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Horizon Zero Dawn |OT| The Land After Time
- Thread starter shinobi602
- Start date
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Mr. PlayStation
Member
That being said, the game truly deserves the high praise. Enjoying the game despite the shortcomings
texhnolyze
Banned
I still think Skyrim still has bigger and more varied cities and settlements compared to Horizon. There's only one major 'city' and maybe like a couple other noticeable settlements in Horizon. There rest are just a few houses placed in a very small area. But I can't blame Horizon at all, because the theme is revolving around tribes. Apparently tribe people don't dwell in big cities. I was hoping that there were at least pretty big tribe settlements.
While I do agree TW3 and Skyrim have better game worlds overall, what Horizon does well is to make use of most landmarks and unique areas on its map for its main and side quests. This is one thing that has always bugged me with GTA5 as one example; you have tons of distinct landmarks to explore in the world, but no missions provide you with the incentive to go there at all. They just become non-interactive art assets you can stumble upon while messing about.
I am about six hours or so into this game, but I find myself struggling through most combat scenarios with a Thunderjaw or Bellowback, relying on a lot of potions. That earlier fight with the corrupted spider thing at the village sure wrecked me. Any good tips?
Also struggling to understand why the writing and voice acting have been so praised so far. Finding the dialogue rough, and the delivery of it to feel very stilted.
One more thing: how did you guys set up your waypoints for the main quest lines? I really didn't like the default setting which is to go along a very specific path, but turning that off might make it way too open, where I'm often falling into situations I have a hard time fighting out of.
Also struggling to understand why the writing and voice acting have been so praised so far. Finding the dialogue rough, and the delivery of it to feel very stilted.
One more thing: how did you guys set up your waypoints for the main quest lines? I really didn't like the default setting which is to go along a very specific path, but turning that off might make it way too open, where I'm often falling into situations I have a hard time fighting out of.
all of my hate
Member
Well, I just finished the main quest.
Goodnight uh, nobody...this may not be a spoiler but i dont feel like being crucified
I wiped once or twice on that fight myself but then I used the fire tripwire and it totally wrecked all the machines. In general I think the fire tripwire is dealing way more damage than my other weapons.
I'll look into that. I have the trip wire I bought from pretty early on in the story but I think it's just a shock one.
MasterMenace
Member
57 hours and platinumed and 100%'d the game.
My tips for all you newcomers
My tips for all you newcomers
- Upgrade your resource pouch capacity to 100 ASAP
- Tearblaster arrows are your friend. Use them before engaging your target
- The best modification is stealth. The best suit for most of the game before late game is the stealth suit. Upgrade with stealth mods. Sell the rest of your mods
- Most verstaile weapons you always want equiped are the 3 types of bow (hunter, sharpshot, warbow). 4th slot can be whatever (my fav is the tearblaster from a side quest)
- Upgrade your medicine pouch ASAP. Get the Scavanger skill upgrades for more loot. Sell excess materials and roll in shards. Buy the rest of stuff you need. EZ economy
KZObsessed
Member
Forced myself to do some main story quests last night, which were great, but I still can't help spending hours just exploring. Yes, other games reward you better for exploration, but the world is so well designed, so varied, I just find it constantly enjoyable to explore.
The Witcher 3 I got bored of exploring/travelling and just stuck to the path to the next mission or fast travelled as much as possible, here I want to go and see everything. Everything is a spectacle. Coming across 2 Thunderjaws or anytime I come across a Stormbird. The Tallnecks are really well done as well. The Cauldrons, the Hunters Trials. Love it.
The Witcher 3 I got bored of exploring/travelling and just stuck to the path to the next mission or fast travelled as much as possible, here I want to go and see everything. Everything is a spectacle. Coming across 2 Thunderjaws or anytime I come across a Stormbird. The Tallnecks are really well done as well. The Cauldrons, the Hunters Trials. Love it.
STILLethal
Member
Feelsbad now that I 100% the game :/ Not a fan of replaying games or continuing to play it after I 100% it. 44hours playing it was more than enough tbh. Hopefully theres a DLC coming out and hopefully ME:A is a good game or Ill just continue being sad
You mentioned you are late game right?! Well,
Sylus' Spear
well while it's not impossible to take on the thunderjaw or other things at that point in the game, the game also out right tells you to not do so until later in the game.
"stay on the paths, the enemies out there are very dangerous" (paraphrase)
you are for the most part supposed to sneak past those and come back to them later.
as for the writing being praised... that is basically everything that you still have to get to. the intro stuff is fine but not great, but the stuff you get into after the stuff you have done is the really well done stuff (and I really enjoyed it)
as for voice acting that is always subjective. personally I think it's good, but in general as long as it is better than This I don't have much of an issue with it lol.
note: I actually really really like the dub to Castle of shikigami 2... it's so bad it's great
Chronospherics
Member
I wish that the overload system was more thought out in general. It's really cool but it's either overpowered, or you can't do what you want with it.
In the future I'd like to see it rebalanced, but more flexible. Maybe overloading would cost Alloy some sort of resource, but once overloaded you could give the creature more specific directions like follow, guard, and mount, etc.
This seems like a fairly obvious expansion of the gameplay systems, being able to mount larger machines, and give machines very specific commands.
If they added that though, you'd perhaps be limited to one hack at a time. Because I imagine gathering machines and bringing them all together would kill performance pretty quickly
I recommend getting the shadow carja bow and avoiding the larger enemies until you hit meridian where you can really upgrade your gear. The shadow carja bow has hardpoint arrows which cost 10/10 sticks/metal but do almost three times the damage of the regular weapons with a few semi decent mods. These arrows also tear very quickly.
For most enemies I found that studying what makes them tough to fight then stripping them of those components first is the best way to go. For instance the belowback loses its flamethrower if you destroy the component under its neck. With a good bow you can take these off in just a few arrows.
Once you've stripped them of their ranged abilities it's usually pretty straight forward. Just delay your rolls until they're about to hit you, the game is pretty generous with its invulnerability frames, the only thing I struggled with somewhat is the thunderjaw who tends to trample you a bit, and the tail slam can be quite fast, but just staying away from him after his components are stripped is a good.
Another tip, the shadow carja bow also comes with fire arrows, these are really good against corrupted enemies or just enemies that don't have a specific resistance to it and don't have components left to shoot. Crucially, they're best used if you just spam them out as quickly as possible (don't draw the arrow back with each shot), they stack burn as a status ailment so it's not about accuracy it's about hitting the target as many times as possible, as quickly as possible.
whassupbun
Member
Question: Do you fight the
more than once? I killed one last night and it was
Rockbreaker
associated with a side quest in the quarry. Does it appear in the open world? I can't imagine it popping up in the wild. I would love to fight one again but I don't have a save game with the side quest still active.
Ruthless_Barbarian
Member
There's at least another sidequest where you fight one. And a corrupted zone where you have to kill 2. They are also out in the wild in the northern part of the desert.
I might be confusing the name of the Thunderjaw with something else...well while it's not impossible to take on the thunderjaw or other things at that point in the game, the game also out right tells you to not do so until later in the game.
"stay on the paths, the enemies out there are very dangerous" (paraphrase)
you are for the most part supposed to sneak past those and come back to them later.
as for the writing being praised... that is basically everything that you still have to get to. the intro stuff is fine but not great, but the stuff you get into after the stuff you have done is the really well done stuff (and I really enjoyed it)
as for voice acting that is always subjective. personally I think it's good, but in general as long as it is better than This I don't have much of an issue with it lol.
note: I actually really really like the dub to Castle of shikigami 2... it's so bad it's great
it's that robot dinosaur that in the beginning of the game where Ross teaches you that final lesson, and you have to basically trap it.
As for the writing, thanks for that, I'll definitely try and push through and see what's up.
whassupbun
Member
Thanks for the fast replies. Good to know, it was a good fight, would love to encounter another one again.
Another silly question, what animal is the Ravager supposed to be? I get that the Sawtooth is a saber toothed tiger, Stalker is a panther, Thunderjaw is a T-Rex, etc. But what's the Ravager? Is it supposed to be a wolf?
The Ravager is just a bigger version of Sawtooth so you could argue it's the same animal.
ah... yeah...
that is a
sawtooth
I still avoided those early on because they are a pain.
thunderjaw is basically a
t-rex
but yeah I hope you enjoy the story once you get into it. learning more about what is going on and what went on in the past was really well done to me and was my main driving force to keep me playing.
michaelius
Banned
That's one of the best thing in the game - as you progress those enemies become easier to defeat but you feel it's not because your character got lot more powerful but because you learned how to deal with them.
To be fair just spamming fire is a less than effective way to combat corrupted bots as it basically balances out their higher HP counts. I found that proc-ing burn and then attacking their major weaknesses was much more effective. E.g. Behemoths I'd engage by knocking their chillwater canisters, waiting for the freeze explosion then hitting the power canisters with shock arrows, waiting for the EMP blast and then proc-ing fire or hitting those force-loader weak points with tear or hardpoint arrows. I found that to be the quickest way to take them down while taking advantage of the AoE properties of their exploding canisters and power cells.
Let me add, it's too bad you can't re-corrupt corrupted bots. I over-rode the GOAT snapmaw yesterday who took out 3 other snapmaws and 3 glinthawks - the way he timed his body blows as they came in low was
He still had a 3rd health afterward. Sure I fired an arrow or two here and there but he was pulling all the weight. A real champ
SolidChamp
Banned
I wonder if my PS4 Pro hard drive is crapping out.
I noticed a lot more asset streaming/pop in lately, but admittedly only noticed it after Firmware 4.5, so who knows.
But I decided to try deleting the Horizon application and reinstalling (from disc), and it's taking fucking forever to reinstall.
I remember other games installing from disc super quick.
Is it just me? Would anyone with a Pro and a physical copy be willing to uninstall and reinstall and tell me if the install times are the same?
Edit: This would help me out a lot as I'm paranoid about my Pro having issues.
I noticed a lot more asset streaming/pop in lately, but admittedly only noticed it after Firmware 4.5, so who knows.
But I decided to try deleting the Horizon application and reinstalling (from disc), and it's taking fucking forever to reinstall.
I remember other games installing from disc super quick.
Is it just me? Would anyone with a Pro and a physical copy be willing to uninstall and reinstall and tell me if the install times are the same?
Edit: This would help me out a lot as I'm paranoid about my Pro having issues.
Horizon took like 20 minutes to install for me. I have no proof but I'm pretty sure 1.03 somehow made pop in worse.
SolidChamp
Banned
Yeah 20 minutes is about what this took just now. And I feel like I didn't notice any pop-in whatsoever on 1.02.
Yep.
After so many hours I still love to fight against random dinos and the graphics/geography are a pure joy, so I still wander with pleasure. But in therms of pure exploration, sense of discover and meaningful use of the enviroments the game is pretty much uninteresting and lacklustre.
There is alot of room for improvement in this department and hopefully they will do that in the sequel.
nah 1.03 clearly made pop in worse.
I barely noticed it all while playing or watch my wife play... and as soon as I installed that I noticed it all of the time in both.
yup... while I consider horizon to be a very good game... I didn't have much motivation to explore things.
I was having the same problem with ff15.
and hopefully with zelda that won't be the case.
that being said I hands down would prefer the main story to be interesting and a driving force to play more than the exploration be so interesting I don't continue the main quest. As it stands right now I think horizon has one of my favorite main stories of all time. I did some side quests but only the ones that interested me, but overall there wasn't any grinding needed to be done or anything like that.
far to often in open world games I am given the world and just expected to run around it doing a lot of stuff... I mean I can see the appeal but I much prefer this clear focus.
I was surprised by a razrback who knocked me into a downhill stream. Took me a while to get back up. By then my broadhead had killed it!
As far as the story missions go, still very entertaining and they ratchet up at a good pace. I also finally died - mistimed a jump. Also came real close to dying while fighting a snapmaw that seemed to randomly spawn in the middle of the desert. Right as I was about to take it out, a damn thundermaw came out of nowhere. I managed to terablast off one of its disc launchers, used that to kill all the adds, then ran.
As far as the story missions go, still very entertaining and they ratchet up at a good pace. I also finally died - mistimed a jump. Also came real close to dying while fighting a snapmaw that seemed to randomly spawn in the middle of the desert. Right as I was about to take it out, a damn thundermaw came out of nowhere. I managed to terablast off one of its disc launchers, used that to kill all the adds, then ran.
TheKingOfPain
Member
Nope.
Thanks.
Well, I guess I'll just have to power through until I get more skill points.
ManUnkindH
Member
Is there a trophy for finishing the game on hard dif or I'm just making my life miserable for no reason? ) Everything was fine until I got to that bird robot thing which destroys me....
) Everything was fine until I got to that bird robot thing which destroys me....Donniewahlberg
Banned
It's definitely not your pro. It's either the newest patch or a bug to do with using an external HDD? I never noticed it until those two changes, not sure which though. I noticed almost no pop in until then though. If you're just using internal HDD I guess it was the patch.
SolidChamp
Banned
I wonder if Digital Foundry could investigate...
Good to know. Not using an external for this one. Installed other, smaller games to the external.
Is there a trophy for finishing the game on hard dif or I'm just making my life miserable for no reason?
I don't think difficulty effects anything but the difficulty.
so yes... you are just making your life miserable for no reason.
whassupbun
Member
No trophy associated with game difficulty. Feel free to lower it at any point of the game. You can platinum the game while playing on Easy the whole way through.Is there a trophy for finishing the game on hard dif or I'm just making my life miserable for no reason?
TAJ
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Mine are usually incredibly aggressive. I've had one kill three of its own type in ten seconds flat.
But yeah, sometimes they just sit there.
ManUnkindH
Member
Thanks.
So am I supposed to fight that bird at the first encounter or just avoid it for the moment? I'm on my way to Meridian, just leaving the first big area of the game...
in general unless you are doing a quest that tells you to kill something, you aren't supposed to do anything
you have the option of fighting the bird, but most of the big stuff where you are at will likely murder you hard and is best left until you have better equipment.
There's a lot of useless shit I'm gathering now. My resource bag is always full of just...stuff and not even good stuck that sells for much. On top of that I have way too many herbs for potions and always scrounging for healing herbs which is so annoying. I wanted to stock up before fighting a thunderjaw for a trophy and I had to walk so far around just to fill up all my bars.
Another thing I'm starting to get peeved about: the inventory. It is a nightmare trying to sell items just to clear space. And why can't I delete things instead of dropping them, causing me to pick it back up when I try to loot the monster I just downed.
Another thing I'm starting to get peeved about: the inventory. It is a nightmare trying to sell items just to clear space. And why can't I delete things instead of dropping them, causing me to pick it back up when I try to loot the monster I just downed.
Infinite_Daremo
Member
So I platinum'd the game at the weekend.
I loved the Story but
Gameplay was amazing. I kept flip flopping between fight went horrendously to grade A badass luring an enemy through multiple traps, freezing it and decimating it with multiple arrows to a weakpoint in slow motion. I don't think it ever got old. Taking down Thunderjaws with their own cannons has to be one of the most satisfying kills i've encountered (except the first time you killed Tigrex in a MH game). The varying ways you can take down any beast is also impressive. I barely used the Ropecaster until late game but that in conjunction with almost any enemy makes fights much easier. Luring enemies through trip wires and mines you've set up gave a great sense of satisfaction knowing you prepared and predicted it happening the exact way you wanted. Overriding broke the game once you unlocked them. Having one Snapjaw take down 3 other enemies for me as I sniped the last hit for the XP seemed a bit over powered but it did lend itself to stealth builds. Human enemy encounters were a chore. They were not fun in the slightest. It was each headshot until revealed at which point you could run and hide for the AI to give up really easily or pick up a heavy weapon and mow them all down. Side quests were un-imaginative and repetitive and don't bare talking much about really. Standard open world fare for side quests sadly. I enjoyed a a lot of the challenges, Banuk figures were interesting being tucked away behind mountainous climbs with interesting vistas, but metal flowers and artefacts were just a chore to collect. Corruption zones were exciting and tense fights which progressed really well with the difficulty curve and your experience gain... but 2 Rockbreakers.... dear fucking god!
Towards the mid game however the gameplay became a bit stale. I had all the best weapons, I had over 10k shards in reserve. Exploring and shopping became meaningless as there is nothing worth discovering that would empower you. The only place in the game with some explorable loot was a cave you find right at the start with the ancient armour. Around this point I stopped exploring and even avoiding a lot of encounters because there was no longer any reward for doing so. A major disappointment from an exploration standpoint!
Characters. Aloy was an amazing character from start to finish. You bond with her from the get go in her child stage. Stumbling into a ruin and discovering the Focus to watch a birthday wish from a father of long ago to seeing Aloys young face beam with excitement was an instant connection. Quickly going into watching her being shunned by other tribe members and her following reaction to her training to prove herself. The majority or the character bond formed within the first 30 minutes of the game. After the proving though and
I felt no bond or cared for any newly introduced character. They all felt distant and disjointed from the adventure and I failed to care for the pitiful tribal matters when I wanted to uncover old world tech and story. The player choice segments in conversations were annoying too. I would have rather Aloys personality play out to how the designers wished her to be and considering the choices affecting nothing besides the next clip of the cutscene they were overall pointless. And why did Rost stop that stone hitting that little shits face, thanks for ruining that moment for me dick!
Sound and Music. Honestly can't even remember a single composition from the game. Nothing stood out to me at all. Voice acting ranged from OK to bad but sound isn't really an area I care too much about.
Graphics. Pretty. Don't really care much though.
Overall a great game which I enjoyed which succumbed to regular open world fatigue towards the end due to itemisation and lack of exploration incentive.
I loved the Story but
it seemed to fall flat on its arse towards the end. I had so many different outcomes playing out in my head with plot twists that never happened and it just turned out to be the standard shit save the day ending with an antagonist who wants to destroy the world. Uncovering the reason as to why the world came to an end was ultimately more interesting than the story that played out. I preferred the 4chan leak story where everyone was a robot and the new world cycle happened many times before this one. Also did we ever find out why Rost was outcast? I don't know if I zoned out when this was mentioned or I just didn't pursue it in an optional conversation.
Gameplay was amazing. I kept flip flopping between fight went horrendously to grade A badass luring an enemy through multiple traps, freezing it and decimating it with multiple arrows to a weakpoint in slow motion. I don't think it ever got old. Taking down Thunderjaws with their own cannons has to be one of the most satisfying kills i've encountered (except the first time you killed Tigrex in a MH game). The varying ways you can take down any beast is also impressive. I barely used the Ropecaster until late game but that in conjunction with almost any enemy makes fights much easier. Luring enemies through trip wires and mines you've set up gave a great sense of satisfaction knowing you prepared and predicted it happening the exact way you wanted. Overriding broke the game once you unlocked them. Having one Snapjaw take down 3 other enemies for me as I sniped the last hit for the XP seemed a bit over powered but it did lend itself to stealth builds. Human enemy encounters were a chore. They were not fun in the slightest. It was each headshot until revealed at which point you could run and hide for the AI to give up really easily or pick up a heavy weapon and mow them all down. Side quests were un-imaginative and repetitive and don't bare talking much about really. Standard open world fare for side quests sadly. I enjoyed a a lot of the challenges, Banuk figures were interesting being tucked away behind mountainous climbs with interesting vistas, but metal flowers and artefacts were just a chore to collect. Corruption zones were exciting and tense fights which progressed really well with the difficulty curve and your experience gain... but 2 Rockbreakers.... dear fucking god!
Towards the mid game however the gameplay became a bit stale. I had all the best weapons, I had over 10k shards in reserve. Exploring and shopping became meaningless as there is nothing worth discovering that would empower you. The only place in the game with some explorable loot was a cave you find right at the start with the ancient armour. Around this point I stopped exploring and even avoiding a lot of encounters because there was no longer any reward for doing so. A major disappointment from an exploration standpoint!
Characters. Aloy was an amazing character from start to finish. You bond with her from the get go in her child stage. Stumbling into a ruin and discovering the Focus to watch a birthday wish from a father of long ago to seeing Aloys young face beam with excitement was an instant connection. Quickly going into watching her being shunned by other tribe members and her following reaction to her training to prove herself. The majority or the character bond formed within the first 30 minutes of the game. After the proving though and
Rost's death
Sound and Music. Honestly can't even remember a single composition from the game. Nothing stood out to me at all. Voice acting ranged from OK to bad but sound isn't really an area I care too much about.
Graphics. Pretty. Don't really care much though.
Overall a great game which I enjoyed which succumbed to regular open world fatigue towards the end due to itemisation and lack of exploration incentive.
GlamFM
Banned
I held on to robot parts for way to long. After getting your basic set of weapons / armor in Meridian you can just get rid of all of it.
Maybe keep the parts of the robots that are harder to fight.
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