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Horizon Zero Dawn Spoiler-free Impressions (for real this time)

LotusHD

Banned
image.php


Sorry Lotus, but drifting's image is in HD.

I guess we're tied now Drifting.

I should find a better quality pic tho
 

reKon

Banned
I want to say a strong 88, but I wouldn't be surprised if it hits 90+. Can't wait to play this. Proud as fuck of GG cause of all the shit they've had to deal with for the Killzone series, lol.
 
Well it's 1:40am and I thought I was going to sleep early tonight, but this game kept me up. I just strung into some really cool quests and battles that were overwhelming and awesome. There are a lot of elements to this game, all done well but some feel taken from different games.

The one thing this game does that no other does are these robots, it's like a world filled with boss battles. Some of these later ones I am in shock at the abilities they have. Every new one is more interesting and crazier than the last one. And each time it's like "well what strategy do I use against this guy?" I want to level up my gear so bad, the game makes everything useful. This is something many RPGs fail to do, you have a menu full of crap you never use. well here I am using every damn trap, potion, arrow, weapon, whatever it takes to take these things down.

The robots are special, this kind of enemy design should absolutely be studied by other devs. Hell its something I wish zelda would borrow, I know the guardians are kind of that, I just hope there is variety to it.

The game is great, all the other elements are good, I see no poor aspect. Maybe the human enemy bases but I would say that's standard stuff not bad. But are any of the other elements special, not really, the injection of the robots is what makes everything feel exciting.

I did the first cauldron
it's definetly a different looking place. It's like a linear path against robots with a big areana boss battle against a big one. The one I did had no puzzles or anything like that. I was hoping for something more elaborate.

Oh and I think I did that side quest lamp was going on about, awesome stuff. The world is coming more alive with random hunters fighting robots, emergent stuff starting to occur.
 

silva1991

Member
Well it's 1:40am and I thought I was going to sleep early tonight, but this game kept me up. I just strung into some really cool quests and battles that were overwhelming and awesome. There are a lot of elements to this game, all done well but some feel taken from different games.

The one thing this game does that no other does are these robots, it's like a world filled with boss battles. Some of these later ones I am in shock at the abilities they have. Every new one is more interesting and crazier than the last one. And each time it's like "well what strategy do I use against this guy?" I want to level up my gear so bad, the game makes everything useful. This is something many RPGs fail to do, you have a menu full of crap you never use. well here I am using every damn trap, potion, arrow, weapon, whatever it takes to take these things down.

The robots are special, this kind of enemy design should absolutely be studied by other devs. Hell its something I wish zelda would borrow, I know the guardians are kind of that, I just hope there is variety to it.

The game is great, all the other elements are good, I see no poor aspect. Maybe the human enemy bases but I would say that's standard stuff not bad. But are any of the other elements special, not really, the injection of the robots is what makes everything feel exciting.

I did the first cauldron
it's definetly a different looking place. It's like a linear path against robots with a big areana boss battle against a big one. The one I did had no puzzles or anything like that. I was hoping for something more elaborate.

Oh and I think I did that side quest lamp was going on about, awesome stuff. The world is coming more alive with random hunters fighting robots, emergent stuff starting to occur.

Good stuff Miami. I'm not reading the cauldron part because spoilers.

In short did you think it's decent?
 

vivekTO

Member
Well it's 1:40am and I thought I was going to sleep early tonight, but this game kept me up. I just strung into some really cool quests and battles that were overwhelming and awesome. There are a lot of elements to this game, all done well but some feel taken from different games.

The one thing this game does that no other does are these robots, it's like a world filled with boss battles. Some of these later ones I am in shock at the abilities they have. Every new one is more interesting and crazier than the last one. And each time it's like "well what strategy do I use against this guy?" I want to level up my gear so bad, the game makes everything useful. This is something many RPGs fail to do, you have a menu full of crap you never use. well here I am using every damn trap, potion, arrow, weapon, whatever it takes to take these things down.

The robots are special, this kind of enemy design should absolutely be studied by other devs. Hell its something I wish zelda would borrow, I know the guardians are kind of that, I just hope there is variety to it.

The game is great, all the other elements are good, I see no poor aspect. Maybe the human enemy bases but I would say that's standard stuff not bad. But are any of the other elements special, not really, the injection of the robots is what makes everything feel exciting.

I did the first cauldron
it's definetly a different looking place. It's like a linear path against robots with a big areana boss battle against a big one. The one I did had no puzzles or anything like that. I was hoping for something more elaborate.

Oh and I think I did that side quest lamp was going on about, awesome stuff. The world is coming more alive with random hunters fighting robots, emergent stuff starting to occur.

Man I am going to play this so slow, just spent an hour doing hunter trials for time, which I paired with some new weapon and ammo types. So some details on this first one
it's three trials one is to knock off ten components off a grazer (a deer) well at first I tried this with arrows and didn't do to well. Later I bought a new bow that came with this arrow that does no damage but instead blows off all componenets on a robot, so using that I easily got gold rank.

The came use log traps to kill robots, wait what log traps?! Omg there are ewok style log traps ready to be shot down on the sides of the cliffs. So I throw a bomb behind the pack of grazers, they start running into the path with all the log traps and I shoot them open and watch logs take them out. Awesome.

The hardest one was using a blast trip wire to kill six robots in under three minutes. This takes prep time so I lined up the paths with some wires , threw a bomb to try to lure them but they went a different way. One time they hit one wire and they all turned around so they didn't run into my other wire. I didn't get gold the first time. The second time I lined up the three paths with wires and decided to lure them down one path, then back down another and that way they go back and forth and hit the wires. Got it, got all golds which gave me a skill point and loads of exp. just messing around and killing so many robots with the trial exp leveled me up like three times.

Cool thing to note, one robot got super injured and was hoping around on only three legs, acted just like a wounded animal that couldn't keep up with the herd. Oh and a watcher would notice my trip wire and go underneath it, it got stupid and tripped it when I engaged it.

Jesus this area I am in. And I got to my first tallneck (it's been in every preview so this better not be a spoiler) it was pretty fun trying to figure out how to get on it.

This world is so beautiful and detailed.
Ok cleared the first human outpost, it's straight up assassins creed. Someone said earlier it's like MGSV, no, these humans are stupid and boring to fight. I went stealth, headshot a bunch of guys. Set a trip wire in the middle of a door, threw a rock on the other side and a guard walked right into it causing an explotion that didn't seem to alarm many people including a guy near him. I repeated the action and he walked into a wire too. This is on very hard.

On the flip side I fought three big ass robots that had all sorts of awesome attacks. This felt like a boss battle that I randomly decided to start. I went through all my healing items, using buff potions was a must, I used most my traps. It was amazing, thrilling, everything the game promised with larger robots.

I have some pictures I will post later showing fog and an invisible wall so you can see what that post was talking about. It really depends on the weather and time of day.


The more human enemies I fight in this game, the less fun I have. It's definitely the weakest aspect of the game so far imo


Man the stuff happening at the end of the intro area had me super pumped and the story drops. My lawd. I'll have some more screenshots to post come tommorrow.

People trying to compare the positive early remarks of Horizon to those same early remarks from the Order, need to get off that horse. It's going to be dead, beaten, and served with crow. The Order was a beautiful game itself with some fun moments and typical third person shooter mechanics, that said Horizon is much more of a deeper experience and deeper game mechanics for that matter. The two shouldn't be compared aside from being Sony exclusives and both look fantastic.

Thanks for these impressions, looking forward to the reviews now.



Between 3-4 so far. I don't know if will reach 4. Hopefully it keeps its momentum

Oh i was hoping 8.5 but u know 4 will work too as it has robo dinos :p



Not sure why it's okay to form an opinion on a game from vertical slices from the publisher/developer but an actual consumer streaming the game is an illegitimate option of forming an opinion. People endlessely fawning over this game and ignoring its flaws are probably turning more people off to it. Still am eager to see how the final copy reviews and how its received once people get their hands on it.

Sure but RDR wasn't marketed or hyped for its combat unlike Horizon. Let's hope this is no Colonial Marines, though these impressions don't make it seem that bad.

Thanks for the impression guys... Oh these are not impressions.. OK.



Wait so the fog guy disappeared when he realized fog disappears when you get close to it in real life??
You gotta ask yourself why did they talk about it so much if they actually don't know anything about fog? How is it "clearly" anything if they are just guessing about how fog works ?
Is it ironic that the poster disappeared like fog does?

Soo many questions.

All questions will be answered on monday.
 

reKon

Banned
I'm mainly surprised that people are thinking that this would get anything below an 80 going off impressions. This isn't just fanboy hype. At the VERY least, the game is clearly one of the best looking console titles ever released and is fun to play (going off multiple impressions and previews from earlier months). There's a whole variety of enemies and animations are on point. So that leaves the story and side missions which have had generally positive impressions. Everything seems to be lining up with what we're going to get.

With other games, when there are legit concerns, they are pretty easy to identify. The main concern with Horizon was always going to be the story/characters. So far the story seems like it will be good and the characters are hit or miss, but Aloy herself seems awesome. I guess how it ends will leave a big impact on the reviews, but if the journey itself was great....
(see Mass Effect 3)
 

Loudninja

Member
Well it's 1:40am and I thought I was going to sleep early tonight, but this game kept me up. I just strung into some really cool quests and battles that were overwhelming and awesome. There are a lot of elements to this game, all done well but some feel taken from different games.

The one thing this game does that no other does are these robots, it's like a world filled with boss battles. Some of these later ones I am in shock at the abilities they have. Every new one is more interesting and crazier than the last one. And each time it's like "well what strategy do I use against this guy?" I want to level up my gear so bad, the game makes everything useful. This is something many RPGs fail to do, you have a menu full of crap you never use. well here I am using every damn trap, potion, arrow, weapon, whatever it takes to take these things down.

The robots are special, this kind of enemy design should absolutely be studied by other devs. Hell its something I wish zelda would borrow, I know the guardians are kind of that, I just hope there is variety to it.

The game is great, all the other elements are good, I see no poor aspect. Maybe the human enemy bases but I would say that's standard stuff not bad. But are any of the other elements special, not really, the injection of the robots is what makes everything feel exciting.

I did the first cauldron
it's definetly a different looking place. It's like a linear path against robots with a big areana boss battle against a big one. The one I did had no puzzles or anything like that. I was hoping for something more elaborate.

Oh and I think I did that side quest lamp was going on about, awesome stuff. The world is coming more alive with random hunters fighting robots, emergent stuff starting to occur.
Amazing stuff thanks.
 
Miami, how many hours have you played, and have you see most of the machines in that time? Also curious if machines are mainly in separate groups, or do different types intermingle/interact
 
Miami, how many hours have you played, and have you see most of the machines in that time? Also curious if machines are mainly in separate groups, or do different types intermingle/interact

13-14 hours or so. 29% done. I've seen I think 11 robots, Still have a little more than half to go. Well watchers mingle with all. During set missions you get some combination of different ones. In the world they stay in their herds.
 
13-14 hours or so. 29% done. I've seen I think 11 robots, Still have a little more than half to go. Well watchers mingle with all. During set missions you get some combination of different ones. In the world they stay in their herds.

That still a good amount .
Should be fun to see what you think of some of the other crazy ones.
 
13-14 hours or so. 29% done. I've seen I think 11 robots, Still have a little more than half to go. Well watchers mingle with all. During set missions you get some combination of different ones. In the world they stay in their herds.
Oh, was hoping for moments like that part in JP where the rex attacks the gallimimus
 

Mitark

Member
I'm not sure why people seem to want this game to fail. It's pretty cool to see a Developer like GG to step way out of their comfort zone.

And for their first rodeo seems like they knocked it out of the park.


I'm not sure about the sudden hate , but people forget about GAF's Best of E3 2015 #1

0zBRR1f.png


and that was against Uncharted 4 , The Last Guardian, Final Fantasy VII Remake,Star Wars Battlefront,Fallout 4, Metal Gear Solid V , Shenmue 3, Kingdom Hearts III ..


and also
GAF's Best of E3 2016 #2

IzyWdSv.png


and that was against Zelda (#1), God of War, Spider-Man, The Last Guardian, NieR: Automata, Persona 5, Resident Evil 7, Detroit: Become Human, Days Gone, Battlefield 1, Gravity Rush 2, Final Fantasy XV, Death Stranding...


and #3 on NeoGaf Most Anticipated Games of 2016

4rga7Ny.png



and #3 on NeoGaf Most Anticipated Games of 2017

PjRAmFJ.png
 

Kin5290

Member
Just because of the female protagonist? Weird. Tomb Raider isn't open world and last I checked Lara Croft didn't fight giant robo-dinosaurs.

Ah. Now it all makes sense.
The crafting of ammunition on the move is very modern Tomb Raider, as is the stealth bow focus and third person camera.

The difference, of course, is that HZD is open word and the arenas are, correspondingly, nowhere near as confined as Tomb Raider's.
 
Will just drop a couple of tidbits here...

- This game is, technically, what Witcher 3 promised to be (at least on consoles). Remember those early gifs of Witcher 3, full of life, animated foliage, sparkles of dust in the air? Remember how that was disappointingly downgraded and the end result looked nerfed? Well, here's your Witcher 3 graphics, ladies and gentlemen.

- I have never liked Guerilla's games. But here they took their best assets - technical sophistication, world building and atmosphere, and found their ideal playground - open world games of course. Even if gameplay is obviously derived from other similar games in the genre, Guerilla has the advantage by simply delivering a majestic, beautiful sci fi world that beckons you to explore it. This is where the studio should focus on from now on. I can't wait to put the game back on again, and this comes from your regular Guerilla naysayer.
 

vivekTO

Member
Will just drop a couple of tidbits here...

- This game is, technically, what Witcher 3 promised to be (at least on consoles). Remember those early gifs of Witcher 3, full of life, animated foliage, sparkles of dust in the air? Remember how that was disappointingly downgraded and the end result looked nerfed? Well, here's your Witcher 3 graphics, ladies and gentlemen.

- I have never liked Guerilla's games. But here they took their best assets - technical sophistication, world building and atmosphere, and found their ideal playground - open world games of course. Even if gameplay is obviously derived from other similar games in the genre, Guerilla has the advantage by simply delivering a majestic, beautiful sci fi world that beckons you to explore it. This is where the studio should focus on from now on. I can't wait to put the game back on again, and this comes from your regular Guerilla naysayer.

You have the game Too!! Great first impressions , looking forward to hear More from you.
 
Will just drop a couple of tidbits here...

- This game is, technically, what Witcher 3 promised to be (at least on consoles). Remember those early gifs of Witcher 3, full of life, animated foliage, sparkles of dust in the air? Remember how that was disappointingly downgraded and the end result looked nerfed? Well, here's your Witcher 3 graphics, ladies and gentlemen.

- I have never liked Guerilla's games. But here they took their best assets - technical sophistication, world building and atmosphere, and found their ideal playground - open world games of course. Even if gameplay is obviously derived from other similar games in the genre, Guerilla has the advantage by simply delivering a majestic, beautiful sci fi world that beckons you to explore it. This is where the studio should focus on from now on. I can't wait to put the game back on again, and this comes from your regular Guerilla naysayer.
And added to the first post. Thanks for sharing, much appreciated

How have you been enjoying the story? That always seemed like the biggest concern with Guerrilla involved
 
I think this was the game that single handedly sold me on a pro and an expensive hdr tv.
Before the pro conference i was repulsed by the idea of a pro and didnt even know wtf hdr was.
Seems like it was worth it.
The game looks fucking astonishing from a technical standpoint
My body and my gaming setup couldn't be more ready
 

Exquisik

Member

So counting Annoying Old Party Man, we now have 7 members (The Lamp, SlasherJPC, nitrowolf2, Musician655321, Glassboy and MiamiWesker) with the game early. I envy all of you but I'm patiently waiting for my Collector's Edition. If Aloy is as amazing as the previews and impressions have mentioned, Aloy statue will definitely be worth the extra $48 (GCU).
 

mugwhump

Member
Miami, how hard is it to use the "hide in grass -> whistle -> hack robot / stealth kill" strategy? It looked a bit OP in streams.

That bit about the robot getting hurt and walking on 3 legs sounds awesome. The quadrupedal animations in this game seem top-notch.
 
Also, what are the cities and towns like? Haven't seen much said about them yet but the architecture of some of the cities in the trailers look fucking amazing.

Again, is cauldron similar to
dungeons in say Zelda or Record? Or is this a separate quest and if so are there dungeons?

Is it interesting to explore, in which there are hidden caves, rivers, etc. I guess the main question is, is the geography of the map interesting and varied?

I'm a man of my checklist quest lists such as FFXV showing you uncompleted quests and where to find them so I could easily run down the list. Is this similar?

Thanks so much!
 
And added to the first post. Thanks for sharing, much appreciated

How have you been enjoying the story? That always seemed like the biggest concern with Guerrilla involved

It is too early to tell. Mind you, I'm a very harsh critic of stories in games, so I roll my eyes very frequently when I see all those cinematic games that copy tales and they're a cliche after cliche.

But Guerilla has built quite the universe here, and it has me intrigued. No idea how I will feel about it.

Need to emphasize again - I don't like Guerilla's games, Assassin's Creed games put me to sleep, but I woke up today, anxious to get back to this world. Judging by how indifferent I usually am about open world games, it's a huge compliment to Horizon. :p
 

vivekTO

Member
Also, what are the cities and towns like? Haven't seen much said about them yet but the architecture of some of the cities in the trailers look fucking amazing.

Again, is cauldron similar to
dungeons in say Zelda or Record? Or is this a separate quest and if so are there dungeons?

Is it interesting to explore, in which there are hidden caves, rivers, etc. I guess the main question is, is the geography of the map interesting and varied?

I'm a man of my checklist quest lists such as FFXV showing you uncompleted quests and where to find them so I could easily run down the list. Is this similar?

Thanks so much!



There are caves,yes. Also there are huge section of the game below the World map.

There are Cauldrons which is like a dungeons in this world

The environment is varied , there is no river , but small streams and a lake or two.

yup quiet detail quest management system, each is categorised separately.
 
I'm not sure about the sudden hate , but people forget about GAF's Best of E3 2015 #1

0zBRR1f.png


and that was against Uncharted 4 , The Last Guardian, Final Fantasy VII Remake,Star Wars Battlefront,Fallout 4, Metal Gear Solid V , Shenmue 3, Kingdom Hearts III ..


and also
GAF's Best of E3 2016 #2

IzyWdSv.png


and that was against Zelda (#1), God of War, Spider-Man, The Last Guardian, NieR: Automata, Persona 5, Resident Evil 7, Detroit: Become Human, Days Gone, Battlefield 1, Gravity Rush 2, Final Fantasy XV, Death Stranding...


and #3 on NeoGaf Most Anticipated Games of 2016

4rga7Ny.png



and #3 on NeoGaf Most Anticipated Games of 2017

PjRAmFJ.png

Yeah it's weird, like when something gets really popular, people have to hate it.

I'm still all in on Horizon though, the game looks awesome, has positive previews and all the impressions on here, no way in hell it's going to be bad.

Even if it has some minor flaws, like all games do, it's not going to be enough to stop it being a great game, I'm 100% confident in that.
 
You know in the midst of all this craziness, no one asked about the create a quest feature mentioned in one of last years previews. How useful is it? I heard it makes acquiring rare materials a snap
 

Loudninja

Member
You know in the midst of all this craziness, no one asked about the create a quest feature mentioned in one of last years previews. How useful is it? I heard it makes acquiring rare materials a snap
Wow this one sets a great impression right from the start. It's beautiful, it controls great, the story is interesting right from the get go. It has all the polish you would expect from a naughty dog game, I am shocked I care about the characters and world so much already.

I'm going to talk about some gameplay systems from the first few hours.

I finally got loose in the first part of the world and there are a bunch of plants to get which can serve as healing items or stuff to make potions. Basically crafting seems very in depth, and if you ever need a resource you can create a custom side mission and the game will direct you to where you can find it. Really neat and it helped guide me to robots to get shards to make arrows, which I quickly ran out when I tried to take on a semi big robot. So weapon parts and mods you find on robots, healing stuff you find in plants. You don't have to get overwhelmed by it, there seems to be enough to get what you need quick and move on.


I got a few side quests, there are random quests to find as you roam around, standard open world stuff. Haven't really completed one yet I have been distracted by just hunting which I love. The robots feel like animals in packs, there is this natural feel to it all how they react and interact with each other. Sneaking by them is thrilling, getting caught creates all sorts of chaos as you either escape or engage. I have fought three types so far, one is a more difficult one with a surprising attack. I managed to kill one only to have another come from behind and totally wreck me. I have had to run away before I can get resources for a kill only to see another robot go to the dead body and gather the resources for itself. So it's all really cool and dynamic.

Combat is nice and fluid and feels kind of like new TR. you can unlock specific skills that slow down time, get stealth kills, gather more resources; standard skill tree stuff but a lot of these skills seem super useful. Your melee attacks work great when being charged, dodging is fast and fluid. I still don't have traps, should get there soon. I am playing on very hard so I am being cautious, so I focused more on stealth and it seems a bit too easy. All three of the types I have met so far can be insta killed by stealth which is as easy as hiding in a patch of tall grass, throwing a rock to lure them close then just stealth kill them. I assume that strategy won't be viable for long, but it has helped me to stock up on arrows. If you want better resources you need to shoot components off the robots so there is a little strategy there.

Graphically it's gorgeous on a normal ps4. I don't see any performance issues at all, no slow down, nothing. The music so far is really great and dynamic as it shits from quiet to action quickly. The animations are ok but not uncharted tier but the art design of the world is as good as anything I have seen.

Ok going to play more hopefully I can have some more impressions on how good the content the game offers is as so far I have just been messing around on my own.
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