Simple Soul
Member
I really like Horizon Zero Dawn. The story, surprisingly, was my favorite part. I wasn't expecting that at all, coming into a game with robo-dinosaurs as its selling pitch. The monster design is cool, the real-time and elaborate VATS system is great, it's visually stunning, Aloy is a lot of fun with her spunky and cheeky attitude, as well as her smooth controls. And more, and more.
I've a lot of compliments for the game, but during my second, ongoing playthrough, a certain problem I had throughout the first is still prevalent - I don't really like exploring in Horizon. Sometimes I launch the game for just 15-30 minute play sessions and enjoy the roaming, but mostly on a visual level. Then the initial splendor of the graphics fades, because visuals are always something I get used to quickly, and then I'm left a bit bored when not focusing on a mission.
It has to do with two things - the absence of some RPG staples, and the interaction with the environment, mainly platforming (which actually isn't an RPG staple). The game has more problems, but I want to focus on this because enjoyable exploration is a topic I like in general, and is essential to open worlds, particularly RPGs.
The wilds of HZD hide no weapons or armor for you to claim. All of the game's gear, sans modifications, is acquired through merchants. This arguably makes sense and is more realistic. But ultimately, from a gameplay perspective, I find it less enjoyable. It's a small improvement to the verisimilitude (though maybe not even) at the expense of incentive through rewards and a sense of discovery. Normally in RPGs, when I find myself in some random cave, dungeon or building that I stumbled upon by chance, there's that small tinge of anticipation that at the end of this small adventure I'll find some item of worth. It's a trope, and it's a small thing, but I find it really fun nevertheless. Loot may not be the sole reason for exploring every nook and cranny in big games, but I think it's a pretty significant one. I think part of the reasonit's ignored in Horizon is because HZD's inventory is too streamlined. Classic equipment slots don't exist - no place for a helmet, gloves, boots and shirt, all separate from one another, or even non-visual items like rings and amulets. In HZD you have complete sets, and that restricts how the game can reward you for exploration, because when it's an all-or-nothing design with clothing, you can't sprinkle small but satisfying gear throughout the map.
Settlements are another point. Bluntly put, I didn't care when I reached one. Everything they have to offer is presented right in front of you, and what they have to offer is often boring. An example of something simple - closed buildings. Like with the point about loot, there's something to be said about creating a realistic world - you can't enter random homes and pick stuff up. But, again, from a gameplay perspective, I find it dull. Entering a village or a city where no door can be opened felt very restrictive and somehow made the settlement feel not much different than the wilds. The buildings were essentially pretty blocks, blocks that I couldn't interact with and made much less interesting than what they could have been. No books to be found, scarce few NPCs to idly talk with about their lives, not too many interesting NPC animations.
Interior design can serve as a story-telling device, demonstrating different traits of different villages in different locations of the world. A village in an area plagued by famine would have no food inside the buildings. A village of a hunting tribe might have many trophies inside the homes, of defeated machines, or little bows for the children. Taverns tend to be a staple of RPGs where you can get a lot of information about the world or ongoing quests, maybe find new ones, and play mini-games. Reaching a town means you get to sell a lot of good loot you found in the wilds. It's your chance to finally craft that special weapon or armor you gathered the ingredients for. You get to recover, to clean up your inventory, and then set out again to the wilds. They can be small havens.
All of these little moments were missing for me in HZD. Overall, it made me feel that there wasn't much to see in the towns. The experience was better in Meridian, but only beacuse its size meant there were more journal logs to find. So the only offering was lore, less so anything interesting in the mechanical department, character building. These might seem like quibbles, but they're sincerely things that I found myself missing. I do realize though that if done poorly a lot here can end up harming the experience by being tedious (weight limit, strict crafting processes, fast weapon degradatoin, etc).
My second issue is a mechanical one, and I feel a bit guilty about it because Horizon does more than other RPGs in this field. It's also different by nature than my first point - it's not about existing practices of the genre, but rather a relatively new thing I want to see more of.
Platforming hasn't been a big thing in the genre's history. You'd sometimes spam jump to try and push yourself over some edge (a box, a cliff...), but that's not exactly a feature a game would pride itself on. It's awkward, neither fun to play nor fun to watch. Even if it's not challenigng, having dedicated platforming animations to watch does make the experience of climbing up stuff more enjoyable. That Horizon has them is a step forward for action-RPGs. They're animated well and they're fast. They also allow for some nice instances when it comes to exploration. I remember vaguely from my first playthrough a part where I was high in the mountains, hanging off the side of one and jumping to another, over a deep pit. It was a small moment, but a cool one, made possible only by dedicated platforming features.
That being said, Horizon takes after Uncharted's style of platforming, which to me is negative when it comes to gameplay. It's restrictive in order to be more visually pleasing, and (too) guiding of the player. You can only climb in designated spots. This ended up making exploration a bit disappointing for me, mechanically, and also why I feel a tad guilty about this point. Horizon does more than any other RPG, but ironically that only made me want more. Many times throughout my travels, particularly when I was staring at ruins, I found myself really wanting to climb them. Why? Because I have a monkey brain and reaching high spots is intrinsically fun. I'm not even talking about the huge buildings, just the smaller, collapsed ones. Old homes in the ruined old cities, or 3-4 story buildings.
I feel the same about trees, boulders and natural elevations, or alternatively, about holes in walls of the ruined buildings that you can neither crouch through nor slide through, despite looking of appropriate size. That last point isn't platforming, but it does have to do with interaction with the environment. Every time I try doing that and fail, or walk by some big tree or old building that I can't climb, I feel a pinch of regret that the interaction with Horizon's environments isn't more liberal. Maybe this sentiment wouldn't have risen if there were no platforming at all, or if most of the map were flat, but since I did get a taste of it during the game and a lot of its design is so vertical, it left me wanting more. I haven't thought about it so much as to decide between Assassin Creed's approach or Breath of the Wild's, but I do know at this point that I want future open world games to not be restrictive when it comes to interaction with the environment. Particularly climbing, but not only that.
I've a lot of compliments for the game, but during my second, ongoing playthrough, a certain problem I had throughout the first is still prevalent - I don't really like exploring in Horizon. Sometimes I launch the game for just 15-30 minute play sessions and enjoy the roaming, but mostly on a visual level. Then the initial splendor of the graphics fades, because visuals are always something I get used to quickly, and then I'm left a bit bored when not focusing on a mission.
It has to do with two things - the absence of some RPG staples, and the interaction with the environment, mainly platforming (which actually isn't an RPG staple). The game has more problems, but I want to focus on this because enjoyable exploration is a topic I like in general, and is essential to open worlds, particularly RPGs.
The wilds of HZD hide no weapons or armor for you to claim. All of the game's gear, sans modifications, is acquired through merchants. This arguably makes sense and is more realistic. But ultimately, from a gameplay perspective, I find it less enjoyable. It's a small improvement to the verisimilitude (though maybe not even) at the expense of incentive through rewards and a sense of discovery. Normally in RPGs, when I find myself in some random cave, dungeon or building that I stumbled upon by chance, there's that small tinge of anticipation that at the end of this small adventure I'll find some item of worth. It's a trope, and it's a small thing, but I find it really fun nevertheless. Loot may not be the sole reason for exploring every nook and cranny in big games, but I think it's a pretty significant one. I think part of the reasonit's ignored in Horizon is because HZD's inventory is too streamlined. Classic equipment slots don't exist - no place for a helmet, gloves, boots and shirt, all separate from one another, or even non-visual items like rings and amulets. In HZD you have complete sets, and that restricts how the game can reward you for exploration, because when it's an all-or-nothing design with clothing, you can't sprinkle small but satisfying gear throughout the map.
Settlements are another point. Bluntly put, I didn't care when I reached one. Everything they have to offer is presented right in front of you, and what they have to offer is often boring. An example of something simple - closed buildings. Like with the point about loot, there's something to be said about creating a realistic world - you can't enter random homes and pick stuff up. But, again, from a gameplay perspective, I find it dull. Entering a village or a city where no door can be opened felt very restrictive and somehow made the settlement feel not much different than the wilds. The buildings were essentially pretty blocks, blocks that I couldn't interact with and made much less interesting than what they could have been. No books to be found, scarce few NPCs to idly talk with about their lives, not too many interesting NPC animations.
Interior design can serve as a story-telling device, demonstrating different traits of different villages in different locations of the world. A village in an area plagued by famine would have no food inside the buildings. A village of a hunting tribe might have many trophies inside the homes, of defeated machines, or little bows for the children. Taverns tend to be a staple of RPGs where you can get a lot of information about the world or ongoing quests, maybe find new ones, and play mini-games. Reaching a town means you get to sell a lot of good loot you found in the wilds. It's your chance to finally craft that special weapon or armor you gathered the ingredients for. You get to recover, to clean up your inventory, and then set out again to the wilds. They can be small havens.
All of these little moments were missing for me in HZD. Overall, it made me feel that there wasn't much to see in the towns. The experience was better in Meridian, but only beacuse its size meant there were more journal logs to find. So the only offering was lore, less so anything interesting in the mechanical department, character building. These might seem like quibbles, but they're sincerely things that I found myself missing. I do realize though that if done poorly a lot here can end up harming the experience by being tedious (weight limit, strict crafting processes, fast weapon degradatoin, etc).
My second issue is a mechanical one, and I feel a bit guilty about it because Horizon does more than other RPGs in this field. It's also different by nature than my first point - it's not about existing practices of the genre, but rather a relatively new thing I want to see more of.
Platforming hasn't been a big thing in the genre's history. You'd sometimes spam jump to try and push yourself over some edge (a box, a cliff...), but that's not exactly a feature a game would pride itself on. It's awkward, neither fun to play nor fun to watch. Even if it's not challenigng, having dedicated platforming animations to watch does make the experience of climbing up stuff more enjoyable. That Horizon has them is a step forward for action-RPGs. They're animated well and they're fast. They also allow for some nice instances when it comes to exploration. I remember vaguely from my first playthrough a part where I was high in the mountains, hanging off the side of one and jumping to another, over a deep pit. It was a small moment, but a cool one, made possible only by dedicated platforming features.
That being said, Horizon takes after Uncharted's style of platforming, which to me is negative when it comes to gameplay. It's restrictive in order to be more visually pleasing, and (too) guiding of the player. You can only climb in designated spots. This ended up making exploration a bit disappointing for me, mechanically, and also why I feel a tad guilty about this point. Horizon does more than any other RPG, but ironically that only made me want more. Many times throughout my travels, particularly when I was staring at ruins, I found myself really wanting to climb them. Why? Because I have a monkey brain and reaching high spots is intrinsically fun. I'm not even talking about the huge buildings, just the smaller, collapsed ones. Old homes in the ruined old cities, or 3-4 story buildings.
I feel the same about trees, boulders and natural elevations, or alternatively, about holes in walls of the ruined buildings that you can neither crouch through nor slide through, despite looking of appropriate size. That last point isn't platforming, but it does have to do with interaction with the environment. Every time I try doing that and fail, or walk by some big tree or old building that I can't climb, I feel a pinch of regret that the interaction with Horizon's environments isn't more liberal. Maybe this sentiment wouldn't have risen if there were no platforming at all, or if most of the map were flat, but since I did get a taste of it during the game and a lot of its design is so vertical, it left me wanting more. I haven't thought about it so much as to decide between Assassin Creed's approach or Breath of the Wild's, but I do know at this point that I want future open world games to not be restrictive when it comes to interaction with the environment. Particularly climbing, but not only that.
