New Horizon: Zero Dawn Gameplay from the TGS 2016 Media Session

My biggest fear for the title is that it's FarCry but with fun gameplay.

By that I mean: derivative shitty Ubisoft game design (mission objectives, level and world design) and shitty boring quests and story that's so poorly paced, written and presented you'll forget what happened in each scene right after they end.

But even this would be a pretty great game, because we can see that at the very least the combat mechanics, crafting system and enemy designs look pretty great. Not to mention the games art and environment design that is pretty striking compared to most other WRPGs.
 
Shin-chan said:
By that I mean: derivative shitty Ubisoft game design (mission objectives, level and world design) and shitty boring quests and story that's so poorly paced, written and presented you'll forget what happened in each scene right after they end.
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Man, I really want to see what Crossing Eden thinks about this. :P

To be frank, though, I agree. Ubisoft games always feel like they are padded with boring and useless collectibles and side quests just to extend the playtime so players find the games worth their money. I love the Far Cry games and it's positive to see that they are slowly doing away with the tired Ubisoft formula, at least. Especially the story. Primal's story was so simple that there is nothing to hate about it. Bet Watch Dogs 2 is going to be filled with hours of boring content, though.
 
Javin98 said:
Man, I really want to see what Crossing Eden thinks about this. :P

To be frank, though, I agree. Ubisoft games always feel like they are padded with boring and useless collectibles and side quests just to extend the playtime so players find the games worth their money. I love the Far Cry games and it's positive to see that they are slowly doing away with the tired Ubisoft formula, at least. Especially the story. Primal's story was so simple that there is nothing to hate about it. Bet Watch Dogs 2 is going to be filled with hours of boring content, though.
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Various side quests are available; some you even have a choice in, and they affect the quest line and what happens down the road in your game. Don’t expect it to be like The Witcher in terms of scope and consequence, but Guerrilla definitely put an effort into making the world believable and exciting. You can hunt to craft your armor and ammo, NPCs will just call out to you for help as you explore, and then they packed the world with cool relics and other things for you to find that tell more about its history. I was impressed with how much time they spent building up the lore. It looks like areas are split by environments, so the new one we saw was the desert, which was just gorgeous even for a desert! Plus, all the tribes in these different parts have different ways of life and beliefs. There’s even quests to give you more insight on these tribes. In the end, I just feel like there’s a good mix of things for every type of player. Whether you get into the lore of games or just want memorable fights.
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http://www.gameinformer.com/b/featu...our-hands-on-time-with-horizon-zero-dawn.aspx
 
Javin98 said:
Man, I really want to see what Crossing Eden thinks about this. :P

To be frank, though, I agree. Ubisoft games always feel like they are padded with boring and useless collectibles and side quests just to extend the playtime so players find the games worth their money. I love the Far Cry games and it's positive to see that they are slowly doing away with the tired Ubisoft formula, at least. Especially the story. Primal's story was so simple that there is nothing to hate about it. Bet Watch Dogs 2 is going to be filled with hours of boring content, though.
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Well maybe I was a bit harsh :P the worst thing about Ubisoft open world games is how by the numbers and "just off the conveyor belt" everything feels.

The last one I played was FarCry 3 when it came out and I just found it so unfulfilling and aimless, and the mechanics were never able to lead to any interesting "emergent" gameplay (which to me seems the whole point of the sandbox approach).

Again, Horizon could suffer from the same problems and I'd be devastated at the spoiled potential - but at least it will have the great mechanics to fall back on (based on the demos), unlike FarCry which is pretty pedestrian.
 
Shin-chan said:
My biggest fear for the title is that it's FarCry but with fun gameplay.

By that I mean: derivative shitty Ubisoft game design (mission objectives, level and world design) and shitty boring quests and story that's so poorly paced, written and presented you'll forget what happened in each scene right after they end.

But even this would be a pretty great game, because we can see that at the very least the combat mechanics, crafting system and enemy designs look pretty great. Not to mention the games art and environment design that is pretty striking compared to most other WRPGs.
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Agree 100%.

Dont want Ubitrash game design.
 
Shin-chan said:
Well maybe I was a bit harsh :P the worst thing about Ubisoft open world games is how by the numbers and "just off the conveyor belt" everything feels.

The last one I played was FarCry 3 when it came out and I just found it so unfulfilling and aimless, and the mechanics were never able to lead to any interesting "emergent" gameplay (which to me seems the whole point of the sandbox approach).

Again, Horizon could suffer from the same problems and I'd be devastated at the spoiled potential - but at least it will have the great mechanics to fall back on (based on the demos), unlike FarCry which is pretty pedestrian.
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They hired that writer from Fallout: New Vegas so I hope they take some cues from their quest dialogue and choices.
 
Blackleg-sanji1 said:
Why Zelda style of course being able to climb every single thing no matter if it's a flat surface with nothing to grip onto making it look like you jave suction cups on your hands and feet is alot better than some white on a rock showing you were to go..
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Why are you trying to restrict my open world, man? You just want to tether characters in open world games to real-world limitations, man! /s

Glad you said it, I've been thinking it all through the last couple of H:ZD threads :)
 
Rajang said:
Agree 100%.

Dont want Ubitrash game design.
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Why wouldn't you want cohesion between narrative and gameplay along with activities that matter in the full context of the game or emergant gameplay that takes full advantage of the level design and player mechanics, or sidequests that feature new characters and cutscenes.How are all of these bad again? Hmm, it's almost like shitposting about a company to prop up an unreleased game is a bad idea or something. -_- You guys need to stop it with this revisionist history bullshit about Ubisoft games. Going by some people on GAF you'd think they were the most lambasted and hated company in the industry who's never once designed a good game, (considering the sheer variety of their output "Ubisoft game design as a concept makes no sense"). "They just put in side content exist to pad out the game," yea no they don't, the vast majority of those videos are side content that exist to take advantage of and familiarize the player with the mechanics of the game along with fleshing out the world a bit more. They've been incredibly influential when it comes to open world game design, other developers acknowledge this, and for good reason. And seriously stop the grating as hell childish Ubi*insertinsulthere* naming scheme. We're not 12 years old. I generally recommend looking at all of those links before replying as they perfectly outline what I like about a lot of their IPs. So far, nothing i've seen from Horizon looks anywhere near as emergent as what other games are doing from a gameplay perspective, but that's more because all of the demos have been incredibly controlled. Now impressions have been positive so far, and the less controlled gamersyde offscreen gameplay looked a bit fun, so there's hope that we're getting a great game that doesn't just amount to being another tech demo.
 
Crossing Eden said:
Why wouldn't you want cohesion between narrative and gameplay along with activities that matter in the full context of the game or emergant gameplay that takes full advantage of the level design and player mechanics, or sidequests that feature new characters and cutscenes.How are all of these bad again? Hmm, it's almost like shitposting about a company to prop up an unreleased game is a bad idea or something. -_- You guys need to stop it with this revisionist history bullshit about Ubisoft games. Going by some people on GAF you'd think they were the most lambasted and hated company in the industry who's never once designed a good game, (considering the sheer variety of their output "Ubisoft game design as a concept makes no sense"). "They just put in side content exist to pad out the game," yea no they don't, the vast majority of those videos are side content that exist to take advantage of and familiarize the player with the mechanics of the game along with fleshing out the world a bit more. They've been incredibly influential when it comes to open world game design, other developers acknowledge this, and for good reason. And seriously stop the grating as hell childish Ubi*insertinsulthere* naming scheme. We're not 12 years old. I generally recommend looking at all of those links before replying as they perfectly outline what I like about a lot of their IPs. So far, nothing i've seen from Horizon looks anywhere near as emergent as what other games are doing from a gameplay perspective, but that's more because all of the demos have been incredibly controlled. Now impressions have been positive so far, and the less controlled gamersyde offscreen gameplay looked a bit fun, so there's hope that we're getting a great game that doesn't just amount to being another tech demo.
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Yes, those tightly controlled examples of emergent gameplay in the Unity MP mission playthroughs were a good indication of the final product.

So far H:ZD looks to be way ahead of the Creed series, and I say this as a big fan of both Creed and Ubi generally - I really enjoy their open world formula and they are consistently among the few games I manage to actually finish.
 
kyser73 said:
Yes, those tightly controlled examples of emergent gameplay in the Unity MP mission playthroughs were a good indication of the final product.

So far H:ZD looks to be way ahead of the Creed series, and I say this as a big fan of both Creed and Ubi generally - I really enjoy their open world formula and they are consistently among the few games I manage to actually finish.
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Besides the SP and MP e3 demos the demos were anything but tightly controlled. This? It's perfectly representative of the in-game with a good coordinated team. So is this as that's one of many different ways to complete this mission. After Unity, there is a lot of different ways to complete missions now due to the way they're designed to be big open but dense spaces. Which I hope they expand on even further with the 2017 title. But yes atm it's less emergent than the other two big franchises that allow you to fly into bases while shooting grenades or hack the environment or use drones to manipulate AI and whatnot.
 
GearFourth said:
Like his precious Zelda fantasy climbing...
I noticed it's mostly Zelda fans in alot of Horizon threads trying to downplay this game maybe because they see it as a Zelda competitor in the open world aspect?
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Where did I downplay the game because of the climbing? In fact, I said it could be a good thing because the level design could be more focused.
Have we learn nothing from NMS? Some people are saying you can go everywhere, climb those mountains, it's open-world! No you can't go everywhere, that's all I'm saying.
 
KooopaKid said:
Where did I downplay the game because of the climbing? In fact, I said it could be a good thing because the level design could be more focused.
Have we learn nothing from NMS? Some people are saying you can go everywhere, climb those mountains, it's open-world! No you can't go everywhere, that's all I'm saying.
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Using No Man's Sky as a cautionary for every upcoming game is tired as fuck and just make me roll my eyes. NMS looked stale long before release. So many people just refused to accept it.

Crossing Eden said:
Why wouldn't you want cohesion between narrative and gameplay along with activities that matter in the full context of the game or emergant gameplay that takes full advantage of the level design and player mechanics, or sidequests that feature new characters and cutscenes.How are all of these bad again? Hmm, it's almost like shitposting about a company to prop up an unreleased game is a bad idea or something. -_- You guys need to stop it with this revisionist history bullshit about Ubisoft games. Going by some people on GAF you'd think they were the most lambasted and hated company in the industry who's never once designed a good game, (considering the sheer variety of their output "Ubisoft game design as a concept makes no sense"). "They just put in side content exist to pad out the game," yea no they don't, the vast majority of those videos are side content that exist to take advantage of and familiarize the player with the mechanics of the game along with fleshing out the world a bit more. They've been incredibly influential when it comes to open world game design, other developers acknowledge this, and for good reason. And seriously stop the grating as hell childish Ubi*insertinsulthere* naming scheme. We're not 12 years old. I generally recommend looking at all of those links before replying as they perfectly outline what I like about a lot of their IPs. So far, nothing i've seen from Horizon looks anywhere near as emergent as what other games are doing from a gameplay perspective, but that's more because all of the demos have been incredibly controlled. Now impressions have been positive so far, and the less controlled gamersyde offscreen gameplay looked a bit fun, so there's hope that we're getting a great game that doesn't just amount to being another tech demo.
Click to expand...

The less a game is designed like an Ubisoft open world games the better. That includes ALL of them. Far Cry, AC, Watch Dogs, The Divison...all stale and boring.
 
StrongBlackVine said:
The less a game is designed like an Ubisoft open world games the better. That includes ALL of them. Far Cry, AC, Watch Dogs, The Divison...all stale and boring.
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In your opinion. But of course not backing up your points whatsoever is perfect for discussion, care to explain in detail how any of those videos are stale and boring, (they showcase fluid controls, open level design, and lots of gadgets), or are you only interested in continuing the horizon hype train? Like are the player mechanics bad? Are the controls restrictive? Is the mission design restrictive? Etc. etc. you know, actual critique instead of shitposting.
 
I love the Ubisoft open world formula. I love being able to go to each region/district, etc., clear them out 100% and move on to the next while at the same time completing story missions. Sad part is that so many open world games (MGSV, Mordor, The Witcher III, etc.) do the exact same thing(s) that Ubisoft open world games do yet only Ubisoft gets bashed for it. Makes no sense to me.

As for Horizon, here's one thing that im not a fan of at all.....there's no mini-map. Just that stupid compass type bar at the top of the screen like in Batman Arkham Knight. :(
 
daniel77733 said:
I love the Ubisoft open world formula. I love being able to go to each region/district, etc., clear them out 100% and move on to the next while at the same time completing story missions. Sad part is that so many open world games (MGSV, Mordor, The Witcher III, etc.) do the exact same thing(s) that Ubisoft open world games do yet only Ubisoft gets bashed for it. Makes no sense to me.

As for Horizon, here's one thing that im not a fan of at all.....there's no mini-map. Just that stupid compass type bar at the top of the screen like in Batman Arkham Knight. :(
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Shadow of Mordor had a crap open world, with a dull lifeless environment and run-of-the-mill missions. The combat and Nemesis system were enough to carry the game, but it was very lacking in a lot of areas and I felt it was very overrated. Not played MGSV, but I don't get your Witcher 3 comparison. It didn't feel at all like a Ubisoft open-world to me.
 
Venture said:
Man, he's really fond of the slingshot. Anybody know what that message was that popped up at 6:07? I'm guessing he reached the edge of the demo area.
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I think that is correct.

Some interesting stuff form the vid ,slingshots are like your magic I guess in this game.

Also you can attack with the mount.
 
Triggerhappytel said:
Not sure where else to put this, but a really good Game Informer interview with Hermen Hulst, talking about the studio, Horizon and Killzone:

https://youtu.be/hJS2TMTtjus

Not sure if we knew this, but he basically confirms that GG Amsterdam have left Killzone behind altogether.
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So hyped!

Yeah definitely sounded like it, surprised he said it even that openly, though he did say it's not a definitive decision or anything probably just in case.

Loudninja said:
Some more offscreen gameplay
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiBJQvOLoPc

No sound though
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Such a stunningly gorgeous game every time we see footage, damn. The sparks and particle effects are beautiful too.
 
Loudninja said:
Same area but in english
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOlimrRRW_k
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Looks very good, love the artstyle of the game and of course the way the gameplay looks! The story premise (discovering where the machines came from and why there are corruptors about) is also interesting, so this is definitely day one for me!

One minor thing that stood out to me, though, was that Aloy constantly walks like she is approaching a group of enemies, which comes off as a bit weird when she is inside a fortified settlement. It'd be nice if they let her have separate walking animations for when she is in danger and for when she's not.

Also: yes about distance given in meters and not in feet or miles, doesn't make a lot of sense for many non-American AAA games to use the imperial system while its userbase is usually more than half non-American.
not really that bothered by it, tbh, just a strange thing

Also, odd thing that shooting the vial on the boss at the end does 30000 damage, as compared to 30 for any regular attack. Hope this is not too common a thing, as it is basically a one-hit kill which to me feels odd (then again, she's had to weaken it a lot first, so perhaps it is just a flashy way of saying that attacking this thing is the final blow you need to deliver in order to kill the boss, which would be completely fine with me).
 
Zedark said:
Looks very good, love the artstyle of the game and of course the way the gameplay looks! The story premise (discovering where the machines came from and why there are corruptors about) is also interesting, so this is definitely day one for me!

One minor thing that stood out to me, though, was that Aloy constantly walks like she is approaching a group of enemies, which comes off as a bit weird when she is inside a fortified settlement. It'd be nice if they let her have separate walking animations for when she is in danger and for when she's not.

Also: yes about distance given in meters and not in feet or miles, doesn't make a lot of sense for many non-American AAA games to use the imperial system while its userbase is usually more than half non-American.
not really that bothered by it, tbh, just a strange thing

Also, odd thing that shooting the vial on the boss at the end does 30000 damage, as compared to 30 for any regular attack. Hope this is not too common a thing, as it is basically a one-hit kill which to me feels odd (then again, she's had to weaken it a lot first, so perhaps it is just a flashy way of saying that attacking this thing is the final blow you need to deliver in order to kill the boss, which would be completely fine with me).
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It was a killing blow.
 
daniel77733 said:
I love the Ubisoft open world formula. I love being able to go to each region/district, etc., clear them out 100% and move on to the next while at the same time completing story missions. Sad part is that so many open world games (MGSV, Mordor, The Witcher III, etc.) do the exact same thing(s) that Ubisoft open world games do yet only Ubisoft gets bashed for it. Makes no sense to me.

As for Horizon, here's one thing that im not a fan of at all.....there's no mini-map. Just that stupid compass type bar at the top of the screen like in Batman Arkham Knight. :(
Click to expand...

TW3 isn't really similar to Ubisoft's open world games. Mordor's world and story sucked. That game got far too much praise (and lol @ it getting GOTY) for being a shittier Batman/Assassins Creed game.

Ubisoft's open world design is sort of a middle ground I feel. It's not really done particularly well or poorly. It exists to populate the world with content to make use of the game's mechanics. But the world's themselves aren't really that immersive or work as a whole. They feel far too "gamey" to be effective.

TW3 on the other hand, feels organic in how the world is created and populated. Hopefully Horizon is much like TW3 rather then any of Ubisoft's games.
 
Primethius said:
TW3 isn't really similar to Ubisoft's open world games. Mordor's world and story sucked. That game got far too much praise (and lol @ it getting GOTY) for being a shittier Batman/Assassins Creed game.

Ubisoft's open world design is sort of a middle ground I feel. It's not really done particularly well or poorly. It exists to populate the world with content to make use of the game's mechanics. But the world's themselves aren't really that immersive or work as a whole. They feel far too "gamey" to be effective.

TW3 on the other hand, feels organic in how the world is created and populated. Hopefully Horizon is much like TW3 rather then any of Ubisoft's games.
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I'll take either or rather hope they can make the world their own but than again I don't hold the Witcher as high as most so perhaps I'm alil biased
 
Blackleg-sanji1 said:
I'll take either or rather hope they can make the world their own but than again I don't hold the Witcher as high as most so perhaps I'm alil biased
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I don't hold TW3 as high as others either but I think there are some things that it did that were simply exceptional.

The world being cohesive is one of those things. If I had to state it another way, the TW3 world feels as if it was made first and then populated with content and quests. Ubisoft games often feel the opposite.

Both work from a gaming perspective and in fact, Ubisofts is a more conductive sort of style focused on gameplay.

But for an RPG, I think Witchers style is the better option to mold yourself after. Though either or would work.
 
The area from the first gameplay is still in the game btw
@hallowenboy yes, that area is there, still looking good, content varies slightly of course as we're still making/adjusting the game.
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https://twitter.com/dejongemathijs/status/779786441572380676

Also
Onsite Freelance Facial Animators wanted @ GG Amsterdam! Start ASAP - until Dec 2016. Submit your application here: https://www.guerrilla-games.com/join/open-application …
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https://twitter.com/guerrilla_jobs/status/778894621699108864
 
When that big machine thing took over the smaller one, I got heavy Princess Mononoke vibes. Matter of fact, the whole game reminds me of that movie.
 
Mononoke and Nausicaa...and Zoids have all been called out as partial inspirations.

No wonder they were calling this a type of western monster hunter, they clearly got a lot of their inspiration from Japanese media
 
Inuhanyou said:
Mononoke and Nausicaa...and Zoids have all been called out as partial inspirations.

No wonder they were calling this a type of western monster hunter, they clearly got a lot of their inspiration from Japanese media
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Its really cool to see hopefully this will all work out for them.
 
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