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Horizon Zero Dawn |OT| The Land After Time

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Freeman76

Member
If I just take a quick look at your post history, I could conclude it's aimed specifically at Bioware lol. Well yeah, Bioware is constantly under fire for ME:A because they don't have the talent to pull off a game with the graphical fidelity of GG (and they aren't known to be anything special regarding gameplay mechanics).

There might be a slight bias since it's a Sony exclusive and the PS4 is the enthusiasts darling right now, but remember that The Order 1886 got rip to shred as did the initial launch of Driveclub.

Its not only Bioware, I mean I am no fanboy or anything, nothing is perfect. The more I play of Horizon the more I think....argh done this before so many times in other games. The environments and design are breathtaking, the game in it is a bit played out by now though. The camera is too far up Aloys arse, it feels like when you jump over rocks she is floating, the huge city feels empty of life, very little feedback when you fire an arrow, ALL things that are major complaints in other games. I guess it shocks me how much people are championing something like this. However, graphics wise, and even open world environment wise, its astounding enought to keep me there to the end.

TBH I think GAF brings out the worst in me. Should probably just stop posting here and just lurk.
 

mileS

Member
Found a good way to farm purple mods. Pretty fun as well.

1)Go to the hunting lodge site that gives you "Thunderjaw vs Ravager"
2)Take the right rope down and there should be a ravager right there, Override him.
3)Make your way to the other side for the last ravager. Override him.
4)Fire some tear pulse arrows at the Thunderjaw's weapons (side disc launchers, top cannon, mouth lasers)
5)by this time your two ravagers should be down there with him. Most of the time they will do 50% of the dmg for you. They can also distract him for a quite a while. Try and pick up the disc launcher when he's distracted. Kill the Thunderjaw and loot your epic mods.
6) go back to the campfire, quick save. wait a few seconds and you can restart from checkpoint or last save and all of it will be respawn.

You end up saving a lot of ammo with this method. It's funny I didn't enjoy this challenge that much when I had to do it for the lodge, but now I'm having a blast doing it to farm. Most likely because I'm not timed anymore. Main reason I started doing this was so I could farm 2 purple stealth mods to put into my Nora Heavy armor. With that I will have the best of both worlds and I can finally wear something different looking. Have had the basic stealth armor for a good 30hrs now lol. Anyways hope this helps.
 
Its not only Bioware, I mean I am no fanboy or anything, nothing is perfect. The more I play of Horizon the more I think....argh done this before so many times in other games. The environments and design are breathtaking, the game in it is a bit played out by now though. The camera is too far up Aloys arse, it feels like when you jump over rocks she is floating, the huge city feels empty of life, very little feedback when you fire an arrow, ALL things that are major complaints in other games. I guess it shocks me how much people are championing something like this. However, graphics wise, and even open world environment wise, its astounding enought to keep me there to the end.

TBH I think GAF brings out the worst in me. Should probably just stop posting here and just lurk.

People have different expectation from games, as somebody has already said before. HZD never attempted to reinvent the wheel. Heck, everybody knows it borrows heavily from other open world games before it. What it does is to put them all together and actually implement them well. So there are the so-called Ubisoft towers, but how many Tallnecks do you even climb on this game? Five? Six? It doesn't touch the narrative highs of The Witcher 3 but HZD's story is still one of the better stories out there. The combat is also easily among the highlights among those who played it, and the world, while not the largest is also very engaging and is actually not a chore to traverse.

There are so many things that this game did so well compared to other OW games and maybe it's time you realize that whatever flaws you could come up with just doesn't take a lot away from the overall experience -- at least to other people.

And if you think GAF brings out the worst in you, then perhaps you should do exactly what you yourself suggested.
 

BeeDog

Member
Might be placebo, but it does seem like 1.03 did make the experience a bit more off. I've had some strange stutters now and then where the screen locks up for a split second, ragdolls are a bit more bonanza (e.g. try headshotting a human enemy that sits on a bench, LMAO), the lighting changes when moving between indoors and outdoors is a bit more crazy jarring, the kicked-up dust effects is more stuttery etc.
 

JLG-

Member
I keep getting my ass kicked by the deathbringer in
the grave
! any tips?? am i ranked too low? I'm level 17.
 

Freeman76

Member
People have different expectation from games, as somebody has already said before. HZD never attempted to reinvent the wheel. Heck, everybody knows it borrows heavily from other open world games before it. What it does is to put them all together and actually implement them well. So there are the so-called Ubisoft towers, but how many Tallnecks do you even climb on this game? Five? Six? It doesn't touch the narrative highs of The Witcher 3 but HZD's story is still one of the better stories out there. The combat is also easily among the highlights among those who played it, and the world, while not the largest is also very engaging and is actually not a chore to traverse.

There are so many things that this game did so well compared to other OW games and maybe it's time you realize that whatever flaws you could come up with just doesn't take a lot away from the overall experience -- at least to other people.

And if you think GAF brings out the worst in you, then perhaps you should do exactly what you yourself suggested.

You make it sound like im on some crusade to put the game down. I will refrain from visiting this thread, I will end up with 100 Aloys throwing spears at me otherwise.
 

KZObsessed

Member
I was struggling with fighting two corruptors at once in a mission, restarted the fight after dying, managed to isolate one and just managed to kill it before dying. Went looking for the second one and found its corpse crushed under a pile of logs. I don't know if the NPC ally shot them loose or if the corruptor knocked them loose and killed itself but I was grateful.

I love how almost completely random moments like this can just occur during the game. It shows they've created some great systems.
 
So I haven't been able to play at all this week. I've been living a bit vicariously through this thread, during downtime at work. It's kind of been murder, but I should get to immerse myself fairly totally over the weekend, and cannot fucking wait.

I have a question to put forward about play styles and play time. So far I've done most of the main quest stuff related to the Devil's ruins in the eastern bobble of the map, and haven't progressed at all (but am shortly about to) into the larger western swelling.

I've done a couple of side quests, and enjoyed doing them ... But after that I've actually avoided even picking them up. The reason being that I'm one of those who need to feel like my actions in the game make sense for the character at the time. I really need to feel like the whole experience comes together as a sensible story; whereas frequently picking up tons of side quests feels to me like the character is wasting valuable time, in the context of their Big Important Mission.

So far, the activities that I feel 'fit' the role and story of Aloy, are:

- Main quest stuff
- Farting about in the grass getting better at fighting dinos
- Exploring those bits of the world that are either a) directly in the way of the above, or b) fall into an ideal cross section of distance from where I am now versus an assessment of potential interestingness. My Aloy is a go-getter, but does also have a natural curiosity about this new world before her.

The side missions I have done so far do seem relevant to the character and the world - helping people in need and so on - and I can believe that Aloy would want to get involved in them. It's just that I always have this sense of being drawn as directly as possible towards the resolution of the biggest problems I'm faced with; and side quests just give me this headachey feeling of contraflow.

This isn't too say I'm rushing the game. Counter-intuitively, I think I've spent twenty something hours just getting this far. I creep around the place, taking in details, panning the camera slowly about, walking my first passage through new areas, and generally trying to make the game as cinematic as possible. This takes time, and playing on hard seems to fit this style well, especially given my rather slight gaming skills. I'm definitely getting my money's worth here.

I'm kind of treating the side quests I'm missing as a stock of self-built post-game DLC. Collectables also fall into this category. I realise these elements actually provide a drip-feed of world building context, so I will be kind of missing out, at least at first, and I do feel that will be a pity. So my question is: did anyone else play in this sort of manner, and was it fun touring the world post-game, knocking out side quests and picking up lore? And is there any chance the side quests will lack valuable context after the main mission is actually complete? Would you recommend making a bit more effort to visit these pesky exclamation points and find out what the noise is?

TY for reading ^^
 

Gradly

Member
I keep getting my ass kicked by the deathbringer in
the grave
! any tips?? am i ranked too low? I'm level 17.

I don't know why you rushed the story like that, I'm at lvl 37 with over than 50 hours and yet to reach this quest lol
 
I keep getting my ass kicked by the deathbringer in
the grave
! any tips?? am i ranked too low? I'm level 17.

I just did this part this morning although im level 45....

Anyway. Use the trip caster and unload everything you have behind it after taking out all the snipers and watchers behind it. Put all your traps down here too.

When youre ready to start go up the ledge where one of the snipers were. You can use boxes here for cover.

Initiate with a tearshot arrow on it machine gun. Knocks these off first.
Spam it with frost grenades until its frozen.
Now unload piercing arrows straight at its weak points.
 

bede-x

Member
So here is a very specific question, do you get enough skill points for everything just from leveling and main quests, or do you need to do those trials aswell?

I'm level 50 and have completed the game, but am still missing three skill points to be maxed out. I don't know if it's the trials or something else that would have given them, but I didn't do those.

It's not enough just leveling and completing the story.
 

zulux21

Member
Noticed that too. Damn, USGamer really screwed them out of a 90 or 91.

statistics don't work like that.

that single 50/100 in the sea of 101 reviews (that gave scores) doesn't have much swing.

I'm to lazy to do the entire thing by hand but if it just got up to an 89 it is likely an 88.51 average, but for the sake of everything let's make it an 89.

89*101 reviews = 8989
subtract the usgamer review and we go down to 8939 which is now out of 100 reviews or nice easy math of an 89.39 average if we remove the review.

even if you replace it with a 100 review it only becomes an 89.5 average.

I'm level 50 and have completed the game, but am still missing three skill points to be maxed out. I don't know if it's the trials or something else that would have given them, but I didn't do those.

It's not enough just leveling and completing the story.

i'm assuming you didn't do the
hunting zones.

I just did this part this morning although im level 45....

Anyway. Use the trip caster and unload everything you have behind it after taking out all the snipers and watchers behind it. Put all your traps down here too.

When youre ready to start go up the ledge where one of the snipers were. You can use boxes here for cover.

Initiate with a tearshot arrow on it machine gun. Knocks these off first.
Spam it with frost grenades until its frozen.
Now unload piercing arrows straight at its weak points.

hmmm... no
picking up it's gun and unloading on it after you knock it off
?
 
It is still way to early for spoilers.

Why would we be able to post unmarked spoilers in here? The game came out like 10 days ago.

Yours wasn't a big deal but spoiler tag stuff that would be considered a spoiler.

Welp.

J96LjiM.png


Time for me to close my tab and go to bed, then.
 

bede-x

Member
i'm assuming you didn't do the
hunting zones.

I didn't. Did most stuff I encountered, but not
Hunting for the Lodge errand or hunting zones
.

Great game btw, possibly the best I've played of this type, even though I don't like the busywork like gathering and combining everything.

Still very compelling and couldn't put it down until I'd completed it after 62 hours (I take my time with games like this).
 

zulux21

Member
Why would we be able to post unmarked spoilers in here? The game came out like 10 days ago.

Yours wasn't a big deal but spoiler tag stuff that would be considered a spoiler.

even if it came out 1000 days ago...
don't we have a dedicated horizon spoiler thread?

I mean I am still trying to get through the main story to see if my original thoughts right after the provening are correct.

that thought would be related to this song (aka don't click the song unless you are at least a bit past all of that stuff) I haven't bothered talking about the story stuff in here due to fears that I could accidentally spoil something >.<;
 

mrklaw

MrArseFace
For the
rock crusher mole thing I found in a quarry
is there actually any way to fight it on level ground? I died lots and lots because I couldn't get a bead on it quickly enough before it hit me. I ended up running away to a point it couldn't reach and picking it off from distance.
 

zulux21

Member
For the
rock crusher mole thing I found in a quarry
is there actually any way to fight it on level ground? I died lots and lots because I couldn't get a bead on it quickly enough before it hit me. I ended up running away to a point it couldn't reach and picking it off from distance.
I've heard
FREEZE!!!!!!
is the answer
but the only time I faced one of those so far I did it from a cliff and just shot like 100 arrows into it :p
 

mrklaw

MrArseFace
I've heard
FREEZE!!!!!!
is the answer
but the only time I faced one of those so far I did it from a cliff and just shot like 100 arrows into it :p

It's tricky sometimes figuring out weaknesses because that he says it's weak to all I think.

For elemental stuff, do you shoot it with the same element? eg shoot blaze with fire arrows, freeze sac with freeze sling, power core with shock Arrows?

I want to get a shadow war bow for freeze and corruption arrows but I need a
trampler
heart and I don't think I've even come across one yet (just reached meridian). I guess it's the game's way of saying I don't need that weapon yet..
 
Man I can't find any of those echo things for crafting tear arrows, anywhere I can buy them?

Certain Robo Dinos drop Echo Shells
Stalkers and Longlegs, along with all largest machines.
.

You can buy them from vendors once you've reached
Meridian
, but they're kinda pricey given you need 4 (along with other ingredients) to make an arrow bundle. I think you can also get them in treasure boxes as well, but have no idea if any boxes in particular are more likely than others.
 

mrklaw

MrArseFace
Certain arrows seem quite expensive in terms of resources - are there ones you don't tend to use? Eg the hard point arrows I think have good tear rating, are they a suitable alternative to tearblast arrows? And are harvest arrows worth using - never have so far.
 
I hope they don't do mp when they're going to do the sequel because I fear it will dampen the single player aspect unless they take a really good time to flesh out the game. Focus on improving the AI of both machines and human enemies, the writing and so on an so forth

Yeah, I mean it doesn't have to. I think it's the logical step forward for a studio like Guerilla though, and I think this installment is likely to sell incredibly well, so it makes sense to expand into that space, and grow your audience. There are a tonne of people that enjoy co-operative and or competitive multiplayer, that don't usually buy singleplayer games like Horizon, or Witcher 3.

It also makes sense given Guerilla's pedigree, to my knowledge Horizon is the first game they've ever made that didn't feature co-op or competitive multiplayer.

But I think there's a huge audience for people that would love to play something that resembles a triple A monster hunter. Though I do hope it doesn't take from the story too. Personally I'd be happy to have something that was completely seperate as a MP component, like Mass Effect 3's (but obviously different gameplay wise, utilising the open world environment).
 

sugarman

Member
I haven't seen it mentioned yet but I have an issue with the mounts. If i'm ever in some kind of hectic scenario while on a mount and i'm running around looking for an advantage, when I turn left/right while panning the camera around to see what is behind me all of a sudden left becomes right and right becomes left. And it won't let me turn properly unless I straighten the camera out.

Has anybody else experienced this? It's so annoying.
 
People have different expectation from games, as somebody has already said before. HZD never attempted to reinvent the wheel. Heck, everybody knows it borrows heavily from other open world games before it. What it does is to put them all together and actually implement them well. So there are the so-called Ubisoft towers, but how many Tallnecks do you even climb on this game? Five? Six? It doesn't touch the narrative highs of The Witcher 3 but HZD's story is still one of the better stories out there. The combat is also easily among the highlights among those who played it, and the world, while not the largest is also very engaging and is actually not a chore to traverse.

There are so many things that this game did so well compared to other OW games and maybe it's time you realize that whatever flaws you could come up with just doesn't take a lot away from the overall experience -- at least to other people.

Yeah; I recognise that this game isn't very original in gameplay terms and it pinches ideas from a lot of other titles, but it does almost everything very well and the combat just puts other open-world games to shame. I also really like the map - it's consistently interesting, generally fun to traverse and is beautifully designed. It's also large without feeling too large or tedious, which is something I was worried about.
 
Have to say, my impression of Horizon has taken a curve like this.

1) First few hours, wow this game is amazing!! 10/10

2) After completing the main quest after 30 some hours. Fantastic 10/10

3) Another 20 hours doing side quests errands etc. Ya the meta rating is about right. This game is actually around 8.5 - 9.0
 
I would just like to let the people rushing the story know that there's good reasons to do the side quests (not errands) before starting the last mission (it's really obvious when you get there that you're near the end) . Especially do the quest line in the town Freeheap. It's not a quest you naturally come across because the story never sends you there, but the effects of finishing it is totally worth it.
 
Yeah; I recognise that this game isn't very original in gameplay terms and it pinches ideas from a lot of other titles, but it does almost everything very well and the combat just puts other open-world games to shame. I also really like the map - it's consistently interesting, generally fun to traverse and is beautifully designed. It's also large without feeling too large or tedious, which is something I was worried about.

I would totally agree. On paper, the game is pretty similar to certain other games, but in actual practice and execution I don't think it really feels like any of them. The combat really defines the experience and the successful integration of the actual premise and setting into the moment to moment experience just makes it add up to far more than the sum of it's parts. Without a strong vision on how to implement the systems in the game, it could easily have been bland and generic, but it really comes out elevated.

There's things I would change, make npcs and towns in general a bit more interactive as one example, but the game is such a wide success at what it attempts.
 
Also, I tried messing around with the photo mode last night. I'm no good at this stuff. Tried some jumping shots, some action shots, and some riding shots and they just look crap compared to what I've seen other people do. The one good shot I got was at night when the moonbeams were coming down through the clouds at the edge of a forest and I posed Aloy on her mount in front, but I've seen other people take similar shots a bunch of times, so it felt a bit unoriginal.
 
Certain arrows seem quite expensive in terms of resources - are there ones you don't tend to use? Eg the hard point arrows I think have good tear rating, are they a suitable alternative to tearblast arrows? And are harvest arrows worth using - never have so far.
If you strike a blaze canister with a harvest arrow, you'll get 6 blaze canisters instead. So from one grazer alone, you can get 24 blazes instead of the usual 4
 
Have to say, my impression of Horizon has taken a curve like this.

1) First few hours, wow this game is amazing!! 10/10

2) After completing the main quest after 30 some hours. Fantastic 10/10

3) Another 20 hours doing side quests errands etc. Ya the meta rating is about right. This game is actually around 8.5 - 9.0
For me, if I finished a game and had a lovely time doing it, jt deserves a 9 or 10.

The rest like subquests and errands is optional, and its normal to get open world fatigue whule doing them.

(Ive finished every subquests except the hunters lodge because I cant give a shit about time trials.)
 

Arklite

Member
I'm surprised how odd yet bland these armour designs are, and how hideous the damn headdresses look. NPCs often have nicer wear. Minor complaint, though she looks messy in cutscenes.
 
Have to say, my impression of Horizon has taken a curve like this.

1) First few hours, wow this game is amazing!! 10/10

2) After completing the main quest after 30 some hours. Fantastic 10/10

3) Another 20 hours doing side quests errands etc. Ya the meta rating is about right. This game is actually around 8.5 - 9.0

Par the course for open world fatigue. The game doesn't offer much in terms of exploration since most your gear comes from combat grinding and money.

They really needed more ruins where you could find unique armour and weapons. I found about 15 hours in I stopped exploring or even gathering resources as I had all the purple gear.
 

shiba5

Member
Might be placebo, but it does seem like 1.03 did make the experience a bit more off. I've had some strange stutters now and then where the screen locks up for a split second, ragdolls are a bit more bonanza (e.g. try headshotting a human enemy that sits on a bench, LMAO), the lighting changes when moving between indoors and outdoors is a bit more crazy jarring, the kicked-up dust effects is more stuttery etc.

I started a second playthrough and I've had one crash and one lock-up since the patch. =/
 
Damn, that story got cranked up to 9000!

Deep Secrets of the Earth


Can anyone confirm if
21
is the correct number of total sidequests and
14
the total number of Errands in the game?
 
Have to say, my impression of Horizon has taken a curve like this.

1) First few hours, wow this game is amazing!! 10/10

2) After completing the main quest after 30 some hours. Fantastic 10/10

3) Another 20 hours doing side quests errands etc. Ya the meta rating is about right. This game is actually around 8.5 - 9.0

Not telling you how to play a game but in my experience mixing up what you're doing is a good Idea, at least in open world games. Sins if you blend together the strong points of a game with it's weaker ones you'll won't notice the problems as much, doesn't mean it's not a fault of the game. Still in Horizon the side quests are better than in most AAA games, not that it's saying much.
 

jdstorm

Banned
For the
rock crusher mole thing I found in a quarry
is there actually any way to fight it on level ground? I died lots and lots because I couldn't get a bead on it quickly enough before it hit me. I ended up running away to a point it couldn't reach and picking it off from distance.

Yes. But its a pain in the ass.

When i did it i didnt realise you could just run away :(
the Tripcaster is your friend. You basically just run around like a Crazy Person hoping not to die. Put out a mix of Shock and Explosive tripwires and whenever it is stopped Spam it with freeze ammo to slow it down and give yourself more time to dodge/plant wires (bow or Slingshot doesnt matter)
 

Everdred

Member
Just beat the game moments ago. I clocked 15 hours of in game time. Incredibly well done from an art and graphics standpoint. The gameplay did get a little old towards the end but I enjoyed the story for the most part. My biggest gripe with the game is facing human enemies is so boring. The human bosses are pathetic. All the machines are really cool and well thought out though.
 
Just beat the game moments ago. I clocked 15 hours of in game time. Incredibly well done from an art and graphics standpoint. The gameplay did get a little old towards the end but I enjoyed the story for the most part. My biggest gripe with the game is facing human enemies is so boring. The human bosses are pathetic. All the machines are really cool and well thought out though.


You clocked 15hrs?

What did the save file give for time?
 
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