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[Hayabusa83]

First one was overrated garbage as well, but Sony had a successful astro turf campaign and somehow Killzone died for this crap. One of the ugliest main characters in the history of video games.

 

[Jim Ryan other Clone]

It's disappointing and it was a struggle to even play it all the way through which i never expected.
Also...lol at that ending.

So much bloat on those sidequests only to underdevelop the entire main game...and even worse, the nemesis part at the end. Seriously? They are setting up a "cloud" as the main boss for the next game? Like...at that point i don't even care anymore.

I'll say this: If Guerrilla were to announce the end of this IP to work on something different i'd honestly love it. When you're hyped for a sequel because the first game was so good...but somehow the sequel is so lackluster that by the end of it you're over the entire main plotpoints and even the ones they set up for the 3rd game are even worse than the ones they did for the second game...maybe it's time to just move on. I won't be buying the next one on day one for sure.

That's how I felt also. I enjoyed so much exploring and killing robots in the first game and was excited for the sequel but I couldn't finish it....it bored me for some reason. It gives you so many tools and then they restrict you. At the first game I knew were I can climb and I had not issue that I couldn't do it everywhere, but here was frustrating. Sometimes I was stuck of edge of a cliff and had to go back and forth to climb it. The graping hook was killing the flow with how slow it was and added grind with unlocking the overwriting, upgrading your gear and to craft the arrows ( why they didn't allow us to craft the max amount of arrows we will never know). The glider I didn't use that almost at all but the worse was riding this big and heavy robots that had to lose momentum after hitting a small rock.
After this game I don't have any desire to play one more of the same if they don't really improve the gameplay and limit all the restrictions they have applied.

 

[Kerotan Frog]

I agree with everything in the OP. The game was so medicore compared to the first game. After 32 hours I beat the main story, uninstalled it, and threw it back on the shelf. The story had some cool moments but was ultimately so bad I couldn't take it seriously. The gameplay was frustrating outside of set piece boss battles (best part of the game), and the open world felt really small because you have zero freedom to explore with the putrid climbing mechanics. My excitement for the third horizon game is basement level and I might give it a chance ona discount. But I'm not preordering it at $70..

 

[Certinty]

I gave up a few hours in.

It's just as boring and dull as the first game. I honestly don't get how these games are so loved, the first bored the shit out of me but I forced myself to complete it, with this I wasn't going to make the same mistake. My own fault for thinking this would be a big upgrade over the first because it really just felt like the same thing again.

 

[SpokkX]

pretty much agree with everything

Horizon 2 is barely an improvement gameplay wise. And the focus on aloys chatter and her shitty friends made the story WAY worse

Technically though - AMAZING

I will not bother to even try if they release another sequel - had more than enough of this

 

[Bartski]

this is a really good video, thoroughly unpacks the subject imo

 

[SlimySnake]

the worse was riding this big and heavy robots that had to lose momentum after hitting a small rock.

lol I totally didnt realize this but yes! I invested in the machine riding skill tree to start off but never ended up using it because riding these things just felt off especially in the middle of combat. This is where next gen destruction wouldve helped. Avatar devs said their dinosaurs are going to leave a trail of destruction behind them during a stampede. We even saw this in the trailer, albeit briefly.

I cant believe they added a grappling hook and added hundreds of climbing paths, but still didnt let you climb everywhere like in Zelda and AC, or grapple anywhere like Halo Infinite and Batman. Like why? The game is full of limitations like this. They allow you to fly but not until the very end. They let you grapple but have like two grapple points in the entire game and none on the mountains. The climbing should be better but its somehow worse. The combat should be better but its somehow worse.

I think Halo Infinite style grappling wouldve solved a lot of the issues I had with aggressive enemies. Let me grapple to trees or other machines and deliver a nice roundhouse kick at the end. Just to quickly get out of the way without having to spam dodge all the time. There were so many gifs of Sunhilegend using fancy grappling moves but I swear i could never find one to use when i needed one. The game could've used a parry option or even a block move like FFXV. The game even has a shield but they built it into tripcasters. Who uses tripcasters in this franchise?

My biggest complaint however is how they incorporate the valor and weapon techniques systems. They are clearly borrowing this from GOW's runic attacks but they feel very limiting and more often than not, they are basically DPS attacks. There are so many different weapons and weapon skills, but you will only use like 2 of them before running out of stamina. Valor takes even longer to recharge making it almost useless. GOW's implementation made it so that they complemented your standard attacks and the runic attacks were always there for you as a crowd controlling technique. Quick and dirty with no lag or downtime. In HFW, every single weapon technique pretty much immobilizes you for 2-3 seconds. Why? Who thought this was fun?

I am convinced that HFW was a happy accident, and GG is absolutely clueless when it comes to making fun games. This game gave me major KZSF vibes. Very euro-janky in some areas.

 

[Hendrick's]

The first game should have told you all you needed to know about what the sequel would be. As technically competent as GG is, they have never made a game that was actually fun to play.

 

[rofif]

The first game should have told you all you needed to know about what the sequel would be. As technically competent as GG is, they have never made a game that was actually fun to play.

They did. Killzone... 3.
2 was awesome but it got really annoying after the train level if I remember correctly.
I would love for these games to be released on ps5 so bad

 

[Camreezie]

The story and lore is where they truly expanded on the first game not gameplay and mission design

 

[IllegalLemon]

Also quest design has not improved at all, almost every quest in the game follows this path:

1) Follow NPC and have a slow trailing section where you talk exposition
2) Go to area and scan around using your detective vision, I mean eagle vision, I mean Focus.
3) Follow path of tracks using Focus
4) Short climbing/Puzzle section
5) Fight against robots/humans

Thanks for quite literally perfectly describing every single open world action adventure game of the last 5-7 years. This sums all of them perfectly. Just swap out robots with monsters and you're set.

 

[anthraticus]

Why is the player character so awful looking in these games?

 

[Azurro]

oh I read a few paragraphs hence my agreement on the risk free story. But after the orange spoiler I noticed it kept going. No gracias.

Druckmann save this franchise.

Druckmann at your service. Serving up a game starring a disabled hyper muscular double trans Muslim/Jew gender fluid girl with fairy/cake as pronouns with the optional quests all being about white male oppression.

 

[Silent blades]

I agree OP. I loved the first one but I’m just meh on this one. I just can’t seem to care for the story or the people. I skip most of the dialog because it’s such a slog. I’ll beat it eventually but I just can’t get into it.

 

[CatLady]

OP - You did a very detailed and well written writeup, but it makes me sad and maybe a little glad or relieved anyway. Horizon Zero Dawn was the only PlayStation game that lived up to the hype for me while I had a PS4. The Last of Us 1 was decent too, but for me it was over-rated. HZD was one of my favorite games last gen and the story and the way it was told was one of my favorite things about the game, so I'm sad to hear the story in the sequel doesn't equal o exceed the original.

I do hope PS5 owners that loved Horizon as much as I did and were looking forward to HFW enjoyed more than you did. On the positive side for me, HFW is the only game Sony has released so far this gen that I have any interest in and there is no way in hell I would ever buy that big white monstrosity for only one game. So I don't mind not playing the game now after reading your post.

 

[Drizzlehell]

I feel pretty much the same way about this game. Maybe except that I don't think it's "great."

To me this is serviceable at best, and I don't really care how much money Sony threw at Guerrilla to make the graphics look fancy. Visuals can only get you so far but if the gameplay feels like the genre didn't progress at all since 2008, and the story and characters are so forgettable that I can barely remember the events that unfolded in either of those games, then yeah, they're just not very good in my opinion. They may be competently made, and they borrow heavily from other games that invented and then perfected the open world action adventure/RPG formula, but it's all just so uninspired that I feel no motivation at all to play it.

It kinda annoys me that Sony is banking on this series so much instead of trying to invest in something new and interesting. I miss the PS3/X360 days. Feels like every other game that was coming out during that gen. was fresh and interesting but ever since PS4 launched, we're just being served the same rehashed ideas.

 

[The artful mincer]

I feel pretty much the same way about this game. Maybe except that I don't think it's "great."

To me this is serviceable at best, and I don't really care how much money Sony threw at Guerrilla to make the graphics look fancy. Visuals can only get you so far but if the gameplay feels like the genre didn't progress at all since 2008, and the story and characters are so forgettable that I can barely remember the events that unfolded in either of those games, then yeah, they're just not very good in my opinion. They may be competently made, and they borrow heavily from other games that invented and then perfected the open world action adventure/RPG formula, but it's all just so uninspired that I feel no motivation at all to play it.

It kinda annoys me that Sony is banking on this series so much instead of trying to invest in something new and interesting. I miss the PS3/X360 days. Feels like every other game that was coming out during that gen. was fresh and interesting but ever since PS4 launched, we're just being served the same rehashed ideas.

The ps3/360 days fresh!? You gotta be kidding every other game was a linear 3rd person/1st person shooter!

 

[Three]

And that is still stupid.

They guy who gave me the gold has literally played the first game, an Xbox console warrior wouldn't do that would he now?

VFXVeteran would as a PC warrior. I mean seems kind of wierder now when he hasn't played the game you're actually talking about.

Not that I care either way but just pointing out warriors do exist that have played other games or own other consoles they have a hate boner for.

 

[Sosokrates]

I gave up a few hours in.

It's just as boring and dull as the first game. I honestly don't get how these games are so loved, the first bored the shit out of me but I forced myself to complete it, with this I wasn't going to make the same mistake. My own fault for thinking this would be a big upgrade over the first because it really just felt like the same thing again.

Yeah, the reviewers were very generous.
I guess its saving grace is its visuals and combat.

 

[Calverz]

 

[Topher]

Yeah, the reviewers were very generous.
I guess its saving grace is its visuals and combat.

Have you played it yet?

 

[Sosokrates]

Have you played it yet?

Yes,
But I will say again, playing every game to find out weather you like it or not is rediculous, i bet you haven't played games that you dont like.

Theres not enough time in the day to play every game.

 

[Topher]

Yes,

Good.

 

[Sosokrates]

Good.

Its wasn't, just reaffirmed everything that I watched from youtube footage and reviews.

 

[Topher]

Its wasn't, just reaffirmed everything that I watched from youtube footage and reviews.

We will agree to disagree then.

 

[Sosokrates]

We will agree to disagree then.

Sure thing bro.

 

[ParaSeoul]

Never played either of these games,would rather have more Killzone.

 

[Drizzlehell]

The ps3/360 days fresh!? You gotta be kidding every other game was a linear 3rd person/1st person shooter!

Idk why so many people assume that linear = bad.

I'd rather play an elegantly designed and more impactful 10 hour game than grind some bloated open world snooze fest for 80 hours that we get with most titles that come out today.

 

[ParaSeoul]

I'd rather we get more sandbox type games not big enough to be open world but a fairly big area thats dense with a lot of interactivity and good movement. Something like Prototype. I don't think we're ever going to get another one like that.

 

[The artful mincer]

Idk why so many people assume that linear = bad.

I'd rather play an elegantly designed and more impactful 10 hour game than grind some bloated open world snooze fest for 80 hours that we get with most titles that come out today.

I didn't say linear is bad. I had issue with you saying every game other game is fresh which implies originality and creativity.

I liked the 360/Ps3 well enough but there was a ton of sequels and it was clearly the generation of the linear shooter. There were some good games and alot bland and bad boring games as well. Linear or otherwise

 

[Drizzlehell]

I didn't say linear is bad. I had issue with you saying every game other game is fresh which implies originality and creativity.

I liked the 360/Ps3 well enough but there was a ton of sequels and it was clearly the generation of the linear shooter. There were some good games and alot bland and bad boring games as well. Linear or otherwise

Well, not really. That generation spawned numerous great franchises, some of which ended up supporting next generation of consoles with their own sequels because no one was developing original IPs anymore. If you compare that with PS4/Xbone and even current gen, there were far more successful franchises that were started during that era. And even these few new IPs that we saw during PS4s run, most of them ended up being derivative of what came before them. There's barely anything truly innovative or fresh in there.

And while yes, there were a lot of shooters coming out during 7th gen, it's not all we got during that time. There were plenty of other games too, including open world games like Horizon. Except back then most of them made some kind of an effort to stand out from each other, while these days everyone seems to be content with just copying the "winning" Ubisoft formula.

 

[Nankatsu]

I'm not a Horizon fan. Played the first on PS5, getting the platinum even, liked it for what it was but I didn't found it anything mesmerizing.

Forbidden West manages to be a step up in some aspects but completely fails in delivering a solid narrative (not that the first game's narrative was amazing, but it was better at least).

While I slighty enjoyed my time with the game, I have two major grips with it: Narrative and Crafting / Upgrading System.

For the narrative I think the Zeniths had the potential to be a very interesting threat and catalyzer for the story, but they legit end up being one the most uninteresting villains I ever came across in a videogame.

The game makes you play back and forth just to deliver you a very unsatisfying conclusion, with the ice on the cake being:

Spoiler

A) Tilda wanting to take you space because you're Elizabeth's clone and she still loves you (lol)
B) Sylens having second thoughts about going into space, because well - human friendship power is his new motto and he wants to fight Nemesis with his human friends.

I didn't care at all about the Zeniths. Sylens for me, after the end of Horizon Zero Dawn was inbond to become the true villain of the franchise and they just legit toss it out and make him a side character.

It makes no sense at all if you plan to give the villain spot to a bunch of uncharismatic characters.

Then we also have the upgrading / crafting system, which for the love of god is horrible. I legit like to craft in games and go for better gear, but this game made sure I wasn't going to do that. It's so grindy, that it's not even fun.

All in all, game is overrated. It has some interesting improvements but completely fails on delivering a solid narrative. It's a shame, because the setting is actually really interesting.

For a moment it made me think we could potentially go to space, which would be neat, but after finishing it I don't see that happen.