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Horizon Zero Dawn |OT| The Land After Time

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danowat

Banned
I think the biggest issue, at least for me, is the game doesn't push you in any direction really, I get that some people like that, but I need a little direction.

There are also a ton of things that the game doesn't tell you, glosses over, or leaves you to find from loading screens, and / or little bits of text in the UI menus.

Take for example learning how to override different animals, if I hadn't browsed forums etc on this game, I would have no idea how you could do it.

I am 20hrs in, and the game hasn't even mentioned
cauldrons, or the fact that is how you learn how to override different animals
heck, I don't even have an icon for them on the map, which is another issue, no legend, I have a map full of icons that would make Ubisoft jealous, and no way of know what the icons mean, it's the same with weapon icons, hey, buy this sling it has ammo that has a ball on it, I've got no idea what it might do, I guess I better just try it out.
 

Silvard

Member
I think the biggest issue, at least for me, is the game doesn't push you in any direction really, I get that some people like that, but I need a little direction.

There are also a ton of things that the game doesn't tell you, glosses over, or leaves you to find from loading screens, and / or little bits of text in the UI menus.

Take for example learning how to override different animals, if I hadn't browsed forums etc on this game, I would have no idea how you could do it.

I am 20hrs in, and the game hasn't even mentioned
cauldrons, or the fact that is how you learn how to override different animals
heck, I don't even have an icon for them on the map, which is another issue, no legend, I have a map full of icons that would make Ubisoft jealous, and no way of know what the icons mean, it's the same with weapon icons, hey, buy this sling it has ammo that has a ball on it, I've got no idea what it might do, I guess I better just try it out.

I'm afraid you missed quite a few things. 1) There's a sidequest in the first town after
The Proving
that literally sends you to
the first cauldron
and marks it on your map, and 2) Aloy won't shut up about
overriding
a new machine every time she encounters one. At first wondering how and after that musing out loud that
the ability is in a cauldron
.
 

SlickVic

Member
Is there any rare/hard to get loot in this game?

Fox Skins have been the most annoying from my experience. There are a lot of foxes around the world, but I feel I have to hunt down 50 of them each time I need a skin. Just when I think I've collected the last one I'll ever need, I find out some weapon/item I want requires another one, and thus the hunt begins again.

Fish bones may be worse since fishes aren't always readily around, though I guess most of the items I've wanted to get haven't required them. Plus I got lucky one time as a Snapmaw killed a salmon while fighting another machine and gift wrapped a fish bone in the process.

Haven't worried too much about machine parts after finding out a merchant later in the game sells most of them.
 

danowat

Banned
I'm afraid you missed quite a few things. 1) There's a sidequest in the first town after
The Proving
that literally sends you to
the first cauldron
and marks it on your map, and 2) Aloy won't shut up about
overriding
a new machine every time she encounters one.

How did I miss it?

What is the mission called?, if it's an important mission, surely the game would have / should have, done a better of pushing you in it's direction.
 

SlickVic

Member
How did I miss it?

What is the mission called?, if it's an important mission, surely the game would have / should have, done a better of pushing you in it's direction.


It's a side mission in one of the smaller towns you encounter early on in the game, Mother's Crown I believe (name of the town). Though I'm pretty sure before that you're able to override machines like Watchers just through reaching a certain point of the main quest. After which Aloy seems to comment a lot about needing to figure out a way to override more powerful machines when she sees one.
 

Dany

Banned
How did I miss it?

What is the mission called?, if it's an important mission, surely the game would have / should have, done a better of pushing you in it's direction.

You could have used the power of deduction after killing a corrupter and overriding a machine. Or look at the missions log available to you.

I don't think there is a main mission about overriding tallnecks but it's important to display the zone on the map.

edit: also you could read the weapons text at merchants to read what they do. Radical concept I know.
 

Redders

Member
I've just completed the main quest under
Sunfall
, how many more main quests are left after this? I wasn't expecting it to take so long, proably the first game I'm actually interested in listening to all the datapoints etc.

Also is there a comprehensive list of sidequests/errands? I have 1 side quest and 2 errands left to do but from the guide I looked at it didn't seem to have all the side quests on it.
 

Silvard

Member
How did I miss it?

What is the mission called?, if it's an important mission, surely the game would have / should have, done a better of pushing you in it's direction.

I don't know how you missed it. It's at a town where you're sent to during the main quest. It's called
Cauldron SIGMA
. The quest giver is called Dral. I don't remember if it's a sidequest proper or an errand.
 

nilstrung

Neo Member
Story spoilers, heads up. Was gonna go to the spoiler thread but haven't finished the game yet, so didn't want to hear about anything further along than I am, untagged.

To those who have finished the game.

Anyone else kinda bummed out by the
seemingly massive amount of exposition dumping
in this game? I've just
found out what Project Zero Dawn really is and am currently making my way through its facility, learning about GAIA. The premise itself is really cool, but the way they're just laying it all out there MGS4 style along with human enemy encounters (my least favorite part of the game) peppered in there for good measure is really killing my vibe. Also doesn't help that there's like 20 bajillion text / audio logs in every room, too.
I'm still loving the game overall and have about 35 hours clocked, but this most recent part has had the wind in my sails die down a little.


It's something that video games will and are struggling, especially with the amount of processing power we have today that enables to create this massive open world games with extensive interaction and player choice (at least the illusion of) with a "classical narrative structure."
In one side you have almost entirely liberty to do whatever you want, on the other hand, you have the need to tell a story and guide the player to one specific point and how you do that without taking the "power" from the hands of player?
Too many cutscenes and you will have MGS4 all over again, or very few cutscenes and is MGS5 all over again :D, not that I'm saying that either is right or wrong.
World building, narrative design are areas that will evolve and grow exponentially in the next years, because there is a need to merge this two different features into a seamless experience.
One thing that stuck to me was in The Witcher 3 when
you kill Radovid
, but the world does not acknowledge this, it simply stays the same. I understand why, it will be a titan of an effort to manually predict all actions and consequences of the player and reflect that in the world, gameplay, and characters.
So I think this is a great area to explore by game creators, and I'm happy that Horizon came this year because will be an excellent case study for the thesis I'm developing.

Sorry for the wall of text, I get carried away by this topic! :D
 

Kuldar

Member
Yeah, I am pretty sure I did that, but I can't remember seeing anything relating to cauldrons.

What is the mission called that tells you about them?
It's called Cauldron SIGMA, you get it by talking to Dral in Mother's Crown. She's next to injuried people. The quest is in the cauldron category if I remember well.
 

mrklaw

MrArseFace
The different main quest lines don't really merge. The quests where you are to investigate the machines corruption is the "real" main quest. Everything else is "side" main quest. I'd always do those first.

thanks. My next mission in that 'main' line is the
gravehoard
and I've actually been there already but couldn't get in. So you'd recommend finishing off the other line with the Meridian shenanigans and then coming back to this one?
 

Cyborg

Member
This game is fcking epic man! I love it so much, it plays so good. The gameplay and how intense the fights are is just amazing.
 

ty_hot

Member
Today I realized that in the Machine log you can see the parts of them and what happens if destroy each part. Makes everything easier, now I have some more direction to do. I already learned a few weak spots from some machines, but now I can actually know all of them and plan accordingly.

I am just past the
wall
, game is absolutely awesome.
 

rezn0r

Member
Well I just had the craziest string of battles while roaming around...but I think they are connected to the late-game story somehow so I'll spoiler it just in case.

Something similar happened with me. Fighting that
Stormbird
in the middle of a blizzard was atmospheric and exhilarating.

Haha I did the same, wandered up there going after the vantage point and triggered the cutscene, it felt like I was there too early or something, but I only have 3-4 main quests left and I'm almost level 50 (however it was the first one I've fought, so that was cool).

After knocking off some components and ropecasting its ass down over and over, it just looked really awesome seeing it slow down and stumble through the river going through the middle of that area. One of the cooler things I've wandered into playing this.
 

NeoRausch

Member
Fish bones, fox skins and fucking raccoon bones.


I am at 80 (something)%, finished the main story, got most of the sidequests and now started the collectables.

And yet I'm still missing one upgrade because I'm missing another raccoon skin.

But I'm drowning in raccoon bones.
 

kraspkibble

Permabanned.
played a few hours today. done these quests:

The City of the Sun
The Field of the Fallen
Into The Borderlands
The Sun Shall Fall
Collateral

and now heading towards Maker's End. I'm starting to get into it again now. I'm ignoring side quests and other things so i can just get on with the main story. Finally managed to upgrade my resources pouch and increase arrow capacity. Feels so much better now. Also I had to turn down the difficulty to easy because normal was really tough for me.

Aim your weapon
Press R1
Shoot

i feel like an idiot now. i thought it said R2 and would automatically shoot 2 arrows. got it now thanks :)
 
The more I play this, the more I realise how amazing the world is to explore. It really reminds me of the first time I picked up Skyrim and you are presented with a huge vast world available to explore.
 

kraspkibble

Permabanned.
The more I play this, the more I realise how amazing the world is to explore. It really reminds me of the first time I picked up Skyrim and you are presented with a huge vast world available to explore.

i was going to replay skyrim but i don't think i'd enjoy it anymore. it was my first open world RPG and it blew my mind but having played this and witcher 3 it just looks really bad.
 
i was going to replay skyrim but i don't think i'd enjoy it anymore. it was my first open world RPG and it blew my mind but having played this and witcher 3 it just looks really bad.

I kinda think with Skyrim, once a fan, always a fan. Graphically it doesn't hold up against games like Horizon, but I still can't help but love it.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
i was going to replay skyrim but i don't think i'd enjoy it anymore. it was my first open world RPG and it blew my mind but having played this and witcher 3 it just looks really bad.

They're 2 different kind of games, you should definitely replay it. Maybe with some mods to mix things up a bit.
 
thanks. My next mission in that 'main' line is the
gravehoard
and I've actually been there already but couldn't get in. So you'd recommend finishing off the other line with the Meridian shenanigans and then coming back to this one?

In my opinion people should do the whole Meridian quest before Maker's End because even if I consider it a really good quest it's secondary (despite the game saying the opposite), and after Maker's you'll only want to know about the main plot.

So yeah, do Meridian.
 

leng jai

Member
Just finished it. It's always a sign of a great game when you feel genuinely sad that it's all over. Sadly I don't think this game is all that replayable, hopefully there's a meaty DLC coming.
 

mrklaw

MrArseFace
In my opinion people should do the whole Meridian quest before Maker's End because even if I consider it a really good quest it's secondary (despite the game saying the opposite), and after Maker's you'll only want to know about the main plot.

So yeah, so Meridian.

Thanks.

Makers end definitely makes me want to follow that thread so I'll second this suggestion. I was lying in bed last night going through questions in my head that that mission raised.
 

Dany

Banned
Just finished it. It's always a sign of a great game when you feel genuinely sad that it's all over. Sadly I don't think this game is all that replayable, hopefully there's a meaty DLC coming.

I just finished it as well. I wanna play more. But I already did everything. :(
 

J-Skee

Member
Finally met Nil, 35 hours in.

Also, turned off the active quest & my word, when there are no objectives on screen, nothing pushing you to do anything, the world is so damn gorgeous. Just makes me want to walk around for hours.
 

mrklaw

MrArseFace
Finally met Nil, 35 hours in.

Also, turned off the active quest & my word, when there are no objectives on screen, nothing pushing you to do anything, the world is so damn gorgeous. Just makes me want to walk around for hours.

I have a bit of a man crush on Nil. He's clearly a bad man but something about his demeanour (and lovely eye makeup) is arresting.
 

HvySky

Member
It's something that video games will and are struggling, especially with the amount of processing power we have today that enables to create this massive open world games with extensive interaction and player choice (at least the illusion of) with a "classical narrative structure."
In one side you have almost entirely liberty to do whatever you want, on the other hand, you have the need to tell a story and guide the player to one specific point and how you do that without taking the "power" from the hands of player?
Too many cutscenes and you will have MGS4 all over again, or very few cutscenes and is MGS5 all over again :D, not that I'm saying that either is right or wrong.
World building, narrative design are areas that will evolve and grow exponentially in the next years, because there is a need to merge this two different features into a seamless experience.
One thing that stuck to me was in The Witcher 3 when
you kill Radovid
, but the world does not acknowledge this, it simply stays the same. I understand why, it will be a titan of an effort to manually predict all actions and consequences of the player and reflect that in the world, gameplay, and characters.
So I think this is a great area to explore by game creators, and I'm happy that Horizon came this year because will be an excellent case study for the thesis I'm developing.

Sorry for the wall of text, I get carried away by this topic! :D

Good point. I totally recognize the difficulty of striking a balance between player freedom and when you need to convey a story to them in a natural and cohesive manner. I don't have a better solution, trust me, this isn't a case of armchair game developing, but it's definitely something I noticed.

I actually love the world they're building, it's one of the more interesting and novel premises I've seen in a while, but at points the way it's presented and the pacing taking a hit for that reason is what gets to me. I don't know how they could have done it better than it is now, but I'm hoping they find a way if they do make a Horizon 2, because I ended having to take a break last night after the 10th room with 20 audio and text logs.
 

KORNdoggy

Member
I have a bit of a man crush on Nil. He's clearly a bad man but something about his demeanour (and lovely eye makeup) is arresting.

he's easily my favorite character in the game. kind of for the same reasons i loved HK-47 in KOTOR. he's just un-apologetically evil, but charismatically so.
 

Ferr986

Member
I think I'm nearing the end of the game (around 50 hours in), it's cool to see (story spoilers lvl 30ish main quest)
some of the people you helped in side quests gather at Meirdian to help you
 
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