Got my teen 16 year old brother to play Horizon, he doesn't have much experience with open world RPG games. He plays GTA, Fifa, rocket league, god of war, uncharted and the like, so this is his first open world RPG experience.
Initially he found the game too easy (OP stealth) so he bumped up the difficulty. BIG mistake. He started struggling with ammo and resources, not realizing that enemies won't just drop ammo all the time. The whole concept of gathering materials and crafting items was foreign to him.
He managed to reach Meridian recently and has been really into the game since. He ended up fighting a corrupter with nothing but stones cause he ran out of materials. Almost rage quit the game (called it the end of his Horizon career) when he could not defeat 2 snapmaws and kept on dying. I advised him to stream his play so I could watch and give him some tips.
He's doing a lot better now, messaging me his accomplishments every day and seems to be enjoying the game. I told him to back off the story quests and focus on side missions and exploration so he could level up and unlock more skills. He was level 11 when he reached Meridian and was getting destroyed by everything
He's still not ready to face a Thunderjaw. He even runs away from Ravagers and Tramplers, but he's learning and getting better...and then today he sent me this message: