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Horizon: Zero Dawn | Review Thread

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BigTnaples

BigTnaples

Todd Howard's Secret GAF Account
Back-In-Black said:
No, but when TLOU is praised as the "Citizen Kane" of gaming when it's a standard zombie character tale (Note, I say this as someone that loved TLOU). I have to question the critical chops of game reviewers when it comes to narrative. Or when a reviewer finds the main quest in TW3 to be generic.
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What does "Citizen Kane" praise have to do with what type of "standard tale" it is?


"Citizen Kane" references execution, not the uniqueness or complexity of the plot.
 
A

aravuus

Member
Much better scores than I was honestly expecting. Still unlikely I'll get this at launch due to simply not having any time to play new video games, but I think I'll buy it in March rather than later in the spring/early summer.
 
M

Moz La Punk

Member
Lynd7 said:
This might be a dumb question, but I haven't followed this game super closely. Is there much outside of the overworld to do? Like is there some other types of gameplay such as puzzles or something? Or are the main draws the story, quest, combat.
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Yes. You have the story missions. Side missions. Random combat. And next to that varied side stuff like (spoilering just in case):

- Bandid camps
- Quite a few small 'dungeons' with a twist
- Infected zones
- Hunter guild missions
- Climbing the longneck missions
 
S

StuffRuff

Member
Wow, those are some impressive scores. I'm just finishing up with the Witcher 3 (I think?!) so this will be a nice game to transition into. I do love me an open world RPG!
 
L

Loudninja

Member
This is key:

Rather than being a matter of raw level numbers, success is all about knowing what you’re getting into and approaching the encounter with a strategy. Will you take out the smaller beasts by stealth before diving into the fray? Would it be better to go in scattering bombs around, or to and rope the larger foes down while you clean up? What if you start by knocking off the component that gives the big baddie an advantage here – or blows nearby baddies up? Can you turn some of these baddies against each other? Are you wearing the right armour? Wouldn’t it be better just to go around?
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http://www.vg247.com/2017/02/20/hor...had-a-baby-and-it-deserves-to-win-your-heart/
 
S

SomTervo

Member
Moz La Punk said:
Its difficult to compare, but I felt that the gameworld of Horizon was about the same size as The Witcher 3 (minus Skellige).

And yes you can walk and walk in Horizon, same as in The Witcher 3. Difference is that you will bump into large robots here so except for some 'friendlier' areas you are also sneaking around alot because you don't want to fight a gigantic robot every 15 minutes.

That's the fun thing actually, a lot of the bigger robots arent even part of the story missions, you just bump into them. You can also choose to sneak past them, especially in the beginning you are way too scared to fight them. Then when you get better in the game you want to try it out. These fights can go on for 10, 15 minutes.

It's not a problem that you can sneak past them, it is actually more engrossing this way, it feels realistic.

But about the gameworld, its very varied. Maybe even a bit too varied as the weather/vegetation can switch pretty quickly from area to area, haha, but Im not really serious in calling that a negative point or anything. But compared to the Witcher, which had like, the same weather/temperature kind of area's in the main game world, Horizon is more varied in that regard.
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Sounds well thought out, and sounds like you appreciate that. Awesome stuff. Thanks!

Back-In-Black said:
No, but when TLOU is praised as the "Citizen Kane" of gaming when it's a standard zombie character tale (Note, I say this as someone that loved TLOU). I have to question the critical chops of game reviewers when it comes to narrative. Or when a reviewer finds the main quest in TW3 to be generic.
Click to expand...

You've clearly given it a lot of thought, but I think I agree with this response (minus the pejoratives):

onemanasylum said:
Plot and story are two different things. A game can have a basic plot and still have amazing writing, story and characters. Execution matters. Most of the best literary works are fairly basic plots.
Click to expand...
 
G

GravityInsanity

Member
https://twitter.com/hermenhulst/status/833625327129731076
Hermen's reaction to review scores.
C5GhzsXXUAA9T-5.jpg:large
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Fbh

Fbh

Member
Wow, I'm happy for Guerilla.
Wasn't expecting it to do so good.Will definitely get it eventually.

These 2 months have been crazy. It's the first time this gen that I feel like I can't keep up with all the new releases I want to play.
 
I

iratA

Member
Milly Osworth said:
Higher than expected, but hype has gotten ahold of gaming sites before. Hopefully that's not happening here though.
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That would've been my worry too....but and this is a big BUT we have 5/5 from Jeff, 9.5/10 from Jim Sterling and to top it all off 9.5/10 from Polygon. I can't believe that all three of those got consumed by the hype. This game must be something special.
 
kraspkibble

kraspkibble

Permabanned.
Bansai said:
But... you know that quest is filled with satire?

Not to mention it actually gave fans a pretty big hint that they will be meeting later on one of the best characters from Wticher 1.

This quest was amazing and I can't take seriously anybody who thinks otherwise.
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Exactly. It may seem stupid at first glance but I enjoyed it. You would need to have played the previous games and read all the descriptions to get the most out of it.

Even if you hadn't I think it's ridiculous to give up and hate on a game because of a short side quest. The side quests in Witcher 3 are really well done. Maybe even enjoyable than the main quest at times.
 
R

rdytoroll

Member
Maroon Gamer said:
http://www.vg247.com/2017/02/20/hor...had-a-baby-and-it-deserves-to-win-your-heart/

Horizon Zero Dawn is going to make other open-world developers sick with envy.

It is The Witcher 3 of post-post-apocalyptic robo-dino adventures; it is the sort of thing Ubisoft will wish you had never seen if it dares to release another time-sucking, glitch-filled Assassin’s Creed.

This is very probably the most flawless open world game ever made.
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This is praise of the highest order. I absolutely adore The Witcher 3.
 
A

aussiedude08

Member
Maroon Gamer said:
http://www.vg247.com/2017/02/20/hor...had-a-baby-and-it-deserves-to-win-your-heart/

Horizon Zero Dawn is going to make other open-world developers sick with envy.

It is The Witcher 3 of post-post-apocalyptic robo-dino adventures; it is the sort of thing Ubisoft will wish you had never seen if it dares to release another time-sucking, glitch-filled Assassin’s Creed.

This is very probably the most flawless open world game ever made.
Click to expand...

The Ubi line is cold with Ghost Recon out next month. unless that moves away from the Ubi formula
 
Bl@de

Bl@de

Member
Wow. Great reviews. Didn't expect it. Looking forward to it, but I'll wait until late 2017. Persona 5 is too close to buy anything else now. Backlog for now.
 
ISee

ISee

Member
I'm still a bit nervous about this one. I guess I can't get the "let's climb on top of a robot giraffe a.k.a. tower" out of my head. Ubisoft really burned me with tower climbing to unlock areas, missions and collectibles (WD2 was much better in that regard). But overall the gameplay appears to be good enough, but the story matters the most to me here. How good is it? What's the consensus?
 
B

Back-In-Black

Banned
onemanasylum said:
You don't know what you are talking about. So the godfather is not good because the story is a generic mob take? Plot and story are two different things. A game can have a basic plot and still have amazing writing, story and characters. Execution matters. I dontt think you even know what "Story" means. Most of the best literary works are fairly basic plots.
Click to expand...

There you go, putting words in my mouth that didn't exist. Story me encompasses all the narrative elements in a game, plot, characters, lore/world-building, etc. TLOU isn't "standard" because the plot has been done before, all plots have been done before. It's standard because the characters have all pretty much been done in any standard zombie/post-apocalyptic movie. The Road, Children of Men, The Walking Dead TT series, Terminator 2, etc. Just as the Uncharted series is a retread of the Indiana Jones type adventure movies/serials, TLOU was a retread of standard post-apocalyptic/zombie tropes. It's a extremely well told retread, but a retread nonetheless and even done better than others.

I'm not saying that TLOU is bad in any way, I'm just criticizing the idea that it was some massive leap forward in gaming narrative or the "Citizen Kane" of gaming. It was simply a well told, standard story.
 
S

SomTervo

Member
aussiedude08 said:
The Ubi line is cold with Ghost Recon out next month. unless that moves away from the Ubi formula
Click to expand...

But they just nailed it with For Honor? Unless you're just talking about open world titles.

From what I played of the Ghost Recon Wildlands Beta it's a pretty damn good military shooter and a phenomenal co-op sandbox. Like Just Cause 3 meets SOCOM.

Back-In-Black said:
There you go, putting words in my mouth that didn't exist. Story me encompasses all the narrative elements in a game, plot, characters, lore/world-building, etc. TLOU isn't "standard" because the plot has been done before, all plots have been done before. It's standard because the characters have all pretty much been done in any standard zombie/post-apocalyptic movie. The Road, Children of Men, The Walking Dead TT series, Terminator 2, etc. Just as the Uncharted series is a retread of the Indiana Jones type adventure movies/serials, TLOU was a retread of standard post-apocalyptic/zombie tropes. It's a extremely well told retread, but a retread nonetheless and even done better than others.

I'm not saying that TLOU is bad in any way, I'm just criticizing the idea that it was some massive leap forward in gaming narrative or the "Citizen Kane" of gaming. It was simply a well told, standard story.
Click to expand...

I still think TLoU brought plenty of new nuances and ideas to the table and should be lauded for various things. Especially in AAA videogame writing where moral ambiguity and elegant storytelling is typically shied away from. The whole CK thing doesn't bear mentioning.

Anyway. Back to the topic at hand.
 
T

Tyaren

Member
N

nelsonroyale

Member
bigol said:
Witcher 3 is 92% on Ps4,Horizon is a Ps4 game, why are you taking the lowest Xbox One version reviews? Horizon should receive more 10s to reach that score, but i don't think that will happen.

Looking at the past trend that score will mostly go lower than 89%, something along the lines of an 87%. It's an awesome attempt for a first RPG by Guerrilla, but it's not the masterpiece people were talking about.

The guy playing the game saying it doesn't touch The Witcher 3 or any other masterpiece games quality was spot on. It wasn't just ONE review.
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Come on...You haven't even played the game. You have an opinion and a transparent preference. That is fine, but no need to project.
 
O

onemanasylum

Banned
Back-In-Black said:
There you go, putting words in my mouth that didn't exist. Story me encompasses all the narrative elements in a game, plot, characters, lore/world-building, etc. TLOU isn't "standard" because the plot has been done before, all plots have been done before. It's standard because the characters have all pretty much been done in any standard zombie/post-apocalyptic movie. The Road, Children of Men, The Walking Dead TT series, Terminator 2, etc. Just as the Uncharted series is a retread of the Indiana Jones type adventure movies/serials, TLOU was a retread of standard post-apocalyptic/zombie tropes. It's a extremely well told retread, but a retread nonetheless and even done better than others.

I'm not saying that TLOU is bad in any way, I'm just criticizing the idea that it was some massive leap forward in gaming narrative or the "Citizen Kane" of gaming. It was simply a well told, standard story.
Click to expand...

Disagree, TLOU story was on another level for gaming. How many games even have a good story? Anyway you are derailing. Why are you even bringing this up anway sorry TLOU praise bothers you.

i guess the godfather is not a cinematic masterpiece either, story is a mod retread right? Only 1 review called TLOU that, not sure why that has you salty.
 
M

Moz La Punk

Member
SomTervo said:
Sounds well thought out, and sounds like you appreciate that. Awesome stuff. Thanks!
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Absolutely appreciative of the game, I've given it a 9.5 out of 10 so no worries here.


vivekTO said:
They copied mountains too!!! My god Guerrilla!!!!
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Haha, was just joking as you probably know, but it does look like mountains in Horizon. Thats the thing with good games, once you are playing them you see them everywhere in real life. They take over your reality.
 
F

Fat4all

Banned
Back-In-Black said:
I'm not saying that TLOU is bad in any way, I'm just criticizing the idea that it was some massive leap forward in gaming narrative or the "Citizen Kane" of gaming. It was simply a well told, standard story.
Click to expand...

How many reviewers specifically called TLOU the Citizen Kane of video games?
 
L

LuuKyK

Member
ISee said:
I'm still a bit nervous about this one. I guess I can't get the "let's climb on top of a robot giraffe a.k.a. tower" out of my head. Ubisoft really burned me with tower climbing to unlock areas, missions and collectibles (WD2 was much better in that regard). But overall the gameplay appears to be good enough, but the story matters the most to me here. How good is it? What's the consensus?
Click to expand...

Most reviewers seem to love it. Read the quotes in the OP.
 
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