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[Einchy]

Something that I really liked about the game is that the map wasn't filled with a billion boring activities. I recently played Watch_Dogs 2 and I ended up skipping most "side quests" and activities since they were all the same damn thing, but just in different locations, you do a handful of them and you've essentially done them all.

With Horizon, though, I actually ended up doing everything that I came across in the game since each one was different and the ones that were the same like the bandit camps, were so few and spread out, that I didn't mind doing them.

More open world games could learn a thing or two from Witcher 3 and Horizon.

 

[Garlador]

Something that I really liked about the game is that the map wasn't filled with a billion boring activities. I recently played Watch_Dogs 2 and I ended up skipping most "side quests" and activities since they were all the same damn thing, but just in different locations, you do a handful of them and you've essentially done them all.

With Horizon, though, I actually ended up doing everything that I came across in the game since each one was different and the ones that were the same like the bandit camps, were so few and spread out, that I didn't mind doing them.

More open world games could learn a thing or two from Witcher 3 and Horizon.

The game's pacing was perfect. Expertly spread out and just varied enough to keep from being stagnant.

I LOVED doing investigating like I was a post-apocalyptic techno-viking Batman, hunting down killers or thieves to their lairs, and then stealthily taking them all out... between standing my ground against roaring Thunderjaws and other explosive quests.

And the fact that the collectibles ALSO came with heaps of lore and story of their own... Like the Banuk figure quest story is interesting in and of itself.

 

[Lagamorph]

Didn't it explode before Zero Dawn was even finished? I remember reading an email that was basically informing everyone it exploded and that ZD was humanity's last hope. Or are you talking about something else (or am I remembering that wrong lol)?

There was an e-mail that mentioned it exploded but as I said that could have been false or incorrect information. Not likely but it's a possibility.

 

[EGM1966]

The game's pacing was perfect. Expertly spread out and just varied enough to keep from being stagnant.

I LOVED doing investigating like I was a post-apocalyptic techno-viking Batman, hunting down killers or thieves to their lairs, and then stealthily taking them all out... between standing my ground against roaring Thunderjaws and other explosive quests.

And the fact that the collectibles ALSO came with heaps of lore and story of their own... Like the Banuk figure quest story is interesting in and of itself.

I normally loathe collectibles and ignore them in any game but the idea of making them exposition that expands the game world was genius IMHO.

From pointedly avoiding them I looked forward to each little info dump, each little peek into the interesting world the game presented.

I really hope other developers take note of that approach if the do want to have collectibles.

 

[Nerix]

We know that GAIA has studied animal and plant morphologies as a source of inspiration for her robotic designs, just as we actually do in real life (see biomimetics). During this research she learned about the Quaternary Extinction Event and how many animal species were lost to it. She felt sad about how they'd be lost forever, in oblivion. The designs are kind of a way to pay homage to these forgotten species.

Thx, sounds kind of plausible

 

[obauma]

Amazing game, just finished it. I usually don't care about video game stories, but Horizon's story is amazing! My favourite moments were the audio snippets of the people chosen to work on the Horizon Zero Dawn project. First you get the WTF moment, when the general and Dr. Sobeck reveal the true nature of the project, but then you get these very realistic scenarios of people's reactions. That was incredible.

I'm a bit disappointed that the game wants to keep the hades storyline intact for a sequel. I was actually hoping that APOLLO was not completely gone and that the conclusion of the game would be that the tribes would be reintroduced to prior knowledge and technology. The clash between the religious/primitive tribal societies and how they would deal with all this new knowledge - as well as what it would do to their societal structures and the conflicts that would arise over this new "resource" - would be an amazing setting for a sequel.

 

[HStallion]

Amazing game, just finished it. I usually don't care about video game stories, but Horizon's story is amazing! My favourite moments were the audio snippets of the people chosen to work on the Horizon Zero Dawn project. First you get the WTF moment, when the general and Dr. Sobeck reveal the true nature of the project, but then you get these very realistic scenarios of people's reactions. That was incredible.

I'm a bit disappointed that the game wants to keep the hades storyline intact for a sequel. I was actually hoping that APOLLO was not completely gone and that the conclusion of the game would be that the tribes would be reintroduced to prior knowledge and technology. The clash between the religious/primitive tribal societies and how they would deal with all this new knowledge - as well as what it would do to their societal structures and the conflicts that would arise over this new "resource" - would be an amazing setting for a sequel.

Hades being trapped in the lamp Sylens has seems to have been his plan all along and he even states he would have worked with Hades all over again but with more safeguards. Seems that was what he accomplished at the very end though of course Hades could escape and cause all kinds of shit again.

 

[funkystudent]

Finished. Got the Plat.

Felt more invested in the Gaia Prime reveals then the actual climax battle. They could have maybe handled that a little better but thats not really anything bad.



Random but remember in the reveal trailer from E3 years ago they made a big modern day city and it never showed up in the game in a video or something.

Also I think someone posted a screenshot in the screenshot thread of a random street light and a building that looked modern day and people yelled at him for spoilers. Was there a cutscene I missed somewhere?






Also random future of the franchise thoughts.

Ted Faro is such a prick they should gin up a reason to bring him back so you can kill him.
Also I bet Aloy totally has to sacrifice herself and become the new Gaia in the end.
Cant right to fight one of those giant spiders.

 

[LastMinuteHero]

what if ted isn't dead though...

 

[HStallion]

what if ted isn't dead though...

I kind of hope they don't go that route. Maybe he digitized his mind or something but I'd rather not meet actual Ted Faro. Hell I'd rather you find Thebes and its populated by degenerate clones of Ted that you have to massacre. That or a cult that worships Ted that you have to take out. Someone also mentioned machines like the servitors that raised the first generation of humans but all made to look like Ted Faro.

 

[funkystudent]

what if ted isn't dead though...

They already wrote in the lighthouse Protocol!

So clones could have been raising clones of Ted for 1000 years.



Bunker stuff seemed ready made for some messed up Fallout Vault type situations like that.

 

[Harlock]

One thing I don't understand is that giant robot monster stuck in the military base, half inside. The machines don't stopped after 60 years from the zero dawn starting?

 

[Sharpeye]

It's a shame that it seems that airships were cut from the final game, remembered seeing them in the reveal gameplay. Maybe they'll save it for the expansion.

 

[Teggy]

With Apollo gone, any Ted clone would have limited knowledge. I guess he could just be a big jerk tho.

 

[HStallion]

One thing I don't understand is that giant robot monster stuck in the military base, half inside. The machines don't stopped after 60 years from the zero dawn starting?

Its quite possible they killed it. There are audio logs where soldiers talk about taking down the Titans, though usually at incredible costs to the humans.

 

[HP_Wuvcraft]

I'm 100% sure Ted will be back. While he could just be a one-off, I feel we might see him again in some form.

 

[HStallion]

I'm 100% sure Ted will be back. While he could just be a one-off, I feel we might see him again in some form.

Ted: Aloy... I am your father!

Aloy: Noooooooo! You can't be!

 

[SolidusDave]

Its quite possible they killed it. There are audio logs where soldiers talk about taking down the Titans, though usually at incredible costs to the humans.

I might be wrong but didn't they state the use of EMP or something similar when describing the tactic how to take out a Titan? Could be that considering the base was already cracked open they launched an EMP that left the robot mostly intact, as a last resort measure (although their tech partly survived )

Btw were titans also the ones producing more robots? Or was that done by something else in the swarm? I guess they can replicate themselves, too.

 

[HStallion]

I might be wrong but didn't they state the use of EMP or something similar when describing the tactic how to take out a Titan? Could be that considering the base was already cracked open they launched an EMP that left the robot mostly intact, as a last resort measure (although their tech partly survived )

Btw were titans also the ones producing more robots? Or was that done by something else in the swarm? I guess they can replicate themselves, too.

The Titans were basically giant walking(crawling?) factories that produced the Death Bringers and Corrupters. I also think there were a variety of ways of taking them out from EMP's to just blowing the shit out of them.

 

[Tigress]

what if ted isn't dead though...

Just finished the game yesterday. Forgive me if this has been rehashed in the thread as I've been avoiding this thread until I finish the game (and got distracted by Persona right before I was near finished with Horizon) but I really wanted to discuss this particular thing I was thinking about.

Honestly, I don't think they need Ted anymore. I saw one article talking about how his killing of info has them doing the same mistakes again, using the robots for war (but I really don't think that was really the mistake/theme here).

But I really think the person really do the same mistakes all over again is Sylens. You have some one for his own curiousity dealing with stuff he really doesn't understand the ramifications of and even worse, even when he sees how it could be bad decides arrogantly that he still can manage to control it, this time (we don't see what happens there, I'm referring to the end of credit scene which btw. I think would make a great Horizon 2 but at the same time I don't want to wait until Horizon 2 to see what they are leading at. But probably would be better explored in a full game than DLC).

I think Sylens is a good foil for Ted... doing the same mistakes as Ted but instead of for greed (making money off of selling war machines) he is doing it for curiousity. Trading one selfish motivation for another. They both were/are arrogant in thinking they can control the technology without fully thinking through the possible ramifications. I think the game/series is better off continuing the theme with Sylens, some one from the new world, than some one from the past world.

Then again... it would be kinda satisfying to meet Ted and be able to slap him hard on the face for being such an idiot.

 

[HStallion]

I know what needs to be a boss in Horizon 2 or perhaps even the DLC

 

["God's Beard!"]

Just beat the game. When the characters first started talking about zero dawn and their reactions, I totally thought the plan was just gonna be to starve out the machines of all biomatter and reset the planet from some cache. I was pretty close! Sylens' intentions were pretty obvious the whole time.

Gameplay was awesome, I hope they really flesh it out with the next go. Monster Hunter-style armor crafting, more free climbing potential almost like Shadow of the Colossus. Something to make the combat more rewarding, though it was very fun. And more secrets! Even little things like treasure chests. I was always sad to explore to the point of being kicked out of the map with nothing to show for it.

 

[CMojicaAce]

Any good playthroughs out there I can watch? Preferably ones where the player takes their time exploring and providing their thoughts on commentary rather than just rushing through the story.

Cant get enough of people's reactions to the big reveals in this game.

 

[Elitist1945]

I know what needs to be a boss in Horizon 2 or perhaps even the DLC

Jeez those are terrifying.

 

[Blablurn]

I finished and Platinum'd it today.

I liked it. The graphics were nice. Really nice.

But yeah, just like many others, I prefered the story about the doom of the old civilization over what was going on with the tribes. I listened closely in the beginning, but later on I just clicked the dialogie away, except when I made it to very important parts of the story. This is where the game really aligned with me.

Gameplay was nice and it became very relaxing when i finally got the shield weaver armor. As someone who doesn't have too much time to game anymore, it was definitely a welcome addition. No need to checj for med herbs anymore all the time.

 

[MYeager]

Finished it yesterday finally after taking my time with it. Masterfully done, even the things that I had assumed about where the story was going when correct were only skimming the surface of what they went with. How they made everything from the robo-animals to the world and everything tie together? Just amazing.

That moment when it's pointed out that Aloy should be glad that she's one of the most important people on the planet, but instead of glad she'd hurt when she realizes that she was just a tool made by a machine for the sole purpose of resetting itself was fascinating and instead of being angsty about it instead realizes the life of everyone she knows is more important.

The fact that Faro caused the end of the world, funded the saving of it, only to erase all of human culture and history is one of the most villainous things I've seen, especially since it feels less like he wants people avoid previous mistakes and more that he just doesn't want to go down as the man who destroyed the world to a new generation of people. That the general wanted his part recorded while Faro was willing to delete everything just to erase his part added contrast to that.

I can't think of another game that constantly held me in awe of in game moments like the first time I took down a Thunderjaw or Stormbird, in awe of seeing the incredible graphics and art style of a new location and in awe/horror as new bits of the plot dropped into place.

At the end seeing Dr. Sobeck in a triangle of flowers after having hunted down so many metal flowers and realizing GAIA had left them in honor of its creator and her sacrifice was powerful and I don't know if it would've help such significance had I not chased down so many of the damn things. For a side collectible mission to actually have such significance was impressive. I totally didn't consider where that signal might've come from so at the end credits scene that hit me and now I'm dying to know.

 

[Teggy]

So the emails indicated that Faro's decision to switch from consumer to military applications was extremely sudden. Was there any evidence as to what caused this?

 

[HStallion]

So the emails indicated that Faro's decision to switch from consumer to military applications was extremely sudden. Was there any evidence as to what caused this?

Money.

 

[AndersTheSwede]

Finished it up last weekend. An amazing game, and in my opinion an instant classic for the PS4. Bravo.

I find the lore behind the game extremely interesting. This is not exactly unfurrowed ground, and yet Guerrilla managed to tell a tale all their own that has kept me thinking about it for weeks. Always the tell of a truly great piece of narrative work.

If I had any complaint, it would be that I don't think they ever truly conveyed the horror of the apocalypse that befell this world. It truly makes nuclear armageddon look like the preferable option.

Billions did not die in an instant flash, merciful in a way. Leaving a percentage to rebuild. Every single organism was killed individually. Every blade of grass, every tree, every animal, every human. A machine had to physically kill each one. Relatively slowly. So that all steadily realized what was befalling them. An inevitable fate of being crushed, diced, impaled, shot, and ultimately emulsified into a biological fuel. An event so catastrophic, the atmosphere itself collapsed upon them at the end. To call it a plague, while a reasonable attempt for a vocabulary that has no prior experience with such an event, pales as a description for such utter horror.

The game does elude to it. Particularly at the beginning when you run across suicide logs. But it never goes all in on trying to convey it. The logs are almost entirely single minded in their purpose for the project, never really reckoning with what was happening outside.

Maybe they thought no matter the depiction... they wouldn't be able to do it justice.

 

[Quartermaster]

Exploring the vaults to uncover the past gave me Fallout world vibes, without the nuclear fallout aspect of course. Then I watched the credits: John Gonzalez- writer of Fallout: New Vegas. Well that explains it.

 

[kanuuna]

For a game that appears fairly lighthearted on the surface, all the stuff about Zero Dawn was depressing as hell. Throwing people at the robots to buy time, transporting people to the ZD facility only to explain to them how fucked they are and having them choose between slaving away to maybe get something done, confinement for forever or basically agree to suicide.

All the old civilization stuff made the narrative of the game for me though; I loved all the detail put into FARO as a corporation and the logs of text and audio about the early days of the plague (robots going for animals before turning to humans etc.) and things like conflicts over farms that produce coffee beans existing in the old world. I'll admit to being a sucker for stuff like that in sci-fi.

 

[Hawkian]

The way is long,
But you can make it easy on me
And the mother we share
Will never keep our cold heart from calling

 

[Tigress]

Exploring the vaults to uncover the past gave me Fallout world vibes, without the nuclear fallout aspect of course. Then I watched the credits: John Gonzalez- writer of Fallout: New Vegas. Well that explains it.

Yep. I knew he was the writer and there were definitely parts where it showed. I thought maybe knowing maybe biased me towards thinking so but I guess you not knowing and still seeing the similarities confirms it as well. He's definitely become my favorite game writer.

 

[Venture]

Happy Mother's Day

 

[Miniature Kaiju]

Happy Mother's Day

You monster I love it.

 

[Berzerkiymc]

just beat it last night. Amazing story. Would've beaten earlier but Zelda got in the way.

That scene after the credits though, was it Aliens?

 

[Miniature Kaiju]

jThat scene after the credits though, was it Aliens?

The HADES ray thing is probably nanomachines, as it looks like Corruption and we know Corruption is actually a physical thing.

As for the source of the signal that awoke the subroutines... that's something we'll have to wait until the DLC/sequel.

 

[Oneself]

"Finished it" last night.
It took me 45 hours (main missions, cauldrons and a bunch of side quests) and I loved every second of. Stunning game. I'm not into open world games but Horizon has such a great backstory/lore that it kept me interested even though the tribes / current world story didn't interest me that much after the first few hours. I'm impressed by how well they tied and explained almost everything in the world.

 

[uocooper]

If you put in the GPS coordinates that show up during a cut scene from inside All Mother, it takes you to the top of Pikes Peak in Colorado.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/3...m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d38.840837!4d-105.04227

 

[Venture]

If you put in the GPS coordinates that show up during a cut scene from inside All Mother, it takes you to the top of Pikes Peak in Colorado.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/3...m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d38.840837!4d-105.04227

Woah. That's pretty cool.

 

[Neolombax]

Finally finished the game last night after being side tracked by Andromeda. Amazing game really. The story was what surprised me the most, I didn't think it would go anywhere near where it did in the end. It was a well thought out narrative. A few things that I have questions about though:

1. Are the other humans real humans or synthetic? Is Aloy the only human created out of the cradle? If the other humans were real human beings, were they survivors or descendants of earlier synthetic human beings?

2. What happened to the kids in the holograms after they got out? If I'm not mistaken, there was a mention of there already being tribal-like human civilisation while the kids were inside the bunker?

3. How come Hades is a floating ball of light that can be captured in a lamp (?). I thought Hades was an AI?

 

[Tigress]

Finally finished the game last night after being side tracked by Andromeda. Amazing game really. The story was what surprised me the most, I didn't think it would go anywhere near where it did in the end. It was a well thought out narrative. A few things that I have questions about though:

1. Are the other humans real humans or synthetic? Is Aloy the only human created out of the cradle? If the other humans were real human beings, were they survivors or descendants of earlier synthetic human beings?

2. What happened to the kids in the holograms after they got out? If I'm not mistaken, there was a mention of there already being tribal-like human civilisation while the kids were inside the bunker?

3. How come Hades is a floating ball of light that can be captured in a lamp (?). I thought Hades was an AI?

1. I'm pretty sure they are real humans descended from humans reintroduced to the world using fake wombs to raise them from fertilized eggs. Aloy was created from a clone egg of Elizabet (I think that's how she is different. I think the other humans are not clones but from just fertlized eggs... I could be wrong).

2. I have no idea.

3. I just assumed it was artistic license to give us a visual display to notify what happened.

 

[Amir0x]

Was that colony ship ever sent out or not? I thought Odyssey was the attempt, but that seemed to have failed. But then later on I read a log that seemed like that did send it out, because there was something about reaching its destination in a few decades. Wasn't clear on this part.

Because if a ship did get sent out to some place, that's another territory ripe for a future game.

 

[shiba5]

Was that colony ship ever sent out or not? I thought Odyssey was the attempt, but that seemed to have failed. But then later on I read a log that seemed like that did send it out, because there was something about reaching its destination in a few decades. Wasn't clear on this part.

Because if a ship did get sent out to some place, that's another territory ripe for a future game.

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.

 

[Miniature Kaiju]

1. Are the other humans real humans or synthetic? Is Aloy the only human created out of the cradle? If the other humans were real human beings, were they survivors or descendants of earlier synthetic human beings?

The humans are all "real humans" - the first generation was grown in artificial wombs from embryos. Aloy is the outlier in that she's a clone, but she's otherwise normal.

2. What happened to the kids in the holograms after they got out? If I'm not mistaken, there was a mention of there already being tribal-like human civilisation while the kids were inside the bunker?

The kids that left the bunker formed the first tribes, there were no humans (as far as we know, that is) outside the Cradle facilities at that point.

3. How come Hades is a floating ball of light that can be captured in a lamp (?). I thought Hades was an AI?

This one is speculation, as it's stated nowhere, but I believe the HADES light-ball-ray-thing is quite possibly a nanomachine colony. It's similar to how the Corruption looks, and the Corruption is very much an actual physical thing (i.e. it hurts Aloy and she can harness it to make arrows).

We know that the A.I. (and subroutines) existed within those spherical cores, like the one we find in the Banuk encampment. The "lantern" Sylens had looks a lot like a rather large machine core, like the ones we collect. My theory is that the A.I are a nano-colony that requires some special kind of processing core to exist.

 

[Neolombax]

1. I'm pretty sure they are real humans descended from humans reintroduced to the world using fake wombs to raise them from fertilized eggs. Aloy was created from a clone egg of Elizabet (I think that's how she is different. I think the other humans are not clones but from just fertlized eggs... I could be wrong).

2. I have no idea.

3. I just assumed it was artistic license to give us a visual display to notify what happened.

The humans are all "real humans" - the first generation was grown in artificial wombs from embryos. Aloy is the outlier in that she's a clone, but she's otherwise normal.



The kids that left the bunker formed the first tribes, there were no humans (as far as we know, that is) outside the Cradle facilities at that point.



This one is speculation, as it's stated nowhere, but I believe the HADES light-ball-ray-thing is quite possibly a nanomachine colony. It's similar to how the Corruption looks, and the Corruption is very much an actual physical thing (i.e. it hurts Aloy and she can harness it to make arrows).

We know that the A.I. (and subroutines) existed within those spherical cores, like the one we find in the Banuk encampment. The "lantern" Sylens had looks a lot like a rather large machine core, like the ones we collect. My theory is that the A.I are a nano-colony that requires some special kind of processing core to exist.

Thanks for the replies! Very interesting lore GG has crafted for this game.

 

[Amir0x]

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.

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

 

[shiba5]

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

I think it's very likely false. There are several data logs that build up Far Zenith as this super secret cabal, no one knows exactly who is a part of it or what their ultimate goal is. They are given a copy of Apollo - the only one that wouldn't have been destroyed by Ted. Then Far Zenith sends a message just saying the mission failed, and that's it. Liz just seems to take their word for it.

 

[Dual Blade]

Finished it today (Story and Platinum). Incredible game and I can't wait for more. I really enjoyed how the story was close to our time when things went wrong and didn't go too far into the future like most sci fi stories seem to go (ie. Mass Effect).

Was it ever explained on how GAIA was going to terraform the Earth and bring back life? I recall that when all biomatter was gone the machines would go into hibernation. Wouldn't they turn on and consume new life? Or would they just shut down and await a reawakening from HADES?

 

[Miniature Kaiju]

Was it ever explained on how GAIA was going to terraform the Earth and bring back life? I recall that when all biomatter was gone the machines would go into hibernation. Wouldn't they turn on and consume new life?

GAIA's first task was to decrypt their code and turn them off for good. She spent about 60 years to do so, then the MINERVA subroutine built transmission towers to broadcast the deactivation codes. The Spire we see in the game is one such tower.