So I haven't been able to play at all this week. I've been living a bit vicariously through this thread, during downtime at work. It's kind of been murder, but I should get to immerse myself fairly totally over the weekend, and cannot fucking wait.
I have a question to put forward about play styles and play time. So far I've done most of the main quest stuff related to the Devil's ruins in the eastern bobble of the map, and haven't progressed at all (but am shortly about to) into the larger western swelling.
I've done a couple of side quests, and enjoyed doing them ... But after that I've actually avoided even picking them up. The reason being that I'm one of those who need to feel like my actions in the game make sense for the character at the time. I really need to feel like the whole experience comes together as a sensible story; whereas frequently picking up tons of side quests feels to me like the character is wasting valuable time, in the context of their Big Important Mission.
So far, the activities that I feel 'fit' the role and story of Aloy, are:
- Main quest stuff
- Farting about in the grass getting better at fighting dinos
- Exploring those bits of the world that are either a) directly in the way of the above, or b) fall into an ideal cross section of distance from where I am now versus an assessment of potential interestingness. My Aloy is a go-getter, but does also have a natural curiosity about this new world before her.
The side missions I have done so far do seem relevant to the character and the world - helping people in need and so on - and I can believe that Aloy would want to get involved in them. It's just that I always have this sense of being drawn as directly as possible towards the resolution of the biggest problems I'm faced with; and side quests just give me this headachey feeling of contraflow.
This isn't too say I'm rushing the game. Counter-intuitively, I think I've spent twenty something hours just getting this far. I creep around the place, taking in details, panning the camera slowly about, walking my first passage through new areas, and generally trying to make the game as cinematic as possible. This takes time, and playing on hard seems to fit this style well, especially given my rather slight gaming skills. I'm definitely getting my money's worth here.
I'm kind of treating the side quests I'm missing as a stock of self-built post-game DLC. Collectables also fall into this category. I realise these elements actually provide a drip-feed of world building context, so I will be kind of missing out, at least at first, and I do feel that will be a pity. So my question is: did anyone else play in this sort of manner, and was it fun touring the world post-game, knocking out side quests and picking up lore? And is there any chance the side quests will lack valuable context after the main mission is actually complete? Would you recommend making a bit more effort to visit these pesky exclamation points and find out what the noise is?
TY for reading ^^