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Horizon: Zero Dawn | Review Thread

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Karak

Karak

Member
Man Lamp is selling his copy. Hey if anyone else has one. I would throw some worthwhileness at you as well.
 
P

Pai Pai Master

Banned
One thing I can say for sure that after so many post-Witcher 3 disappointments, I'm so looking forward to an open world game with a consistent and fully realized story. Sounds like Guerilla avoided cutting corners here in ways that MGSV and FFXV fell victim to.
 
N

Neoweee

Member
Did any reviews have thoughts on Hard vs. Very Hard difficulties so far?

onemanasylum said:
Different games doing different things, you can;t just put a score side by side and compare them like that,. Both great games.
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Yeah.

There's, like, 5-6 RPGs in a few month period that are going to end up in this ballpark, and each of them is probably going to have its own fans and detractors. Variety in the RPG genre is what makes the genre so continually interesting to me.
 
wenaldy

wenaldy

Member
Khalifa Jayy said:
Forbes... what are you doing?

N6N6jLg.png
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Those are blogs written by contributors.
 
Karak

Karak

Member
MegaSackman said:
He talked about this but yeah, I disagree with his opinion in that he should get every copy of any game. :p

On another note I would like to live in Karak's dimension where days last 48hs.
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LOL. My opinion is the opposite.

Neoweee said:
Did any reviews have thoughts on Hard vs. Very Hard difficulties so far?
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For some odd reason I am insanely interested in checking the levels of change between diffs as well.
 
K

KyleOnTheRun

Member
sleepr said:
Honestly I haven't stopped listening to the music present in the trailers, it's just too good. I really can't believe someone said in one review, that they didn't remembered a single tune. Crazy.
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I saw the same line in a review, and I couldn't believe it either. Same with negative thoughts about the story. Maybe it isn't your cup of tea (and most reviews agree that it's great), but I occasionally see someone call it "weak" or "not the main attraction," and I'm like, 'You're insane.'
 
K

KyleOnTheRun

Member
The Lamp said:
And the story is beyond anything I expected for GG. It's controlled, precise in its delivery. In fact, everything here is. It's just a big tapestry of consistent, polished, believable storytelling, game mechanics, gameplay systems, visuals, and music. A nearly unblemished gem in modern console gaming.

Story:
This is not the most surprising or mindblowing premise, plot, or storytelling ever done. In fact, you already know the premise that this takes place in the future after human civilization has toppled. The question is why, though? How did this happen? GG does a fantastic job of fleshing out the "why" and "how" into a web of elegant complexity that stretches from the lore of the past into the politics of the future. It's well thought out and never ceases to be interesting to know what's going on. They reveal it to you one sensible bit at a time, with major elements coming straight from the cutscenes and missions, to smaller more perplexing elements being fed through lore collectibles, data logs, and audio logs. This ensures that by the end of the game, you have your main questions answered, but there's always more answers to questions for the explorer that seeks them.

Although the plot risks getting a little complicated to follow, the writing is so air-tight and succinct in explanation that you can stay plugged in. My only suggestions are that the cutscenes should be archived, the audio logs should be controllable, and they should include an encyclopedia of characters (maybe they have this? Honestly I didn't check and I didn't beat the game). Regardless, Aloy sometimes summarizes particularly important audio logs that risk being confusing afterward, e.g. "So that means that ___," which always helps ground you in the bottom-line of what is going on. She asks very intuitive and intelligent questions that the player is asking in their minds, making the dialogue very satisfying to watch. This helps the writing stay tight and focused.
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Lamp, you could have written my review for me.

Especially want to echo these bits. I forgot how much I loved Aloy's comments on plot revelations as they happen--this is SO smart for keeping you engaged, respecting that the player is likely to have questions. This is a developer that knows what they're writing is insanely cool, but also doesn't take for granted that they've been immersed in it for 5 years and understanding isn't automatic for players. Too many devs forget this and we're left to pick up the pieces in fan wikis.

If anyone felt jilted by FFXV for these reasons, Horizon is a blessing.
 
L

LordofPwn

Member
Great scores, excited to play monday night.

Happened to run some numbers and the outlier score doesn't have a huge impact on the average and for those wondering the Median and Mode for the review scores are both at 90. If there were a rotten tomatoes for video games Horizon would be 96% Fresh.
 
K

KyleOnTheRun

Member
LordofPwn said:
Great scores, excited to play monday night.

Happened to run some numbers and the outlier score doesn't have a huge impact on the average and for those wondering the Median and Mode for the review scores are both at 90. If there were a rotten tomatoes for video games Horizon would be 96% Fresh.
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Truly, the Groundhog Day of video games.

ODxSAia.png
 
S

SomTervo

Member
Neoweee said:
Did any reviews have thoughts on Hard vs. Very Hard difficulties so far?



Yeah.

There's, like, 5-6 RPGs in a few month period that are going to end up in this ballpark, and each of them is probably going to have its own fans and detractors. Variety in the RPG genre is what makes the genre so continually interesting to me.
Click to expand...

Early impressions suggested not a huge difference.
 
N

NathanDiego

Member
LordofPwn said:
Great scores, excited to play monday night.

Happened to run some numbers and the outlier score doesn't have a huge impact on the average and for those wondering the Median and Mode for the review scores are both at 90. If there were a rotten tomatoes for video games Horizon would be 96% Fresh.
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Noob question,how ROTTEN TOMATOES works?
 
G

Gorillaz

Member
Chalupa Batman said:
What are you talking about? Modern Warfare 2 came out November 10, 2009, and Killzone 2 came out February 26, 2009, almost nine months earlier, and two days earlier than Horizon is coming out. If Horizon is spring then so was Killzone 2.

Killzone 2 is one of the greatest shooters ever made and it was not negatively impacted by Modern Warfare 2 at all. They each had their own audience.
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I thought it was in the same window? Ehh year I guess

It never caught on big tho which was the point I was making. KZ2 came and went.
 
N

Neoweee

Member
SomTervo said:
Early impressions suggested not a huge difference.
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I'll probably just go for Very Hard, then, if there's a way to turn down the difficulty at whim if I get stuck. There's very few open world RPGs that I don't end up finishing on Very Hard for the first run, as they all fall off in difficulty if you do the side content.

shinobi602 said:
I'm not sure how you can even compare the two. Numbers don't really quantify anything.
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Also, pulling #s out of my ass, it seems like Nioh got its near-90 score by getting a lot of 9s, while Horizon got them with a wider mix of 10s and 8s. This is probably a derail, but I suspect Nioh, Zelda, Horizon, Persona, and Mass Effect to all end up within like a 4 or 5 point range on Metacritic, but with considerably different standard deviations in their scores.
 
K

KyleOnTheRun

Member
Neoweee said:
I'll probably just go for Very Hard, then, if there's a way to turn down the difficulty at whim if I get stuck. There's very few open world RPGs that I don't end up finishing on Very Hard for the first run, as they all fall off in difficulty if you do the side content.
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fwiw, level-ups (from side content) hardly affect your combat strength at all. This game is way more skill-based than RPG-based; i.e., an experienced action or FPS gamer will have an easier time than someone who's played The Witcher or Final Fantasy.
 
H

Heshinsi

"playing" dumb? unpossible
gundamkyoukai said:
Question have you been in HZD threads before ?
For the past year all of them have been full of trolls and stupid shit .
This thread is rather tame compare to other HZD threads.

You can bet if reviews were not as good things would have gotten really crazy .
I mean all games have that sort of stuff happening but HZD threads were worst i have ever seen on gaf .
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The comment section for the Playstation FB post of the game is equally stupid. Every other post is some guy stating that they should be given the option to play as a dude. Or my favourite, the ones who say that both genders should be available because games with female MC don't sell well.

"I just want to see the game industry grow!"

GTFO you lying shit head.

Yeah, Horizon seems to bring out the crazies lol.
 
O

Optimus Prime

Member
I was planning on getting this game eventually, but the first impressions from Gaffers (like Lamp!) and the reviews swayed me to preorder the Collector's Edition last night from Amazon. $105 after tax, but I did the same for TLG. Really meant to go all digital this gen, but I've bought collector's editions of No Man's Sky (no regrets, love the comic and art book, and the game met my modest expectations even at launch), The Last Guardian (so glad to have the Trico and Boy figurine along with the other goodies like the art book and soundtrack), and now Horizon.

I really need to muster all my willpower not to buy Horizon digitally as well. Thinking about getting Titanfall 2 on sale this week. Combine that with Horizon (digital) and something else like Darkest Dungeon (already have Inside), and I could get up around the $100 promotion level for the $15 code. The only reason I'm thinking about this is because I know my sons will be playing Horizon on our second PS4. We had to get two digital copies of Skyrim (waited for the Black Friday sale for that) to ensure they could play on either PS4 at the same time. Doesn't help that all I play is Rocket League and Skyrim, so I haven't been buying many AAA games as of late (waiting until they get to $10-15 if I even bother). And I love the convenience of digital.

Anyone splurging for both a limited/collector's edition as well as the digital version for Horizon?
 
L

Lifejumper

Member
Trace said:
If a movie critic rates it 2.5/5 or more, it's "fresh".

Anything less than that is "rotten".

The tomatometer is what the percentage of fresh/rotten is. So 100% would be 100% fresh 0% rotten for instance.
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The one who submits the score actually decides if its rotten or fresh. I have seen 6/10 reviews that are counted as rotten.
 
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