• 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

Status
Not open for further replies.

danowat

Banned
I'm playing on Hard as well. That pack was kicking my ass, then I remember I had melee attacks. Slapping it with a spear is much easier than combat rolling and shooting with the bow.

It is, I think spear combat is OP, at the start anyway, I much prefer ranged, bow combat, but the game is pretty much forcing me to play in a certain way.
 
Game is amazing and battles are very intense on Very Hard. Still can't get over how good the game looks and plays on ps4 and I don't even own a 4k tv with HDR. Now I'm stuck at work all day wishing I was home playing this game lol.
 
So is Very Hard bullshit cheap x2 enemy damage or is it well balanced around dodging like a pro and using all items at your disposal?

Not the farthest in but I've been taking out monsters pretty good with a bit of planning. It doesn't feel unfair and seems to push me towards putting a greater emphasis on the pre-combat planning and traps phase which I enjoy.

The damage values so far don't seem out of whack either. Monsters still go down relatively soon if you are hitting their weak points.

I'm going to take some screens and see if we can compare.

Alright, cool!

How is the combat and movement compared to The Witcher 3? Didn't like TW3's clunky controls at all, will I enjoy this?

Aloy is the goddess of precision compared to Geralt.
 

pixelbox

Member
I love how the foliage looks and how dense it is but man they should have had it move when the player walks past them. I'm not asking for actual soft body physics interaction like Uncharted/Crysis but just having a canned animation where the foliage simply shakes a bit while you pass through them is enough, this is how TW3 did it. Cause it's very odd to see a game in 2017 where the foliage doesn't move at all when the player walks through it. It's even more odd when you consider that the tall grass do have actual soft body physics and collision detection for interaction with player and as such the disparity stands out a lot. Having the other foliage just move in a simple fashion would lessen that disparity.

And that's the thing about this game's graphics and animations i.e. the disparity. It makes it inconsistent as is the case with foliage, the ToD, the water. Speaking of the water, Aloy's clothes don't even get wet when she dives into a river and again the interaction...I'm not asking for physics based water or something but atleast have...something there like normal maps for ripples or some alpha sprites for splashes (which already do exist whenever you jump into water but not when swimming) rather than nothing at all.

Then there is the animation, the climbing is weird in that you cannot grab onto anything even if it looks like something you can grab onto in other games. Like a piece of rock that's your height, you can only jump up to it not grab it making it awkward to navigate at times. And there's also a glaring flaw in the dodge animation, the transition from whatever Aloy is doing to dodge is instant meaning there are no transition animations leading to a "skip" in animation making it look juddery. I cannot understand how something so obvious as the main character's animation was looked over.

All these little things are more to do with attention to detail than actual performance.


Yea I know. But it kind of defeats the purpose of having real time ToD if it's gonna reset for missions, especially because in this case it becomes extremely noticeable...I never liked that.

While i can't speak for the water, the controls function that way for ease of use. The TOD works this way for artistic control. And as for the grass, sacrifices needed to be made. It can react to Aloy but the feature is turned off for performance. Imagine the outcry if it dropped a frame...
 

Staf

Member
Anyone know whether i can download this beast while playing another game without affecting the download speed? Or should i just put it in rest mode and take a nap?
 

SHarris78

Member
Is there much to miss in the opening cinematic the first time you start the game - it crashed on me and now goes straight to the main menu.
 

Hanmik

Member
While i can't speak for the water, the controls function that way for ease of use. The TOD works this way for artistic control. And as for the grass, sacrifices needed to be made. It can react to Aloy but the feature is turned off for performance. Imagine the outcry if it dropped a frame...

there would be no outcry... just like there will be no outcry for framedrops in Zelda..
 

ironcreed

Banned
Approx 5 hours in. Just killed the
corruptor at the gate after the proving mission
and I have to say normal difficulty feels just fine for me. That thing took an absurd amount of fire and standard arrows before going down while draining most my health items. NiOh will be my ball busting difficult game for now lol.

Game is awesome so far. I really didn't want to turn it off tonight.

Yeah, it was easy up until that point and I knew that the real game was about to begin. I'll be fine on normal as well.
 

BraXzy

Member
Won't be able to play this until tomorrow now at the earliest thanks to my lazy ass delivery driver. Already had to wait a day for the EU release date, fun extra kick in the teeth :(
 

Lime

Member
I wonder who sold his or her soul for the game to be pushing these graphics and image quality. It is simply sublime visual presentation, it's completely ridiculous.
 
Is there much to miss in the opening cinematic the first time you start the game - it crashed on me and now goes straight to the main menu.

During home screen I think it's the EXTRAS option that shows you the intro again. I started the game twice so I wanted to watch the intro again and found it there.
 

thatJohann

Member
Why does everyone keep saying that? I thought she looks really innocent and cute.

Read below
This. I think she looks adorable as a kid. I wanted to give little Aloy a hug when that woman subs her after she brings the berries or when that kid fucker throws a stone in her face. And don't get me started on the first time she gets the Hololens and sees the birthday message hologram and she says hi back. Almost made me tear up. So adorable.
 
Anyone know anything about these art Cards and DLC that was meant to come with a pre-order from ShopTo? I ordered on the 27th and it seems i've just got the normal game; no art cards in the box, no DLC code, no email and nothing on their site about it.
 

bosseye

Member
Finally got my copy. Flogged Resi 7 for £30, picked it up from Argos.

Hopefully I'll get the chance to play later this evening, I want to see if its as sexy as you lot are making out XD
 
So right now I'm trying to take over a c
orruption
zone. There's a Fire B
ellowback
destroying me. When I come back from dying I see 6 striders just chilling close by.

One by one I'm overriding them to take them into battle with me

Quick edit: Welp 4 of them went to close to the zone and got, you guessed it, c
orrupted
. Now I need to lure this mech out of the zone.
 

pixelbox

Member
Read below
This. I think she looks adorable as a kid. I wanted to give little Aloy a hug when that woman subs her after she brings the berries or when that kid fucker throws a stone in her face. And don't get me started on the first time she gets the Hololens and sees the birthday message hologram and she says hi back. Almost made me tear up. So adorable.
I wanted to whip that kids ass for throwing the rock. My heart sank when
she was about to cry.
 

Hanmik

Member
Lol now the game is ass for not being able to manipulate 3 inch grass blades.

more like.. PS4 & Xbox One games gets shit on once they drop a single frame.. while ..

ahh let's just drop it..

Just enjoy the game like I did (ended up giving it a perfect score).. and have fun.
 
It's amazing how they got the controls so friggin responsive for a 30fps game. It almost feels like 60.

I know for a fact The order had some crazy zero frame input lag tech and also felt like this.
And uncharted 4 in SP also feels like this.

Absolutely love the responsive controls, maybe some tech they share across multiple studio's
 

pixelbox

Member
more like.. PS4 & Xbox One games gets shit on once they drop a single frame.. while ..

ahh let's just drop it..

Just enjoy the game like I did (ended up giving it a perfect score).. and have fun.
Yeah, you're right. I'm really digging the game. I knew GG could do it. It's like my home away from home, though after a certain part when the world opens, it's a little fatiguing. Training wheels off i guess.
 

fastmower

Member
Ah, I see. Yea, I think I might just go with the 1080p mode on my TV then. The IQ is already phenomenal and I think it just looks better in most situations.

The downsampled IQ is disappointing though. Toggling it on or off during conversations has no perceptible effect for me. Coming off of a game like For Honor or Deus Ex which are downsampled, Horizon's mode very much pales in comparison.
Resolution:
Dkbg.jpg


Performance:
LY72.jpg


They look very similar other than slightly more detailed environmental textures in the resolution mode.
 

Rien

Jelly Belly
I think it's a design choice that you can't save unless you reach a bonfire. Someone else can correct me if I'm wrong.

Well okay then. Its time to make use of rest-mode then. Hope they create a normal save function soon.
 

thatJohann

Member
I wanted to whip that kids ass for throwing the rock. My heart sank when
she was about to cry.

Totally. Mine sank as well. I would've loved if the entire game was just little Aloy (or at least half the game). I created too much connection with little Aloy's eyes and facial expressions. Don't feel the same way yet with grown up Aloy. Then again I've only played for 1 hour.
 

tiddles

Member
So apparently I missed the second power cell you can access. The one in the
Womb of the Mountain
. I tried going back to get it but the gate is shut and Resh won't let me get back into the area. How do I or when will I be able get back in?

You'll get another chance later.
 

jiiikoo

Banned
I hope someone can answer this, but umm, when I scan an enemy (like one of the machines), there's an icon for a box and sometimes for an reticule below the name of the machine. How do I scroll between those, or is it tied to a skill or what? I've tried smashing all the buttons but nothing happens :(
 

pixelbox

Member
Totally. Mine sank as well. I would've loved if the entire game was just little Aloy (or at least half the game). I created too much connection with little Aloy's eyes and facial expressions. Don't feel the same way yet with grown up Aloy. Then again I've only played for 1 hour.
I was like WTF man?! But once the game opens it will kick your ass on a another note.
 

danowat

Banned
Resolution:
Dkbg.jpg


Performance:
LY72.jpg


They look very similar other than slightly more detailed environmental textures in the resolution mode.

You can see the difference in Aloy's hair, and the small "cat tail" plants, although the far scenery appears to look better on the performance shots?, maybe due to it being more sharper?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom