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Zelda/Horizon: Zero Dawn Comparison Question

Kuro

Member
Horizon: Zero Dawn is a better open world game than Breath Of The Wild, in my opinion.

I did buy a Switch just for Zelda, and I thought it was a totally fine game, but I don't think it's a good Zelda game by any means. It's an open-world game with a Zelda theme, which is all well and good, but it isn't the Zelda game that I wanted.

Horizon, on the other hand, is the first game where to me the story reinforced the idea of the open-world structure. I enjoyed my time with Horizon much more than I did Zelda.

I wouldn't honestly advise buying a Switch just for Zelda and as someone who did exactly that, I hope you'll believe me when I say that right now it just isn't worth it. Wait for a sale, or until a couple more games come out for it.

Zelda is a much better open world than Horizon but Horizon does the RPG elements and Story much better. Zelda's open world is absolutely massive and a joy to explore. I'm not sure how you can say it didn't do the open world part better. Horizon on the other hand does combat and encounters much much better.
 
Horizon also has a top-tier science fiction story and amazing characters.

BotW has a great world design and exploration.


They are the two best games released this year.
 
They're very different games. While both are open world action games with some light RPG mechanics, Zelda is ultimately a game about exploration while Horizon is a game about combat.
 

Dmax3901

Member
I've played and finished both. Both good games, more differences than similarities.

BotW is leagues better than Horizon though imho, it's not even worthwhile comparing them.
 

Farside

Unconfirmed Member
Horizon: Zero Dawn is a better open world game than Breath Of The Wild, in my opinion.

I did buy a Switch just for Zelda, and I thought it was a totally fine game, but I don't think it's a good Zelda game by any means. It's an open-world game with a Zelda theme, which is all well and good, but it isn't the Zelda game that I wanted.

Horizon, on the other hand, is the first game where to me the story reinforced the idea of the open-world structure. I enjoyed my time with Horizon much more than I did Zelda.

I wouldn't honestly advise buying a Switch just for Zelda and as someone who did exactly that, I hope you'll believe me when I say that right now it just isn't worth it. Wait for a sale, or until a couple more games come out for it.

Thanks. I am so wishy-washy when it comes to this stuff.

I wondered about that too. Currently playing Horizon, and just bought a Switch so I did wonder if i should put off playing Zelda till after I finish Horizon and have a break with some other game.

Hopefully, this thread helps.

This to the max. I had three other friends who played through Zelda at the same time and we compared notes. Despite us all thinking we had played through the game in the intended order we had actually all done it in different orders. It was really exciting discussing it with them at the time and realising just how open our experience was to change.

Now that seems AMAZING!
 

Kolx

Member
I found the combat and story to be much better in Horizon, while the world itself was better in Zelda. If you're only intersted in Zelda then hold on buying the switch until there're more games that are interesting to you.

There's absolutely nothing 7/10 about Breath of the Wild.

If you excluded the mediocre combat and the story that I stopped giving a fuck about half way through then yeah there is nothing 7/10 about Breath of the Wild. I do believe the exploration and puzzles make up for it tho.
 
sweet yeah thanks for clearing that all up guys, op def wanted to know which game you think is the better game overall and didn't explicitly say otherwise from fear of this thread taking a shit. now, OP knows which game is better, and it's clearly _______

eh, whichever way things go, you'll learn a lot about both games and every perspective people have for 'em, so there's that.
 
Horizon and Zelda are very different games and they approach much of what they try to do differently as a result.

If money is an issue, hold off on the Switch. But don't hold off on it because you think the games are similar.
 

R00bot

Member
sweet yeah thanks for clearing that all up guys, op def wanted to know which game you think is the better game overall and didn't explicitly say otherwise from fear of this thread taking a shit. now, OP knows which game is better, and it's clearly Knack 2 baybee!!!

.
 
sweet yeah thanks for clearing that all up guys, op totally wanted to know which game you think is better and didn't explicitly say otherwise from fear of this thread taking a shit. and now he knows which game is better, and it's clearly _______
Point being, Horizon excels at story and combat while Zelda excels at world design.

Finish Horizon and wait until next year to get a Switch and Zelda. Gives you a break and let's you play the Frozen Wilds DLC before you get absorbed by BotW.
 

ss_lemonade

Member
I played Zelda first and loved it. Playing Horizon at the moment and I always find myself trying to climb and get around a rock, and failing to do so :(
 

Alienfan

Member
Trying to decide whether or not to buy a Switch and I keep getting stuck on the fact that the one game I really want at the moment, Zelda, seems to be very similar to the game I am currently playing, Horizon: Zero Dawn. I base this on several Youtube videos gameplay videos.

For those that have played both, if I am loving Horizon, and really don't need or want another open-world adventure game, should I skip paying $460 for the Switch and Zelda?

(And I'm really not trying to turn this into a "one game sucks" and "the other game is great" thread, honestly.)

Zelda isn't worth purchasing an entire system for. You're better off waiting for more Switch games and purchasing Horizon: Zero Dawn in the mean time (it's the better game in my opinion anyway, but I love narratives more than mechanics). Unless you're positive you're going to end up getting a switch later down the line because your a massive fan of Nintendo ips, skip the switch for now.

But if I were you I would use that money to go buy a bunch of awesome indie games in the steam sale. And get Horizon when it sees a bigger price drop
 

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
If you enjoy a good scifi yarn Horizon was surprising in that manner for me. It tries a lot of tried and true SF tropes and themes but ties them together really, in fact a lot better than stories that have tried similar things. It gets really dark too at times and there is a villain that everybody loves to fucking hate. Anyone who has beaten Horizon know's whose name goes in the blanks of the following "Fuck *** ****!"
 
GOD DAMN

I just finished Zelda after 165 hours and I was ready to get into Horizon soon but that video put me off a lot!

This goes to show how immersion is the most important thing in an open world game and graphics quality are really not all that important if your physics and AI are not up to par.

immersion can be achieved through different means.

Breath of the Wild is one of the most immersive games I've ever played. I'm currently replaying it with no HUD and no fast-travel and I'm getting to know the world like the back of my hand. It's really cool.
I'm also playing through Horizon right now, and it's also one of the most immersive games I've ever played. I don't interact with the world in Horizon the way I interact with the world in Zelda; I'm not expected to and the game's not designed like that. So I'm not gonna notice or care that I can't start a brush fire and can't manipulate physics objects. That's not the point. I'm immersed in Horizon because of its solid storytelling enabled by a fantastic audiovisual presentation and an open world designed well to facilitate that. It's got dope combat, solid rpg systems, and the lore/worldbuilding is much stronger than I expected when I first heard that GG was making a game about 'robot dinosaurs'.

Quote his post and look what it says when you're writing your reply.

:eek:
 
If you enjoy a good scifi yarn Horizon was surprising in that manner for me. It tries a lot of tried and true SF tropes and themes but ties them together really, in fact a lot better than stories that have tried similar things. It gets really dark too at times and there is a villain that everybody loves to fucking hate. Anyone who has beaten Horizon know's whose name goes in the blanks of the following "Fuck *** ****!"
One of the greatest villains in games.
 
GOD DAMN

I just finished Zelda after 165 hours and I was ready to get into Horizon soon but that video put me off a lot!

This goes to show how immersion is the most important thing in an open world game and graphics quality are really not all that important if your physics and AI are not up to par.
That comparison vid is pretty blatantly skewed towards one game. You're better off watching videos that actually show off what Horizon does best which is its combat within the open world environments. The story is great but you probably don't want to be spoiled.
 

sinonobu

Banned
I played Zelda first and loved it. Playing Horizon at the moment and I always find myself trying to climb and get around a rock, and failing to do so :(

Yeah this was me. HZD felt way too restrictive right after Botw, which made me stop playing...

I'll probably come back someday as the game looks gorgeous and plays fine buy yeah, it's bit rough after Zelda..
 

Shambala

Member
Zelda bored me. Didn't even finish that shit. Horizon on the other hand peaked my interests. I would play it again before I continue Zelda. But hey look at videos of them n then choose. We all have different tastes.
 
GOD DAMN

I just finished Zelda after 165 hours and I was ready to get into Horizon soon but that video put me off a lot!

This goes to show how immersion is the most important thing in an open world game and graphics quality are really not all that important if your physics and AI are not up to par.

That video is just cherry picking a lot of stuff that doesn't even matter in my eyes. I haven't played Zelda yet (we just barely got our hands on a switch) but Horizon is absolutely a very immersive game.
 

Mudron

Member
I poured over 130 hours into Zelda, while I sunk maybe 20 hours into Horizon before deciding to give up on it until after beating the first Zelda DLC hitting next week.

Horizon's a great game, but it's an iteration on a kind of open-world game that we've all been playing variations of for the last decade, whereas Breath of the Wild is almost an entirely different beast.

Breath of the Wild also has a few rougher edges (the controls take a little while to getting used to and the enemy variety in the game isn't that great), but everything else the game does is so vast and open-ended that, for me, the good stuff in BotW easily outweighs the clunky stuff, and is a VERY unique game that was worth getting a Switch for alone.
 
Hm. I don't know. I haven't played Horizon but it seems to me that it's a Tomb Raider 2013-like game with an emphasis on combat.

Zelda is not so much that. It's all about the novelty of being able to go anywhere without any special tricks or items.

I bought a Switch just for Zelda. Although the Switch has blown me away, I wouldn't regret buying one just for Zelda, even if the system was underwhelming for me. The game is simply amazing.
 

Wamb0wneD

Member
I think BotW, while being way weaker in the story department and slightly weaker when it comes to combat, does everything else so much better and it seems there was a lot of thought put into how all these different systems flow together.

A good example would be the Ubi towers in each game. You even have to approach each tower in Zelda differently, with multiple ways and angles to tackle them and different hazards to overcome.

Compared to that the Tallnecks are really neat for the first time but the automated climbing makes it more of a routine later on. And how they reveal icons while in Zelda they only reveal the map also showcases the different design approaches.

When you are on top of a Tallneck you just slide down again and begin to approach some of the icons it revealed. In Zelda you stay on the tower and look for shrines or other interesting landmarks, which there are maaaany of, and then glide wherever you want, landing at a mountainside, in a river, a village, or where ever else and let yourself get surprised of what may be there.

The towers are a huge part of the exploration process and i always wonder what game people played when they say they are Ubi towers and that's it or how Tallnecks are better because they move.

And that's only the towers. Not even speaking of how the physics and chemistry are deeply intertwined with the world and how you play in it. Or the puzzles which are also a huge part of what defines Zelda and that you won't find in any other action adventure game.

Sorry for the long text lol.
 
Hm. I don't know. I haven't played Horizon but it seems to me that it's a Tomb Raider 2013-like game with an emphasis on combat.

Ummm, no. I've played H:ZD and TR 2013 and besides the fact that you have a bow, they are not similar games. Horizon has actual RPG elements mixed into an open world teaming with quests, challenges, and well-written characters. Not to mention the Wildlife, for lack of a better term, is fun to interact with. Hell, they even took the concept of towers from Ubisoft and made it not suck. And Aloy is a great protagonist.

This is why people need to play both. We got two of the best open world games ever this year. There's room for both.
 

RedFury

Member
Both great games but completley different imo. Horizon is more structured and has a clearer path with more focus on story. Zelda is more open, path less clear but more freedom, and less of an emphasis on story (more like scenes that move forward the plot kind of?). To be quite honest I want enjoying Zelda, but cannot put it down now. Zelda is not an open world game it's a open sandbox game. Once you realize that you'll really enjoy it for what it is. It's great in that aspect. There's flaws of coarse like the weapon system, and not really a fan of how the story is told (but don't really see how else to deliver it given the open nature of it).

If you already own a switch it's a no brainer. If your going to buy a switch just for it's a wait for me.
 

EhoaVash

Member
If you're the type of gamer that needs story then i don't think you'll like Zelda much. Maybe the first initial 70 hours you'll like it lol. Lack of story makes Zelda botw feel like weird at times. Then again the game never gets boring, you'll always be finding simple stuff to do.

Played horizon after Zelda and the lack of interaction kinda putt me off to me. The open world Felt more like a pretty picture that I'm just walking across. My Zelda instinct tells me to cut a tree, which my staff just goes through. Only thing that kept me going is how lovable Aloy is as a character and I wanted to know the story more
 

Wamb0wneD

Member
No console is worth scalpers price tag op

Maybe he lives in Germany and just can walk into the next electronics market and grab one whenever he wants. :p

In some ways, they're similar, but in more ways, they're different.

200.gif
 

Quonny

Member
They're not very similar. You won't feel burned out.

That's all the OP is asking for, and now the thread has devolved into another Horizon vs Zelda, complete with shitty, biased videos. Yay.
 
They are totally different games. The comparison was apparent before release of both games, mainly because of console wars shit. But after people have actually played them, the comparison discussions just stopped, they're nothing alike.
 
If storytelling and combat are things you enjoy in Horizon, you'll find BotW lacking. If it's exploration and sense of freedom and adventure, BotW is actually a much better game at that.
 
BotW and HZD are very different games.

I've poured in 50+ hours into both.

I've obtained master sword and got over 120 shrines in BotW, but i couldn't bring myself to finish it.

I've completed HZD and wanted more. On my way to obtaining platinum. Can't wait for DLC.

I'd just have to say that BotW just isn't my type of game, while i thoroughly enjoyed HZD.
 

Wamb0wneD

Member
They are totally different games. The comparison was apparent before release of both games, mainly because of console wars shit. But after people have actually played them, the comparison discussions just stopped, they're nothing alike.

Speaking of console wars, i know which games got wayyyy more troll reviews on Metacritic.

Lol well if that's the case good for him

I mean i don't know if he is, although i hope for him he does live here because skalper prices are indeed ridiculous lol.

BotW and HZD are very different games.

I've poured in 50+ hours into both.

I've obtained master sword and got over 120 shrines in BotW, but i couldn't bring myself to finish it.

I've completed HZD and wanted more. On my way to obtaining platinum. Can't wait for DLC.

I'd just have to say that BotW just isn't my type of game, while i thoroughly enjoyed HZD.

How did you manage to get over 120 shrines in 50 hours? Using a guide for this game obviously destroys the main selling point and would suck the fun i had for the game out completly. Btw there aren't more than 120 Shrines. Should i still take you seriously? because it kinda sounds like you made that up.
Also you act like it's a slog to finish the game when in fact you just could've gone to the boss 30 hours ealier. This isn't a linear progressing game. You would know that if you actually...nah, i won't say it lol.
 
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