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Horizon Zero Dawn |OT2| Red Head Redemption

FlowersisBritish

fleurs n'est pas britannique
I love this game, but I keep thinking I would enjoy it more as a survival game. I'm thinking of starting a new game on Hard and putting a bunch of weird restrictions on myself, like "Have to buy the lower tier armors first before the good ones" or a self-imposed resource cap on Blaze and such. Something to actually force me to hunt for it.

Maybe they'll include a survival mode in DLC or something?
 

Venture

Member
I love this game, but I keep thinking I would enjoy it more as a survival game. I'm thinking of starting a new game on Hard and putting a bunch of weird restrictions on myself, like "Have to buy the lower tier armors first before the good ones" or a self-imposed resource cap on Blaze and such. Something to actually force me to hunt for it.

Maybe they'll include a survival mode in DLC or something?
I could go for that. Maybe no health potions for purchase. You can only craft them from the animals you hunt.
 

chaosaeon

Member
"Have to buy the lower tier armors first before the good ones"

Actually that ties into one of my criticisms of this game. 98% of the armors were available way too soon, and all the merchants sold the exact same things. The armors needed some balancing too, as there's no reason outside of appearance to wear anything other than heavy armor for the mod slots. You should've been able to upgrade your light armors to have 3 mod slots in crafting. As it is now, why wear anything other than heavy armor if not just for looks ?

I would've liked to have only the light options available for awhile, then medium, then heavy. And the Blazon and Carja Silks shouldve only been available in Meridian, and the Ice outfits available from snowy climate merchants etc. It was disappointing to receive fancy reward boxes or find a new merchant only to discover the items you're going to get are the same ones you've already seen many times.
 

Spladam

Member
Well if that was the case then my game should crash with pretty much every machine that i downed 2k

Tjaws
RB
Watchers
Behemoths
Longlegs
Sawtooth
Snapmaws
Ravagers

Is just that one area where it crashes?

Good thing is i normally backup my save everyday both online and usb
Holy shit that's a lot of machine hunting. And smart move backing up your saves, I've never bothered.

I love this game, but I keep thinking I would enjoy it more as a survival game. I'm thinking of starting a new game on Hard and putting a bunch of weird restrictions on myself, like "Have to buy the lower tier armors first before the good ones" or a self-imposed resource cap on Blaze and such. Something to actually force me to hunt for it.

Maybe they'll include a survival mode in DLC or something?
You mean Very Hard then, that will keep you on your toes (to be honest, your still OP in end game on very hard). Strangely, I had to hunt for resources at times, there were some spots I used my blast sling so much that I had to go hunt grazers and Fire belows to keep a high stock of them.
 
ctHsLmL.gif
 

MrOogieBoogie

BioShock Infinite is like playing some homeless guy's vivid imagination
I love this game, but I keep thinking I would enjoy it more as a survival game. I'm thinking of starting a new game on Hard and putting a bunch of weird restrictions on myself, like "Have to buy the lower tier armors first before the good ones" or a self-imposed resource cap on Blaze and such. Something to actually force me to hunt for it.

Maybe they'll include a survival mode in DLC or something?

haha

I actually just beat the game on Hard for the first time and played it with some of these same restrictions. I upgraded every skill except for the stealth column and the skill that allows you to call a new mount whenever you want (thought it was cheap).

I also never upgraded Aloy's suit and used the first one given to you without mods.

This made sneaking by enemies somewhat compelling even 45 hours into the game. But overall I found the difficulty very manageable and fun, and didn't really have many issues. Only a couple of the hunting grounds missions forced me to retry a few times, but I really enjoyed doing them.

I still have a handful of side quests and errands left but I doubt I'll ever do them. Game lost some of its steam story-wise for me as it neared the end, but the side quests never really did much for me. I'm having trouble really remembering any of them.
 

Kuldar

Member
I love this game, but I keep thinking I would enjoy it more as a survival game. I'm thinking of starting a new game on Hard and putting a bunch of weird restrictions on myself, like "Have to buy the lower tier armors first before the good ones" or a self-imposed resource cap on Blaze and such. Something to actually force me to hunt for it.

Maybe they'll include a survival mode in DLC or something?
I played on very hard and did the tiers thing. It was great.
I would recommend you to avoid the stealth armor if you want more challenge. The stealth is way too powerfull in this game (don't know if it has been nerfed in a patch).
 
Game is weird. It has got me in that fixated open world loop of collecting completing cashing in, but none of it really thrills, other than meeting a new big bot for the first ttie. Open world is gorgeous but feels far too gamey to really blow me away. But I am still enjoying doing the loop, so it's not like I ain't getting something from it!
 

chaosaeon

Member
I can confirm my Pro fans still go nuts on the map screen. I can open the map, make them speed up, go back to gameplay, hear them slow down, then go back to the map and have them fire up again. It's like an on/off switch for the fan speed and I can repeat it and have them speed up and back down over and over. They said it was fixed in the latest patch, it's not.
 
I'm a gamer with very limited time. I've only just reached the part where
I met Olin for the second time and promised to rescue his family.

How far along am I? This game is fucking awesome so far! Is there a way to see if a human is hostile or not from a distance?

Also, awesome gif as always, Sunhi.
 

Alpende

Member
I'm a gamer with very limited time. I've only just reached the part where
I met Olin for the second time and promised to rescue his family.

How far along am I? This game is fucking awesome so far! Is there a way to see if a human is hostile or not from a distance?

Also, awesome gif as always, Sunhi.

I suck at judging how long a game is so I can't help you with that.

You can use your Focus to see if a human is hostile. Good guys are blue.
 

Coxy100

Banned
Damn this game has got a lot harder.

(I'm loving it though)

I've finished the proving and exploring the wilds. Saw my first giant dinosaur
the one you can climb on like in assassins creed

but then I came up against a herd of Bellowbacks. Damn they are impossible compared to all of the other machines I've met so far.

Desperate to kill 1 to get the heart so I can buy this sexy armour I've got my heart set on, but think I will have to give up for now. Clearly I'm not good enough yet.

I think I will buy a Carja Sling and see if that helps me out a bit. I need one anyway to do one of those trials (finished the first 2 but it won't let me start the next one without one).
 
My inventory is packed with hearts and lens....is there a need to keep all these rare / uncommon stuff?

There's no stash or bank or a place to put your extra stuff, right?
 

Garlador

Member
My inventory is packed with hearts and lens....is there a need to keep all these rare / uncommon stuff?

There's no stash or bank or a place to put your extra stuff, right?

I'd suggest using them to buy any weapons or outfits you don't have yet ASAP. There's no reason to horde them.

I kept them in my inventory until nearly the end, but if you have a lot of hearts and lenses from common machines like Watchers or Sawtooths, there's really no reason to keep them.

The item descriptions actually tell you what they're used for, so just keep selling anything that's good only for selling to Merchants for shards. You probably won't need 200 piles of Chillwater or wire, so just make sure you sell bundles of stuff you have excessive amounts of.
 

Whooter

Member
but then I came up against a herd of Bellowbacks. Damn they are impossible compared to all of the other machines I've met so far.

Desperate to kill 1 to get the heart so I can buy this sexy armour I've got my heart set on, but think I will have to give up for now. Clearly I'm not good enough yet.

I think I will buy a Carja Sling and see if that helps me out a bit. I need one anyway to do one of those trials (finished the first 2 but it won't let me start the next one without one).

I had the best luck with using a Sharpshot bow and putting standard sharpshot arrows into the tank on their back until it explodes, then repeat with the tank on their chest. If that doesn't kill them outright, you should be able to finish them off fairly easily.
 

Bunga

Member
Finally completed this last night having had it since release. I finished at around the 40 hour mark with around 80% completion.

So to summarise my views:

Aloy - thought the start of the game was fantastic and it continued probably until
you become a Seeker
then the character development for Aloy sort of dropped off a cliff for me. Yeah there were various reveals and interesting twists and turns with the story of the
Ancient Ones
. I dunno, could be completely alone in that feeling but I just felt she was undersold. Leaves plenty of growth for sequels though is the good news!

Supporting cast - excellent. So many memorable characters with completely different personalities/motivations etc. I'd have liked to have been able to talk to them more about lore/them etc. sometimes the options felt limited.

Missions - for me, fairly poor. I would struggle to remember a single one outside of the main story arch if I'm honest. Everything else seemed way too fetch questy for me. It's a shame because some of the quest lines had potential with the NPC's associated with them being really quite interesting, I'm mainly thinking of
Nil and Vanasha
here.

Graphics - amazing, the game's a technical achievement. I played it on a standard PS4 so I can only imagine it on Pro/4K. Not a single performance hiccup in 40 hours, even during the more intense fights. The animation deserves a special mention, both Aloy and the machines, incredible work here. Even just the tiny little things like Aloy crawling up the steeper hills, holding her hand out for snow/rain etc.

Combat - enjoyed it at the beginning, started to get quite frustrated with it in the middle as I'd reached the point where you had more than 4 weapons and changing between weapons that are in your inventory and equipped is ridiculously cumbersome that it actually put me off ever changing my load outs past a certain point in the game. Didn't like that all armor/weapons were bought off merchants and that ammo types were tied to weapon upgrades - felt that could have been explained at some point as I was confused reading the Machine Catalogue when it mentioned freeze arrows etc. and I couldn't seem to craft them. Once I got the better weapons and unlocked Hardpoint arrows as well as the Double/Triple knock skills, that's when the combat became fun again for me.

All in all, I thought it was a great game, certainly don't regret any of the time I spent playing it. There were definitely a few issues though that dampened my enjoyment of it at times but it is without doubt the best new IP I've played since Dishonored and Dishonored was kick ass so that's a hefty compliment.
 
400 hours later And 2 Million shards and yet not one bit tired of this game, Hope they add some really expensive new items in the DLC, So i can put my 2 Million Shards to good use
 

hermit7

Member
Just picked the game up yesterday.

I don't really play many console games at this point, but the hunting dinosaurs is the best. Leaving the opening area at this point
attacking the war party camp, was given the role of Seeker
. Combat is really good, very fluid and resource management during a fight gives some surprising tension. I am always sure the redraft after each encounter.

Looking forward to more play, seems like one of the top games I have played recently.
 
So did they ever say there would be a NG+ mode coming or is it just wishful thinking?

They said they were aware of the request and, IIRC, that it's hard to implement. I'd say that, if they do it, won't hit before the DLC. I'd wager it would come with the DLC, actually, if anything.
 

chaosaeon

Member
So the metal flowers. Laid out surrounded by plants, with a poem (many of which are actually quite good). Do they ever go into detail on why they were there ? They almost give off a vibe like they're grave markers.

Edit : Ahh, the answer is below me.

You've finished the game, right?
In the very last scene I thought you found the remains of Elisabet with a similar triangular arrangement. I interpreted the poems as a way for Gaia to menorialize her creator and the impact she had on the world.

Ahhh, no i haven't quite finished it but have done that mission. I thought maybe that was it but then wondered
(how Gaia would've gotten the metal flowers to those locations if not by having machines place them there, and whether or not that meant the machines were aware of what they were doing).
Still, a good reason and I'd have liked them to acknowledge it a little maybe as a line of dialogue once you've gathered half of them or something or a scan datapoint near one of the flowers in the later areas of the game.
 

Lady Gaia

Member
So the metal flowers. Laid out surrounded by plants, with a poem (many of which are actually quite good). Do they ever go into detail on why they were there ?

You've finished the game, right?
In the very last scene I thought you found the remains of Elisabet with a similar triangular arrangement. I interpreted the poems as a way for Gaia to menorialize her creator and the impact she had on the world.
 
Finally finished the game and I loved it! It's a ridiculously good base to build on for the sequel, whenever that happens. More weapons, bigger world, more in depth leveling system and MP are all musts. For their first RPG, what a game Guerrilla made. Has to be the most hours I've spent playing a game since GT5.
 

Melchiah

Member
Finally finished the game and I loved it! It's a ridiculously good base to build on for the sequel, whenever that happens. More weapons, bigger world, more in depth leveling system and MP are all musts. For their first RPG, what a game Guerrilla made. Has to be the most hours I've spent playing a game since GT5.

I don't think the sequel needs a bigger world, let alone multiplayer. I liked that it had a more confined open world.
 

Dan

No longer boycotting the Wolfenstein franchise
This game was absolutely phenomenal. Loved every minute of it. I thought the story and characters were all pretty great, with nice tweaks to established tropes and just really superb execution. The machine combat is so fun and satisfying. Guerrilla Games really outdid themselves and stepped things up another level.

I think the only real disappointment was how by the time I was half done with the game I'd purchased virtually all the top tier weapons and armor. From then on, I was just upgrading mods and buying additional weapon sets so I could have versions for each elemental type. I think there's a lot of room for improving the weapon/armor system to be more varied and customizable.
 
I'm a couple of hours into the game and I'm having a good time. But are NPCs always this annoying with their persistent nagging? I'm trying to sneak up on these bad guys and this NPC just won't shut the hell up about rescuing her. It's one of my biggest pet peeves and I'm disappointed it's in this game.
 

Dmax3901

Member
I've just started playing this in the last week or so. Enjoying it more or less, gorgeous looking game.

Few things: I'm getting a little frustrated with the combat. It might be a camera/lack of lock-on issue, it's so annoying having these things pounce right at you taking off huge chunks of health for what seems like just brushing past Aloy. I get they have weaknesses... I dunno it's just not really clicking with me. Also, I loved Witcher 3, go figure.

Second, I'm so confused by the outfits and weapons, what the hell is handling? Why isn't there a damage stat? Are bows all one weapon type or are war and hunting bows two entirely different things? Same with armour, is there any particular stat I should be going after early? I feel like everything's wrecking me. Should I collect all the armour or go straight for the rarer pieces?

Anyway, some of the voice acting and animations are a bit weird sometimes but other than that I like the story, it's all handled very well. Love having Meridian as this big mysterious place that's super far away but I keep hearing about it from everyone, reminds me of Novigrad, can't wait to get there.
 

Bunga

Member
I've just started playing this in the last week or so. Enjoying it more or less, gorgeous looking game.

Few things: I'm getting a little frustrated with the combat. It might be a camera/lack of lock-on issue, it's so annoying having these things pounce right at you taking off huge chunks of health for what seems like just brushing past Aloy. I get they have weaknesses... I dunno it's just not really clicking with me. Also, I loved Witcher 3, go figure.

Second, I'm so confused by the outfits and weapons, what the hell is handling? Why isn't there a damage stat? Are bows all one weapon type or are war and hunting bows two entirely different things? Same with armour, is there any particular stat I should be going after early? I feel like everything's wrecking me. Should I collect all the armour or go straight for the rarer pieces?

Anyway, some of the voice acting and animations are a bit weird sometimes but other than that I like the story, it's all handled very well. Love having Meridian as this big mysterious place that's super far away but I keep hearing about it from everyone, reminds me of Novigrad, can't wait to get there.

I'm still not 100% on handling but I think it might be reload speed? There is a damage stat as you can get Damage modifications for weapons. Once you progress a little merchants will offer different armour. I basically just bought the best one you could get from merchants (it's not actually that expensive, something like 1000 shards) and wore that for the next 30 hours. So personally I wouldnt bother collecting, it's unnecessary to change armour sets against different things etc. It's already a ball ache enough changing weapon loadout once you have more than 4 weapons to choose from.

I had frustrations with the combat too until I realised Tear damage and targeting components was by far the fastest way to kill things. I spent probably the first 10 hours trying to kill stuff by using elemental weaknesses but honestly, Tear damage is the key as far as I'm concerned. Tear is for removing components such as Scrappers guns, Sawtooth radar etc. When a component comes off it does huge damage. As you progress you'll get offered new weapons at merchants too, new bows unlock new ammo types. So to answer your question, war and hunting bows are two different things yes with different ammo types available for both. I was getting really confused when the machine bestiary thing would say to use ice arrows as an example when I had no obvious way to craft them - turned out I needed a new bow, so keep an eye on merchants.

In terms of getting rekt, I loved Witcher 3 combat too and I think it's the same situation here where dodging is the key. Outside of that, upgrade your medicine pouch capacity. Red healing plants are more plentiful near water if you need to stock up just run along a river for a bit. Also healing potions, particularly full health potions are amazing (quite often drop from human enemies and can be bought from merchants) as they are an instant full heal and it saves dipping into your medicine pouch which can be boring to fill up if you use loads.

Hope that helps!
 

Dmax3901

Member
I'm still not 100% on handling but I think it might be reload speed? There is a damage stat as you can get Damage modifications for weapons. Once you progress a little merchants will offer different armour. I basically just bought the best one you could get from merchants (it's not actually that expensive, something like 1000 shards) and wore that for the next 30 hours. So personally I wouldnt bother collecting, it's unnecessary to change armour sets against different things etc. It's already a ball ache enough changing weapon loadout once you have more than 4 weapons to choose from.

I had frustrations with the combat too until I realised Tear damage and targeting components was by far the fastest way to kill things. I spent probably the first 10 hours trying to kill stuff by using elemental weaknesses but honestly, Tear damage is the key as far as I'm concerned. Tear is for removing components such as Scrappers guns, Sawtooth radar etc. When a component comes off it does huge damage. As you progress you'll get offered new weapons at merchants too, new bows unlock new ammo types. So to answer your question, war and hunting bows are two different things yes with different ammo types available for both. I was getting really confused when the machine bestiary thing would say to use ice arrows as an example when I had no obvious way to craft them - turned out I needed a new bow, so keep an eye on merchants.

In terms of getting rekt, I loved Witcher 3 combat too and I think it's the same situation here where dodging is the key. Outside of that, upgrade your medicine pouch capacity. Red healing plants are more plentiful near water if you need to stock up just run along a river for a bit. Also healing potions, particularly full health potions are amazing (quite often drop from human enemies and can be bought from merchants) as they are an instant full heal and it saves dipping into your medicine pouch which can be boring to fill up if you use loads.

Hope that helps!

Very useful info thanks so much! What is 'tear' damage? Is it only caused by certain weapon/ammo types? I'll have to look out for it next time I play.
 

HardRojo

Member
Very useful info thanks so much! What is 'tear' damage? Is it only caused by certain weapon/ammo types? I'll have to look out for it next time I play.
Tear damage is indicated by an arrow on a shield icon if I'm not mistaken. As stated above, tearing off components does huge chunks of damage and might be the best way to take down Machines. You can also make some components explode by damaging them or using a fire arrow on them, which comes in handy when dealing with a bunch of Machines at once.
 
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