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Horizon Zero Dawn |OT| Red Head Redemption

EvanSquared

EvanSquared

Member
Nov 25, 2017
1,260
loltna said:
Aloy was cool, but nearly every other character not Lance Reddick has really bad acting...
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To each their own, but strong disagreement on that. I found the acting well above video game average (which, admittedly, I think is a low bar), especially Rost, Teersa, Erend, Avad, and Olin, along with some of the voice acting in the audio clips. Paradoxically, I thought Lance Reddick's delivery was as cartoonishly untrustworthy as it always is - it's the vocal equivalent of mustache-twirling.

I agree that Aloy's plot isn't actually as interesting as the back story, but that's not so much a knock on the plot as admiration for the back story. I could see where it seemed to be leading, but my jaw hit the floor when I realized exactly what happened for the world of Horizon to come into existence. For me, it was one of the most memorable turns in a video game ever. I'm sorry you didn't get that same experience.
 

rusty chrome

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
8,640
loltna said:
Finished it yesterday for the first time. Thought it was... okay?

Aloy was cool, but nearly every other character not Lance Reddick has really bad acting. And there is something really off on the sound design in cut scenes.

Story Spoilers
The story was my biggest disappointment. I looooooved the lore of the fall of human society, learning about the Faro plague, Elizabet's plan to terraform the Earth, and the creation of GAIA and her subsystems. But then... it was all for nothing? All those recordings building up the effort and importance of Apollo's database and how everything else was failproof and created with the best minds available and the shit was ultimately sabotaged by Faro(worst human ever) before the story even started. You don't even get some sort of a conversation with GAIA at the end, it's just blue balls 24/7.
And not ONCE did I get to ride a robo T-Rex. Lame.
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So you didn't like the story because it didn't do exactly what you wanted? They never said you could ride a T-Rex. Those things are so massive they make us look like ants. If anything I would have preferred to mount one that flies, maybe in the next game. I thought Horizon had the best sci-fi story I've seen in a game in years and one of the few stories this generation that kept me intrigued until the very end, and I loved the ending. As for gameplay, I have not had more fun with any other open world game this gen, and I've played all of them.
 

RJeddy

Member
Dec 4, 2017
721
kikiribu said:
So you didn't like the story because it didn't do exactly what you wanted? They never said you could ride a T-Rex. Those things are so massive they make us look like ants.
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Not liking the direction of how things went narratively and wishing other things occurred is normally how people dislike things tho? I'm not a story teller or an author so I'm not saying XYZ should have occurred at points A, B, and C, but yeah I didn't like what was given to me.

The T-rex thing was just me kidding around as a last point, but stating "they never said you could ride a T-rex" is kind of odd. Where are the things they "said" with the list of features you are referring to? Do you go into every game with an item-by-item reference of things that are available to do?
 

rusty chrome

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
8,640
loltna said:
Not liking the direction of how things went narratively and wishing other things occurred is normally how people dislike things tho? I'm not a story teller or an author so I'm not saying XYZ should have occurred at points A, B, and C, but yeah I didn't like what was given to me.
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That's fine. Lots of people did though, and you saying it was an ok game while making no mention actual gameplay and focusing on your narrative preferences already puts you in the minority anyway considering how successful the game was with critics and financially. Nobody's saying it was a perfect game, no game is, (Red Dead 2 was one of the most boring games I've ever played).

I could think of a few improvements they could make for Horizon 2, but Zero Dawn is easily still in my top 5 games of the generation.
 

RJeddy

Member
Dec 4, 2017
721
kikiribu said:
That's fine. Lots of people did though, and you saying it was an ok game while making no mention actual gameplay and focusing on your narrative preferences already puts you in the minority anyway considering how successful the game was with critics and financially. Nobody's saying it was a perfect game, no game is, (Red Dead 2 was one of the most boring games I've ever played).
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Gameplay-wise it was okay. The inventory system was awful and the focus was an annoying gimmick that I had to press what felt like every 2 seconds. I had to turn down my controllers volume because I was going crazy from that on/off noise.
Fighting the bots were fun for the most part. Eventually, setting a trap of several tripwires killed everything in one blast so I had to avoid cheesing and using that weapon. Downing bots was frustrating because after using a strong swing to knock a bot over I would use the stab attack but I noticed there is a sort of proximity delay where you couldn't attack the bot immediately following the attack, which made fights annoying. I got around it by doing a short dash about a meter away and then running back for a few more hits.
Human enemies, however, were the woooorst and just annoying: 99% of them could be insta-killed with the previously mentioned strong swing + R1 stab combo and the other 1% were arrow sponges.
 
OP
OP
Zackat

Zackat

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,021
loltna said:
Finished it yesterday for the first time. Thought it was... okay?

Aloy was cool, but nearly every other character not Lance Reddick has really bad acting. And there is something really off on the sound design in cut scenes.

Story Spoilers
The story was my biggest disappointment. I looooooved the lore of the fall of human society, learning about the Faro plague, Elizabet's plan to terraform the Earth, and the creation of GAIA and her subsystems. But then... it was all for nothing? All those recordings building up the effort and importance of Apollo's database and how everything else was failproof and created with the best minds available and the shit was ultimately sabotaged by Faro(worst human ever) before the story even started. You don't even get some sort of a conversation with GAIA at the end, it's just blue balls 24/7.
And not ONCE did I get to ride a robo T-Rex. Lame.
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So you are upset because of Faro's hubris in deleting Apollo? Not every game needs to be an ultimate power fantasy. It leaves a lot of room for Aloy to grow into her own role instead of following Gaia's instructions. The next installment of this franchise is going to be incredible.
 

RJeddy

Member
Dec 4, 2017
721
Zackat said:
So you are upset because of Faro's hubris in deleting Apollo? Not every game needs to be an ultimate power fantasy. It leaves a lot of room for Aloy to grow into her own role instead of following Gaia's instructions. The next installment of this franchise is going to be incredible.
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I'm more really upset at the build up and the lack of a satisfying conclusion. Everything regarding ZD's lore was so grand and amazing yet at the end of the game we just fight a wave of the same enemies and then stabbed an evil metal beach ball who didn't actually die and ended up flying into a lantern. Wat
 
RedSparrows

RedSparrows

Prophet of Regret
Member
Feb 22, 2019
6,467
Replaying this to check out the Frozen Wilds. Doubt I will play through the whole story (unless it is suggested for FW content? I.e. level wise?). I liked it the first time, nice to play it again, though more for the core than the frippery (the rpg lite stuff doesn't do anything for me).

Hit by dumb lore q when doing the tutorial: why don't the machines scan in infra red or thermal or or or? I know it'd break the gameplay but was wondering if there was a lore reason for them not being able to pick up the signature of humans who could not, in any way, respond. I forgot the finer points of the story so probably missed something.
 
Venture

Venture

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,584
You mean like seeing people through rocks and walls and such? Apparently that's just a myth about infrared. It can't really see through walls.
 

The Cowpuncher

Member
Nov 2, 2017
363
RedSparrows said:
Replaying this to check out the Frozen Wilds. Doubt I will play through the whole story (unless it is suggested for FW content? I.e. level wise?). I liked it the first time, nice to play it again, though more for the core than the frippery (the rpg lite stuff doesn't do anything for me).

Hit by dumb lore q when doing the tutorial: why don't the machines scan in infra red or thermal or or or? I know it'd break the gameplay but was wondering if there was a lore reason for them not being able to pick up the signature of humans who could not, in any way, respond. I forgot the finer points of the story so probably missed something.
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I don't remember anything specific. If you want my hand-wavey explanation...
None of the robots needed to interact with humans. They were 'designed' to perform their task on a world that was effectively devoid of human life.
 
Venture

Venture

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,584
The Cowpuncher said:
I don't remember anything specific. If you want my hand-wavey explanation...
None of the robots needed to interact with humans. They were 'designed' to perform their task on a world that was effectively devoid of human life.
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That's just the original robots though. Not the ones designed by Hephaestus specifically for hunting humans.
 
Spleenpoker

Spleenpoker

Member
Nov 11, 2017
342
Does anyone know where I can watch/read a recap of the events I've experienced so far? I had to put the game aside last year because of life and finally coming back to it this month, but I'm struggling to remember the finer details of the story, especially some of the hints etc

The City of the Sun

I remember most of the broad strokes that have occurred so far, but I'm worried I have forgotten a lot of the little details, for example: I remember meeting someone from another tribe before the trial starts who was also wearing one of those scouter things and it turned out someone put out an alert or a bounty on Aloy because they saw her through his scouter. I'm worried I forgot a lot more of these details/foreshadowing.

How far into the game am i anyway? I'm debating whether i should just start over or not, I feel I might just give up if I had to start over again.
 
Miniature Kaiju

Miniature Kaiju

Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,134
Somewhere South
oni-link

oni-link

tag reference no one gets
Member
Oct 25, 2017
16,000
UK
Sorry if this has been asked before, but when is the best time to tackle the Frozen Wilds, and is the DLC a lot harder than the main campaign?

When you beat the main campaign, does the game let you continue on so the DLC can be done then, or is there a point of no return which locks you out of going back and doing the DLC?
 
janusff

janusff

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
18,122
Austin, TX
oni-link said:
Sorry if this has been asked before, but when is the best time to tackle the Frozen Wilds, and is the DLC a lot harder than the main campaign?

When you beat the main campaign, does the game let you continue on so the DLC can be done then, or is there a point of no return which locks you out of going back and doing the DLC?
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Yeah the DLC is more difficult for sure. I would say once you reach Meridian, you could possibly tackle the DLC. And yeah once you beat the game you can keep playing the campaign. It's not a dark souls situation where you're immediately kicked to NG+
 
oni-link

oni-link

tag reference no one gets
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Oct 25, 2017
16,000
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janusff said:
Yeah the DLC is more difficult for sure. I would say once you reach Meridian, you could possibly tackle the DLC. And yeah once you beat the game you can keep playing the campaign. It's not a dark souls situation where you're immediately kicked to NG+
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Once you start the DLC can you hop back to the main game, or does it lock you into the DLC area/missions once you start them?

I'm at level 36 and am close to 30 hours in. My current main story missions are recommended level 21 but as the DLC is down as level 30 I'm trying to decide if I want to do that now or later
 
janusff

janusff

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
18,122
Austin, TX
oni-link said:
Once you start the DLC can you hop back to the main game, or does it lock you into the DLC area/missions once you start them?

I'm at level 36 and am close to 30 hours in. My current main story missions are recommended level 21 but as the DLC is down as level 30 I'm trying to decide if I want to do that now or later
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Oh yeah you can travel wherever, whenever. And I would say at that level you're def ready for the frozen wilds IMO.
 
JoeNut

JoeNut

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,482
UK
I did frozen wilds long after beating the game and thought It was a great way to extend it once done with the story.
 
Omanisat

Omanisat

Member
Sep 25, 2018
2,391
North Bay, Canada
One of the neat things about Frozen Wilds is that dialogue in both it and the base game will change depending when in the story you play through it. I sort of want to go back and do an NG+ run where I do FW as early as possible.
 
oni-link

oni-link

tag reference no one gets
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Oct 25, 2017
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JoeNut said:
I did frozen wilds long after beating the game and thought It was a great way to extend it once done with the story.
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Does the game do a Witcher 3 and dump you back into the world after the main campaign, or does it restore you to before a point of no return?
 
Venture

Venture

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Oct 25, 2017
1,584
After you beat the main game you get dropped back into it right before the final quest.
 
oni-link

oni-link

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Oct 25, 2017
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Venture said:
After you beat the main game you get dropped back into it right before the final quest.
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Cheers. Does it clearly flag that is a point of no return? I might get to there and then decide if I want to do the DLC or beat the game first

On another topic I hate how you need to make a tutorial mission your active quest for it to register. It means you need to keep switching quests mid combat to get the exp for those quests

Such bad design. The game knows I've knocked armer of about 100 enemies, so why do I keep to select the quest and knock 10 more pieces off before you accept I know how to do that?
 
ty_hot

ty_hot

Banned
Dec 14, 2017
7,176
Not sure if this happened in all regions, but I have the DLC but I cant buy the base game because it was deleted from the PS Store. I can only buy the Complete Edition now, meaning: I have to buy the DLC again, bundled with the game, in order to play the game. I had a physical copy of the game but sold it because I wanted the digital version instead and now it seems that I will never have it (and will always have an useless piece of DLC). Im in Spain.
 

Deleted member 8750

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
3,532
I finished this game (including the dlc) recently. I enjoyed it a lot but I think a sequel could improve and add a bunch more! Post-apocalyptic settings where nature has grown over everything is one of my favorite aesthetics. I wasn't much of the Aloy is the "chosen one" part of the story so I look forward to seeing her character move past her origins and do different things.
 
oni-link

oni-link

tag reference no one gets
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Oct 25, 2017
16,000
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How important is getting the armor from the ancient armoury for the end game/DLC?
 
ascagnel

ascagnel

Member
Mar 29, 2018
2,196
Miniature Kaiju said:
Shield Weaver is very, very OP. Makes most of the main game stuff pretty trivial and the DLC considerably easier. I never use it, unless I'm just fooling around (but then again, I play the game on UH using only Hunter and War bows, so yeah).
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The end of the DLC minimizes many of the advantages of the Shield Weaver armor
.
 
oni-link

oni-link

tag reference no one gets
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Oct 25, 2017
16,000
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Just beat the game now

Really enjoyed my time with the game, though after doing the Frozen Wilds the end boss was a bit of a let down in that it was a total pushover

Are there any long form video essays on the plot that are worth watching?
 
Creamium

Creamium

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,678
Belgium
I'm playing the game right now and I have a question regarding the armor sidequest that requires power cells: do I go to marked ruins to find these, or are these randomly scattered in the world? Because I haven't found any so far and I've already explored quite a bit, activated all the Tallnecks and I'm level 30. I don't want to look up the locations because I thought these cells would be tied to some overworld icon and I wouldn't need a guide.

Are some of the flowers/mugs also found in caves/below ground? Because there are a few marked in the east (in the overgrown area with building ruins) that I can't seem to find, even with focus and exploring the entire circle.

btw I hate how the tutorial quests have to be activated to count. These should just be active in the background so you can unlock them through regular gameplay, now you have to select each one.

The game is surprisingly rich lore-wise. It feels like a full-on rpg with these developed sidequests and dialogue trees. The step up Guerrilla has made from Killzone to this is pretty impressive.
 
Multiverse Moo

Multiverse Moo

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,424
Silicon Valley
Creamium you'll run into the power cells on main quests, but you won't be able to complete that quest til your nearing the end of main story anyway.

Also yes, there some of the flowers / mugs will be underground or simply well hidden, while others are right out in the open.

Agree about the tutorials, though I knock them out for quick EXP early on in the game, and then ignore them.
 
Arta

Arta

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
8,445
oni-link said:
Just beat the game now

Really enjoyed my time with the game, though after doing the Frozen Wilds the end boss was a bit of a let down in that it was a total pushover

Are there any long form video essays on the plot that are worth watching?
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Lorerunner

PopMatters podcast

John Gonzales (writer, voice of Hades) talks about the story on Noclip

All three have interesting takes on the story.
 
Creamium

Creamium

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,678
Belgium
Have to watch everything posted above. I'm very close to the end now, after that I still have Frozen Wilds to do. Have to say I'm floored by what Guerrilla has achieved story- and lorewise. It's been a long time since I was this engrossed in a game world, didn't even expect this level of detail and care for the story. I love how you can actually get Rost's backstory if you return like was promised, but it's optional content. Same with finding his grave, that was a touching little moment..

Some of the later holos gave me chills, the slow reveal of the Zero Dawn concept was very well done. I've listened to all the audio but not sure if I'll read all the texts, I've missed most of the overworld logs too. One thing I don't get is how Hades survived after Gaia did that purge that was supposed to kill him, also how he managed to spread like a virus... Was that just another programming error/oversight with major consequences?
 
Multiverse Moo

Multiverse Moo

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,424
Silicon Valley
Creamium when you've completed the main story come back or DM me so I can share some details the game infers, but doesn't spell out for everyone.

It involves a door being closed a certain amount, and relates to the ending of the game. It's just a theory, but I'm sure it's backed up by the texts, audio logs, and a scene that happens without Aloy's knowledge.
 
Creamium

Creamium

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,678
Belgium
MultiMoo said:
Creamium when you've completed the main story come back or DM me so I can share some details the game infers, but doesn't spell out for everyone.

It involves a door being closed a certain amount, and relates to the ending of the game. It's just a theory, but I'm sure it's backed up by the texts, audio logs, and a scene that happens without Aloy's knowledge.
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I finished the game just now, so you can go ahead, thanks! Also about the ending: I always thought Sylens would do a heel turn and end up being a bad guy, so the post credit pushes his even further in that direction. His thirst for knowledge is leading him down some dangerous paths.

I teared up at a certain ending scene... this game was straight up incredible. I remember that when it came out the big Zelda/Horizon battle was brewin' and of course I went for Zelda and put Horizon on the backburner... and even though they're very different games I'm so surprised I actually find Horizon to be more memorable than BotW.
 
EvanSquared

EvanSquared

Member
Nov 25, 2017
1,260
And hopeful (or at pointing a way toward hope). I could really use that right now, even moreso than when the game came out.
 
Creamium

Creamium

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,678
Belgium
Arta said:
I like Brandon Jones' take on it.

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Yeah that's also how I experienced that moment, well put by him. They kinda dumped on all the sidequests but I enjoyed some of them, like the Redmaw hunt. Then again I haven't played Witcher 3 so I can't compare with that game. Think this is my favorite PS exclusive since TLG. I was gonna say TLOU, but can't forget the impact TLG had on me.
 
Creamium

Creamium

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,678
Belgium
I'm playing through The Frozen Wilds right now and it's very different from the main game in quite a few aspects. Setting obviously, with the map feeling a lot bigger than it is. There are so many mountains and you can't zip from point a to b that easily. I was also surprised to find a sidequest (emptying the reservoir) that played like Uncharted. But the most impactful difference is the new monsters and how crazy aggressive they are. My shadow ropecaster is working overtime, these things charge at you like mad and the Shield Weaver armor gets drained quickly. The game pretty much expects you to have it, since the pylons drain your shield with their waves. I'm actually considering dropping the difficulty for the final hunter's lodge challenge, when I completed it I was like 3 minutes above the gold time. Those frostclaw bears are mad lads with their ice attacks.

Did Guerrilla also get the feedback the npc's weren't emoting enough? Because in FW the arms are flailing around like crazy, it's pretty jarring. Burgrend in particular is like a marionet.

Watched that long Lorerunner video and was pretty disappointed by it, wasn't that in-depth and the first half hour is just his general complaints and opinion of the game. I found this series of videos https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLstJu5xmjXrSQtf933vc_DfvoHc6YjClN

and I think this is more what I wanted. Seperate videos/deep dives on characters and the world.
 
Zojirushi

Zojirushi

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Oct 26, 2017
3,293
Hm, how do you do these fights at the end of Cauldrons right? They just kind throw you in front of a couple of strong enemies with no stealth opportunities or anything.
 
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