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I just played Horizon Zero Dawn and...wow | Impressions Thread

Memento said:
Wow, didnt know about the Uncharted-like climbing system. If it is as fluid as UC I will be very happy.

Can you elaborate a little more on it? You can actually climb full rocks?
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I climbed a rock that had 3 of those "white climbing spot marks" just to get to higher ground and observe the scenario

It was fluíd but basically pressing x up (which was mostly the standard in Uncharted franchise, until 4)
 
Thank you for the impressions Felipe. Sounding like everything I wanted it to be, and I hope we get more impressions from PAX over the next few days. My most wanted new IP at the moment by a long way, and my second most wanted game after Gravity Rush 2. So excited for this!

Also - how does the game world feel? Did you manage to get outside of the E3 demo area at all? I'm really excited to see more of the open world, as level design has been one of the most inconsistent elements of the Killzone franchise so far. The level design from the most recent gameplay footage looked great, but I want to see more.
 
FelipeMGM said:
I climbed a rock that had 3 of those "white climbing spot marks" just to get to higher ground and observe the scenario

It was fluíd but basically pressing x up (which was mostly the standard in Uncharted franchise, until 4)
Click to expand...

Awesome! I thought it would be just very short climbing but looks like it is an actual mechanic.

Thanks for the info!
 
Triggerhappytel said:
Thank you for the impressions Felipe. Sounding like everything I wanted it to be, and I hope we get more impressions from PAX over the next few days. My most wanted new IP at the moment by a long way, and my second most wanted game after Gravity Rush 2. So excited for this!

Also - how does the game world feel? Did you manage to get outside of the E3 demo area at all? I'm really excited to see more of the open world, as level design has been one of the most inconsistent elements of the Killzone franchise so far. The level design from the most recent gameplay footage looked great, but I want to see more.
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No, I could not and I tried lol. But it had the same "you are leaving the demo area" pop up that they had at E3.

The area is not so big, it had a river, some bridges an old house. It felt alive because of the creatures and wildlife but was short of many interesting exploring focused places, but again, its clearly a demo focused on combat and movement, not exploration

And I dont want to be the ultimate douchebrag (sorry for the pun) but I played Gravity Rush 2 as well and good gawd, what a gorgeous game
 
Good to read that the controls are tight and fluid. Hope the game have alot of cool side quests and amazing main quest.
 
Did it seem like you had to hit the weak points to do any damage at all? Did you get a feeling whether there was room for different playstyles in fighting the same monster?
 
Nice impressions! Personally, I was wondering what the melee combat was like. Were the hits impactful? Could you do combos, or was it just like contextual takedowns?

Also, do you remember what the control scheme was / specific button assignments?
 
Syril said:
Did it seem like you had to hit the weak points to do any damage at all? Did you get a feeling whether there was room for different playstyles in fighting the same monster?
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Finding the right spot makes it way way easier, depending on the weapon and enemie you can even have 1 hit kills (I think). But you can fight other ways too, mixing bow and arrow and the spear and you can beat them on a normal rate. I fought watchers both ways and both felt really good


Catalix said:
Nice impressions! Personally, I was wondering what the melee combat was like. Were the hits impactful? Could you do combos, or was it just like contextual takedowns?

Also, do you remember what the control scheme was / specific button assignments?
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Bow and arrow were L2 and R2 with L1 for the weapom weel, melee was R1, circle was the dash jump, square was crouch/stealth and d pad you had itens like for example health stuff was d pad up

Those are the one that come to my mind now
 
Random observation: It's kind of interesting how Horizon: Zero Dawn and Nier: Automata have enlisted outside help for the weakest parts in their games, usually. Horizon needs help with the story and Killzone usually has great combat whereas in the Nier/Drakengard series, the combat is flat but the story is fantastic.

Thanks for the impressions, sounds like it has the potential to be something great.
 
Thanks for the impressions, easily my most anticipated game.

Vindicator said:
This. Is she still talking to herself frequently?
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It should be obvious to anyone that Aloy's frequent talking has been for demo purposes. I think GG at some point live streamed one of the stage demos and in that she didn't say all those lines.
 
Glad to hear that the AI is good. This game has the potential for really cool AI vs AI encounters.

Plus GG are always an industry leader when it comes to convincing AI. Killzone Mercenary had some of the best shooter AI I've seen in years.
 
bombshell said:
It should be obvious to anyone that Aloy's frequent talking has been for demo purposes. I think GG at some point live streamed one of the stage demos and in that she didn't say all those lines.
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Yeah, I think it was during Easy Allies impressions where they mentioned that one of the first things they noticed when they played the demo is that Aloy doesn't speak nearly as much as she does in the stage demos. It's not really surprising as you mentioned. It would be impossible for a developer to make an open world game like Horizon where the main character is able to accurately describe what you're doing every step of the way.
 
FelipeMGM said:
I climbed a rock that had 3 of those "white climbing spot marks" just to get to higher ground and observe the scenario

It was fluíd but basically pressing x up (which was mostly the standard in Uncharted franchise, until 4)
Click to expand...

Dammit, does that mean that not everything can be climbed? White climbing spot marks should not exist in an open world game.
 
Messofanego said:
Oh shit. What's that person's name, do you know?
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Actually, that is untrue. The person GG hired only assisted with Bloody Baron, but isn't its principal designer.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dennis-zoetebier-85912a5

The following are the ones he actually designed:

Designed and implemented the following quests for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

'Devil By The Well'
'Precious Cargo'
'A Frying Pan, Spick and Span'
'Missing In Action'
'Twisted Firestarter'
'Fall Of The House Of Reardon'
'Ghosts Of The Past'

'The Bloody Baron'
ONLY the part with the objective to find the Bloody Baron and get into his village. The rest of this quest was designed by Paweł Sasko
https://www.linkedin.com/pub/paweł-sasko/31/802/9a4

'For The Advancement Of Learning'
'Count Reuven's Treasure'
'High Stakes'
'Ugly Baby'
'Disturbance'
'The Final Trial'
'To Bait A Forktail'
'No Place Like Home'
'Va Fail, Elaine'
'Blood On The Battlefield'
Click to expand...
 
Nightengale said:
Actually, that is untrue. The person GG hired only assisted with Bloody Baron, but isn't its principal designer.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dennis-zoetebier-85912a5

The following are the ones he actually designed:

Designed and implemented the following quests for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
Click to expand...

Ah, thanks. So it was Pawel Sasko who did most of Bloody Baron (and is the senior quest designer of Witcher 3), while Dennis Zoetebier did just the objective part and is now at GG.
 
This game is the only thing that makes me regret switching to PC after my PS4/tv/games were stolen. Looks like an enjoyable game, though I am yet to see anything on RPG mechanics, quest design, or serious dialog besides a few basic "go to X" quests - that's what will really make the game a classic or not.
 
Messofanego said:
Ah, thanks. So it was Pawel Sasko who did most of Bloody Baron (and is the senior quest designer of Witcher 3), while Dennis Zoetebier did just the objective part and is now at GG.
Click to expand...

Another thing to take note is that designer =/= writer.

Pawel Sasko didn't write Bloody Baron, Karolina Stachyra did. So any quest that lends its strength more to writing than design, may not necessarily be reflected in other quest designed by these CDPR designers if the writing pillar isn't as strong.
 
The game having a playable demo already is a very good sign. Guerrilla has yet to prove me they can make brilliant games (I find Killzone super generic), but this one looks different. Uncharted climbing is boring and super linear though. Wait & see. The hype levels seem reasonable and justified here.
 
Can someone who played the demo and has a sense about framerates, describe if the game has an issues in regards to performance?
 
The Pope said:
Inside I really want this to be Sony's fist party Witcher 3. But alas I better change my expectations. Still sounds damn awesome OP.
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I really hope it has the depth of TW3. I appreciate that they seem to be going for faster-paced action, but I still hope there's a lot of RPG systems and opportunities for customisation. Other than that, I can definitely see this being Sony's Witcher 3.
 
Sounds great, easily one of my most anticipated games of 2017. For the game's next showing they need to do a demo of an entire quest from start to finish.
 
tioslash said:
Some gameplay from BGS:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7fEx5eT9Uk

Not the best quality, but still.
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Really like the version of the Horizon song playing in the bg, and even on that poor quality, the game looks stunning visually. Super excited for this as well.

Couple of visual glitches during one of the climbing parts and on one of the executions on the grazers, but hopefully stuff like that gets ironed out, still a ways off.
Oh man, I love the animation in this game! The way Aloy runs and climbs and even the way she gets thrown to the ground from the shell walker projectile weapon.
 
Ryukori said:
Guerrilla Games has a strong reputation and has delivered in the past. Hello Games didn't, and No Man's Sky wasn't marketed much and didn't have playable demos before release. No Man's Sky got an excessive amount of hype for so little that was shown. Horizon Zero Dawn has playable demos and lots of marketing.
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The developer is precisely why I'm not very excited about this game XD

Guerrillas output is... Ok at best imo.

Magic Mushroom said:
Well, it'll probably leave TW3 in the dust in terms of animation, mounts, controls and combat, so there's that.
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If they deliver on gameplay and combat that would be great, but again coming from them is the areas I expect the game to fall short along writing and plot.

The gameplay demos from e3 still haven't sold me on those points, but I hope they deliver.
 
LukasTaves said:
If they deliver on gameplay and combat that would be great, but again coming from them is the areas I expect the game to fall short along writing and plot.

The gameplay demos from e3 still haven't sold me on those points, but I hope they deliver.
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I find gameplay far more important than story, but considering it's written by the guy who wrote Fallout New Vegas, I wouldn't write it off so quickly.
 
You freaking bastard, i'm so jealous of you!

Horizon is my most anticipated game for the PS4. Heck, for this entire gen!

But knowing that it's fluid and it plays well gives me a big sense of relief.

I was afraid it was going to be a low framerate janky gameplay disaster!
 
Vindicator said:
This. Is she still talking to herself frequently?
Click to expand...

For the millionth time, this was just for the E3 demos. For a gaming enthusiast forum this place is damn clueless at times. She is talking about actions the player hadn't even made yet. Every developer does this year after year and still people bring this up. Why not complain about God mode or infinite ammo in E3 demos while we are it.
 
HStallion said:
For the millionth time, this was just for the E3 demos. For a gaming enthusiast forum this place is damn clueless at times. She is talking about actions the player had even made yet. Every developer does this year after year and still people bring this up. Why not complain about God mode or infinite ammo in E3 demos while we are it.
Click to expand...

Fucking lol.

Seriously.
 
FelipeMGM said:
I climbed a rock that had 3 of those "white climbing spot marks" just to get to higher ground and observe the scenario

It was fluíd but basically pressing x up (which was mostly the standard in Uncharted franchise, until 4)
Click to expand...

Huh, don't really see this as a positive - Uncharted climbing is not, to my mind, an engaging mechanic, although the ability to reach higher vantage points is always welcome.

Glad the gameplay/AI sound good.

Story is going to make or break this thing for me though. Not interested in another collectathon paint by numbers open world.
 
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