Humdinger
Gold Member
The original Horizon was my favorite game of last gen. I loved the combat, the environments, and the story. I enjoyed it so much that I replayed it twice.
I recently got a PS5, bundled with Horizon Forbidden West. HFW was one of my main reasons for picking up a PS5. Here are my thoughts.
Good Things
1. More involved side quests than in the first game.
2. Visually, the game looks better than the first. The first game was already a looker, so that's no mean feat. Environments, textures on clothing, effects, everything looks better.
3. Lip synch and facial animations are improved.
4. They added the ability to tag specific machine parts. That was helpful.
5. They added the ability to reset skill points. That was a nice option.
6. They added a lot of new weapons, armor, and mechanics. While I'm listing this as a plus, it's also a minus (see below). On the plus side, it provides more variety than the first game. And if you enjoy upgrading your gear, you'll have a lot to keep you busy here.
Not So Good Things
1. The game feels bloated -- overstuffed with content. More is less, folks. But no, this game, like a lot of modern games, is a victim of the "more is better" mindset. I mentioned above that there are plenty of new weapons and armors. Yes, but there are so many it is overwhelming, especially when each of them has a labor-intensive upgrade path. I don't have the time to experiment with, upgrade, and become skilled in using all these weapons, guys. That is just one example of the "more more more" overkill. I'll give you some more examples below.
2. The story goes on and on. It is half-decent, I guess, but it doesn't compare to the first game's story at all. This story felt very drawn out and not all that engaging. The "twists" seemed kind of lame. Plus, it's the usual Sony cinematic stuff -- 6 hours of cutscenes for the main story, plus hours more for the sidequests. I've grown increasingly tired of this movie-oriented approach to gaming.
3. There is a flood of things to do -- multitudes of quests, all sorts of new sub-quest types (most of which aren't interesting), new machines, new settlements, new weapons and mechanics, and icons littering the map. Again, folks: more is not necessarily better. I preferred the original's world. It didn't feel empty to me. It felt well-edited, like a good sentence is concise, not overstuffed with verbiage. This feels more like a bloated Ubisoft game. It makes me feel like I have an endless to-do checklist. It's not fun. At a certain point, it dawned on me that I felt more like I "should" play it, because I needed to get X or Y accomplished, rather than actually enjoying the gameplay.
4. They ruined some of the fun parts of HZD. For instance, they nerfed the Tripcaster and other weapons. They also turned Cauldrons into tedious platforming puzzles.
5. They tinkered with the combat, and in my opinion messed it up. In the original game, you could approach combat patiently and strategically. Not so here, because enemy aggressiveness has been turned way up, and enemies close the distance fast. Fights often devolve into close-quarters struggles, with little time to think, just react. It's more action-ey, to be sure, but it's less fun, at least for me. It's more twitch-based, less strategic. This is a shame, because combat in HZD was one of my favorite parts. I still had some fun with combat in Forbidden West, but it didn't come close to the first game.
6. They screwed up Aloy, too. For the first quarter of the game, they turn her into an unlikeable princess: "I don't need nobody. Nobody can save the world except me. Get out of my way boys!" How fucking tiresome. This is a complete change from Aloy's character in the first game, where she was an outcast happy to get help. She had even begun to develop a sense of humor in the Frozen Wilds. But no, in HFW, they turn her into a pain in the neck -- at least for the first quarter of the game. They do it to set up a dopey character arc, so she can realize (big revelation) that "we need friends" (daww). It's very artificial and off-putting. The voice actress also gives her a hard-edged, breathy voice in HFW that I don't like. Oh, and the way Avad, Erend, and Varl all simp for her in the beginning was very cringey. Reel it in, guys. Sheesh. Embarrassing.
7. You get a lot of political messaging here. For instance, you'll see a lot of spindly-armed women in charge of tribes of men. Yes, this was present to some degree in the original, but it was more understandable there; the Nora were a matriarchal society. But here you see it everywhere, in all of the societies -- little woman in charge of burly men. It's completely unrealistic, and it ruins immersion, because it causes me think about the writers' agenda and modern-day politics. I play games for fun and escape, not to get indoctrinated with this nonsense. Societies built on violence and combat would not have women in charge 50% of the time. Occasionally, sure, as an exception to the rule, but gimme a break with the "representation." I can only suspend disbelief so many times before it breaks down. I don't want to be thinking about the feminist agenda of the writers; I want to be immersed in the game world.
8. They screwed up the climbing mechanics, too, which admittedly were not a strength of the first game, but at least they were serviceable. Here, you have a choice between either spamming R3 all the time or else turning cliff markers to "always on," which paints all the mountains with yellow lines. I chose the latter, because constantly scanning for handholds is tedious.
9. There is waaay too much dialog. Man, these people just talk and talk. They will not shut up. I would often end up skipping through dialog sequences, because I was bored. I rarely do that in games. I'm not sure why they thought that putting so much dialog in the game was a good idea. It is not. It was boring. You don't need to endlessly yammer on and on, in order to create a character. You just need a brief portrait. Much of the talk felt like a waste of time. Way overdone.
Overall rating: 7/10.
Edit: I was more generous in the original post, but I have since revised this post to reflect my final thoughts on the game.
I recently got a PS5, bundled with Horizon Forbidden West. HFW was one of my main reasons for picking up a PS5. Here are my thoughts.
Good Things
1. More involved side quests than in the first game.
2. Visually, the game looks better than the first. The first game was already a looker, so that's no mean feat. Environments, textures on clothing, effects, everything looks better.
3. Lip synch and facial animations are improved.
4. They added the ability to tag specific machine parts. That was helpful.
5. They added the ability to reset skill points. That was a nice option.
6. They added a lot of new weapons, armor, and mechanics. While I'm listing this as a plus, it's also a minus (see below). On the plus side, it provides more variety than the first game. And if you enjoy upgrading your gear, you'll have a lot to keep you busy here.
Not So Good Things
1. The game feels bloated -- overstuffed with content. More is less, folks. But no, this game, like a lot of modern games, is a victim of the "more is better" mindset. I mentioned above that there are plenty of new weapons and armors. Yes, but there are so many it is overwhelming, especially when each of them has a labor-intensive upgrade path. I don't have the time to experiment with, upgrade, and become skilled in using all these weapons, guys. That is just one example of the "more more more" overkill. I'll give you some more examples below.
2. The story goes on and on. It is half-decent, I guess, but it doesn't compare to the first game's story at all. This story felt very drawn out and not all that engaging. The "twists" seemed kind of lame. Plus, it's the usual Sony cinematic stuff -- 6 hours of cutscenes for the main story, plus hours more for the sidequests. I've grown increasingly tired of this movie-oriented approach to gaming.
3. There is a flood of things to do -- multitudes of quests, all sorts of new sub-quest types (most of which aren't interesting), new machines, new settlements, new weapons and mechanics, and icons littering the map. Again, folks: more is not necessarily better. I preferred the original's world. It didn't feel empty to me. It felt well-edited, like a good sentence is concise, not overstuffed with verbiage. This feels more like a bloated Ubisoft game. It makes me feel like I have an endless to-do checklist. It's not fun. At a certain point, it dawned on me that I felt more like I "should" play it, because I needed to get X or Y accomplished, rather than actually enjoying the gameplay.
4. They ruined some of the fun parts of HZD. For instance, they nerfed the Tripcaster and other weapons. They also turned Cauldrons into tedious platforming puzzles.
5. They tinkered with the combat, and in my opinion messed it up. In the original game, you could approach combat patiently and strategically. Not so here, because enemy aggressiveness has been turned way up, and enemies close the distance fast. Fights often devolve into close-quarters struggles, with little time to think, just react. It's more action-ey, to be sure, but it's less fun, at least for me. It's more twitch-based, less strategic. This is a shame, because combat in HZD was one of my favorite parts. I still had some fun with combat in Forbidden West, but it didn't come close to the first game.
6. They screwed up Aloy, too. For the first quarter of the game, they turn her into an unlikeable princess: "I don't need nobody. Nobody can save the world except me. Get out of my way boys!" How fucking tiresome. This is a complete change from Aloy's character in the first game, where she was an outcast happy to get help. She had even begun to develop a sense of humor in the Frozen Wilds. But no, in HFW, they turn her into a pain in the neck -- at least for the first quarter of the game. They do it to set up a dopey character arc, so she can realize (big revelation) that "we need friends" (daww). It's very artificial and off-putting. The voice actress also gives her a hard-edged, breathy voice in HFW that I don't like. Oh, and the way Avad, Erend, and Varl all simp for her in the beginning was very cringey. Reel it in, guys. Sheesh. Embarrassing.
7. You get a lot of political messaging here. For instance, you'll see a lot of spindly-armed women in charge of tribes of men. Yes, this was present to some degree in the original, but it was more understandable there; the Nora were a matriarchal society. But here you see it everywhere, in all of the societies -- little woman in charge of burly men. It's completely unrealistic, and it ruins immersion, because it causes me think about the writers' agenda and modern-day politics. I play games for fun and escape, not to get indoctrinated with this nonsense. Societies built on violence and combat would not have women in charge 50% of the time. Occasionally, sure, as an exception to the rule, but gimme a break with the "representation." I can only suspend disbelief so many times before it breaks down. I don't want to be thinking about the feminist agenda of the writers; I want to be immersed in the game world.
8. They screwed up the climbing mechanics, too, which admittedly were not a strength of the first game, but at least they were serviceable. Here, you have a choice between either spamming R3 all the time or else turning cliff markers to "always on," which paints all the mountains with yellow lines. I chose the latter, because constantly scanning for handholds is tedious.
9. There is waaay too much dialog. Man, these people just talk and talk. They will not shut up. I would often end up skipping through dialog sequences, because I was bored. I rarely do that in games. I'm not sure why they thought that putting so much dialog in the game was a good idea. It is not. It was boring. You don't need to endlessly yammer on and on, in order to create a character. You just need a brief portrait. Much of the talk felt like a waste of time. Way overdone.
Overall rating: 7/10.
Edit: I was more generous in the original post, but I have since revised this post to reflect my final thoughts on the game.
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