• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Horizon Zero Dawn |OT2| Red Head Redemption

Kambing

Member
Seems like a few of us just started the game, I am in the same boat. Playing with my daughter and it has been a blast. Great to have a a strong female protagonist for a change.

The slow building, holy shit moment for me, has been the realization that this is GG's first attempt at an open world RPG, and the first entry into a new franchise. They nailed it out of the park! What has me most excited is where they go from here, and just how much better of a game they'll have in future entries as they refine the experience. Just like each subsequent Witcher game improved upon the last, DLC inclusive, think of where Horizon will go.

My last impression has been how good 30 FPS feels in this game. I don't know what they are doing, nor can I describe why it's better, but Horizon just feels and plays so much better than other 30 FPS titles. Going back and forth from Witcher @4k60 to Horizon is not as jarring as other games. Awesome job GG!
 
D

Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
Amazing cosplay via Reddit at E3:

http://i.imgur.com/bwmehIE.mp4

This was really awesome. I was leaving the showfloor yesterday when I just happened upon Aloy and a Watcher. The cosplay was just extremely well done. I'm glad I had my camera on me and managed to take some decent photos. A big crowd started forming pretty quickly, so it was pretty tough to get clean shots.

Reposting these from the Photography thread.

35354530055_808639a29c_k.jpg




 

Vic_Viper

Member
So I skipped this game for Zelda but now im looking for something to pick up and cant decide if this is what I want or not. Are there alot of side stuff to do in the game thats compelling enough to keep you distracted? Is there alot of stuff to do in the open world like rare side bosses to hunt or just things to do when not working on the main questline?

Cant decide if I want to go with Horizon or finish Nier Automata.
 

Altairre

Member
I'm probably just going to play through the entire game again when the DLC comes out. GotY for me personally and there's really no other upcoming game that could change that.
 

Weebos

Banned
Just beat the game, it was pretty good.

Some of the systems felt kind of unnecessary, for example I never really saw the need to override things. I can envision scenarios where it would be excellent, but the game never really presented me with them. I also didn't mess with slings or statuses at all really. Tripshot and Sharpshooter bow all the way baby.

I also didn't touch the side stuff very much. Looks like there might be some good stuff in there though, I was just much more interested in the main story.

It was definitely fun, would have been a contender for my GOTY if this year wasn't already stacked.

I'm looking forward to a sequel.
 
”That's another studio I don't tell them what to do," laughs Layden. ”The Guerrilla team have spent 10 or 12 years on the Killzone franchise and Horizon Zero Dawn could not be more different from Killzone if it had tried. When they said they wanted to come up with an open world, heavily nature based kind of game using all the different colours they had never used in Killzone - like blue. And red, and yellow, and green - it was a big stretch goal for them but they nailed it.

”The reception for the game has been fantastic. [Guerrilla Games head honcho] Herman Hulst has got a very keen mind on where he wants to take Horizon and what the roadmap is - and that roadmap is expressed in multiple years. I think we'll be in the Horizon business for a long time."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gaming/w...ions-shawn-layden-death-stranding-spider-man/

Horizon is here to stay! Bring on the sequels!
 

Kambing

Member
Been a while since I've been so immersed in a game. I am only on main mission level 12 but my main character is already level 32. Have been exploring and doing all the side quest. Game is beyond fun.

But the reason I wanted to post, as I am sure has been said numerous times in this thread: HOW the HELL does the game look this good? GG are wizards. With the above article stating this will be a multi entry franchise, what the hell will the PS5 entry look like? This is certainly the best looking game I've seen, high end PC or consoles. The gameplay is so fun too.

The only two gripes I have with it comes to visuals is the free roam camera/FOV distance, feel like it's a little close to the character. The second is how zoomed in the camera becomes when you enter a town or settlement, really not a fan of that.

I love the game so much I bought two of my friends each a copy!
 
Bought it and I always regret Open world games for fear of fatigue but I enjoy it so far

Map feels a bit small because Im already on my way to the second city which is on the left side of the map.

Transitions feel rough when it rains or changes time of day.doesnt have the moody atmosphere before the storm. Night lighting is gorgeous. But the graphics often feel muddy and sometimes sticks out as beautiful. I feel like witcher looked prettier overall

Its also lacking as an rpg and Im hoping we see much more in a sequel. Supporting characters and tribes should be more fleshed out and more unique but I loved the indigenous like tribes that humanity has turned to. For a first entry, its very solid


Combat is really fun which is whats best. I can say that i disliked games like witcher for combat. Here it feels rewarding like Souls-lite


Anyways, its too typical of an rpg open world which Id really like some game to fix. As soon as youre thrown out into the world, you are greeted with staged-like side quests where u happen to run across several folks who need help

Idk, it comes off as artificial to me. Witcher was better for it since it was around a war, but here it just feels like a typical sandbox where everything happens for you to solve


And then theres the sense of scale that these games always lack in. World feels too small and tribes feel too close to each other for it to feel like you are traveling across a world

One day id like an open world rpg where traveling to and from places has restrictions that force you to plan your journeys.

Those are my complaints about open world adventure RPGs but overall the game is fun so far
 

Falchion

Member
I was so unbelievably excited when they announced The Frozen Wilds at E3. I immediately preordered it and am so excited that we'll get new content within the year!
 
Finally picked up a Pro and a copy of zero dawn. Still in awe of how GG were able to pull off these graphics--never seen anything like it and I'm a PC gamer with a pretty beefy rig.

So far game play and story is solid.
 

shiba5

Member
Finally picked up a Pro and a copy of zero dawn. Still in awe of how GG were able to pull off these graphics--never seen anything like it and I'm a PC gamer with a pretty beefy rig.

So far game play and story is solid.

That's how I felt too when I saw the graphics. I have a really hefty PC and still haven't seen anything like it on there.

The story slows down a bit once you get past the intro area, but when it picks up again, you're in for a ride.
 
Anyone else think the thing in the volcano (from the DLC) is Hephaestus? His Roman name is Vulcan.

Yup, that's my working theory, as well. Probably a Cauldron housing HEPHAESTUS.

It'd be a good place to start fixing the terraforming system. Assuming Aloy would be able to assert control over it, she could not only stop it from making increasingly more dangerous Machines, but also get it to build the components and systems necessary to recreate GAIA.
 
love the music during the loading screen. Gives a sense of all hope is lost but people trying to ensure through.

I had no idea this game had a lot of human stuff going on either .
 

Diablos

Member
I just got an email from PlayStation going over global game stats for HZD.

Apparently one user has picked up over 12,000 rocks. That's crazy. I don't believe I would have the patience for that. First thought that crossed my mind: is there a decent chance this user is a GAF member?
 
I'm constantly running out of resource inventory space. I have all of the purple outfits and weapons the vendors sell. Do I really need to keep all of the hearts/lenses?

I have 2/3 of the world explored, but haven't been progressing the main quest, if that helps any. I've just been focusing on side quests.
 
I'm constantly running out of resource inventory space. I have all of the purple outfits and weapons the vendors sell. Do I really need to keep all of the hearts/lenses?

Each heart and lens is used only once (if I'm not mistaken) to get a weapon and/or outfit. You can safely sell them after that.
 

shiba5

Member
Yup, that's my working theory, as well. Probably a Cauldron housing HEPHAESTUS.

It'd be a good place to start fixing the terraforming system. Assuming Aloy would be able to assert control over it, she could not only stop it from making increasingly more dangerous Machines, but also get it to build the components and systems necessary to recreate GAIA.

That's gotta be a "fun" dilemma for Guerrilla.
Players want bigger and meaner robots to fight, but Aloy's goal is to stop their creation. Going to be interesting to see how they handle it.
 
Each heart and lens is used only once (if I'm not mistaken) to get a weapon and/or outfit. You can safely sell them after that.

This is very good to know, now just need to remember. I'm 5 hours in so far and live it.

All I wanted to know was some advice on buying and selling stuff. Once you rrally have control it seems like you can buy anything and I'm not sure what I should not sell.
 
Got to Meridian. Im in love with the mood here. I really want more of it and am disappointed the dlc will be in the boring snow section

Seriously, i feel like Im in dinosaur times. Its damn beautiful, the city feels magical like a good rpg city should. Almost feels like a Japanese game as weird as it sounds. Like, there are WRPGs that have some typical settings, and there ls walking outside Meridian in the dawn with the game looking Ike a fantasy

Anyways I completed a mountain thing and some small sidequests but have made it to meridian. How far am I?


Also, is the upper area even bigger? World feels cramped and I wish there was more in between these cities than machines.

All work for a sequel, but itd be nice to have the world feel more alive with smaller settlements and then gigantic ones

Is meridian the biggest?


I really hope we see more and more expansions and Im really hoping the end game has a bigger world
 
So Hermen confirmed new weapons for the DLC. Now I'm mega-hyped.



Haha yeah I thought the exact same thing too.

Can u tell me more of the dlc without spoiling it?

How big is the new area? Is it all snow? What kind of weapons? Seems theres only 5 types in vanilla

How many new machines? How many new cities/how big, etc
 
Can u tell me more of the dlc without spoiling it?

How big is the new area? Is it all snow? What kind of weapons? Seems theres only 5 types in vanilla

How many new machines? How many new cities/how big, etc

Unfortunately he didn't speak to specifics so I don't have answers to any of your questions :/

He sort of implied that it would be fairly sizable though. We also don't know if it's all snowy areas but that's certainly the impression the trailer gave. Maybe we can hope for a new cauldron so that we can override the new machines?
 

Falchion

Member
I just got an email from PlayStation going over global game stats for HZD.

Apparently one user has picked up over 12,000 rocks. That's crazy. I don't believe I would have the patience for that. First thought that crossed my mind: is there a decent chance this user is a GAF member?

That's absolutely insane. I think I probably picked up 20 the whole game because you can only hold 10 at a time and I only used them a handful of times.
 

TheFatMan

Member
Are all the weapons/armors at essentially the start all you can buy in the game?

Edit: not sure if nil is insane or awesome. Maybe both?

There are more armors and weapons available later in the game, assuming you are still in the starting snow area.

So I skipped this game for Zelda but now im looking for something to pick up and cant decide if this is what I want or not. Are there alot of side stuff to do in the game thats compelling enough to keep you distracted? Is there alot of stuff to do in the open world like rare side bosses to hunt or just things to do when not working on the main questline?

Cant decide if I want to go with Horizon or finish Nier Automata.

There is a ton of side missions, events, dungeon like encounters and monster zones in the game that have nothing to do with the main story. It's not on par with the amount of content Zelda has, or even Skyrim or Witcher. However, it is all extremely well done. Side missions are well designed, not simple fetch quests and most even have cutscenes and the like. I finished the game with 86% completion and I was at almost 55 hours.

As for rare monsters, there is a side quest line involving one, but as for just randomly roaming I never encountered anything like that. I will say some of the larger machines in the game are fun to stumble onto and can offer a helluva challenge on mid to upper difficulties.
 

hunchback

Member
I just got a Pro and the first two games I bought were MLB The Show and this game. I'm just blown away by the graphics of this game.

I made the mistake of letting my wife watch the opening and the early tutorial. Now I can't play unless she is watching. She fell in love with the young Aloy character and the world. Actually it's pretty cool. I haven't seen my wife get this invested in one of my games, plus she's a great wingman if I get stuck.

So far I'm finding rocks to be quite useful. Doubt I'll get to 12k rocks though.
 
Ok so I went back to witcher, and horizon just looks so much better

Im in LOVE with Meridian and want more of it. Disappointingly, Ive uncovered the whole map from Tallnecks and it seems Veridian is the only big city and even then its just a settlement

I really hope for a huge city and generally more of a "world" in a sequel. Right now it feels like a bunch of small settlements and monsters in between

The combat and movement are a joy compared to witcher too.


The game has a lot to expand into. Havent seen them all, but more machines is a must, but I think the game would benefit from fighting other kinds of monsters. Maybe it can expand that way as the enemy variety seems limited, but excellent to fight each one

Stealth with humans seem dumb. Very typical "hide until they stop caring" and then pick them off one by one.


Against machines, its fine


I am surprised how much i am liking it. Aloy is so cool too. Like Geralt, she doesnt seem to take much crap and is a straight shooter who reluctantly does things for others. Love the options to tailor her across 3 personality types



So anyways, I have a lot to explore but it feels as if Ive seen most of the game's world in that I know not to expect huge cities or take on anything but machines of certain kinds.


Itd be awesome to fight enemies that maybe you need to climb, or machines u can fly on, or ones that require defense weapons like shields, stuns, etc

Compared to other rpgs, the loot and all that is limited as Im not going to be crafting potions or buffs, etc. Thats not so bad as they are built into the ammo types, but the point is, there is a ton to expand into


I really think world building is a huge desire for a sequel. Bigger worlds, bigger transitions between them, empty space to create scale, huge cities and smaller villages in between, factions to join, non machine enemies, etc

Like with other games, it feels as if some of these big cities are a stones throw away when they should feel like they take days to get there.
 

SMOK3Y

Generous Member
Beat the game yesterday 😣 sad.. got my Platnium such a engrossing game my play it again on my sub acc have already bought the expansion
 
I just got an email from PlayStation going over global game stats for HZD.

Apparently one user has picked up over 12,000 rocks. That's crazy. I don't believe I would have the patience for that. First thought that crossed my mind: is there a decent chance this user is a GAF member?

Not as impressive as 4 million+ shards but still cool, rocks are nice for having fun with the machine.
 
Have to say this is one of the best games I've played this gen. I'm abit disappointed I didn't get it sooner. Was always put off by the fact you had to use a bow and arrow (never liked the weapon in games) and the antagonists being dinosaur robots which I also thought was stupid.

That aside it's super fun and I'm baffled an arrow can hurt state of the art giant robots but fuck it, it works.

Don't mind open world games and I usually ignore a good chunk of the side stuff as filler but it's fun just exploring stuff.
Playing on hard and the game is quite challenge you can easily get one or two shotted.
 

dantehemi

Member
Loving this game so far. Couple questions. Is the in game clock glitched or something? It shows me at 17 hours played but I swear it hasn't been close to that and also I'm level 14 and haven't used any skill points yet, what should I be focusing on (best skills)
 
what should I be focusing on (best skills)

That depends a lot on your play style. I mained the bows (and later did a bows-only hardcore run), and, to me, the whole Concentration tree of skills is extremely important (Fast Reload, Concentration+, Double and Triple Shot will save your life over and over). Silent Strike is generally very useful to take down small machines fast. Lure Call combos well with it for that purpose (even though I find it super cheap).

Healer and Gatherer are nice to have, especially since they unlock the path to Herbalist, Ammo Crafter and Tinker, that will end up making your life a whole lot easier.
 
Hos will probably sound super dumb, but how the hell do you equip the fire arrows?

I have 30, but it won't let me use/select them.

You need to buy an upgraded bow (Cajra bow)

It goes Nora, Cajra, and then Shadow I think

Its the bow with the blue background in the merchant store
 
I just finished the story and
I'm missing 2 skill points to max skills
.

Can I keep
re-doing the main quest to get the skill points?

What a great game!
 
Top Bottom