So it looks like HFW actually has free climbing.

GymWolf

Member
Maybe my english is more shit than i think, but isn't this guy talking about free climbing everywhere in this interview? is he only talking about the yellow stuff that you can highlight with the focus??



kick me off of a cliff while screaming WE BELIEVE IN GENERATIONS if wrong\old.
 
Last edited:
You can see in the trailer that she climbs on unhighlighted areas. Seems it's only a guide you can toggle to give you an escape route.
 
Last edited:
They say there are climbing points placed all over in the game world and they're placed procedurally.

You can just start climbing on them whenever, or use the focus scan to make them yellow to see them more clearly.

Its not as totally free as BotW, but much more free than in HZD.



The game director also points out that Aloy can now jump up and catch a ledge above her and vault over it, which she couldn't do in HZD in the same way.

Its shown a bit earlier in the demo when she's running from the machines and hops up onto a building, then jumps off and keeps running (then heads towards the higher climb and water sequence.)
 
Last edited:
I now what we all saw in the gameplay trailer, but the guy says:

"completely free to climb anywhere on any rocks or mountain or cliffs"

this absolutely doens't sound like pre-placed yellow thingy stuff, it sound like actual free climbing, but then again, sometimes people ask me what time is it and i answer with my age, so...

tbh i just stopped when the guy said that to make the topic, maybe he explain better this stuff later in the interview.
 
Last edited:
I now what we all saw in the gameplay trailer, but the guy says:

"completely free to climb anywhere on any rocks or mountain or cliffs"

this absolutely doens't sound like pre-placed yellow thingy stuff, it sound like actual free climbing, but then again, sometimes people ask me what time is it and i answer with my age, so...

tbh i just stopped when the guy said that to make the topic, maybe he explain better this stuff later in the interview.
It has free climbing ... using procedurally placed climbing points.
 
It has free climbing ... using procedurally placed climbing points.
So any rock\cliff\mountain in the game, no matter how small or insignificant is gonna have a yellow thing in it? i sincerely doubt it even just from an art design stand point (imagine every fucking rock with an ugly yellow thig in it) but the guy specifically say "ANY".

To me it's only free climbing if you can climb anywhere, pre-placed stuff is a different thing imo.

The first horizon already had yellow stuff in any point of interest where climbing was requested, how is this any different if you can only climb where the game let you climb but not really anywhere?!

But we are arguing semantics at this point i guess, i'm not really a big fan of free climb everywhere to begin with.
 
Last edited:
So any rock\cliff\mountain in the game, no matter how small or insignificant is gonna have a yellow thing in it? i sincerely doubt it even just from an art design stand point (imagine every fucking rock with an ugly yellow thig in it) but the guy specifically say "ANY".

To me it's only free climbing if you can climb anywhere, pre-placed stuff is a different thing imo.

The first horizon already had yellow stuff in any point of interest where climbing was requested, how is this any different if you can only climb where the game let you climb but not really anywhere.

But we are arguing semantics at this point i guess.
DOn't think so.
There are still the orange paint spots everywhere

Again... they are only yellow for a few secs IF you use the focus scan.

Otherwise, they are not yellow. Rewatch the demo.

The climbing points are just ledges and handholds to climb on. The focus scanner is the HUD Aloy sees, hence why these handholds can be lit up when scanned.
 
Last edited:
b8ffedbf17cbe778bd15ba92c24161de.gif
 
When I first played HZD back in 2017, I kept on thinking 'Zelda BOTW' does it better. Eventually, I kept thinking those things so much that I gave up on the game entirely and just played BOTW ad nauseum until my fingers bled. Fast-forward 4 years, HZD is free on PSN, I gave it another go, and it turned out to be a not-bad game. Now with them adding all these things that BOTW had already to begin with, it looks to be a really promising game. Can't wait for it to come out, but hopefully BOTW2 won't steal its spotlight LOL!
 
Happy that Horizon 2 has more of a free climbing system and more similar to AC Origins/Odyssey/Valhalla. This was my #1 negative out of the demo that looks to no longer be a negative.
 
God I hate Zelda-style "free climbing". It's the perfect way to break immersion - slowly, unnaturally, plodding up a surface only to slide back down to the bottom when you don't quite have enough stamina. So stupid.

Give me procedurally generated hold points any day of the week.
yeah it's easier to do free climbing when you use playstation 2 animations where you don't give a crap about what the character is actually climbing.

the simpsons lemon GIF
 
They arent wrong tho

This is like saying "Minecraft has better destruction/interactivity than Battlefield"

It may be right, but they are dealing with diferent levels of complexity entirely

Horizon's climbing was one of the worst in an open world game tho, so I'm glad that they are improving on it
 
God I hate Zelda-style "free climbing". It's the perfect way to break immersion - slowly, unnaturally, plodding up a surface only to slide back down to the bottom when you don't quite have enough stamina. So stupid.

Give me procedurally generated hold points any day of the week.
dont forget the

 
So any rock\cliff\mountain in the game, no matter how small or insignificant is gonna have a yellow thing in it?
That's kind of how all game-traversal works already (even BOTW). Just replace 'yellow-thing' with 'navmesh' - but same principle.
From what I understand Horizon 2 uses focus to visualize the said data for climbing as 'yellow-thingies' - it's not there as actual artwork otherwise.

To me it's only free climbing if you can climb anywhere, pre-placed stuff is a different thing imo.
Even if it's 1:1 with collision data - someone pre-placed those ;)
 
They arent wrong tho

This is like saying "Minecraft has better destruction/interactivity than Battlefield"

It may be right, but they are dealing with diferent levels of complexity entirely

Horizon's climbing was one of the worst in an open world game tho, so I'm glad that they are improving on it
BOTW climbing is laughable, no respect to terrain.

9f6708101fa9d6c8849401c284e205ab5740e03a_2_676x500.gif


Good for children.




200.gif
 
Last edited:
They say there are climbing points placed all over in the game world and they're placed procedurally.

You can just start climbing on them whenever, or use the focus scan to make them yellow to see them more clearly.

Its not as totally free as BotW, but much more free than in HZD.



The game director also points out that Aloy can now jump up and catch a ledge above her and vault over it, which she couldn't do in HZD in the same way.

Its shown a bit earlier in the demo when she's running from the machines and hops up onto a building, then jumps off and keeps running (then heads towards the higher climb and water sequence.)


BOTW climbing is laughable, no respect to terrain.

9f6708101fa9d6c8849401c284e205ab5740e03a_2_676x500.gif


Good for children.
 
God I hate Zelda-style "free climbing". It's the perfect way to break immersion - slowly, unnaturally, plodding up a surface only to slide back down to the bottom when you don't quite have enough stamina. So stupid.

Give me procedurally generated hold points any day of the week.
Free climbing in BotW was the most "immersive" game feature I had seen in ages. You're looking at it purely from a realism standpoint when the visual style should have dissuaded any notions of that, immediately.

It allowed for a truly go anywhere, do-anything-you-can-think-of gameplay setup. Often times you were limited only by your imagination. It was about gameplay.

Reading this board, I really get the sense that some people don't actually like gams. They just like simulations of real life and they want to get as close to that, and then claim some sort of ... I don't know, victory? "Oh I like this thing that is best in class, so therefore I am the best." Doesn't work that way I'm afraid. :-)
BOTW climbing is laughable, no respect to terrain.

9f6708101fa9d6c8849401c284e205ab5740e03a_2_676x500.gif


Good for children.
Yeah I disagree with you on this one about as strongly as one can get. You've never gone rock climbing or seen good rock climbers have you. They can look like this on a sheer cliff. But again, this game is not about realism.

I feel bad for people who can't understand the pure joy of this game.
 
yeah it's not free but way more flexible than HZD, I love that shit. In general, the whole interview gets me really excited for all the gameplay-related improvements. I think it will be a great game, despite being held back by PS4.
 
BOTW climbing is laughable, no respect to terrain.

9f6708101fa9d6c8849401c284e205ab5740e03a_2_676x500.gif


Good for children.
Imagine being this upset about this kind of thing. If it didn't have free-climbing, then people would bitch.

Of course, you're bitching now about how free-climbing works in BOTW. So, this argument will always be a never win situation. You people will be bitching no matter the implementation.
 
Imagine being this upset about this kind of thing. If it didn't have free-climbing, then people would bitch.

Of course, you're bitching now about how free-climbing works in BOTW. So, this argument will always be a never win situation. You people will be bitching no matter the implementation.

i think botw free climbing is great. just don't compare it to a game that cares about fidelity. two different worlds.
 
Imagine being this upset about this kind of thing. If it didn't have free-climbing, then people would bitch.

Of course, you're bitching now about how free-climbing works in BOTW. So, this argument will always be a never win situation. You people will be bitching no matter the implementation.

BOTW is cartoony, so no worries. But AC version is the better version.

 
I thought it wouldn't be the case based the gameplay video, but so it is? If so that's great if it stays coherent like first AC games.

AC copied that and modified it better:

TallReliableHoneybadger-size_restricted.gif

AC Odyssey is an insult to AC franchise, i feel bad for those that played Odyssey without knowing the amazing experience of AC2 and Brotherhood.
 
I thought it wouldn't be the case based the gameplay video, but so it is? If so that's great if it stays coherent like first AC games.



AC Odyssey is an insult to AC franchise, i feel bad for those that played Odyssey without knowing the amazing experience of AC2 and Brotherhood.

Played them all since 1, Odyssey is my best entry despite the BS RPG.
 
I can't wait for this game. I hope it comes out this year. But, after Cyberpunk, if it's delayed I won't complain. I want the best games, not the fastest or cheapest
 
While it's quite obvious it's not realistic at all (plus I know people on Sony threads love to shit on Nintendo games), you have to give credit to the insane amount of freedom a system like BotW's free climbing gives to the player. Genshin Impact basically does the same thing as well. I really hope HFW has true free climbing like these games; the open world in the first Horizon title can be improved in so many ways, and this is definitely one of them.
image2.gif
 
ITT posters argue about realistic climbing in a game that features robot dinosaurs as the main enemies.

I'm happy Horizon is going to borrow from BotW if they go with free climbing. It gives them a chance to improve on it and possibly surpass it.
 
ITT posters argue about realistic climbing in a game that features robot dinosaurs as the main enemies.

I'm happy Horizon is going to borrow from BotW if they go with free climbing. It gives them a chance to improve on it and possibly surpass it.
Robot dinosaurs still have a reasonable perfectly logical explanation in the game, they are still believable in that universe for people who followed the plot of the game and some side documents.

Aloy climbing everything like she is magnetized to the environment would look more out of place than dinobot do.

I'm not against free climbing, i think it's kinda cool if well implemented, but with semi-realistic looking games it can look extremely silly and immersion breaking, i think the new AC strikes a good balance except in some cases where it still look a bit silly.

It works on botw because the game has a cartoony graphics, same for the destruction, a tree doens't reelly break like you see in botw...

Horizon has more limited destruction but it's a bit more realistic looking. (and this video has like 1/4 of the stuff you can break in horizon)
 
Last edited:
While it's quite obvious it's not realistic at all (plus I know people on Sony threads love to shit on Nintendo games), you have to give credit to the insane amount of freedom a system like BotW's free climbing gives to the player. Genshin Impact basically does the same thing as well. I really hope HFW has true free climbing like these games; the open world in the first Horizon title can be improved in so many ways, and this is definitely one of them.
image2.gif
Now Genshin Impact looks good. It seems like they are actually holding onto something. Zelda really gets a pass on things. I dont think any other game wouldnt be laughed out if their mountains were just some flat texture. Where angles, ledges, etc .. none of it mattered. For SOTC all those rules existed and its a PS2 game.
f1VxO7K.gif

Shadow did first.
 
Free climbing in BotW was the most "immersive" game feature I had seen in ages. You're looking at it purely from a realism standpoint when the visual style should have dissuaded any notions of that, immediately.

It allowed for a truly go anywhere, do-anything-you-can-think-of gameplay setup. Often times you were limited only by your imagination. It was about gameplay.

Reading this board, I really get the sense that some people don't actually like gams. They just like simulations of real life and they want to get as close to that, and then claim some sort of ... I don't know, victory? "Oh I like this thing that is best in class, so therefore I am the best." Doesn't work that way I'm afraid. :)

Yeah I disagree with you on this one about as strongly as one can get. You've never gone rock climbing or seen good rock climbers have you. They can look like this on a sheer cliff. But again, this game is not about realism.

I feel bad for people who can't understand the pure joy of this game.

Watching Link climb slowly up a wall for 20-30 seconds is about as fun as a loading screen. It's a lazy mechanic and it has as much to do with "gameplay" as pressing buttons on a calculator does.

I feel bad for people that have been blinded by the Nintendo moniker and assume what they are feeling when they slog through a game like BOTW is pure joy.
 
Top Bottom