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Horizon Zero Dawn |OT| The Land After Time

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Just beat the game on Hard -- loved it. Spoiler-free takeaways.

-The combat was excellent -- had a lot of fun especially with the bigger/tougher robots. Used the tripcaster way more than I thought I would, especially before the battle to give myself some breathing room.

-The story was great. Not mind blowing, but some interesting sci-fi with some human/emotional mixed in. Really enjoyed it.

-The world was beautiful, and photo mode is amazing. More games should have it. World was the perfect size, too.

-Collectibles/Tallnecks were diverse -- some had combat involved, some had lore, some had climbing challenges... but all were fun to get and didn't feel like a chore.

-I loved Ashley Burch as Aloy, but other than that the voice acting and the dialogue was very.... flat. That's the only word I can use to describe it. Almost every character interaction seems devoid of real emotion, and sounds like they are just reading lines off of a script. It isn't so bad that it ruins the game or anything, but it was very noticeable to me. Some of the best voice acting in the game was actually the audio logs you can listen to.

-The side quests are really lacking. Maybe Witcher 3 spoiled me, but these just did nothing for me and I mostly stopped doing them after 5 or so. All very plain, no real interesting characters / character development.

And that's about it off the top of my head. Had a lot of fun with this game, will definitely dive back in if they have any DLC.

Completely agree. Voice acting in this game is very bland. Only Aloy has stood out so far.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
So my wife was watching me play the game yesterday and she made multiple comments on how the game's aesthetics and character designs seem to be borrowing from the TV show "The 100".

I haven't seen it but has TV GAF felt the same way ? I had Aloy wearing the medium physical armor which has a sort of a circular headband to it and she mentioned how that design was ripped off straight from a central female character in the show.
 

AudioEppa

Member
So my wife was watching me play the game yesterday and she made multiple comments on how the game's aesthetics and character designs seem to be borrowing from the TV show "The 100".

I haven't seen it but has TV GAF felt the same way ? I had Aloy wearing the medium physical armor which has a sort of a circular headband to it and she mentioned how that design was ripped off straight from a central female character in the show.


I'm still playing it. But so far I've had a few moments where I thought about the show. I can't think right now what similarities there is though.
 

Raybunny

Member
Btw even after more than 20 hours, I still haven't seen the ants. WHERE ARE MAH ANTTSSS

10 minutes in.... xD

In 2 days I've put over 15 hours on it. Just reached the
Mothers Watch
Been roaming around exploring everything. Spend a big chunk of time on top of the tall neck enjoying the view and playing with the photo mode.

Absolutely stunning. And now inside the first
cauldron trying to kill the boss at the cauldron's heart.

Will build a minefield for that beast!
 

Elandyll

Banned
So my wife was watching me play the game yesterday and she made multiple comments on how the game's aesthetics and character designs seem to be borrowing from the TV show "The 100".

I haven't seen it but has TV GAF felt the same way ? I had Aloy wearing the medium physical armor which has a sort of a circular headband to it and she mentioned how that design was ripped off straight from a central female character in the show.

There might be a bit of inspiration, but not huge. This being said the 100 is great imo (in a campy/ YA novel way).

Setting: Post Apoc, tribes that have devolved vs people who have tech and just came back on Earth.
No Dino Robots though (so far).


The-100-season-3-premiere-Wanheda-Part-1-still-5-Clarke-Griffin-red-head.jpg


4c766706e4d951cf7c0d912f06219132.jpg


roan-and-lexa-fight-to-the-death.jpg


PromoClarkeOctavia_2x11.jpg
 

BluWacky

Member
You can buy the Ropecaster that helps. Basically stops it right on it's tracks instead of wrecking you. Also be sure to scan it with your Focus for weakspots. You can then read more about it in the Notebook mid-fight.

Protip:
Use fire arrows, corrupted machines such as the Demon you mentioned or any other corrupted machine is weak to Fire arrows + they have also their normal weakspots like Watcher's have their eye.

Ah, I didn't have the Ropecaster at that point (I'd bought the Sling first). Makes more sense!

Anyway, like I say - Zelda arrives today, so Horizon will be on the backburner for a bit. Definitely enjoying it, though.
 
So my wife was watching me play the game yesterday and she made multiple comments on how the game's aesthetics and character designs seem to be borrowing from the TV show "The 100".

I haven't seen it but has TV GAF felt the same way ? I had Aloy wearing the medium physical armor which has a sort of a circular headband to it and she mentioned how that design was ripped off straight from a central female character in the show.
Most probably both take inspiration from tribal design and fashion to showcase a post apocalyptic world.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
There might be a bit of inspiration, but not huge. This being said the 100 is great imo (in a campy/ YA novel way).

Setting: Post Apoc, tribes that have devolved vs people who have tech and just came back on Earth.
No Dino Robots though (so far).


The-100-season-3-premiere-Wanheda-Part-1-still-5-Clarke-Griffin-red-head.jpg


4c766706e4d951cf7c0d912f06219132.jpg


roan-and-lexa-fight-to-the-death.jpg


PromoClarkeOctavia_2x11.jpg


Yeah, I can see some similarities. Shame there's no robot dinosaurs, I would have started watching it :p
 
God, the first hour of this game is dull as dog shit. Pretty bad idea to start with a soft intro then into overly long tutorials, following a character who's only walking, and the first side quest you come across is a Witcher 3 like tracking quest that goes way too long and ends with no pay off.

Thankfully now I'm actually into the main open world and story the fun is ramping up.
 

Combichristoffersen

Combovers don't work when there is no hair
After that forced stealth section in the intro had me all pissy, I'm starting to enjoy this more. Did some side missions, the first Tallneck and some stuff last night to level up (cheesed the two Sawtooths in the ruins by hiding on an outcrop they couldn't reach while I'd whittle down their health), currently looking for that war chief. Not as immediately sold on the world and story as I was in TW3, but the combat is definitely far better and more fluid than the somewhat clunky combat in TW3.
 

chunk3rvd

Member
Couple of hours in. Spent about 2 hours in the wild and just scaled my first Tallneck. Trying to spoil as little as possible but have a few questions:

Sometimes I hear this weird beeping sound followed by a few other weird noises. Don't know how else to describe it haha. Any idea what it is? A nearby Tallneck beacon or something?

What do the level numbers mean on missions? Just a recommended point to tackle them?

Spent ages looking round when I got to my first Ancient Vessel marker but couldn't see anything. Guessing it was in one of these underground caves and it's something I'll find later on?
 
Couple of hours in. Spent about 2 hours in the wild and just scaled my first Tallneck. Trying to spoil as little as possible but have a few questions:

Sometimes I hear this weird beeping sound followed by a few other weird noises. Don't know how else to describe it haha. Any idea what it is? A nearby Tallneck beacon or something?

What do the level numbers mean on missions? Just a recommended point to tackle them?

Spent ages looking round when I got to my first Ancient Vessel marker but couldn't see anything. Guessing it was in one of these underground caves and it's something I'll find later on?

Not sure.

Yes just a recommended level. But honestly I found levels to be mostly meaningless in this game. With the right tools and strategy, you can handle any situation... with some effort.

The Ancient Vessels are found in Ancient Debris piles with a purple icon on them. If you can't find it then go into R3 mode and look around when you're in the radius.
 
The ancient battle between a T-Rex and a Triceratops: The thousand days war reimagined.

Uncorrupted Thunderjaw and uncorrupted Trampler fighting each other:

source.gif
 

Styles

Member
Level 26, 20 hours in and I've only reached the Meridian outpost(forgot what it's called).

I've been traversing exclusively on foot and taking in the scenery. The northern area of the Nora territory is absolutely breathtaking, my GOD.

It's unfortunate that some of the Twitch streamers I follow are rushing through this game just so they can start on Halitosis of the Wild. It feels like a huge disservice to a game like HZD if you just jump from one main quest to another without exploring the world GG have put so much effort into crafting. Oh well.
 

X-Frame

Member
The Hunting Grounds trials give a shitload of XP. Some of them can be tricky but it's worth it. I leveled so much just from them.
 

nOoblet16

Member
Rockbreaker are by far the worst and most unfun robots to fight in this game.

They dig back in too fast and it takes more than 3 tear arrows shots to get rid of their digging claws and they have 4 of them....2 of which are at the back usually hard to see. Plus they are usually in pairs !
 
I really love the overall directed nature of the game. As opposed to an open world where you are sometimes unsure of as to where to go next, here it's clear the path you take, the sidequests play into that wonderfully and with the style I'm playing it as, I never have to worry about much backtracking, if at all.

It's open world, but I'm playing it like a linear story. And I love that.
 

Ricker

Member
After about 5 tries on normal,finally beat the level 8 Cauldron wooo!!!!....Inside the Cauldron spoiler

The damn Boss stopped a few times right before the tripwire and was firing flame at me,but thats how I got him,trip and R1 critical strike...traps and bombs all over the place didnt seem to help,although the sling ice bombs helped also.
 

Lifeline

Member
Anything I should do before the proving? Since Rost asks if you're ready before starting the mission, it feels like there's missible stuff if you continue.
 

d9b

Banned
Btw even after more than 20 hours, I still haven't seen the ants. WHERE ARE MAH ANTTSSS

Literally at the beginning of the game. Literally.

When you exit
the cave
before you gather berries, tree to your right. I guess it's easier to spot them if you have HDR enabled, because sun rays illuminate the leafs they are carrying.
 

Hybris

Member
Took down my first
Stormbird
, the one outside of
Daytower
. Hell of a fight! Had to buy the Carja war bow to kill it. Damn near 1 shot me with every attack is did on Very Hard. This combat is so fucking good!
 

Jo-El

Member
I'm so happy this game turned out this well! I've only played a couple of hours so far, but damn if I'm not excited to see what Guerrilla does next. They went from being one of Sony's studios I couldn't care less about to beating out Naughty Dog for me. Did not see that coming! So impressed! To think, I was close to bailing on my preorder because I had so little faith in them. The glowing reviews changed my mind and I'm glad they did.
 

ajanke

Member
Just beat it. 30 hours and 8 minutes. I'd say there's another 15-25 hours of gameplay still if I wanted to do more.

I'm glad I stopped messing with the sidequests when I did. Way too many of them were just detective mode bs. The story missions really amped up about halfway through, they were very good. I had little interest in the story for the first bit, but then it got very interesting as well.

Cool story, great graphics, fun combat. 8.5/10

What part do you gage as the halfway point? Trying to figure out how far into the main I am.
 
The ease of crafting and adding mods is all I need in any of my rpg's. Keep it simple!
This game is awesome. I'm early on and pretty scared of meeting bigger bots later. =O
 

Bunta

Fujiwara Tofu Shop
Rockbreaker are by far the worst and most unfun robots to fight in this game.

They dig back in too fast and it takes more than 3 tear arrows shots to get rid of their digging claws and they have 4 of them....2 of which are at the back usually hard to see. Plus they are usually in pairs !

I didn't feel like taking two of them on and just tried running away on my mount. They destroyed my mount and I barely got away on foot. :(
 

silva1991

Member
Level 26, 20 hours in and I've only reached the Meridian outpost(forgot what it's called).

I've been traversing exclusively on foot and taking in the scenery. The northern area of the Nora territory is absolutely breathtaking, my GOD.

It's unfortunate that some of the Twitch streamers I follow are rushing through this game just so they can start on Halitosis of the Wild. It feels like a huge disservice to a game like HZD if you just jump from one main quest to another without exploring the world GG have put so much effort into crafting. Oh well.

That's really unfortunate. BoTW isn't going anywhere.

Are you talking about Coh?
 

Shock32

Member
I've found the slingshot to be rather weak in my adventure so far, am I missing something with it?
I'm 15 hours in and it feels useless compared to the other weapons/tools. I've replaced it with the long range precision bow which I didn't think I'd like but I love it.
 

hydruxo

Member
I love how the different areas blend into each other so effortlessly. You're in the desert one minute and then a snowy mountain the next, or a jungle. It could've easily been really jarring having such drastically different environments right next to each other but it's not at all. Going through the Carja gate
where you take out the Corruptor for the Seeker at the Gates mission and end up in the desert
is one of my favorite moments in this game. It felt like I'd just started an entirely new game.
 
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