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Horizon: Zero Dawn | Review Thread

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O

Omnistalgic

Member
Stilton Disco said:
I find it kind of odd, but not completely unreasonably written. It's a pure opinion piece that ignored technical merits and relative implementation of mechanics though, hence why it ended up a low-average level score.

Really, looking through the authors other reviews and work, it just confuses me as to why they were given the game to review in the first place, because it makes perfect sense they'd have not had any fun with it given their apparent tastes.

But ultimately there is merit to it, even if it seem to have had a ridiculously pronounced effect on the average score most people will see despite being a massively divergent, singular outlier. I mean maybe the Author thought they'd love it from the trailers they'd seen, and was dipping their toes into waters they'd never trodden before, only to be disappointed to find it not to heir liking. That's a perfectly valid point of view, and for those that share the Authors tastes, an important warning for them to save their money.
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nah to me the review had no merit because of this. Whether you are gushing praise or trashing a game, your opinion and personal taste should not allow you to ignore the technical achievement of the game completely, it's still a video game.

It's the equivalent of me trashing a book with 3/10 because the words are complicated and I feel the arthor is pretentious. Ummm...is the book well-written though lol

I will alway be on the side of never pissing on a creative work unless it is absolutely trash. She should have given it a 6/10 at least for its technical accomplishments. It's the best looking console game ever lol. That's just me though, I don't really care show it affected meta, it's just super opinionated on just about every facet and I can't relate to the review at all.
 
G

Gurish

Member
daxter01 said:
Movies/tv/music gets universal acclaim at 80-100 on MC its only the games that get it at 90+. Horizon has 85 positive review and 3 mixed yet it has agenerally favorable tag, its dumb
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It is set on 90 because of scores inflation we usually have in the video game industry, but this gen journalists are more critical than they used to so they should update that like they did with the colors, I agree that it is a little dumb right now.
 
Stilton Disco

Stilton Disco

Member
Omnistalgic said:
nah to me the review had no merit because of this. Whether you are gushing praise or trashing a game, your opinion and personal taste should not allow you to ignore the technical achievement of the game completely, it's still a video game.

It's the equivalent of me trashing a book with 3/10 because the words are complicated and I feel the arthor is pretentious. Ummm...is the book well-written though lol

I will alway be on the side of never pissing on a creative work unless it is absolutely trash. She should have given it a 6/10 at least for its technical accomplishments. It's the best looking console game ever lol. That's just me though, I don't really care show it affected meta, it's just super opinionated on just about every facet and I can't relate to the review at all.
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I'm not disagreeing, but that's still just our opinions.

I mean conversely, are you going to want reviewers to knock points off Breath of the Wild because it's only 900p at best and has shitty textures and detail shrouding mist and fog over everything? If a reviewers does do that, then sure, fair enough, but for those that will ignore those relative flaws, I don't think there's any reason to judge those reviewers or scores because of it.

As long as the reviewer went in with an open mind, and judged the game on its own merits according to their own tastes and standards, then I'm cool with it, and that review may well be the only one that matters to someone that shares those opinions and standards that may have otherwise ended up wasting their money in a game they wouldn't have enjoyed.
 
O

Omnistalgic

Member
bigol said:
A 9 is excellent, coming from Edge. Still i see people complaining about the game not receiving a 10.
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Nah, no one is complaining. 9 from edge is still amazing, they have been giving a bit more praise than usual, but they are still tough.

This is GG first take, the fact that it's even in the same breath as classics like Zelda or RDR is a great achievement. These games have previous iterations to fall back on and they can see how to improve the formula, this is an amazing accomplishment from starting from scratch.
 
E

Exquisik

Member
Omnistalgic said:
Nah, no one is complaining. 9 from edge is still amazing, they have been giving a bit more praise than usual, but they are still tough.

This is GG first take, the fact that it's even in the same breath as classics like Zelda or RDR is a great achievement. These games have previous iterations to fall back on and they can see how to improve the formula, this is an amazing accomplishment from starting from scratch.
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Yes this! The fact that HZD receives the amount of praise it got as a new IP and it's GG first RPG, it is one hell of an achievement. It may not reach the universal acclaim like BotW, but I can't wait to see what HZD2 is like now that GG has the experience and resources for RPG.
 
D

dabig2

Member
Asd202 said:
Who the hell is complaining?
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Yeah, seems like most here were pretty pessimistic before the score thinking that Edge would bring it down to 87.

Anyways, glad to see people giving the game favorable reviews. If this were Rotten Tomatoes, the consensus would be glowing (and the review % would be somewhere in the mid 90s probably).
 
T

Turkoop

Banned
Time has come.
C5gFQt0WQAAA4WG.jpg
 
Yautja_Warrior

Yautja_Warrior

Member
9/10 great score for Horizon from Edge and 10/10 for Zelda, damn, I cannot wait for both of these games to land on my doormat.

So many awesome games already this year already and more coming, 2017 is shaping up to be an awesome year for gamers.
 
R

ronaldthump

Member
Wollan said:
With Edge giving it a 9 it's solely US Gamer's 2.5 holding it back from a 90. That one outlier is likely a (negative) million dollar review now. I should probably read it to see if it's well written/reasoned. ;)

edit: heaps of open spoilers in that review from main campaign to resolution of several side-missions (zero care for the reader here). She litterary hated everything about it except trekking through land between missions and the graphics. Tedious gameplay because tropes, no mechanics breakdown. Bad story. Can't remember sound and music. A paragraph is spent questioning why Aloy should care about side-missions and the plight of NPC's. Ugh.
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from an earlier page - after finishiing the game, i read her review

"Her paragraph about the sidequests about not understanding why aloy would be helping people because she was an outcast; is so stupid. In one of the first or second mission you undertake - Aloy herself talks about this. She was an outcast and no one showed empathy and/or compassion and she's refuses to be like these others ; I remember now, its the sidequest where you find the
guy who hears voices.
She wants to help because she wants to - nevermind he is an outcast."

A) they give you Aloy's motivation, establish she's a compassionate person who offers to help if she can. A fair few times here wording "i'll see what I can do" when she speaks to the quest givers. You as a gamer can opt to do it.

B) It's a sidequest, so its optional.Its just something for the game to offer things to do.

Its a non issue. She spends a whole paragraph lamenting Aloy's character when she clearly doesn't get it and does not even talk about the combat and mechanics of the game; the awesome bits like the fun combat. It's an irritating review to read because anyone playing the game will know that it completely dismissed what is interesting about Horizon in favour of a pissy moany writeup.
 
E

Equanimity

Member
ronaldthump said:
from an earlier page - after finishiing the game, i read her review

"Her paragraph about the sidequests about not understanding why aloy would be helping people because she was an outcast; is so stupid. In one of the first or second mission you undertake - Aloy herself talks about this. She was an outcast and no one showed empathy and/or compassion and she's refuses to be like these others ; I remember now, its the sidequest where you find the
guy who hears voices.
She wants to help because she wants to - nevermind he is an outcast."

A) they give you Aloy's motivation, establish she's a compassionate person who offers to help if she can. A fair few times here wording "i'll see what I can do" when she speaks to the quest givers. You as a gamer can opt to do it.

B) It's a sidequest, so its optional.Its just something for the game to offer things to do.

Its a non issue. She spends a whole paragraph lamenting Aloy's character when she clearly doesn't get it and does not even talk about the combat and mechanics of the game; the awesome bits like the fun combat. It's an irritating review to read because anyone playing the game will know that it completely dismissed what is interesting about Horizon in favour of a pissy moany writeup.
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I think it's fair to say that the review in question is pretty fudging bad, no?
 
R

ronaldthump

Member
Equanimity said:
I think it's fair to say that the review in question is pretty fudging bad, no?
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yeah it is.

I also read a whole bunch of other reviews. From the 7-9s

"Horizon: Zero Dawn is just brilliant. I speak as a critic who has played more “open sandbox” games than any one human should and has grown so very weary of them. I should have gotten sick of this thing in an hour, but I’ve been glued to it for days and days and I don’t want it to end. I love existing in this world – a world of desperate survival but of growing culture and a sense of hope. A world of giant metal animals that promise some breathtaking fights."

I dont get how anyone can play Horizon and not get this takeaway ( words: Jim Sterling). The fact is, its a game with (having had a blast with it) "breathtaking fights". or how cool the world building is. What game was she playing? It's so bizarrre. Too many people are fixated on the score. The actual content of her review is just poor.
 
V

Violet_0

Banned
ronaldthump said:
I dont get how anyone can play Horizon and not get this takeaway ( words: Jim Sterling). The fact is, its a game with (having had a blast with it) "breathtaking fights". or how cool the world building is. What game was she playing? It's so bizarrre. Too many people are fixated on the score. The actual content of her review is just poor.
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not everyone is you or Jim Sterling
Tim-Eric-Mind-Blown.gif

if someone has a different opinion than you it doesn't necessarily imply that they want to actively sabotage Your Favorite Thing™
 
E

Equanimity

Member
ronaldthump said:
yeah it is.

I also read a whole bunch of other reviews. From the 7-9s

"Horizon: Zero Dawn is just brilliant. I speak as a critic who has played more “open sandbox” games than any one human should and has grown so very weary of them. I should have gotten sick of this thing in an hour, but I’ve been glued to it for days and days and I don’t want it to end. I love existing in this world – a world of desperate survival but of growing culture and a sense of hope. A world of giant metal animals that promise some breathtaking fights."

I dont get how anyone can play Horizon and not get this takeaway ( words: Jim Sterling). The fact is, its a game with (having had a blast with it) "breathtaking fights". or how cool the world building is. What game was she playing? It's so bizarrre. Too many people are fixated on the score. The actual content of her review is just poor.
Click to expand...

I think people are fixated on the review in question because it has dragged down what is otherwise a fantastic Metacritic score. I don't want to read the review because it's filled with spoilers but what I have read about it on here is enough for me be wary of it.

Violet_0 said:
not everyone is you or Jim Sterling
Tim-Eric-Mind-Blown.gif

if someone has a different opinion than you it doesn't necessarily imply that they want to actively sabotage Your Favorite Thing™
Click to expand...

So we shouldn't call out incoherent opinions?
 
B

blackdevil

Member
Wow those Scores man Oo. Always looked interesting but i didnt follow it that much. Guess i have to watch some new trailers and gameplay now.
 
D

deoee

Member
Guys from Germany, where did you get the game from?

Maybe I can politely ask Gamestop if they will hand out my game aswell with some proof
zWVbK.gif
 
P

Peltz

Member
Guys, I just want to say, I'm really sorry for doubting this game over the past year. I thought it would be a terrible game but now am really excited to play it myself. It seems to be well made.

I gladly eat crow on this one and will definitely pick it up after I finish Zelda.
 
P

pixellated_man

Member
That Edge 9 doe.

Zia said:
Saw the OP and was prepared to eat all of the crow until I read reviews from writers I actually care about in Eurogamer, The Guardian and Kotaku UK. About what I'd expect from Guerilla. I'm calling an Edge 7, maybe a generous 8.
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What now Mr Zia, what now? :)
 
R

Raxious

Member
Anyone found a store in the UK yet? I'm really confused as i've seen the boxes on the shelves here at HMV with the text "released on Wednesday" on it. In the Netherlands, once the boxes are on the shelves it basically means its for sale.
 
M

MegaSackman

Member
Late to the party but yay! To Edge review, I wish the magazine would reach to my country but it doesn't. -_-

Edit: Going to watch ACG review asap!
 
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