Last week I wrapped up full playthough that took 70h, was on V. Hard from beginning to the end and included getting Platinum trophy. I like to think feedback I'm giving below has some merit and validity to it. Even when it isn't all smiles and kisses.
I liked the game, a lot. I love Aloy as character, story was very well written and executed so it really sucked you in and before I knew it I was emotionally invested in the people and the world. From narrative view game was excellent ride from start to finish when looking at main story content. Side story content outside of few exceptions is very poor and flat experience of using detective vision. Those few exceptions make doing all available side content worth it at the end.
Game is very front loaded. Further you get into the game more sparse quest content becomes, more barren world design becomes and you even start to encounter geometry that is clearly copy pasted there quickly so they can wrap production up. This makes game feel thinner and thinner towards the end in that side content and exploration sense, but main story ramping up big time constantly towards the end keeps momentum up.
Gameplay, it isn't setting world on fire. Aloy controls beautifully in and outside of combat. There were only few moments when she felts tad inconsistent, but those moments were so rare it didn't bother me. Combat has certain illusion of variety and depth because when you are doing that 70h run there becomes a point when you have seen it all. Still combat felt good because you are able to maintain momentum constantly and robot variety with different designs, especially in mixed packs, created that intensity to it.
Thunderjaw is easiest and fastest bigger robot to kill.
Crafting was just mind numbing busywork. Game could have done without that particular feature easily.
Economy is broken and pointless. At the end of my run I had around 70k metal shards, I never had shortage of any possible raw material or lens or heart. Outside of purchasing outfit I liked best visually and one of each best weapon there was basically nothing to purchase from vendors. Refill HP potion stocks once in a while because those were best for healing and thats it. I found myself wishing there was more at least model variety to pick from and work towards. Even rewards from turning in collectibles were sad.
Leveling, outside of skill points why? You gain more HP, but same time your herb based healing didn't scale up while that level 20 Watcher was still able to 2-3 hit kill your max level, 50, Aloy. It felt so stupid even if it's intended mechanic to promote personal skill over bruteforcing it with over leveling the content. Around level 35-40 I stopped bothering with herbs and basic pots, went all in on using full HP pots as needed and it was best way to heal yourself for last 30 or so hours. At least your basic healing stuff should scale according your level better so eating one Watcher melee strike doesn't mean 1 full bar of herbs.
Graphically game is very pretty, even on OG PS4. Because of high image quality its short comings also became very obvious. Foliage outside of tall grass doesn't react to Aloy, robots or NPC's. Rain doesn't create splashes when hitting puddles, rocks etc. Water has zero reaction to Aloy, NPC's or robots. NPC design quality varies so much, some are very well crafted while others are lacking. Face animations and lipsync for most part is horrendous, too little or too much. These things just stick out when so much is done at so high image quality.
Lightning in HZ is next level and game really shines when wandering in foresty areas or ruins of the city at the beginning.
Audio design and music in on point from beginning to end! I want OST, now!
I may add something in later post, but this is most of what I have been thinking.
