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Horizon Zero Dawn |OT| The Land After Time

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Dabi

Member
Finished the game at 63 hours, my first RPG ever so I'm a bit surprised I stuck with it all the way through but I'm glad I did.

The story starts off a bit slow but once it picks up it's very interesting. The actual dialogue between characters is solid but its the lore that impresses me the most. No lie, I didn't know GG had it in them to come up with something like this. If a sequel does happen, I can see it going in a few directions which is good since I like surprises lol

I think the next major step would be to elevate the cinematic experience. I'm sure all the lessons learned from Kojima will help with that since they didn't have the time to implement with this title. Otherwise, there are little things like parkour, some jankyness (facial animations), etc. that can be worked on.

Overall it was an amazing experience.
 

aristotle

Member
Finished the game at 63 hours, my first RPG ever so I'm a bit surprised I stuck with it all the way through but I'm glad I did.

The story starts off a bit slow but once it picks up it's very interesting. The actual dialogue between characters is solid but its the lore that impresses me the most. No lie, I didn't know GG had it in them to come up with something like this. If a sequel does happen, I can see it going in a few directions which is good since I like surprises lol

I think the next major step would be to elevate the cinematic experience. I'm sure all the lessons learned from Kojima will help with that since they didn't have the time to implement with this title. Otherwise, there are little things like parkour, some jankyness (facial animations), etc. that can be worked on.

Overall it was an amazing experience.

The lore is equally, if not more, well done in the Killzone series. The problem though is most of the lore isn't in the games themselves. They created an entire history with wars, politics, and characters that was extremely well thought out.
 

firehawk12

Subete no aware
Didn't come across the reason why Rost was exiled? Can anyone give me a rundown?

I think you could be heading into spoiler territory here. It's not been explained to me either but fully expecting it to at some point

I posted a summary of it in the spoiler thread. But if you want to see it yourself, you have to speak to one of the Matriarchs after a major plot event near the end of the game.
 

Lifeline

Member
Just got to the daytower and I like the captains voice acting. It's pretty good and stands out from all the crappy VAs so far.

Also "please say yes" from Wahlid was hilarious.

I don't understand the insane difference in technology. You're telling me Nora never figured out metal armor and stone buildings while living right next to the Carja?
 

Alpende

Member
Shiit, I left the Cauldron that was overrun with
Eclipse cultists
, thought I'd need some shelter in a nearby town, went over there and there were
2 Behemoths
attacking what turned out to be a prison. Luckily I could override one of them and after that I could finish the remaining one off. I loved it.
 

Neonep

Member
Took down my first Thunderjaw, that was an intense experience, especially with two ravagers backing it up!.

I sorta cheesed it buy being on a raised platform, can't imagine how hard it would be going toe to toe on level ground!
There one trial where you have to destory 2 sawtooths with the weapons you detach from the thunderjaw in 2 minutes. That one took me 2-3 tries.
 

Dabi

Member
The lore is equally, if not more, well done in the Killzone series. The problem though is most of the lore isn't in the games themselves. They created an entire history with wars, politics, and characters that was extremely well thought out.

Ah, that's a shame. Maybe when (and if) they decide to comeback to Killzone, they can apply what they've learned to take that franchise to the next level.
 

Dabi

Member
Took down my first Thunderjaw, that was an intense experience, especially with two ravagers backing it up!.

I sorta cheesed it buy being on a raised platform, can't imagine how hard it would be going toe to toe on level ground!

Ropecaster and using its weapons against itself will do the trick. I tried taking advantage of its canisters but the angle was never ideal so I went with exposing the heart and shooting the hell out of it.
 

SlickVic

Member
I think the next story mission I have to do is the last one, so I'm taking my time and doing the 6 to 7 or so side missions I have left now. Also just got into the hunting grounds for the first time. Not really into all of the time trials (seeing there's a trophy for getting a blazing sun on every trial was the moment I realized I'm probably not going to Platinum this game), but that's ok since some of them are pretty fun.

Impressed by how much quality content there is here. Before I started playing I assumed this would be maybe a 30-35 hour experience. By the time I'm done I expect I'll have hit the 60 hour mark. Definitely has been worth it.
 

EGM1966

Member
Just got to the daytower and I like the captains voice acting. It's pretty good and stands out from all the crappy VAs so far.

Also "please say yes" from Wahlid was hilarious.

I don't understand the insane difference in technology. You're telling me Nora never figured out metal armor and stone buildings while living right next to the Carja?
The in-game explanation for Nora is their religion. Seems plausible enough.

Obviously a factor is it's just a work of fiction with a (relatively) small amount of land to hold the different tribes so it's a given there's going to be a bit of the usual "exit the valley and everything's different" syndrome you get in open world games.
 

bombshell

Member
Oh my god thank you. Going to go here as soon as I start playing again.

No problem :)

There was a side quest early on that took us up on that outlook where the 8 geese are, be sure to shoot them before taking the zip line where I sit in the image or they will fly off. Repeatable every time you travel there.
 

B.O.O.M

Member
The lore is equally, if not more, well done in the Killzone series. The problem though is most of the lore isn't in the games themselves. They created an entire history with wars, politics, and characters that was extremely well thought out.

Yep. Great lore in KZ but shitty delivery of it through the game.
 

SerTapTap

Member
Something I noticed dreadfully late is some of the "press triangle to talk to X" things actually lead to some (sorta) noteworthy dialog. I just ignored those prompts because they're usually just saying hi in the local flavor. Granted, it's always story characters that have the extra relevant dialog, but it'd be nice if it was a bit more clear the prompt wasn't just to say hi.

The lore is equally, if not more, well done in the Killzone series. The problem though is most of the lore isn't in the games themselves. They created an entire history with wars, politics, and characters that was extremely well thought out.

Yeah, Killzone is exhibit A for the difference between game lore and game storytelling. KZ always had great lore, even if the story is usually just "Rico fucked things up, go fix it"
 

GavinUK86

Member
Just finished and can I say, WOW. I really enjoyed my time with it. Completed everything before doing the final few missions.

The Shield Weaver armor is very OP though, I can see why you can't access it until the end.

I also absolutely love how varied and interesting all the NPC's are. None seem to be copy and pasted exactly like most open world games.

giphy.gif
 
Kind of silly how you can't upgrade the spear at all.

I really enjoyed early game using the spear in combo with ranged attacks, but it gets progressively more useless outside of critical hits.

Weird decision to not allow actual upgrading outside of that one point.

Isnt it upgraded later? Like the new one a lot.

The R2 for it stuns enemies, allowing you to critically hit them easily.
 

Lifeline

Member
For those that completed the game, how long do you think it's going to take me to beat the game? I'm about 21 hours in and just reached Daytower. But I've pretty much done all side and main quests in Nora lands and all the corrupted zones there too.

The in-game explanation for Nora is their religion. Seems plausible enough.

Obviously a factor is it's just a work of fiction with a (relatively) small amount of land to hold the different tribes so it's a given there's going to be a bit of the usual "exit the valley and everything's different" syndrome you get in open world games.

I guess so.

After hearing a lot about how the Nora held back Carja during the Sun Raids, it's pretty jarring to see the how much the difference is. Basically Medival Europe right next to the Mayans.
 

Paganmoon

Member
56 hours 8 minutes, 95% completion, platinum...

10/10

Like damn, this was good. Fabulous job Guerilla Games, absolutely fantastic. And so much potential for future installments or DLC's, without feeling incomplete in any way.

I watched all of the "cinematic" credits, just taking time processing the full story.

I had taken a break from Watch_Dogs 2 (about 80% through on main story there I think) to play this, with the plan of going back after I was done with Horizon, and I don't see myself continuing that game any time soon, just can't so soon after this at least.
 
Just finished and can I say, WOW. I really enjoyed my time with it. Completed everything before doing the final few missions.

The Shield Weaver armor is very OP though, I can see why you can't access it until the end.

I also absolutely love how varied and interesting all the NPC's are. None seem to be copy and pasted exactly like most open world games.

giphy.gif

We all know who the best is tho :D

 

commish

Jason Kidd murdered my dog in cold blood!
Just finished. Amazing game. Huge KZ fan for years so does my heart good to see GG create what may be my GOTY. I usually mash on the skip cutscene button in games but love the story here. I wish all open world games had this combat system. Makes fighting so much fun.
 

SerTapTap

Member
Fuck it, starting a second play through on Very Hard, anything I should know? Did normal on the first playthrough, was maybe a bit on the easy side but not bad at all by AAA standards.

I'm not sure I've ever replayed an open world game like this since Morrowind.

Edit: I thought I was pretty thorough, but I'm missing like 90% of Text Datapoints - World. Is there a guide on finding those yet? Glad they're not required for Platinum, but I still kinda want 'em
 

firelogic

Member
Now we await the DLC. It would be my first ever DLC that I'll buy on release.



If you meant Hunting Trials, then yes, it is worth doing. You'll get 3 Legendary (purple) bows if you complete all 15 ( 5 trial locations, 3 trials each) ,and they are really good.

You don't get 3 bows. You get a War Bow, a Ropecaster, and a Blast Sling. All better than the Shadow counterparts.

And speaking of Vanasha, her banter with
Uthid in The Looming Shadow mission was hilarious. She kept teasing him and he was flustered.
 

Drek

Member
Kind of silly how you can't upgrade the spear at all.

I really enjoyed early game using the spear in combo with ranged attacks, but it gets progressively more useless outside of critical hits.

Weird decision to not allow actual upgrading outside of that one point.

It's upgradable, just not like the other weapons. You get the green to blue from a small side quest early, then there are multiple skill tree updates that increase spear critical hit damage, spear knock down chance on heavy attacks, spear parts tear on light attacks, and then across the board damage boost when at low HP. You also upgrade it early on with the
machine control module
and near the end get the
purple spear upgrade
(mild spoilers).

It's improvements are just heavily tied into the storyline. If they let you augment it any further than what the storyline alone does it'd be stupid OP.
 
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