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Little details you appreciate in Horizon Zero Dawn (may contain spoilers)

People in villages make comments depending on the outfit you're wearing.

Heard two: One in a village in Nora while I was wearing a Carja outift (they weren't pleased), another somewhere in the desert while I had Banuk cloths, people were surprised and commented about it.

Don't know if it was mentioned but you clothes actually changes dialog. You wear carja armor and people will mentioned it and depending where you are will say things like "Is that carja garb?, might have to keep an eye on her",etc. Walk with the same armor in front of hunters and they'll say things like "she wears carja colors but walks like a hunter". Blew my mind that that the NPCs actually comment on your appearance and characteristic. Wear heavy armor and they make comment like you look well equipped, etc.

Beaten. :O
 
About the echoing in canyons thing. It sounds great! But I have to laugh when I'm sneaking through an enemy camp in a canyon and she exclaims "Look out below!!!" As she slides down a steep hill. Enemies don't seem to notice her voice echoing through the canyon haha.
 

vivekTO

Member
From Reddit:

Can we stop for a moment to appreciate that walking speed is the same as NPC's?

It's amazing to not do the awkward shuffle between running too fast and passing them, and walking so slow they leave you behind.

Can anyone confirm??
 
People in villages make comments depending on the outfit you're wearing.

The first time I went to Meridian I put on some Carja gear just as a dumb little role-playing gesture for my own amusement. Then people in the city started complimenting the tailoring of my outfit and I knew I was playing a truly fantastic game.
 

KodaRuss

Member
The landscape is incredible in this game. Having been to Colorado skiing this winter, this is exactly how it looks. Right after I took this screenshot I fell off the mountain!

BnTuBTd.jpg
 

KiraXD

Member
About the echoing in canyons thing. It sounds great! But I have to laugh when I'm sneaking through an enemy camp in a canyon and she exclaims "Look out below!!!" As she slides down a steep hill. Enemies don't seem to notice her voice echoing through the canyon haha.

Guerillas Sound design is hands down the best in the biz... its so often overlooked but their materials sound from Killzone Shadowfall (MADDER i believe) is amplified times a million in this game it seems. I wish i could find articles about the Horizon sound design... its super interesting reading about Killzones...

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-the-making-of-killzone-shadow-fall
 
Found this on reddit , a neat detail imo, if possible someone from here can replicate and confirm.

Just reading the additional posts and realised you asked for someone to confirm.

Yes, this absolutely happens if you first destroy the bracing for the container and it falls off. It's really damn cute seeing it still fighting but holding the container on it's back.
 
All this detail makes me wonder why splashes seem to be pretty much be non-existant.

Framerate.

Horizon is a gorgeous and detailed game but it's pretty evident where they cut some corners to nail down the performance. I can't say I disagree with any of their choices.
 

Evolved1

make sure the pudding isn't too soggy but that just ruins everything
No pic, but while I was messing around with an action shot in photomode, I noticed a bunch of unique bugs and beatles were kicked up by a big explosion. It was in a grassy, humid area.

No way you'd ever notice that in gameplay. Only in a still like that. Perfectly fits this thread's theme. Should've saved the screen, didn't realize this thread would be a thing though.
 
Framerate.

Horizon is a gorgeous and detailed game but it's pretty evident where they cut some corners to nail down the performance. I can't say I disagree with any of their choices.

I am sure if the game was built from the ground up on PS4 PRO we would see such details on PS4 PRO then scaled down on PS4 like what the devs said. I am also certain that Death Stranding will pack such details and even more like in the trailer shows since it is mostly developed on PS4 PRO in mind. There is also a possibility that Guerilla may update the game if their engine gets more advanced in the future whether by them or by Kojima's Productions. This is not impossible to happen since The Division got updated on the PRO to add better shadows and reflections first then the recent update added Native 4K + improved TAA. Also games like Resogun and No Man's Sky got updated and added improved and added upgraded graphics on all PS4 versions. So this may happen in the future, if not then on the sequel certainly.
 

firelogic

Member
When I ran through the gate at Meridian during dusk, the two guards stood at attention and one of them said, "I'm awake! I'm awake! *YAAAAWN*"

I also like how completing a sidequest makes NPCs comment about it. Like when
Talanah becomes the Sun Hawk, people in the town comment about how great she'll do.
 
When I ran through the gate at Meridian during dusk, the two guards stood at attention and one of them said, "I'm awake! I'm awake! *YAAAAWN*"

I find her comments according to specific situations are kinda funny. read the reddit thread in OP, some mentioned other examples too.
 

ToiJu

Member
Aloy's teeth are indeed a nice touch, here's a good view of her lower teeth.
horizonzerodawn_2017089z8h.png


Things referencing the past are great. The vessel trader calling Aloy crazy when she suggests that maybe people just drank from the vessels. When Martin Hatch (I don't yet know who he really is) calls you and mentions a name. Aloy says "
Elizabet Sobeck
, what kind of name is that?"
 

rackham

Banned
I really appreciate the way she moves over terrain. Her feet connect properly and she even slightly vaults over medium sized rocks.
 

Kin5290

Member
I was watching the ME:A streams when it hit me: Aloy actually creates her own objectives. Like if you're doing a mission with someone, say Varl or Erend, Aloy actually decides what to do instead of your partner (who is less of a badass and lacks your Focus) doing that.

After Bioware and Bethesda RPGs is a hell of a nice touch.

Also, Aloy's outfits generally have what Feminist Frequency coined the "strategic butt covering", which is used as a way to keep you from having to stare at a male character's ass while playing.
 

vivekTO

Member
Just reading the additional posts and realised you asked for someone to confirm.

Yes, this absolutely happens if you first destroy the bracing for the container and it falls off. It's really damn cute seeing it still fighting but holding the container on it's back.

Yup. I was actually stunned by this. I matched the pace of an NPC with no effort.

It would be better for this thread if someone could capture a video, so that it can be updated in the OP. Most people just don't read text.
(No PS4 or horizon here)


Death Stranding:

There could be thread just for Sunhil horizon Gifs :p
 
Wow, that cauldron thing is super cool.

Indeed. I see the Kojima influence here. It reminds me of MGS5 where all the soldiers have helmets with different numbers on them. The same happened for the sekeleton soldiers in Death Stranding. The latter will get insane amount of details from Kojima's team when using Decima Engine.
 
Indeed. I see the Kojima influence here. It reminds me of MGS5 where all the soldiers have helmets with different numbers on them. The same happened for the sekeleton soldiers in Death Stranding. The latter will get insane amount of details from Kojima's team when using Decima Engine.

Kojima clearly made the right choice when he picked an engine. I can't even imagine what his technical wizards are coming up with now that they have their hands on it. For all its beauty Horizon can be rough around the edges in spots. Kojima's obsessive attention to detail will really make Decima sing.
 

nOoblet16

Member
Thanks to animation blending and inverse kinematics which allow Aloy's feet and body to shift naturally based on the slope of the terrain. Look at how her feet intersect with the terrain: https://youtu.be/0Y8u7MvuArA?t=10m38s

WRO1EFK.gif
The only issue I have with animations is that when you dodge there is no transition animation between walking/running to the dodge animation. Anytime you press dodge Aloy just skips that transition and you can see her body simply skipping directly to the dodge animation causing it to look jerky.

I still feel that when it comes to animation blending FFXV has every other game beat, and it's amazing that it manages to do that and look realistic while having unrealistic stuff like teleportation, staying off ground and hovering in the air etc.
 

UnNamed

Banned
The only thing I don't like is the sun never reach the zenith, there's no mid-day, is always dawn or twilight.
I know that's an artistic choice, like the moon acting as a neon lamp, which instead is very beautiful to see, but I don't like it very much. It wasn't a smart choice.
 

nOoblet16

Member
The only thing I don't like is the sun never reach the zenith, there's no mid-day, is always dawn or twilight.
I know that's an artistic choice, like the moon acting as a neon lamp, which instead is very beautiful to see, but I don't like it very much. It wasn't a smart choice.
Whether the sun reaches zenith would depend on the location as well as the season. Where I live the sun follows an arc that is to the side towards the horizon even during summers and rarely if ever directly above i.e. the Zenith.

In Horizon the sun does move in a proper arc gradually, you can see what and where that arc is if you change rapidly ToD in photo mode.
 

UnNamed

Banned
Of course, maybe Horizon is set in the far north were the sun is always on the horizon, or maybe there's a plot reason for that. But a game hasn't to be realistic.
I did't want to say this is a bad choice, but i would have preferred the same approach for the sun just like other games did (FFXV for example did great).
 
Having recently completed Horizon, I have to say, it was an absolutely incredible game. The detail to everything was astonishing.

Two moments that really stand out to me were: Quickly descending a steep mountain, Aloy seemed to wobble a bit and threw her arms out to balance. I was really astonished by how natural this animation looked and felt. I'd only seen it a handful of times in my playthrough.

Aloy's voice echoing in a valley. This one got me.

My biggest complaint is Aloy's somewhat unremarkable facial animation during gameplay. When she is idling and kind of looking around, she moves her whole head to look around, but her eyes look dead straight out. Looks lame considering she moves her eyes realistically during conversation. Also regarding her eyes, she only ever looks straight forward during actions, which makes taking cool photos kind of lame.

Derp. Where ya lookin', girl? These two things always make her feel sort of doll-like to me when you really look closely at her. Really wish they would fix this for screenshots. Because this game deserves to be shown off.

Might be a case of this.
 

Wollan

Member
Things referencing the past are great. The vessel trader calling Aloy crazy when she suggests that maybe people just drank from the vessels. When Martin Hatch (I don't yet know who he really is) calls you and mentions a name. Aloy says "
Elizabet Sobeck
, what kind of name is that?"
Aloy also comments how the metal bed frames must have been uncomfortable but it was probably the norm as they were living in a metal world.
 

firelogic

Member
Wearing Banuk garb in the Banuk area elicited comments like "nice to see other tribes adopting Banuk armor" as well as, "maybe we should go on a hunt to see if she's worthy of the armor."
 
If the foliage has such physics due to wind:


And such detailed shadows and not just rough ambient contact shades

Most of the vegetation do have self-shadows though, including the more abundant shorter grass. And the grass aren't just ambient contact shadows (like in FFXV) but are fully cascaded shadow maps. Maybe someone with a regular PS4 can confirm it's the same there but this is on Pro.

okssso.gif


adwlwn.png


I wonder why there is so little interaction with the foliage. Is it because of the random procedural generation of the sceneries which may create bugs if not placed manually and thoughtfully, that is why the devs did limit the interaction? Because I don't think this was done to save ressources especially if the foliage has complete physics when interacting with the wind like what the gif shows. I don't think the player interaction will cause any stutter especially if the character only touches one or few leaves at once.
 

pixelbox

Member
If the foliage has such physics due to wind:



And such detailed shadows and not just rough ambient contact shades




I wonder why there is so little interaction with the foliage. Is it because of the random procedural generation of the sceneries which may create bugs if not placed manually and thoughtfully, that is why the devs did limit the interaction? Because I don't think this was done to save ressources especially if the foliage has complete physics when interacting with the wind like what the gif shows. I don't think the player interaction will cause any stutter especially if the character only touches one or few leaves at once.

I think it might be performance as physics are demanding. Water on the other hand look completely unfinished. It interacts with the rain but not characters.
 
I think it might be performance as physics are demanding. Water on the other hand look completely unfinished. It interacts with the rain but not characters.

Read what I said. Physics are already here for wind interaction. the foliage doesn't stay static or stiff when exposed to weather conditions. All the foliage moves. Now a little push for one leaf or few more from one character won't do any harm.
The water is another story though, still there are some nice movements in the DigitalFoundry tech analysis video which shows great water behaviour in some instances.
 

pixelbox

Member
Read what I said. Physics are already here for wind interaction. the foliage doesn't stay static or stiff when exposed to weather conditions. All the foliage moves. Now a little push for one leaf or few more from one character won't do any harm.
The water is anotehr story though, still there are some nice movements in the DigitalFoundry tech analysis video which shows great water behaviour in some instances.
I read it. But that's just one more thing to account for regarding physics.
 

BouncyFrag

Member
I like it how fallen machines can become obstacles for those still living. It saved my ass when fighting snapjaws. I barley take one out and get a few seconds to run and regroup while the other one is stuck trying to getting around the big heap of junk in it's way.
 
I read it. But that's just one more thing to account for regarding physics.

I think her hair physics are more demanfing than allowing few leaves to interact with her legs when she touches them. Let alone the destruction of trees, shacks and rocks etc. You know they can calculate foliage interaction and limit it by zone width: no need to widen the interaction zone to more than what Aloy's feet touch.
 

adixon

Member
Read what I said. Physics are already here for wind interaction. the foliage doesn't stay static or stiff when exposed to weather conditions. All the foliage moves. Now a little push for one leaf or few more from one character won't do any harm.
The water is anotehr story though, still there are some nice movements in the DigitalFoundry tech analysis video which shows great water behaviour in some instances.

it's likely a completely different system, as wind physics can be precalculated in a way that player movement cannot
 
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