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Horizon Zero Dawn SPOILERS Thread

Great game. I'm kind of wondering where they can go from here. I didn't pay attention to all the data logs, but the story seems very focused on what the U.S. did. I'd assume other countries had their own plans for survival if they weren't all working together. Maybe see a parallel story with other characters. One thing that disappoints me is we didn't get a Voltron machine combo.
 

Iksenpets

Banned
Ah cause I was thinking maybe the signal was sent from them. I doubt that story would be false, but who knows.

I just finished the game, and this was the impression I came away with. Way too much was written about Far Zenith/Odyssey for it to be some throwaway plotline they just wrote up so fans wouldn't ask why no one tried a spaceship.

And, barring something completely random, they seem like the only plausible source of the signal. Maybe they want Earth back and figured the easiest way would just be to redo the extinction and terraform the planet for themselves? Or when they arrived and saw that Apollo had failed and Earth was inhabited by superstitious tribes, they figured it would be easier to just kill them all then to make first contact and try to educate them all?
 

Venture

Member
Keep in mind the signal didn't necessarily come from space, just somewhere outside Alpha Prime. There were other bunkers and shelters besides the Zero Dawn project that it could have been sent from. Still, it does seem likely there's more to the Odyssey story.
 

Takuhi

Member
Phew! Finally beat this game. I've enjoyed reading through this thread and picking up on things I've missed. Two questions, though...

1. The world is still fucked, right? Because nothing Aloy did changes the fact that Haphaestus is still independent and is creating progressively more dangerous machines with the goal of culling humanity?

2. What was the function of the first bunker, where young Aloy finds the focus?
 

Moneal

Member
Phew! Finally beat this game. I've enjoyed reading through this thread and picking up on things I've missed. Two questions, though...

1. The world is still fucked, right? Because nothing Aloy did changes the fact that Haphaestus is still independent and is creating progressively more dangerous machines with the goal of culling humanity?

2. What was the function of the first bunker, where young Aloy finds the focus?

1. Aloy has a path to fixing everything, recreating GAIA. That's probably what the sequels will be about. Haphaestus machines aren't trying to kill all humans, they were created to protect each other. They aren't attacking the people's settlements, unless something is affecting them, which Aloy can fix in many cases. Aloy stopping the guys killing the crocs and causing the birds from coming too close to the human town or destroying the beacons that are drawing the machines to those places.

2. I don't remember the first bunker much, but i thought it was like a back end for the cradle facility.
 

Takuhi

Member
1. Aloy has a path to fixing everything, recreating GAIA. That's probably what the sequels will be about. Haphaestus machines aren't trying to kill all humans, they were created to protect each other. They aren't attacking the people's settlements, unless something is affecting them, which Aloy can fix in many cases. Aloy stopping the guys killing the crocs and causing the birds from coming too close to the human town or destroying the beacons that are drawing the machines to those places.

Thanks for replying! I thought I remembered the data files from the cauldrons showing that their orders were changed to "CULL" at some point. Although I guess you're right that the behavior shown in the game is that they don't actively seek out humans.
 
2. What was the function of the first bunker, where young Aloy finds the focus?

I don't think it's outright stated anywhere, but considering it's where you find the happy birthday message from the Project scientist to his son, it's pretty safe to assume that bunker was actually Elysium, the safe habitat for the scientists and their families.
 

Hawkian

The Cryptarch's Bane
Thanks for replying! I thought I remembered the data files from the cauldrons showing that their orders were changed to "CULL" at some point. Although I guess you're right that the behavior shown in the game is that they don't actively seek out humans.
I thought it was HADES that was the cause of that order.
 

Tigress

Member
I don't think it's outright stated anywhere, but considering it's where you find the happy birthday message from the Project scientist to his son, it's pretty safe to assume that bunker was actually Elysium, the safe habitat for the scientists and their families.

The crater she goes to at one of the last missions is Elysium (the one in the middle of the north border of the map). I'm guessing the bunker she falls into at the beginning is one of hte ones for the scientists trying to create Gaia.
 

Venture

Member
2. I don't remember the first bunker much, but i thought it was like a back end for the cradle facility.
Yeah, given it's location I think it might have been some kind of facility involved in building that Cradle or just supporting some other aspect of Project Zero Dawn.

The crater she goes to at one of the last missions is Elysium (the one in the middle of the north border of the map). I'm guessing the bunker she falls into at the beginning is one of hte ones for the scientists trying to create Gaia.
You're thinking of Gaia Prime, I believe. Elysium was where all the families and lower level project personnel escaped to. One of the datapoints mentions it's only a few miles from Alpha Prime but I don't think it appears in the game anywhere.
 

Nydius

Member
I have multiple friends still playing through the game at their own pace and it's killing me because I want to hear their reactions to the exposition dumps in Maker's End and Deep Secrets of the Earth but they're still putzing around doing stuff in Meridian.

Couldn't believe I got into a quasi-debate with one of them about location when the game is pretty clear it's Colorado and Utah, with the game going so far as to give certain vantages with present day real world names (Colorado Springs, King's Peak, Lake Powell, Monument Park, etc). Maybe it's just because I've had the fortune of travel but it was pretty clear after seeing the Air Force Academy.. err, Air Combat Academy.. vantage that All Mother Mountain was either Almagre Mountain or Cheyenne Mountain. I can't wait for the Frozen Wilds and our trip up to Yellowstone/Wyoming.
 

shiba5

Member
Elysium is not that first bunker. Elysium was supposed to have had 2000 people living in it and the first bunker is way too small and there are no data logs that reference it. It seems to have been just a small group of scientists that got overrun and who opted to euthanize themselves (mostly).
My guess is the "Happy birthday Isaac" guy may have been talking to his family living in Elysium.
 
Just finished the game - just spectacular.

One question about the plot- what happened to Rost's family? Why would the raiders go through the pain of kidnapping people to just slit their throat behind some border the Nora can't reach? What where those weird noises Teersa mentions?
 
Just finished the game - just spectacular.

One question about the plot- what happened to Rost's family? Why would the raiders go through the pain of kidnapping people to just slit their throat behind some border the Nora can't reach? What where those weird noises Teersa mentions?
Probably something to do with whoever sent the signal that freed HADES.
 

Whompa02

Member
Great game! Loved the characters, lore, gameplay and visuals.

Few nit picks:

- I feel like they could have trimmed the whole game down a bit. Some areas/quests just felt overly long. The repetition of, go here, info dump, use focus, whatever, fight a few robots/humans just got a little too similar after 20-30 hours...The game kind of ended for me a few quests before finally finishing it in that regard. I would have been more focused at the actual ending if the pacing was a little better. It's a universal gripe with open world games where the pacing generally suffers in narrative driven games.

- story was good, but just kind of ended on a whimper. Possibly due to knowing what was going to happen with all the exposition prior, or that the last bosses were just kind of lame. I fully expected Hades to be one of those giant ancient spider mechs and that you'd have to use climbing and fighting and a bunch of other skills and weapons that you obtained along the way to win. Kind of let down that it was just the same big robots you always fought and that all you had to do was shoot arrows at them...

- dialog wheel was almost entirely superficial. If you want me to pick what someone says, let me decide the outcomes of conversations.

Overall though, the gameplay was super tight and I loved the world they built. It was truly a unique landscape they built and far more interesting than a lot of games.
 
- dialog wheel was almost entirely superficial. If you want me to pick what someone says, let me decide the outcomes of conversations.

This was on purpose and I actually like it. You're given the choice of flavor to Aloy's actions, but they're all consistent with who she is as a character. Multiple conversation outcomes invariably degenerate into characters that make no sense as players try to min-max and game the system.
 

Bedlam

Member
- story was good, but just kind of ended on a whimper. Possibly due to knowing what was going to happen with all the exposition prior, or that the last bosses were just kind of lame. I fully expected Hades to be one of those giant ancient spider mechs and that you'd have to use climbing and fighting and a bunch of other skills and weapons that you obtained along the way to win. Kind of let down that it was just the same big robots you always fought and that all you had to do was shoot arrows at them...

Yep. I felt the same about the ending and I was also expecting a fight against the Metal Devil, which the game kind of built up to.

My hopes were especially high after I listened to Jeff Gerstmann constantly hyping up the game's endgame as "when you think it ends, it just keeps going" etc. But nope...
 

Whompa02

Member
This was on purpose and I actually like it. You're given the choice of flavor to Aloy's actions, but they're all consistent with who she is as a character. Multiple conversation outcomes invariably degenerate into characters that make no sense as players try to min-max and game the system.

I think that was more a way to streamline the game design. No extra outcomes for devs to worry about. Less dev time on some alternative pathways. Felt cheap, especially if I'm meant to influence the world, as a character. I felt slightly robbed that nothing different actually comes from your "heart" "fist" or "brain" decisions.
 
I think that was more a way to streamline the game design.

Nope, the devs outright said that you're not meant to "influence the world", that the choices are given so you can select what resonates more with you, but that the story is Aloy's, not yours.

Now, that could be just an excuse, but sincerely, the game is much better for that.
 

Whompa02

Member
Fair enough. I just found it weird because Aloy was praised as someone who influences the world. I guess she also rejected that notion in the game, but her whole "destiny" plot thread kind of contradicted that as well.

I still loved the game, just felt a little cheated on that.

Yep. I felt the same about the ending and I was also expecting a fight against the Metal Devil, which the game kind of built up to.

My hopes were especially high after I listened to Jeff Gerstmann constantly hyping up the game's endgame as "when you think it ends, it just keeps going" etc. But nope...

Preach it brother...what could have been!!! I guess the inevitable sequel will have more I'm sure.
 
Great game! Loved the characters, lore, gameplay and visuals.

Few nit picks:

- I feel like they could have trimmed the whole game down a bit. Some areas/quests just felt overly long. The repetition of, go here, info dump, use focus, whatever, fight a few robots/humans just got a little too similar after 20-30 hours...The game kind of ended for me a few quests before finally finishing it in that regard. I would have been more focused at the actual ending if the pacing was a little better. It's a universal gripe with open world games where the pacing generally suffers in narrative driven games.

- story was good, but just kind of ended on a whimper. Possibly due to knowing what was going to happen with all the exposition prior, or that the last bosses were just kind of lame. I fully expected Hades to be one of those giant ancient spider mechs and that you'd have to use climbing and fighting and a bunch of other skills and weapons that you obtained along the way to win. Kind of let down that it was just the same big robots you always fought and that all you had to do was shoot arrows at them...

- dialog wheel was almost entirely superficial. If you want me to pick what someone says, let me decide the outcomes of conversations.

Overall though, the gameplay was super tight and I loved the world they built. It was truly a unique landscape they built and far more interesting than a lot of games.

With the wheel, it was more to color the game and to decide how much exposition you wanted. Some people who played it skipped a lot of the exposition, some people (like me) wanted to know everything. So it was more, "How would Aloy react in the moment?" than altering the outcomes.

Not that I mind a Witcher/Mass Effect kind of thing, but I commend them for not overhyping it and telling us exactly what we are getting, and it is helpful in subsequent playthroughs when you want to get maybe a certain amount of info and want to control it.

Glad you loved it, and welcome to the club! Now join the plat club. ;)
 

RalchAC

Member
I finished this game a few days ago and I have to say this game has some of the best writting I've ever experienced in a game. Loved the story a lot.

- Aloy is a great character and the game makes sure that you manage to know her better as the story progresses. There are a lot of little moments, like the banter when you're in the open world, how she reacts to other characters and what they say, her natural curiosity and how she becomes more open as the story advances. If somebody hasn't done it, going to Rost's tomb every once in a while is great. She talks to his grave and shares his thoughts, feelings and opinions. I think she had a nice dynamic with Sylens. She is smart and curious, but good hearted and passionate. Sylens is much colder, and he thinks knowledge is the most important thing. I kind of appreciated when he said "you know, I'd have done it even if I knew the consequences".

- The Vantages are a must read. There is much more text than the little audio fragment. Read them in order. It's great. Nice little story.

- The game has the best implementation of audio logs I can remember since... the original Bioshock maybe? I really loved how you can see what happened in Grave Hoard through audio logs and the ruin, how they describe the changing atmosphere of the whole project as it progresses and how they managed to flesh out most of the alphas working at Zero Dawn.

- Gaia, and the idea of creating an AI that will rebuild the world once it's been consumed was a great twist. I loved the audios when you have her, Sobeck, and other people talking to each other. Gaia feeling sad because dinosaurs were extinct was one of my favorite bits. Really cool little detail.

- The twist, as said before was great. I was spoiled that Aloy is a clone, but that was like the least important thing of it all.

- I really liked the quest line in the Hunter Lodge. Really nice chemistry between Aloy and Talanah.

- I managed the Platinum in 50 hours. So I had cleared all the different Secondary Quests in the game when I got to the final battle. Seeing all the people you've helped gathering to defend Meridian because of you was great. I'm a sucker for this kind of moments (Persona 5 did a similar thing near the end and I loved it too).

- Kudos to Guerilla for the Chief Guard of the Carja's Prison.
 
- The Vantages are a must read. There is much more text than the little audio fragment. Read them in order. It's great. Nice little story.

The Banuk figures also have a pretty cool little story, and the Metal Flowers have some pretty nice poetry.

I really love that the collectibles either have their own little narratives that enrich the game world. Even the Vessels bear logos from the companies that are mentioned through the game.
 

RalchAC

Member
The Banuk figures also have a pretty cool little story, and the Metal Flowers have some pretty nice poetry.

I really love that the collectibles either have their own little narratives that enrich the game world. Even the Vessels bear logos from the companies that are mentioned through the game.

Didn't know about the Metal Flowers. The ending cutscene where you can see Sobeck corpse was great though. Having her talking with Gaia and her body surrounded by a triangle of flowers.

Metal Flowers were a tribute from Gaia after all. Great stuff.

I'll read them.
 

Kumquat

Member
So, speculation time. Gaia was taken offline by the combination of an AI-attack/virus/whatever that also made all the sub-routines go rogue, resulting in at least Hephaestus starting to make the bot-lifeforms both armed and more aggressive and Hades deciding that now would be a good time to kill everything all over again, and some very notable physical damage on the installation due to something being smashed on the complex from above.

Such a signal would require someone who is up to date with the computer and AI tech. Such physical damage would essentially demand either very advanced weaponry, or dropping something of decent density from the orbit. There was also the satellite in the Banuk camp that had a calming effect on the machine lifeforms. I'd say it is pretty safe to say that some part of the Odysseus expedition did survive their catastrophic failure of their departure attempt from the solar system and are up to no good for whatever reason. Could be a bunch of "advanced" humans who don't like the "primitives" down there or the somehow gone rogue Alpha version of Apollo taking matters on its own hands due to whatever reason.

I know this is a bump from ages ago but I like the cut of your jib.

I was thinking on this further and we know that the space mission had its own copy of Apollo right? Could Apollo be all like, welp, the savages have run amok. Time to clean it up and try again so I can educate them all properly instead of letting them all run around worshipping the sun and door bots.
 

RalchAC

Member
I know this is a bump from ages ago but I like the cut of your jib.

I was thinking on this further and we know that the space mission had its own copy of Apollo right? Could Apollo be all like, welp, the savages have run amok. Time to clean it up and try again so I can educate them all properly instead of letting them all run around worshipping the sun and door bots.

It had the Alpha version of Apollo, IIRC it's stated in the same audio log where it's stated that Odyssey failed.

In any case, Apollo was shut down and his data was erased by Ted Faro. Having a fragment of the Odyssey would be interesting.

Did you guys read the text unlocked when hacking the Tallneck? Im not 100% sure, but didn't it say something about "Checking Sleeping Agents: 43/47 remain". I dunno the exact words in English, played the game in Spanish
 

Owzers

Member
One thing that I was hung up on...can a Horus make a Horus? How many titans were in the initial swarm? If corruptors were hacking other Horus units, wouldn't corporations destroy theirs first?

Finished just now, liked it a lot but not so much how they told the story, later on when you go into bunkers and there are three devices to scan/read in one room it just gets clumsy. I also didn't like fights that were close quarters, only a few but it feels at odds with the game mechanics. It would have been nice if at the end of the game you could have more battles with overridden monsters on your side, mostly they were all corruptor/death thing machines.
 

Vasili2K38

Member
Finished the game a few days ago.. I loved it. About the sequel posibilities, I think we have two options:

a) Simply following the path of Aloy restoring Gaia, traveling to another regions and facing other difficulties (and taking into account Sylens and Hades), and leaving kind of apart the "transmission". The most conservative option.*

b) Or the crazy one, which I would love it, go the Odyssey route, that after 1000 years the "others" have come back, and probably with not the best intentions (and they would be the ones behind the transmission).

* I think Frozen Wilds will be something like this.

And also I was kind fo disspointed to not fight a Horus (obviously with some kind of help, riding a Thunderjaw or something like that :D).
 
I got my 1st Platinum! I loved the side content.

Complaints

I hate the Hunting site time trails. I don't like time based gameplay period. Not fun at all.

Not enough content. I enjoyed all the side missions and wish there was more to do in the game. After I got the Platinum part of me was sad because I knew there wasn't much more in the game.

Skill Tree was kind of lame/Bare bones

Ancient Armor didn't make it so that predators machines didn't follow me around. Would've loved this.

What I loved

Everything else!!!


Great characters, Great Story, Great gameplay, and it was more RPG then I expected and loved it for that.



-------------

I'm not 100% where this game takes place. Is it accross 2 states? I read above that it may take place in Colorado and Utah?

Faro is a idiot that doesn't know what he's doing but has the money to do it anyway. The real main villain in this game isn't a ultimate evil but stupidity.

The Banuk needs to stop putting shit in those pain in the ass places to reach. Yeah I know it was one guy but if he does it I'm willing to bet there's an entire tribe of ass holes climbing mouthing and leaving wooden figures in hard to reach place for the hell of it. I love the story told with those figures.

I have a bad memory but didn't Sylen mention to Hades at some point he wanted to know who sent Hades that "signal" or something like that?

How did Aloy know to call her device a "Focus"? At first I thought that was just the name she gave it but them Gaia Prime or something in Gaia Prime referred to it as that as well.
 

Nydius

Member
I'm not 100% where this game takes place. Is it accross 2 states? I read above that it may take place in Colorado and Utah?

Congrats on the platinum!

Yep, it's a condensed area of Colorado and Utah. All Mother Mountain is just to the west of Colorado Springs (best guess, it's either modern day Almagre Mountain or Cheyenne Mountain). The first part of the game, you're in a condensed area of Colorado Springs, up north to the lower part of Denver, and you head west through Aspen/Vail on your way to the Sungate. After crossing the Sungate, you're in Utah around modern day Moab. The western parts of the game takes place in Utah, with Sunfall being just on the outskirts of Bryce Canyon, UT. The body of water out west is Lake Powell and the sand dunes area is probably modern day Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, or thereabouts.
 

Vasili2K38

Member
I got my 1st Platinum! I loved the side content.

Complaints

I hate the Hunting site time trails. I don't like time based gameplay period. Not fun at all.

I think they are fine, they are totally optional (only needed for the trohpy for the Platinum, and the weapons you get are slightly better versions of the Shadow Carja ones). They are supposed to get you out of the comfort zone and try new things, but honestly if you do it at the end of the game you are fairly overpowered.

Not enough content. I enjoyed all the side missions and wish there was more to do in the game. After I got the Platinum part of me was sad because I knew there wasn't much more in the game.

Honestly, I have 97% in the game now, playing in Hard and with a minimalist customised HUD (no compass and markers to encourage exploration), I miss like a third of the collectables to the 100%, and I played 82 hours. Its more than enough, I prefer a good tight designed experience than a bloated one.

Skill Tree was kind of lame/Bare bones

Yep, but I think they have a good foundation for the next game, I think they need to tone dawn the stealth, the Nora purple stealth armor with purple mods its overpowered as fuck.

Ancient Armor didn't make it so that predators machines didn't follow me around. Would've loved this.

That.. has no sense XD. Why a ancient technology armor from almost 1000 years ago would effect the current machines?

I have a bad memory but didn't Sylen mention to Hades at some point he wanted to know who sent Hades that "signal" or something like that?

Yep, one of the sequel hooks.

How did Aloy know to call her device a "Focus"? At first I thought that was just the name she gave it but them Gaia Prime or something in Gaia Prime referred to it as that as well.

Mmmm I don't remember exactly, I think it was Olin who tell her at the beginning of the game (when they met before the Proving).
 
I just finished the game, and this was the impression I came away with. Way too much was written about Far Zenith/Odyssey for it to be some throwaway plotline they just wrote up so fans wouldn't ask why no one tried a spaceship.

And, barring something completely random, they seem like the only plausible source of the signal. Maybe they want Earth back and figured the easiest way would just be to redo the extinction and terraform the planet for themselves? Or when they arrived and saw that Apollo had failed and Earth was inhabited by superstitious tribes, they figured it would be easier to just kill them all then to make first contact and try to educate them all?
I think it's likely, also, that whoever or whatever sent the signal didn't plan to have Hades become independent and try to wipe out all life. The aim was to cripple Gaia - all of the other subroutines becoming independently operational was an unexpected side effect.
 

BiGBoSSMk23

A company being excited for their new game is a huge slap in the face to all the fans that liked their old games.
Odyssey was a failed ship/station that was bought by a group of secretive billionaires (Far Zenith). The Odyssey reaches the edge of the solar system and then, according to a message from Far Zenith, suffers a catastrophic failure resulting in the loss of the ship and crew. Whether that message is actually true remains to be seen.

I had a theory all throughout the ending that the people from Odyssey sent the signal that unhinged Hades to basically act as a free radical in spite of the rest of Zero Dawn's success.

The why?

Because they wanted to reclaim Earth without having to negotiate with a tribal society.

But, I realize this theory is flimsy and I may be overlooking/misremembering key plot details.

I just finished the game, and this was the impression I came away with. Way too much was written about Far Zenith/Odyssey for it to be some throwaway plotline they just wrote up so fans wouldn't ask why no one tried a spaceship.

And, barring something completely random, they seem like the only plausible source of the signal. Maybe they want Earth back and figured the easiest way would just be to redo the extinction and terraform the planet for themselves? Or when they arrived and saw that Apollo had failed and Earth was inhabited by superstitious tribes, they figured it would be easier to just kill them all then to make first contact and try to educate them all?

Hey-oooo...

Beaten like a Cherokee drum.

Great minds think alike. :)
 

kiguel182

Member
Just finished the game. I thought the world and back story was pretty neat but the story didn’t grab me that much. All the revelations were like “sure, makes sense” instead of “wow”.

It felt like an average YA novel. Alloy was also underwhelming as a character. She is awesome at everything and it’s her “Destiny” to save the world or whatever. She has her whole “who is my mother” thing but that never gets anywhere interesting.

The side characters were fun but didn’t do much and Alloy seemed so detached that made me detached as well. It didn’t grab me.

The start of the game was great but after that the game never made me feel much at all.

Also, the facial animations took me right out of some scenes. They were weird and too uncanny valley. Didn’t work for me at all.

Overall I liked fighting the machines and the game is polished to a t so it is fun to play but I’m underwhelmed after all the praise the story got.
 

Angel_DvA

Member
What an amazing game, the story, the visuals, the music, 9/10, would play again

The unknown signal that make Hades independent is a little too magic to me,
the game did a really great job setting up their world and science and then fucked it up with an unknown signal out of nowhere, I can only accept the lightning as the signal, everything else would be meh...
 
the backstory was interesting at first...but at the same time, I kind of wish it wasn't "explained" why civilization is like this now

sometimes mystery is good


but instead we got, "The World's Greatest scientist creates a powerful A.I with the help of other geniuses plus other super science stuff"
 

Milijango

Member
What an amazing game, the story, the visuals, the music, 9/10, would play again

The unknown signal that make Hades independent is a little too magic to me,
the game did a really great job setting up their world and science and then fucked it up with an unknown signal out of nowhere, I can only accept the lightning as the signal, everything else would be meh...

Judging by the stinger, that signal is almost certainly going to be explored in sequels (probably) or DLC (doubt it).
 

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
the backstory was interesting at first...but at the same time, I kind of wish it wasn't "explained" why civilization is like this now

sometimes mystery is good


but instead we got, "The World's Greatest scientist creates a powerful A.I with the help of other geniuses plus other super science stuff"

There are still tons of mysteries. Who sent the signal? What exactly happened to Ted Faro in that pyramid of his after destroying Apollo and killing the other Alphas? What's going on in the rest of the world now that the other AI's have gone rogue? Etc.

That and the backstory really went to help with things like the themes of compassion and motherhood. That scene where Aloy finds Sobek's farm was great and the entire talk Sobek gives about what her daughter would be like if she had one about having to care hit all the right marks thanks to that.
 
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