importantly it stops flying enemies from flying all over the place(which is very very annoying).
It's also the most useful weapon against
rockbreaker
Vroadstar
Member
FlutterPuffs
Member
Yeah definitely. Enemies impacted by explosions look so damned awesome, especially while they are charging at you and gets snared by a tripwire.
RageWaffles
Member
I was starting to feel a bit blah about wandering around the world (usually my favorite thing in open world games), soat level 32I finally went to Meridian. And I fell right back in with the game. All the NPCs who aren't total dicks are just so loveable.
Just hit 40 hours last night (level 42) and I'm just about to do the mission
. Anyone know how far into the main missions I am?
Also unlocked the shadow blast sling and my God! This thing wrecks everything in its path. Sticky bombs are now my favourite thing in the whole game. There's nothing as satisfying as landing three on the back of a stalker and then watching as it charges towards you and BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! dead stalker at your feet.
Think I'm going to try blasting through a few main missions tonight, as I feel I've spend adequate time dicking about doing side quests. Just need to finish up 2 hunting missions for full suns first.
This game is like crack.
The Grave Hoard
Also unlocked the shadow blast sling and my God! This thing wrecks everything in its path. Sticky bombs are now my favourite thing in the whole game. There's nothing as satisfying as landing three on the back of a stalker and then watching as it charges towards you and BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! dead stalker at your feet.
Think I'm going to try blasting through a few main missions tonight, as I feel I've spend adequate time dicking about doing side quests. Just need to finish up 2 hunting missions for full suns first.
This game is like crack.
S
Steve.1981
Unconfirmed Member
Dude spend up those points! So many useful perks to be had, you really can't go wrong.
It's one of the most impressive aspects of the game, for me. All of the perks I've taken have been good, and the rest of them at least look useful, I think. None are obviously weak or pointless or should be avoided.
It's not that absurd, really. I spent hours and hours just hunting and gather resources and upgrading my various item capacities. Discovering vantages, metal flowers, banuk statues, all of that stuff is an easy distraction from just plowing through the main quest. Not to mention that sometimes you just stumble upon a quest from roaming around and exploring the map. I did just that today. I won't say what the quest was, but I was curious about a section of the map that I hadn't explored in the beginning area, and came upon a side quest that was pretty cool. Clearing bandit camps can also take a little time depending on your strategy.
For me, I just love wandering around the world and taking it all in. The game has fantastic art design, and the gorgeous graphics just emphasize it that much more.
- Status