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Horizon Zero Dawn SPOILERS Thread

Luckily Aloy herself was much better, because she obviously mattered much more. I still felt like Aloy was too one-note, and the lack of any sexual or romantic thoughts at all really hurt my perception of her as a real person. That was clearly done not to scare away guy gamers who like to self-insert as the main character, and it sucked.

I found that to be a good thing .
Yeah she did some flirting but she had other stuff on her mind and was in a rush .
Of course thanks to this being a open world game there is a disconnect between the story and how the player plays .

That makes total sense to me yeah, I didn't feel that way but if it hits you that way, again, it has total sense.

Yeah i can understand that also but then i just think about the world we live it now and it seem rather normal for ted just to be a piece of trash .
 

BiGBoSSMk23

A company being excited for their new game is a huge slap in the face to all the fans that liked their old games.
Got the plat last night. Hunting down the collectibles wasn't exactly an exhilarating experience, it was the definition of checkbox gaming. Still, though, just going to a machine site you like and fighting the machines there... that and photo mode are reason enough to return to the game many times.



My one gripe with the visual style of the entire game was how they used 'tech magic' to show corruption spreading. It was stupid from the start so it didn't bother me by the end that they were still using it in the post-credits scene.

They should have made it so that only Aloy could see that stuff, and only with her focus on, and made it more 'techy' somehow, like it was code or a visualisation of wave frequencies of what have you. Other than that one thing the art design in the game was flawless, utterly astonishing.



I think we're far enough removed from my post for me to admit I was being entirely facetious. The point I was making (through satire / trolling) is that the game relentlessly beats you over the head with what an astonishing asshole Ted is and what a genius martyr Elisabet is. It's way over the top, to the point that no one could possibly misunderstand what's going on, and it grated on me. As a reaction I pretended to be that person who didn't get it against all odds, purely as a response to how heavy handed and crap that entire part of the story was. If you present one person as perfect, and another as utterly irredeemable, my instinct is to roll my eyes and rebel against your storytelling.

I mean, the dude is responsible for the extinction of humanity for the stupidest reason one could imagine, is a whiny bitch about it, then murders all the alphas for no reason at all while giving them a mealy mouthed excuse for doing it. He's the worst. But it's too blatant, utterly stupidly blatant to the point of unbelievability, just as Elisabet's mary sue nature is way too blatant. Not only does she save the world (multiple times) and sacrifice herself, she gets speeches like 'Gaia needs to feel!' Yeah, I'll be getting sick over here.

Luckily Aloy herself was much better, because she obviously mattered much more. I still felt like Aloy was too one-note, and the lack of any sexual or romantic thoughts at all really hurt my perception of her as a real person. That was clearly done not to scare away guy gamers who like to self-insert as the main character, and it sucked.

Like I said, I loved the overall plot and lore, but with better characters and dialogue the sequel could be even better.

Thank God. I'm actually a bit relieved you weren't being serious. Lol

Elizabet's dialogue was heavy handed, and Ted Faro was a cartoon. I agree. It didn't bother me as much as it did you, though.

*Shrug* "It's just a videogame!"™
 
S

Steve.1981

Unconfirmed Member
I get where you're coming from Griss. I think with Elisabet and Ted I'd give Guerilla the benefit of the doubt though. We only see the big defining moments of their lives and as a consequence it can feel like there's not much depth to them. They're kind of drawn in broad strokes because we don't have the chance to spend more time with them, because of how they fit into the story. I think, anyway.

Luckily Aloy herself was much better, because she obviously mattered much more. I still felt like Aloy was too one-note, and the lack of any sexual or romantic thoughts at all really hurt my perception of her as a real person. That was clearly done not to scare away guy gamers who like to self-insert as the main character, and it sucked.

About this though, Aloy was clearly into Varl, wasn't she? I'm sure I never imagined that, she was into him in a big way.

Its not confirmed in game. Someone said they had the art book and Sylens was in the Banuk section of it.

Cool, just asking because I never got all the datapoints and stuff.
 
I beat the game over the weekend. Easily this is my game of the generation. With KZ2 being my game of the previous generation (and contender with TOoT for GOAT) GG has solidified themselves as my favorite developer. Now to go back and pick up everything for my platinum trophy.

I thought the ending credit scene with the magic lamp was pretty weird, and could have been done better.
 

Harlock

Member
So, when Mother let the children go outside because they don't have anymore food, this was something that went wrong? Was because the Apollo lost all data?
 

Mathieran

Banned
About this though, Aloy was clearly into Varl, wasn't she? I'm sure I never imagined that, she was into him in a big way.



Cool, just asking because I never got all the datapoints and stuff.



I got the impression Aloy liked Varl and also maybe Erend as well.

I've been really struggling to find data points since I left the embrace. I've scanned all but one glyph and got almost all the quest data points but I have been having a hard time finding anything out in the open world. I might have to use one of maps online I've seen people linking.

So, when Mother let the children go outside because they don't have anymore food, this was something that went wrong? Was because the Apollo lost all data?

The kids were around twenty I think. My thought is that it was all the longer they were designed to stay locked in for. Maybe if Apollo was working they could have come back for further education.

Edit: I actually got the impression that Apollo was supposed to begin teaching them at around elementary age. It's possible they were supposed to have finished their education around the time they ran out of food. Although it would have made more sense to do more of a soft release. But I chalk up any mistakes made due to the fact they only had 1.5 years to launch Zero Dawn so it's not hard to believe not everything was done perfectly.
 

Elephant

Neo Member
Luckily Aloy herself was much better, because she obviously mattered much more. I still felt like Aloy was too one-note, and the lack of any sexual or romantic thoughts at all really hurt my perception of her as a real person. That was clearly done not to scare away guy gamers who like to self-insert as the main character, and it sucked.

I'm actually fine with the lack of a romantic option. I've grown tired of romance being shoehorned into games, for the same reason you appear to want it included, it comes across as unnatural.

I actually think the way they dealt with human attraction in Horizon was brilliant. It was subtle and real. No "Press X to bonk". As someone has already mentioned, she was definitely into Varl, but you could also see her struggling with that attraction when Varl spoke of his beliefs and All Mother.
 
S

Steve.1981

Unconfirmed Member
So, when Mother let the children go outside because they don't have anymore food, this was something that went wrong? Was because the Apollo lost all data?

Yeah the Cradle never worked as intended (new humans would grow and learn through Apollo before leaving) because Ted deleted Apollo. I'm sure something else went wrong as well, but I can't quite remember off the top of my head.
 

EGM1966

Member
So, when Mother let the children go outside because they don't have anymore food, this was something that went wrong? Was because the Apollo lost all data?
I believe it was a function of the loss of Apollo although it wasn't made completely clear (or I missed relevant data points).

As I see it the children would have been edcucated, have taken control and effectively "let themselves out" and joined GAIA directly I rebuilding society.

Without any edcucation facilities at all I presume GAIA and her sub-routines looked after the children for as long as feasible, only releasing them when food stores were running out and there was no other option but to see if the could survive on their own.

They did obviously and the road to the tribes of Aloy's time has begun.

As an aside while they lacked much education it's obvious their English was good which I presume explains why that's common language of the new society.
 

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
Just finished the main story last night.
Loved the concept, loved the way it was executed but honestly that final scene with Sylens was really dumb.
Why build your entire story around realistic (albeit futuristic) science and technology, and then right at the end have an artificial intelligence float out of its shell, across the sky and land inside of a fucking magic lantern?! What?

I get that they wanted Sylens to keep Hades alive in some form but why not just show a scene of him sneaking up to Hades, perhaps under the cover of night, and transferring the AI onto his focus or something?

A small gripe perhaps but still irritating.

When Hades is trapped by Sylens in the after credits scene that is not just some fancy visualization for the downloading of Hades into the lamp. We're shown in the game that the corruption/swarm effect is an actual physical thing present in the world. My best guess is its some kind of nano machine swarm. We see it both as what's shot by corrupters into other machines as well as we see a Death Bringer strip several tree's down to nothing with the swarm once Hades activates it with the towers. Its not just a cool visual effect.
 

Griss

Member
I found that to be a good thing .
Yeah she did some flirting but she had other stuff on her mind and was in a rush .
Of course thanks to this being a open world game there is a disconnect between the story and how the player plays .

Yeah i can understand that also but then i just think about the world we live it now and it seem rather normal for ted just to be a piece of trash .

She didn't do any flirting at all, that's kind of my point.

I get where you're coming from Griss. I think with Elisabet and Ted I'd give Guerilla the benefit of the doubt though. We only see the big defining moments of their lives and as a consequence it can feel like there's not much depth to them. They're kind of drawn in broad strokes because we don't have the chance to spend more time with them, because of how they fit into the story. I think, anyway.

About this though, Aloy was clearly into Varl, wasn't she? I'm sure I never imagined that, she was into him in a big way.

Cool, just asking because I never got all the datapoints and stuff.

Even with broad strokes I think they could have painted a more interesting picture. I still think Elisabet should have been involved with the creation of the swarm to give a redemptive arc to her character, which would have made her flawed and interesting. Rather than the woman who created life-saving med robots (lol) and quit the company (harming her amazing career) because they started making war machines showing off her extreme and unusual moral rectitude (lol) and then using her unparalleled genius to save the world with Zero Dawn (lol) and sacrificing herself for her genius AI friend (lol) so her AI friend could repopulate the world as a literal manifestation of mother nature (lol) and then eventually her clone could save the world all over again because Liz's genes are just that special (lol).

Any one or two of those points is fine - and good, even! All of them together? You're making me laugh, Guerilla. And I don't think you meant to. It's a small quibble in a much larger story, honestly. I'm not saying it spoils the game. It could have been done better, that's all.

As for Varl, I never picked up on that at all. I thought she respected him as a peer and a warrior, but was still fairly stand-offish and curt with him. Dude all but confesses his feelings before the final battle and she just walks away - this would be an excellent example of where a more broadly drawn character would have had more to say in response rather than 'We'd better win the final battle' or whatever it was she said. As for Erand, I thought she disliked him at first but she grew to see him as a friend or an uncle figure. That was actually good. "I'll always have time for you" was a better example of Aloy responding emotional to a character she has spent a lot of time with. Erand's speech pattern drove me crazy, though.

I'm actually fine with the lack of a romantic option. I've grown tired of romance being shoehorned into games, for the same reason you appear to want it included, it comes across as unnatural.

I actually think the way they dealt with human attraction in Horizon was brilliant. It was subtle and real. No "Press X to bonk". As someone has already mentioned, she was definitely into Varl, but you could also see her struggling with that attraction when Varl spoke of his beliefs and All Mother.

I'm not asking for a romance option at all, just an acknowledgment of Aloy's sexuality. One of my favourite parts about Kat from Gravity Rush in the first one was that there were a couple of moments when she was like 'Oh shit, a cute guy!' And then inevitably his girlfriend would show up to her extreme displeasure, lol. But it reminded you that despite the weirdness she was involved in, she was still a normal girl with normal girl thoughts. Aloy never once expresses anything like that, and just a couple of moments would have been nice.

It felt to me like she had three 'tones' in the game:
-Patient and helpful
-Soft and comforting
-Angry (rare, typically with Sylens)

She was pretty much always in one of these three tones from the start of a scene until the end. I joked with myself that I should take a shot every time she paused for a beat and said '...I'm so sorry.' or 'Sorry for your loss'.
 

mosdl

Member
I believe it was a function of the loss of Apollo although it wasn't made completely clear (or I missed relevant data points).

As I see it the children would have been edcucated, have taken control and effectively "let themselves out" and joined GAIA directly I rebuilding society.

Without any edcucation facilities at all I presume GAIA and her sub-routines looked after the children for as long as feasible, only releasing them when food stores were running out and there was no other option but to see if the could survive on their own.

They did obviously and the road to the tribes of Aloy's time has begun.

As an aside while they lacked much education it's obvious their English was good which I presume explains why that's common language of the new society.

I was surprised there was no mention of a back up plan incase something went wrong with Apollo, a simple survival training program. Would have made them surviving more realistic.
 
Kinda depressing to think Elisabet isn't a realistic character simply because some people can't wrap their minds around someone being that intelligent and altruistic 😕 I think she was fine as a character. Hell, she didn't come out the womb on some Jesus shit, as that epilogue data point explained.
 

Ricker

Member
Someone mentionned 22 sidequests in the OT but I have 21 and checking a few walkthroughs there is also 21...besides the Trials,I am sitting at 88.87% completion...also didnt break the 23 Horse totems things...can someone confirm 22 SQ...?
 
S

Steve.1981

Unconfirmed Member
It's a small quibble in a much larger story, honestly. I'm not saying it spoils the game. It could have been done better, that's all.

That's fair enough. I don't quite see it the way you do, but there's no point in bickering over it.

I'm sure I saw arrogance and impatience coming through in Aloy a few times though, and I wonder if that was literally her genes. I think her characterisation goes a touch deeper than you're suggesting.
 
Someone mentionned 22 sidequests in the OT but I have 21 and checking a few walkthroughs there is also 21...besides the Trials,I am sitting at 88.87% completion...also didnt break the 23 Horse totems things...can someone confirm 22 SQ...?

It says 22 in the completion data on the menu of the game.
 

Griss

Member
That's fair enough. I don't quite see it the way you do, but there's no point in bickering over it.

I'm sure I saw arrogance and impatience coming through in Aloy a few times though, and I wonder if that was literally her genes. I think her characterisation goes a touch deeper than you're suggesting.

Oh yeah, impatience with the Nora, sure. But what intelligent person wouldn't be impatient with them, they were superstitious morons, even Teersa. By the time she comes back to go under the mountain with the fixed registry she has totally outgrown them. Or as she puts it herself, "Not Aloy of the Nora, more Aloy-despite-the-Nora".

And there is more to her character, she's intelligent and curious and yes, she can be impatient, but only when it's totally warranted. But she has no interesting flaws, she never once in the game makes a mistake.
 

Nothus

Member
When Hades is trapped by Sylens in the after credits scene that is not just some fancy visualization for the downloading of Hades into the lamp. We're shown in the game that the corruption/swarm effect is an actual physical thing present in the world. My best guess is its some kind of nano machine swarm. We see it both as what's shot by corrupters into other machines as well as we see a Death Bringer strip several tree's down to nothing with the swarm once Hades activates it with the towers. Its not just a cool visual effect.

I actually disliked all of the instances you mentioned, all for the same reason. I can see why they had to do some kind of visual representation of what was happening with the spire signal and the corrupter overrides, but it didn't make it any less cheesy and immersion breaking for me. The business with the lamp at the end is the same.

I think someone else in this thread suggested that it would have been better if only Aloy could see those visual effects through her focus rather than everyone see them. At least then it could be explained away through digital interference or whatever.
 

pastrami

Member
I was surprised there was no mention of a back up plan incase something went wrong with Apollo, a simple survival training program. Would have made them surviving more realistic.

Ted said "I've purged APOLLO. It's gone, all of it. Every copy." Presumably they had backup copies of Apollo, it's just that no one expected someone to delete every copy.
 
Oh yeah, impatience with the Nora, sure. But what intelligent person wouldn't be impatient with them, they were superstitious morons, even Teersa. By the time she comes back to go under the mountain with the fixed registry she has totally outgrown them. Or as she puts it herself, "Not Aloy of the Nora, more Aloy-despite-the-Nora".

And there is more to her character, she's intelligent and curious and yes, she can be impatient, but only when it's totally warranted. But she has no interesting flaws, she never once in the game makes a mistake.

Well, the way the story is told there wasn't many mistakes to be made... and she got caught, twice. :p
 

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
I actually disliked all of the instances you mentioned, all for the same reason. I can see why they had to do some kind of visual representation of what was happening with the spire signal and the corrupter overrides, but it didn't make it any less cheesy and immersion breaking for me. The business with the lamp at the end is the same.

I think someone else in this thread suggested that it would have been better if only Aloy could see those visual effects through her focus rather than everyone see them. At least then it could be explained away through digital interference or whatever.

Its not just a visual effect that developers used to signify what was going on. Its an actual physical thing that exists in the world and can interact with things. It appears to be some kind of nanomachine cloud that the Faro machines used to hack into other machines as well as using it to strip plants and animals of their biomass to continue fueling the Faro plague.
 
All those dialogue choices between brain, heart and action changes anything in the game?

With one or two exceptions, if I'm not mistaken, dialog choices have one minor, aesthetic effects. They're just there so you can flesh out what kind of Aloy you're playing: smartass, compassionate or angry Aloy.


Smartass Aloy is the best Aloy.
 

O_Atoll

Member
She didn't do any flirting at all, that's kind of my point.



Even with broad strokes I think they could have painted a more interesting picture. I still think Elisabet should have been involved with the creation of the swarm to give a redemptive arc to her character, which would have made her flawed and interesting. Rather than the woman who created life-saving med robots (lol) and quit the company (harming her amazing career) because they started making war machines showing off her extreme and unusual moral rectitude (lol) and then using her unparalleled genius to save the world with Zero Dawn (lol) and sacrificing herself for her genius AI friend (lol) so her AI friend could repopulate the world as a literal manifestation of mother nature (lol) and then eventually her clone could save the world all over again because Liz's genes are just that special (lol).

Any one or two of those points is fine - and good, even! All of them together? You're making me laugh, Guerilla. And I don't think you meant to. It's a small quibble in a much larger story, honestly. I'm not saying it spoils the game. It could have been done better, that's all.

As for Varl, I never picked up on that at all. I thought she respected him as a peer and a warrior, but was still fairly stand-offish and curt with him. Dude all but confesses his feelings before the final battle and she just walks away - this would be an excellent example of where a more broadly drawn character would have had more to say in response rather than 'We'd better win the final battle' or whatever it was she said. As for Erand, I thought she disliked him at first but she grew to see him as a friend or an uncle figure. That was actually good. "I'll always have time for you" was a better example of Aloy responding emotional to a character she has spent a lot of time with. Erand's speech pattern drove me crazy, though.



I'm not asking for a romance option at all, just an acknowledgment of Aloy's sexuality. One of my favourite parts about Kat from Gravity Rush in the first one was that there were a couple of moments when she was like 'Oh shit, a cute guy!' And then inevitably his girlfriend would show up to her extreme displeasure, lol. But it reminded you that despite the weirdness she was involved in, she was still a normal girl with normal girl thoughts. Aloy never once expresses anything like that, and just a couple of moments would have been nice.

It felt to me like she had three 'tones' in the game:
-Patient and helpful
-Soft and comforting
-Angry (rare, typically with Sylens)

She was pretty much always in one of these three tones from the start of a scene until the end. I joked with myself that I should take a shot every time she paused for a beat and said '...I'm so sorry.' or 'Sorry for your loss'.

I agree with a lot of your point. Most of all the Elisabet one. But they can still fix that in the DLC or next game to reveal more on her motivation and resolve. Maybe she had a dark side in the past? Maybe she help create some of Teds idea but had a change if heart and that's why she was so motivated in fixing things. If they leave her as this angelic being with no flaw, it will simplify her character.. I agree.
 

Cth

Member
Actually, Elisabet made a huge mistake, so she is flawed.

I can't recall the exact log, but basically, she becomes increasingly frustrated with Ted, babysitting him, etc. Something along the lines of being happy he's not in her hair anymore and working on his own project.

She knows what he did and that he is directly responsible for humanity's extinction, yet, she continues to berate him (understandably) and keeps him on the periphery where he could still do damage.

If the idea is to keep an eye on him so he can't cause trouble then it's irresponsible for her to abandon him later, which appears to accelerate his mental breakdown which results in the murder of the Apollo team.

Similarly, you could take it as vindictive for her to keep him around to remind him of what he caused -- which isn't to say he didn't deserve it, but it wouldn't have been her job to punish him that way.
 

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
Fuck Ted Faro

With that out of the way, I just have one plot question that I'm uncertain about: the "corruption". So we know what caused the derangement, but what is the corruption exactly? Those black gooey tendrils that turn machine against one another and can also hurt Aloy. I'm sure I just missed/forgot the explanation, but is it just Hades doing that somehow?

One thing I really appreciated was that the dialog choices didn't compromise Aloy's personality. One moment where this was apparent was just before killing Helis, you are given the usual confront/insight/compassion choice. I chose compassion, but Aloy was still pissed, and ultimately didn't spare his life. She just allowed him to have an honorable death (allowing him to face the sun).
Man, I picked the fist for like the second or third time ever in the whole game because fuck that guy.

This. And I consider him not only a villain but perhaps the best villain I've encountered in a game, ever. Not because he was evil, but precisely because he was so human. His arrogance, his cowardice, his ego, his greed, his short-sightedness... all of it. Helis is a fanatic, and there is something familiar and typical in his portrayal as an antagonist. We've seen that countless times in other games and other media. But Faro, god. He might as well be real. None of us have any problem imagining the Faros of the world, or envisioning a future where someone just like Ted exists. We see it happening every day. GG fashioned a villain who encapsulates and personifies so many of the real world problems facing our species right now.

I doubt any video game character will garner more ire from me ever. I really hate Ted Faro.
Absolutely.


Sylens when he found out APOLLO was destroyed...
this_is_bullshit_the_wire.gif
Hahaha

Those are great, thanks!

Good, please be alive.
Only so Aloy can murder the shit out of him. :p

Did you all taunt Dervahl after he's in prison? He's got about 20 lines and makes sure you know that he hates your guts. LOL
Oh I missed that! Where is he being held?

Cool fun fact: earlier side quests in the Nora region have different dialog after Aloy becomes annointed. I saw an YouTuber today finding the Brom side quest for the first time after the "Heart of The Nora" main quest and Brom's sister actually calls Aloy annointed instead of outcast and she is actually overjoyed that Aloy is helping her. I'm sure the other side quests would have a similar outcome. You know when the developers have passion over a project when they actually think about these little details.

Go to 28:30 for the scene:

https://youtu.be/5zHDjdtdaXs
That's pretty cool.

The game's demonisation of Ted went way too far. He wasn't that bad. It was Elisabet I couldn't stand.
My jaw was dropping at this but turns out you're trolling. K, you got us good *eyeroll*

Btw Ted Faro is absolutely believable. You only have to look at big oil execs and other assholes destroying the planet right now. Hell, if you ever had a fictional president half as stupid and evil as Trump even five years ago I wouldn't have believed it and said the character lacked believability... xD

Fuck Ted Faro
 
Did anyone choose to fight Nil to the death? I chose not to fight, and am curious how that would have turned out if I had chosen otherwise. I really liked his odd character.
 
Did anyone choose to fight Nil to the death? I chose not to fight, and am curious how that would have turned out if I had chosen otherwise. I really liked his odd character.

I chose to fight him and, basically,
you fight him in a decent one on one combat scenario. Approach him once he goes down and there's a quick cutscene where Aloy says nothing, but Nil says

"Don't look so concerned, I should say "I always knew it would end this way, since we first met" but, if I'm honest, I thought I could take you."

And then he dies.
 
I chose to fight him and, basically,
you fight him in a decent one on one combat scenario. Approach him once he goes down and there's a quick cutscene where Aloy says nothing, but Nil says

"Don't look so concerned, I should say "I always knew it would end this way, since we first met" but, if I'm honest, I thought I could take you."

And then he dies.

Interesting. My assumption was that she would win the fight, and choose to let him live.

Aloy's conversations with Nil are among the best in the game. Always funny in a deeply wrong and unsettling way.

I really hope the non-fight path is the canon one, so he might show up in the sequel.

Yeah he's great. I think the fact that he shows up at the final battle lends credence to it being the canon choice.
 
Interesting. My assumption was that she would win the fight, and choose to let him live.



Yeah he's great. I think the fact that he shows up at the final battle lends credence to it being the canon choice.

Interestingly, because I didn't realise he showed up, he's not needed for the "All Allies Joined" trophy.
 

Griss

Member
Wait, you can let Nil live? How does that go and why would anyone let that psychopath loose on the world now that he has run out of 'safe' targets?

I assumed that if you chose to decline the duel he'd fight you anyway so I brought it to him instead.

Also, that fight was embarrassing, and displayed all the worst parts of human combat in the game.
 

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
Actually its kind of funny how everyone else is pretty cool with Nil. Even Janeva was pretty nonchalant about the fact that he was basically a serial killer except he killed bad guys.
 

Sjefen

Member
Wait, you can let Nil live? How does that go and why would anyone let that psychopath loose on the world now that he has run out of 'safe' targets?

I assumed that if you chose to decline the duel he'd fight you anyway so I brought it to him instead.

Also, that fight was embarrassing, and displayed all the worst parts of human combat in the game.

I let him live and he fights with you saving his family.
 

Ricker

Member
Wait, you can let Nil live? How does that go and why would anyone let that psychopath loose on the world now that he has run out of 'safe' targets?

I assumed that if you chose to decline the duel he'd fight you anyway so I brought it to him instead.

Also, that fight was embarrassing, and displayed all the worst parts of human combat in the game.

First time I let Nil live and got no EXP,so I reloaded and fought him,easy fight,and got about 5,000 EXP so I stuck with that lol...
 

EGM1966

Member
I was surprised there was no mention of a back up plan incase something went wrong with Apollo, a simple survival training program. Would have made them surviving more realistic.
To be fair there should have been one (given they had a backup to completely eradicate life again) but I figure narrative wise the idea they're essentially innocents dumped in the wild is a little more dramatic.

For example I struggle with idea given context/character Elisabeth would even allow HADES - because that backup idea is asking for trouble given the issue all started with rouge programs. But HADES allowed for interesting antagonist so I kind of go with it.
 

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
Project Zero Dawn wasn't really finished either when everything fell apart. Elizabet tells the General that they had to basically wing it in a few areas and use some creative methods of completing others to get it done by the time the machines were nearly upon them. The Alphas were all supposed to be living out their lives in Elysium but many agreed to stick it out in the Zero Dawn facility to continue their work and get things running at a 100% and deal with any remaining issues as best they could while others just couldn't evacuate in time. It was working well enough to complete its task but was by no means fully tested and prepped in every area and that was before Ted fucked it all up.
 
Wait, you can let Nil live? How does that go and why would anyone let that psychopath loose on the world now that he has run out of 'safe' targets?

I assumed that if you chose to decline the duel he'd fight you anyway so I brought it to him instead.

Also, that fight was embarrassing, and displayed all the worst parts of human combat in the game.

I'm surprised people didn't like him. I mean he's basically Dexter.
 

mosdl

Member
To be fair there should have been one (given they had a backup to completely eradicate life again) but I figure narrative wise the idea they're essentially innocents dumped in the wild is a little more dramatic.

For example I struggle with idea given context/character Elisabeth would even allow HADES - because that backup idea is asking for trouble given the issue all started with rouge programs. But HADES allowed for interesting antagonist so I kind of go with it.

I kinda like the over complicated systems they designed, its a sign of hubris and a flaw in a lot of modern design. They thought they could control everything and got fancy with designing a reset system in HADES etc.

They could have printed out a good survival guide as a backup and stored it where the new humans are created as a backup.
 
Wait, you can let Nil live? How does that go and why would anyone let that psychopath loose on the world now that he has run out of 'safe' targets?

I assumed that if you chose to decline the duel he'd fight you anyway so I brought it to him instead.

Also, that fight was embarrassing, and displayed all the worst parts of human combat in the game.

That's exactly why I left him live, I was sure that I terrible human fight will follow if I decided to fight so, I picked the other option.

He joins you for the final fight and feel happy about finding an enemy to kill freely.

Edit: Also, even if it was mutual agreement, saying yes would felt a little murderous to my Aloy...
 
To be fair there should have been one (given they had a backup to completely eradicate life again) but I figure narrative wise the idea they're essentially innocents dumped in the wild is a little more dramatic.

For example I struggle with idea given context/character Elisabeth would even allow HADES - because that backup idea is asking for trouble given the issue all started with rouge programs. But HADES allowed for interesting antagonist so I kind of go with it.

To be fair though, GAIA did work as intended for 1,000 years, minus APOLLO, obviously. And the trouble started because of an outside signal, something they never could have predicted when they were designing the system. I mean, the alternative to building HADES was either program GAIA herself so that she's ok with destroying life in certain circumstances, which would present it's own giant host of problems, or take the chance that if GAIA messes up, then it's all over, she'll just spend the whole time trying to correct a fatally flawed biosphere and the whole project will fail. HADES sucked, but was totally necessary.
 

iBlue

Member
Man I am like 8 hours in but I just stopped playing cus of demon souls and now dark souls 3 final dlc.. Will continue with this amazing game once I am done with ds3 dlc
 

mitchman

Gold Member
Someone mentionned 22 sidequests in the OT but I have 21 and checking a few walkthroughs there is also 21...besides the Trials,I am sitting at 88.87% completion...also didnt break the 23 Horse totems things...can someone confirm 22 SQ...?

You're almost certainly missing the Acquired Taste side quest, it's easy to miss. It's located in the middle of the map, over a black part (lake), south east from Zeta cauldron, it's a building - house with bonfire in the yard.
 

Elephant

Neo Member
Wait, you can let Nil live? How does that go and why would anyone let that psychopath loose on the world now that he has run out of 'safe' targets?

I assumed that if you chose to decline the duel he'd fight you anyway so I brought it to him instead.

Also, that fight was embarrassing, and displayed all the worst parts of human combat in the game.

I left feeling quite bad that I didn't fight and kill him, contemplating whether to load from an earlier save and give him what he wants. Not because of your fair psychopath assessment, but because he acts like a cute disappointed child.

As for why I let him live, when I was completing the side quest I had the knowledge of needing allies in Meridian. A bloodthirsty psycho seemed like someone I wanted to have on my side (potentially). Also, I just liked him and found him interesting.
 
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