Horizon Zero Dawn

Apparently the combat mechanics are pretty deep in that the assortment of weapons available let you use very different tactics depending on your preferred fighting styles. I never got to that point, though, and used basically the same tactics for everyone.

That's kind of the approach I've had in all similar games. The games throw so many options and combos of equipment at you, but I just don't have the time/interest/OCD to investigate them all. Which often means missing out on all sorts of cool animations, but not much else, imo.

It's a beautiful game. One of the most pleasant to just run around and aimlessly explore.

I am enjoying this so far, still early days, but I have to say it is making me feel like returning to the Witcher and finishing off the quests in Skellige I left out

About 20 hrs in and Lance Reddick showed up!

This is a very pretty game and fighting robosaurs is fun. I had got bored of Witcher 3 at this point so I guess what I wanted was a dumbed-down W3 with better battle mechanics. I like how you gotta be strategic and can't just send Aloy in wailing away like you could with Geralt.

I liked it enough but I found the dialogue a bit longwinded and expository. Then I got stuck at the bit not far from the start where your youth trials get ambushed, kept dying in a couple of minutes, respawning and getting blasted straight away. Will prob go back to it

lol the dialogue scenes are all terrible

Aw I liked them.

gave this a shot on steam, enjoyed how pretty it was but felt i was in for an assassin's creed/far cry/ghost of tsushima kind of thing but simplified witcher and aimless exploring sounds nice. returned it under the time window because money is tight but if it's different enough from the games i listed i may give another shot

https://blog.playstation.com/2021/05/25/discover-the-forbidden-west-in-our-next-state-of-play/

I find that as the release data gets closer, the more anxious and impatient I am to play the sequel (I wasn't even the least bit fussed a few months ago).

Hmm, done with DS2, so looking for a new game. I know I have Horizon Zero Dawn, would it be a good choice? Though I might play something lighter before I dive into another epic, like this or TLOU2 or the like. I've not played any of my Uncharted games yet ...

FWIW HZD deals with the apocalypse (though it takes place 1000 years before the setting of the game) and is also pretty long, although it's essentially hopeful.

OK, loving this already, I'm such a sucker for AAA games. Reminds of of God of War so far. Very pretty.

Yeah, this is like God of War meets Last of Us, so basically a Sony exclusive Frankenstein AAA monster. Still figuring things out, but I bet it will all make sense soon enough.

Ok, I can wait for Josh to get around to playing this or for the sequel to come out on PS5.

― From Damage Inc. to Metallica Inc. (Leee), Sunday, December 2, 2018

Or they happen at roughly the same time (although I'm still missing the PS5).

All the robot parts and ingredients and materials I'm collecting, what am I supposed to horde and what am I supposed to sell? And what do I do with my money if I sell stuff? I'm obviously very early game (just got the Thundernet, or whatever they call it), but it seems about half of the stuff I have is marked "common" and the rest is either "rare" or "uncommon," which makes me not want to sell it. On the other hand, killing these (I presume common) robots has been pretty easy, so their parts can't be that hard to come by, and when there's something specific the game wants you to learn (like fire arrows, or the thundernet) it does give you a specific ingredient to search for.

Anyway: all my crap, is it to sell or to save? What should I never sell and what should I never save? And what should I buy (from the first merchant, at least; I assume there will be more).

i haven't played HZD yet, but as i understand, the game actually IS inventory management, in large part, the decisions you're talking about. Monster Hunter Rise (the first one I played) was like that, and a lot of games are in general. have you played diablo? the game is about collecting trillions of things and deciding what to wear and what to sell and what to use as crafting components. diablo ended up creating a generation of poopsockers (people who poop in a sock rather than getting up from their computer) and Diablo III was one of the best couch co-op experiences of my life, so the formula seems to work!

but anyway, there are entire websites and guides that are all about which items to keep and which ones to sell

Never played Diablo (how do you poop in a sock?). But yeah, I've seen enough HZD guides and tried to parse them and am still confused. Some sites basically say "don't worry about it there's plenty of xyz." others say to prioritize certain things over others. And yet what I've found in most of these sort of acquisitive games, from Breath of the Wild to Dark Souls, is that I end up not needing or using the vast majority of stuff I accumulate at all. I suppose I can just follow the game's lead and prioritize what it implies I should prioritize. Like when the game tells me to accumulate "blaze," do that. Or when a scan tells me a robot is vulnerable to "ice arrows" (or whatever), know to focus on getting those ingredients.

Right now I would say the focus of HZD is not inventory management but stealth and sneak attacks. But I'm early game and haven't faced anything serious yet. And maybe haven't died yet? I can't remember.

Do you mean mods or crafting resources? If mods, you might not be at a point in the game where you can equip them, but yeah, if you have similar ones but with different stats, sell the ones that have worse stats. If it's crafting resources, some are quest-related, but most of them aren't difficult to come by. You might want to look at https://horizon.fandom.com/wiki/Resources.

Or, if the item description sez it's only used for selling, just sell it.

At the same time, I'd prioritize increasing your carrying capacity, though eventually you'll still be doing inventory management.

You use the metal shards to buy new armor, weapons, and of particular usefulness is this: https://horizon.fandom.com/wiki/Golden_Fast_Travel_Pack

Sounds like I'm early enough in the game that I should just go with the flow, then.

I'm still pretty new to pseudo-open world games, but while this one does look and play like God of War a bit, it's essentially a future-Earth Breath of the Wild, right? One that makes up in plot and "realism" (for what those are worth) what it lacks in creativity and ingenuity? I can see why someone burned out on AAA open world games might not dig this, but I do like it a lot. And everything is easy after a couple of From games.

It came out at the same time as BOTW, but I can't really find the lie here:

One that makes up in plot and "realism" (for what those are worth) what it lacks in creativity and ingenuity?

HZD is forgiving in that you can do the practice challenge areas that open up and get really good at the right techniques to take out certain enemies, or you can grind a bit and kind of power through it once you get nicer gear. On the higher difficulty levels, you have to do a bit of both.

I'm playing on normal, which is fine. I'm just about to talk to Teesa (?) about my mother. A lot of cut scenes early on, which mostly seem to happen when I either have to go to the bathroom or otherwise need to turn off the game and do something else.

I generally like the AI of this game, and the various freedoms you have to approach certain situations - avoid, confront, etc.. But I ran into my first snag at a bandit or cultist or whatever base, where for whatever reason the most obvious solution just was not the most obvious to *me,* and I spent waaaay too long trying to take on these countless enemies (and giant robots) all at once, or one at a time, or trying to race past, and so on. When it turned out to be a sneaky mission that just required me to sneak. What a relief, because it wouldn't have taken me eons to snipe and run everything down to zero.

Ha, I thought I had it figured out and was prepared to play sneaky, but I didn't notice that I had already agitated all the baddies when I paused the game, so when I resumed and went to sneak they busted me pretty quickly. Fortunately I just had to take a few hits on the way to blowing up the thing to trigger the QTE, and presto - mission accomplished.

Got myself some fast travel, though I've got to admit, as with RDR2 or Breath or whatever, just roaming around is part of the fun. However, I assume as I get more powerful it'll be nice to skip some BS. Some of the robots are really tough and not really worth the time, like the Robogators or the DFA birds.

Any updates Josh? Your posts are like methadone while I wait for my sequel fix.

It's great so far. I'm at Meridian, and I've been taking the time to upgrade some stuff. I was taking out a bandit base the other day and it was the first time I ever ran out of material to craft more arrows, which has made me more aware of how I burn through resources. For example, this morning I learned that if you are one arrow short of your max and craft more, it still uses the full amount of resources rather than a proportional amount, so you shouldn't craft until you are out. I've also destroyed a few more new machines, like this giant one and some of the cyber birds; the Robogators remain the toughest. Oh, and I had another epiphany. I just came off a couple of From games, where you upgrade more or less a couple of weapons, but you're constantly finding more in the wild. Here, though, you can just buy whatever you want from a vendor, so no reason to hold off purchasing them. Oh, and I did my first Cauldron, too, which was cool.

Nothing in this game so far has been particularly challenging, but some of the enemies can be tough, and the mechanics take some getting used to. I do think this is sort of my platonic ideal in terms of visuals and gameplay, though. Like, between this, or God of War, or RDR2, I can't imagine anything on PS5 being so dramatically superior. From my limited experience these games are so smooth and cool-looking. And I don't mean that I want every game like this, I just mean for this type of game it's as good as anything I'd want. Like, if someone told me this game came out last week, not five years ago, I'd believe them.

Huh, just now I got attacked by one, maybe two ... invisible robots? With lasers? Wasn't sure what to do about it, but at least I escaped.

That'd be a pack of Stalkers

Gotta get some proximity bombs and tripwires

I think I have some of those. Is the idea that when they find you, you just bunker down and set traps, Predator-style? Or can you always just run away. This was out in the wild when I was on some other mission.

They make a distinctive noise and don't immediately cloak, iirc

You can also shoot them and take out the stealth module

Stalkers were easily my most hated machines in the early game. You can definitely run away from them, but in at least a couple quests/areas you have to kill them.

They were the first machine to take me by surprise. Usually you round a corner or something and think "Oh shit, that's something new!" But these things started attacking me before I knew what was going on.

Just finished a couple of relatively easy Meridian quests, killing some bad guys (very RDR2) and getting a couple of different machine lenses, one of which I had already. Probably time to progress the plot a bit, though I did find another town with a few more side quests and errands, so maybe not.

I took a stealth machine down. I set traps then set off one of their flares, which attracted it to is doom.

One thing I haven't quite determined yet is the advantage of riding a robot from point a to point b over just fast travel. I guess for the scenery? Or if I need to stock up but don't feel like strolling?

I do like overriding them and just watching them fight.

I went on some fun cup quests last night. One of the cups was in an area with sawtooths and a bunch of flamethrower dinos. I recruited a sawtooth as my assistant and it was really a beautiful sight

I'm a little unclear as to "what weapon I should be using" and I'm going to do a google about it

From what I can tell, certain enemies are weak to certain weapon attacks, but in a very specific way. For example, longnecks (iirc) are super weak to shock, and afaict the war bow is enough to take them down, but other animals (like sawtooths or the snapjaws) require the use of specific weapons to weaken them (remove their tanks and armor) and then once you do they're pretty easy to take down with whatever.

My biggest confusion right now is what outfit to buy/wear, or how important it is beyond cosmetics. For example (and you'll appreciate this) I've never noticed armor making much of a difference in From games, aside from very specific situations/goals. Is that true here, too? There are dozens of armor sets at various strengths, for various situations and elemental conditions. And they, like weapons, can all be repeatedly modified. Am I really supposed to be switching back and forth between outfits and modifications as the situation calls?

Google reveals that most players are running with all three bows at all times! makes sense. I got addicted to the tearjerker sharpshot situation once I got it and quickly exhausted my supplies in that regard. Something called an echo pod or something is 90 shards a pop? expensive.

It seems I should upgrade to Shadow from Carja so I'm gonna do that. I haven't been consulting much or at all while playing

some armor has inherent percentages on skills, others have a bunch of slots to slot in the best armor mods you find

you definitely want to walk the upgrade tree (light->medium-> heavy) as they become available. if you’re more into sniping and stealth, stick with projectile protection as a base, if you like melee, etc

iirc the main differences with the different factions is carja have fire resistance and oseram outfits have spark resistance. there are a couple weapons where you end up shocking yourself and the high-end oseram outfit mitigates that when you’re grinding out the weapon upgrades

no spoilers, but it’s worth peeking at a guide to make sure you don’t miss picking up the components that unlock something special

https://horizon.fandom.com/wiki/Ancient_Armory

(Do not click if you want to organically find stuff)

btw Ted Faro was a dick

I think I saw that when I was googling outfits, but if I recall correctly you can't get all the resources to unlock that until towards endgame anyway.

so far where I'm at, stealth is definitely overpowered. Or at least, I have yet to find something that is not better handled with stealth, if possible.

the tear aspect plus the right weapon gets really useful, especially in the Frozen Wilds. hard to take down some armored machines without ripping off some armor

You can't stealth oneshot the big machines, if the game even gives you the stealth attack prompt. With them, you'll have to engage directly.

You absolutely change weapons and outfits constantly, because as mh sez they all offer different advantages. At the same time, I only ever used one bow and was principally a melee attacker, and I completely overlooked several advanced offensive strategies.

And don't be too stingy with your upgrade tree, you can pretty easily unlock all of them if you do enough side quests and play the DLC (which also has the second best armor).

oh, I've totally been filling out the skill tree, those have largely been useful. In terms of weapons and outfits, I've yet to feel at a real disadvantage, but maybe that's just because I don't know what advantage they provide? like, in terms of melee, I can be taken down pretty easy if I attack a bandit camp, but on the other hand, it is me versus like 20 people, so it's no surprise they should be able to take me down. or a powerful enemy at this stage of the game, like a snapjaw, I can't imagine any armor makes that easy.

Long story short, would it behoove me to just spend a session tasking myself with obtaining the best various outfits?

nah, you end up organically getting the necessary things for the most part

There is a secondary character named Trevor whose backstory, told in logs, is awesome and hilarious

Most of this game felt pretty popcorn but it seems as if I'm nearing the end of the main story and there have been some emotional moments, some real "wow I do feel very nihilistic now" moments

I haven't read any of the logs and stuff, I guess this means they are worth it?

I do like how this game rewards different play styles. Like, when I come across a bandit camp I snipe everyone from a distance, like a coward. But I had watched a bit of a playthrough a while back, and the player chose to just abandon caution and ride a robot bull right into a bandit camp and run people over before jumping robo-ship and just going melee ham. Maybe that's what happens when you've been conditioned to play everything like a FPS?

Is it worth doing the side quests in the original? i.e., are they mostly inconsequential "go here, fetch that”, or do they add to the story/world? I’ve seen folks on reddit saying the game is more fun—or at least, easier to avoid burn-out—if one just does the main story and exploration with the occasional side quest. I’m usually one to do all the missions in an open world but obviously the quality/essential-ness varies from title to title. I’ve completed Ghost of Tsushima recently, and Red Dead last year, so am interested in playing this but want to avoid “oh, this type of mission again" overfamiliarity. (Or perhaps I should just let more time pass before attempting another open world game…)

Imo so far the bandit battles have been pretty repetitive and probably not needed (very similar to some of the Red Dead bad guy camps). The cauldrons are pretty cool and useful, if iirc still optional. Same with the Tallneck towers. But the sidequests and stuff in general, some of them have been pretty fun, and all of them so far have added some color or filled in some mythology. I've yet to come across any real surprises in the wild like I did with RDR2, where out of nowhere there is a serial killer quest, or a spooky swamp mission, or helping a circus trainer find his lost lion or whatever.

The ish really is some of the side quests might as well be main quests, and others are boring and dumb, and there’s no way of knowing which you’re gonna get

Of all the errands, I would only recommend the hunter’s lodge errands, which results in a frankly wonderful battle

Aside from that, in order of fun/useful to not-fun/not-useful

Tallnecks
Cauldrons
Vantages
Corrupted Zones
Mugs
Bandit camps
Trials (I didn’t bother really I found them annoying)
Figurines
Flowers
Tutorials

I definitely got into the audio logs and data entries and I do think the story is exceptionally good. Don’t adore the two leads overall but love the mythology they build

A big mid game “aha” for me was to sell off all my bones and skins with the idea that I’d buy them back later if needed. A lot of space taken up in your resource pouch with those things

Huh, I knew you could buy them back but it never occurred to me to use that as de facto storage. Smart!

the epilogue explains the flowers in a heartbreaking way

Few hours into the sequel, the improvements outweigh the nits if not quantitatively then quantitatively.

Pros:
- Aloy is much more sharply written with greater psychological depth.
- Writing has more personality overall, quite a few excellent zingers already.
- Motion and performance capture are more naturalistic and consistently present, especially with our girl.

Cons:
- Outside of the subtitles, text is too small to read.
- Environments are so color saturated that resources are hard to see.
- Tutorial level is kind of long and short on action.

Oh and a much bigger con: texture pop in has been pretty common.

Reviews seem to indicate the release day patch had quite a few fixes. Sony's QA for their productions is usually higher, and they did push the release back, so maybe they're slipping a bit or assuming this is just the new status quo

Currently unlocking all the Tallnecks (in the first game). I figure that will give me even more flexibility to decide when to move the plot forward and when to goof around on intriguing side missions. Basically cut down on the wandering around, which I've probably done enough of.

Today I fought the giant Tyrannosaurus Killbot in one of the cauldrons, which was pretty cool. That gave me the power to override a Snapjaw, so the next time I found a pile of them hanging out I converted one to the good side and it just kicked so much ass for me, destroying not just two other Snapjaws, but also whatever stupid killer robots joined the fight, all while I hid behind a rock and watched.

Speaking of which, leading up to that cauldron was the usual chaos of robo animals that I picked fights with, including a couple of ravagers (the ones with the guns on their back). On a whim I picked up the giant back canon I'd knocked off and took it with with me over a hill, and upon reaching the top started getting shot at by what I assumed was another ravager. So I just let loose with the cannon in the general direction of the shots in the tree line below for several seconds, Predator-style, until whatever was shooting at me stopped. And when I got down there and saw all those red traps I realized, oh shit, it was three (!) of those invisible robots! And I had demolished them all without even knowing it.

This game is $125AUD on the PSN store as a download but $80 for the same thing as physical copy from JB Hifi. What the fck?

The new one, for PS5? That's weird, I wonder if there was just a mistake in the JB ad?

I hit my first big roadblock against a giant turtle, might have to grind out some levels and upgrades. Also I'm completely overlooking the valor surges, as the bar that tells me when it's changed up is too inconspicuous for me to notice in the thick of a fight.

I've got to finish the first game so that I know what any of you are talking about, lol. I'm about to hit the Grave Hoard, Near which I think, per one of the post's above, that I was just given a chance to proceed to the DLC (The Cut?) but Lance Reddick told me to turn back.

Oh? I went to The Cut long before I needed to go to Grave Hoard.

I was playing this game a lot, like four hours a day, last week, and I wanted to get more work done than I was doing, and I saw Elden Ring's release date approaching, so I rented a car and drove away from my apartment and the PS5 so I could work remotely until I got caught up haha

lmao

I thought you were going to say that you rented a car and took your PS5 with you to another more isolated place to just bunker down and finish the game in preparation for Elden Ring.

The number of people I saw posting on forums about how they were getting caught up on their work in February so they could spend March in a gaming vortex was... many. I myself do not have that luxury! Hopefully I'll get a "vacation" later in March

i will never “get caught up on my work”

Rent a car, drive your PS5 to a distant & secure location, return home to work.

Usually I feel guilty if I use my limited free time to play games instead of working on music, so I'm pleased to report that I actually finished the premasters for an EP yesterday. Thanks to Miyazaki for the deadline

Took down my first full power Deathbringer. It was pretty tough, at least until I figured out what to do. The cautious player that I am, it really gives me some anxiety to spend so much time building up an arsenal that it feels like you have to use up entirely on one enemy/boss. Though of course that's an exaggeration, since at least on "normal" setting this game really throws resources at you.

I had to do some googling to bring down my first (the one in the hangar). Didn't quite understand the overheating mechanic! now I do and they're not hard. I struggle most with Stormbirds

I finished my final cauldron, the bandit-heavy one, which was a lot of fun. I liked not knowing how to get out, and how they kept throwing new challenges at me, especially the invisible robots, which are uniquely challenging (though not difficult). I love scanning the area for enemies, tagging a couple of bandits, and then hearing a shout and next thing I know the bandits are dead. I wasn't really paying attention, but I saw the red flare traps and realized, ah, invisible robot cats! And then I had to figure out how many there were, which is a good habit to keep, because the next stage had three of 'em. No problem for me, What *is* a problem is that I've somehow ended up with close to 10,000 shards and have no idea what to do with them. I've been wearing the heavy stealth outfit for 95% of the game, and so far I see no reason to change. No idea what else to spend shards on.

Took some of the tips in this thread about using multiple weapons in conjunction during tough fights and had a blast.

I tried a couple of the hunter trials (in HZD), and they were certainly tough, but I appreciated how a couple of them explicitly required the use of multiple weapons.

Just hit the massive (mandatory) exposition dump section of the game. Some good sci-fi plotting/twists, imo. I must be close to the end of the game, but I keep bumping into sidequests, which is always awkward from an emotional investment standpoint. "You are the only one that can save us from extinction! We've got no time to waste!" (five minutes later) "Can you please help me get medicine for my sick cat?"

Getting that cat medicine is a critical experience building endeavor that will only help Aloy save the world though!

You never know in this game. Some of the side quests have been pretty neat/fun.

I really liked how this game's plot unfolded. Some real emotional moments! I didn't win it yet and haven't spoilered myself about the ending

I'm super impressed by how these AAA games deliver plot. It's a neat trick, when done well, considering everyone is playing them at different speeds, or in different ways. Movies and books generally adhere to a certain rhythm and structure, but games prove even more than some of the loosest of the former that you can stretch and disrupt the rhythm of your story all you want as long as the story beats drop somewhere, eventually, in some semblance or order. Some people might hit a huge story beat a couple of hours in, others might not hit it for 10 hours. It's kind of like a cross between the staggered narrative of fiction (another format we typically pick up and put down over the course of weeks) and the more condensed nature of cinema.

I came across a random side quest with a weirdo who drinks robot blood. After I got him the required blood, he has a vision of ... "Horizon Zero West"?

love that dude

I think I just got the final power cell, and if I didn't I must have missed an earlier one somewhere ...

OK, got my super armor (sneaky to put one back in the very first location) and I think am primed for the final/end battle of the game, but instead I decided to start the DLC. I think I read something saying that while it doesn't matter whether or not you do the DLC before or after the main game (the game I guess adjusts accordingly), the writer of the story recommended doing it before you finish the main quest. I did find that kind of surprising, because even leveled up well above its suggested start number that first enemy (demonic scorcher?) was *hard*. In fact, even though I destroyed it, I suspect it's mostly there as a warning and that you're meant to find a way past it rather than fight it. Sort of like sneaking back through your homeland toward the end of the game, which is full of tough enemies you can fight if you want but you're probably better off avoiding, unless you just want the challenge and/or XP.

Frozen Wilds is definitely harder than the base game, but I am also better armed and leveled up, which means the enemies aren't *that* hard, they just take tons of your ammunition, which for the first time I sometimes run out of. Anyway, glad I am doing this now and not after the main game, since I think it would be a let down.

Ok, finished frozen wilds and the main game. Really well done! Looked great, fun to play, great writing with nice emotional beats. I wonder if there is a different path to writing these things than there is to writing a movie, for example. They hit many of the same standard emotional /plot marks, but games parcel them out at a totally different pace. Anyway, good job, people that made this game. Look forward to playing the sequel in a year or so.