• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

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

Do you think these ancient machines in the trailers are taken over by humans at aome point? I imagine it would be cool to fight mounted humans on a mount yourself.
 

SomTervo

Member
Yeah, seriously, this is wrong. Yes, it doesn't have the best NPC's ever, and they are not as good as something like WD2's backstories for everyone, but it's still very much a lived in world.

No, it's not wrong.

"Lived in world" != "Living, breathing world"

How is this so hard to understand.

Horizon's world sounds infinitely more "living and breathing". "Living and breathing" means dynamic, autonomous, doing its own thing. Again, The Witcher 3's world is a 10/10 for me, but it is NOT "living" or "breathing". Yes, it is "lived in".
 

Velurian

Member
One of the players who has it said aiming and using the spear was pretty difficult and could've benefited from a lock on.

well, there's different types of aim assistance, but a lock-on is what you have in games like bloodborne. I do see the benefit of maybe having sticky aim (helps keep the aim on a specific moving target) if there's a lot of movement in the game (and there seems to be), but personally, I prefer as little aim assist as possible. however, once again, lock-on would be something completely broken if anything like what you have in bloodborne.

aim assist in HZD might actually work against the player, due to the "tactical targets" nature of the battle system. Sticky aim might make it more difficult to aim for certain weak spots, snap-to-target aim assist might also make specific targetting more difficult.
 

Hydrargyrus

Member
How is the story?. I really wish to be at least decent, because everything else looks really great.

I start feeling like this could be an awesome game
 
No, it's not wrong.

"Lived in world" != "Living, breathing world"

How is this so hard to understand.

Horizon's world sounds infinitely more "living and breathing". "Living and breathing" means dynamic, autonomous, doing its own thing. Again, The Witcher 3's world is a 10/10 for me, but it is NOT "living" or "breathing". Yes, it is "lived in".

Gotta say I disagree with you. The atmosphere, weather, swaying of the trees all make Witcher 3 a living breathing world to me. If anything it's one of the only RPG's I've played in recent memory that's even made me feel like that.
 

Muninn

Banned
No, it's not wrong.

"Lived in world" != "Living, breathing world"

How is this so hard to understand.

Horizon's world sounds infinitely more "living and breathing". "Living and breathing" means dynamic, autonomous, doing its own thing. Again, The Witcher 3's world is a 10/10 for me, but it is NOT "living" or "breathing". Yes, it is "lived in".

That is completely your opinion. I just got up, but I basically meant the world is living and breathing as well.

The Witcher has a world full of people and things to do. It is complex, and yes it does appear to be living with many different kinds of animals and monsters roaming around with rich backstory.

Now do I think Horizon is doing it better? Yes, in some ways it is doing things better than Witcher.
 

Muninn

Banned
Gotta say I disagree with you. The atmosphere, weather, swaying of the trees all make Witcher 3 a living breathing world to me. If anything it's one of the only RPG's I've played in recent memory that's even made me feel like that.

Okay the swaying of the trees thing was actually too much in Witcher 3. I honestly toned it down with a mod lol.

But yes there was never anything overtly wrong with Witcher 3. Sure, it was not super dynamic but nothing really is at this point either.
 

SomTervo

Member
That is completely your opinion. I just got up, but I basically meant the world is living and breathing as well.

The Witcher has a world full of people and things to do. It is complex, and yes it does appear to be living with many different kinds of animals and monsters roaming around with rich backstory.

Now do I think Horizon is doing it better? Yes, in some ways it is doing things better than Witcher.

As I said on the last page, in over 130 hours with The Witcher 3 I saw about three "dynamic" encounters. Three cases of NPCs going off their patrol/role to fight monsters or fight each other. That is the antithesis of "living, breathing" which means the world making up its own encounters and rules as it goes along.

In just a few posts of Horizons impressions from GAFfers, we have a description of a world with way more randomly roaming AI (in TW3 they're always locked to single areas and almost never roam past that) and even human NPCs cropping up at random in battles.

Gotta say I disagree with you. The atmosphere, weather, swaying of the trees all make Witcher 3 a living breathing world to me. If anything it's one of the only RPG's I've played in recent memory that's even made me feel like that.

Weather != "living, breathing world". It looks alive, it looks amazing, but it's brilliant animations and lighting rather than a dynamic world and behaviours.

"Living, breathing" to me mean's AI doing things. It means a world like an organism. Functioning parts that move around and do their own thing.

Again, TW3's world is my favourite gameworld to-date. But almost everything in it is rote, set and stone. And again, this isn't a big problem. This whole conversation goes back to one person saying Horizon's world looks "as living, breathing as The Witcher 3"s. I think that's a totally off-base description.

Okay the swaying of the trees thing was actually too much in Witcher 3. I honestly toned it down with a mod lol.

But yes there was never anything overtly wrong with Witcher 3. Sure, it was not super dynamic but nothing really is at this point either.

I never said there's anything "wrong" with it at all. I adore it. I'm just saying it's not a "living, breathing" world. That's a misnomer.
 

iosa

Member
The french reviewer that said he was at 54% in 25h just ended the main storyline. He's now at
74% in 34h07
. He added a sparkles emoji too.

Source
 

vivekTO

Member
Hmm.. can somebody link me the horizon spoiler free impression thread.. I am lost and ended in Witcher 3 discussion thread
Thanks

Also


The french reviewer that said he was at 54% in 25h just ended the main storyline. He's now at
74% in 34h07
.

Source

This is good, thanks.

No what sparkles emoji means??
 

fastmower

Member
As I said on the last page, in over 130 hours with The Witcher 3 I saw about three "dynamic" encounters. Three cases of NPCs going off their patrol/role to fight monsters or fight each other. That is the antithesis of "living, breathing" which means the world making up its own encounters and rules as it goes along.

In just a few posts of Horizons impressions from GAFfers, we have a description of a world with way more randomly roaming AI (in TW3 they're always locked to single areas and almost never roam past that) and even human NPCs cropping up at random in battles.



Weather != "living, breathing world". It looks alive, it looks amazing, but it's brilliant animations and lighting rather than a dynamic world and behaviours.

"Living, breathing" to me mean's AI doing things. It means a world like an organism. Functioning parts that move around and do their own thing.

Again, TW3's world is my favourite gameworld to-date. But almost everything in it is rote, set and stone. And again, this isn't a big problem. This whole conversation goes back to one person saying Horizon's world looks "as living, breathing as The Witcher 3"s. I think that's a totally off-base description.



I never said there's anything "wrong" with it at all. I adore it. I'm just saying it's not a "living, breathing" world. That's a misnomer.
You're taking this too far. Try not to over think the phrase.
 

Kazuo Hirai

I really want everyone to know how much more Titanfall 2 sold than Nioh. It was a staggering amount.
First 30 hours , now Witcher 3, maybe next is Half Life 3
 

wouwie

Member
Hmmm... I rarely play open world games and/or rpg games. The only open world game i loved was Read Dead Redemption. But i feel like i might actually enjoy this one for some reason. The aspect of exploration is a big part of why i'm interested since the world looks interesting and beautiful to explore. Also, it seems to be a mix of different gameplay styles judging by the impressions, not a pure rpg (like The Witcher) but more an action adventure rpg hybrid.

I'm definately keeping an eye on this one.
 
People seemed to be asking for that just in melee combat because the camera can be awkward.
How would that even work? It's a game where you're fighting multiple enemies and need to quickly dodge and switch to shooting. It would be like saying Vanquish needs a lock-on for its melee combat
 

Gudji

Member
Watched a stream for a couple of hours, this game is just right up my alley! The guy I saw playing was like
30 hours
into the game, he did a bit of everything (main story, side quests, trials, etc).

The environments are bonkers, that's all I'll say for now (
saw the inside of one of the cauldrons
). I haven't played UC4 but I'm pretty sure this game will be the best looking game on PS4 once it releases. It's also one of the most beautiful games I've seen artistically speaking. Oh btw I did saw the ant thing live on the stream and people in the comment section went nuts. lol

There were a couple of things that got me thinking "I hope they fix that". Sometimes the AI does look a bit dumb, for instance when there's too many enemies in one location the machines sometimes don't know exactly what to do. Some of the machines also took a long time to react, for example saw a fight against a sawtooth where he was down in the ground and took an eternity to get up and attack aloy, but that did gave me the impression that was a bug or something like that. Also saw a couple of glitches in the animations department mostly on NPCs doing stuff; some pop-in in one cutscene (facial tatoos appearing during conversation with npc) and one thing that was kind of off (
Aloy walking through snow and there was no effect, at least in the stream I wasn't able to see it
).

I mean it's not going to be perfect, but from what I saw it looks very interesting and I'm now convinced it will be a good game even though I wasn't playing it. My doubt now is more like: will this just be a good game or a great one? I guess we'll find out monday.
 

SomTervo

Member
How would that even work? It's a game where you're fighting multiple enemies and need to quickly dodge and switch to shooting. It would be like saying Vanquish needs a lock-on for its melee combat

I think they were saying the camera was getting blocked by things and it was hard to keep track of priority enemies. IDK ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
Letting melee have lock-on while ranged combat doesn't... is a poor design approach anyway.

In an fast-paced action-oriented game, you want the controls to be seamless and make sense for all facets of its mechanics, be it from shooting to melee.

For there to be a different rule set in controls when attacking with melee compared to attacking with ranged would be confusing.

What needs to be the fix is to improve the camera so there's no blockage, and for there to be tighter melee controls so that its' deep and reactive on its own.
 
You're taking this too far. Try not to over think the phrase.
Too far? Usually when people talk about what he's talking about, it's in regards to NPC behavior and reactivity. Watch Dog 2 civilians, RDR's animals and towns, etc. A sense that a world acts outside of your interactions.

Witcher 3 is my favorite fantasy world in games, has the most believably designed world in the genre, but the world itself is qute static. GTA V and Watch Dogs 2 have more dynamic NPCs
 
My choice of words for those kind of discussions is 'illusion.'

All open world games strive to create the best illusion of a lived-in, believable, rich and dense world.

TW3 does so by some of the most authored craftsmanship in any open-world game. Every part of the geography, layout of villages, villager interaction, placement of monsters in the world are tailor-made and placed to feel perfect to the tee.

More system-based games does so by the dynamism of layered systems clashing against each other to create the illusion that the world exist outside your interaction, or that there is a real domino effect that extends beyond your fixed behaviour set of more restrictive game when you push the system to its breaking point.
 

SomTervo

Member
My choice of words for those kind of discussions is 'illusion.'

All open world games strive to create the best illusion of a lived-in, believable, rich and dense world.

TW3 does so by some of the most authored craftsmanship in any open-world game. Every part of the geography, layout of villages, villager interaction, placement of monsters in the world are tailor-made and placed to feel perfect to the tee.

More system-based games does so by the dynamism of layered systems clashing against each other to create the illusion that the world exist outside your interaction, or that there is a real domino effect that extends beyond your fixed behaviour set of more restrictive game when you push the system to its breaking point.

You're late to the convo (which was basically a discussion of the term "living, breathing world") and it's a derail anyway
 

fastmower

Member
Too far? Usually when people talk about what he's talking about, it's in regards to NPC behavior and reactivity. Watch Dog 2 civilians, RDR's animals and towns, etc. A sense that a world acts outside of your interactions.

Witcher 3 is my favorite fantasy world in games, has the most believably designed world in the genre, but the world itself is qute static. GTA V and Watch Dogs 2 have more dynamic NPCs
I just think it's ridiculous to try to define the phrase 'living, breathing world'. People have wildly different opinions on what creates a dynamic game world.
 

SomTervo

Member
I just think it's ridiculous to try to define the phrase 'living, breathing world'. People have wildly different opinions on what creates a dynamic game world.

No, it had (and to-date always had) a very defined context and meaning. It was first coined re Grand Theft Auto - about NPCs that would walk/drive around autonomously, react to one another dynamically, react to world events dynamically. The world was "living, breathing" because of the agents within it who made it come to life. It was only ever applied to open worlds and only ever about how effectively these worlds dynamically and emergently operated. The idea being that the agents in the world do their own thing, making up an impression of an organism/organisms - hence "living, breathing". It's a descriptor of a 'sandbox'.

Most of Horizon's open world sounds and looks "living, breathing". Dinos roaming at will, human hunters occasionally appearing (apparently at random), factions fighting each other, etc. These are dynamic 'sandbox' elements. None of which happened in TW3. This convo started because somebody said TW3 was similar - and it's not: monsters basically stay in confined areas and almost never interact, 99.9% of NPCs in the world are in locked routines walking around confined areas and don't interact with any others, etc.
 

Tigress

Member
You're taking this too far. Try not to over think the phrase.

Yeah well I agree with him. Witcher' world was too static to feel living and breathing. Yeah the trees moved but npcs and monsters were always in the same spot and it made it feel like a set up rather than a living world.
 

SomTervo

Member
Yeah well I agree with him. Witcher' world was too static to feel living and breathing. Yeah the trees moved but npcs and monsters were always in the same spot and it made it feel like a set up rather than a living world.

Precisely, and Horizon looks like it's a fantastic "living, breathing world".

Again, TW3 deserves to be in this discussion because evidently Horizon has lifted elements of its quest/narrative structure. The "living, breathing" thing is a sidebar.

TW3 still has a phenomenal world, my favourite, and I can't wait to compare Horizon's.
 
Precisely, and Horizon looks like it's a fantastic "living, breathing world".

Again, TW3 deserves to be in this discussion because evidently Horizon has lifted elements of its quest/narrative structure. The "living, breathing" thing is a sidebar.

TW3 still has a phenomenal world, my favourite, and I can't wait to compare Horizon's.

As dead as Mordor as a place is, Shadow of Mordor had a pretty dynamic world and I think John Gonzalez was a designer in that game. Make sense that he applies his experience from that game in this one.
 
Top Bottom