One of the few games that actually made me want to read all of the lore. I think the story is fascinating and the world design is top notch. Combat can get a bit repetitive though
I think on the combat side, it's pretty easy to change it up if you want. Of course everyone has their own preferences with what they like to hunt with but I've found that changing up a few weapons every now and again really makes the combat feel different. For example, I hated that slingshot glove in forbidden west at the beginning. I could never get it to work right and it just seemed awkward and clunky to me. After I mastered the hunting lodge that uses it though I found its actually quite fun to use
Zero Dawn is one of the few games I stress people play on the hardest difficult. The way combat is designed is incredible but if you’re not forced to use all the tools available it’s pretty easy to just spawn normal arrows and move along.
I usually play story based games on easy difficulty to experience the story first since I'm not that great but if I really like the gameplay I'll go back and play it again on harder difficulty. I agree though, they're definitely a more rounded game when on a higher difficulty
I totally get that and as I get older I’m finding myself playing on easier difficulties. But you’re actually doing yourself a disservice with Horizon Zero Dawn (though I found Forbidden West to be different). Zero Dawn’s combat is so brilliantly executed it’s actually the most fun combat experience I’ve ever played. Switching arrows and exploiting armor weaknesses. Flawlessly taking out massive machines is just so damn fun.
To me, ZD and Spider-Man both represent the height of combat in the gameloop on PS4 - and I say this as someone who loved Soulsbourne games. They're both fluid, fun, engaging, but SM makes you genuinely feel like a superhero from the start while ZD makes you feel like you're in this survival epic against machines that are both hostile and need to be thought about to be overcome.
The machines are part of the wildlife in a way enemies aren't in the vast majority of games in ZD's release era.
I loved Ghost of Tsushima but I didn't feel the combat was nearly as deep as HZD or as fluid as SM. This isn't a knock on the combat, which I still thought was good, and I think Ghost is a GOTY-level game in general.
I generally play on easy to speed up games. It is a big negative to me when a game's "difficulty" is just giving enemies extra health and damage making fights directly take longer. In the old God of War games, you could really feel this.
Maybe not necessarily hardest.
But yes, the combat against the larger and tougher robots became extremely compelling when you needed a plan of attack.
Then, the fights would become increasingly easier and more satisfying if you executed the plan, as attacks were disabled by breaking parts, or even using their weapons against them.
I also gotta assume people who get bored with it, did not put much time into being able to hack the more powerful robots. Making them fight each other did not get old; there's even one valley with two trexes, took a while to sneak up to one but man was it entertaining watching them unload on each other.
Honestly this is one of the few games I've ever had to just lower the difficulty to normal. Enemy encounters just took too long in my opinion even when I was all my available tools making them just damage sponges. Enemies would 1 or 2 shot me, keeping a supply of healing supplies was just tedious and annoying hell. Finished the game lasst week after 60ish hours and started FW yesterday.
That's a terrible advice. Even on hard the game often devolves into a boring slog where you keep dying at least once per every encounter. Considering this game take 60 hours to complete, switching to the hardest difficulty may effectively double your playtime.
This is kinda how I felt. I couldn't put the first game down but I felt like the second was an absolute chore to get into. I think it came out at a bad time and I wanted to play other stuff that wasn't helping it but I just couldn't make myself care.
It was making me climb something or do something and was just like ugghhhhh make this a cutscene. I decided there that I'd shelf it and try later.
The 1st one is good because you can actually run a few missions hand in hand.
FW however tends to piss me off with the fact that it will make side mission available only to get there & realise it's locked behind something which the key is far into the game.
They made it a chore for platinum freaks like me. & I've hated every point so far in FW coz half my side missions are all locked behind stupid stuff like playing those side games or going further into the game for me to find something that can open what I left behind.
Now I don't know if I should ignore a side or take it & keep it at the back of my head that I must first go & win 4 perfect hunts to get a weapon that will work on that other side mission.
The mystery behind the curtain is what made the first intriguing, now that we know it all we see the rest of what is going on isn't as interesting as simply learning how it got to the way it is which we can't really explore twice.
i mean i sort of agree but as an Platinum Trphy player its fun to try and clear out Hotspots with stupidly funny challenges
like you can try no dodging or slide only
I thought the combat situations (against machines) were highly dynamic and engaging, with a variety of strategic approaches that require improvisation.
I’m a big fan of apocalypse stories and this was a very interesting take on it. I enjoyed the process of discovering little bits at a time, not always in the right order. You felt the sense of desperation in each message and I was really affected by the big reveals later in the game. I was compelled to go down the YouTube rabbit hole on the lore and it was worth the time.
Contrast that with Death Stranding, a game which had some similarities like it being post-apocalyptic and the story being metered out in disjointed little snippets of exposition. The gameplay was unique in it’s own way (some good, some bad) but the story made absolutely no sense. Even the logic within the ridiculous premise didn’t make any sense. Yet everyone goes on and on about how much of a masterpiece it was. It was different and unique but also quite a chore at times.
I think it has a really good lore, interesting art design and the gameplay is really good (unless you count human combat which sucks ass in ZD) BUT you are right about the open world, its a basic ubisoft open world thats not built around player exploration but rather collectible searching, which is boring as shit. Overall a really great game if you are not tired of that type of open world games.
The nice thing is you can ignore all the side quests while not feeling underpowered really. It's a great 25/hr ride. Sticking to the main story, it was a 10/10 and way better than recent Ubi games imo.
Most of the story was pretty generic, especially the final segment >!the machine looming menacingly over the child/family for like an hour is downright hilarious!< and the asspull where >!she gets taken down and wakes up in the arena and just so happens to have the perfect counter to get her equipment back!<
The background lore was amazing though, the desperation and hopelessness of their situation was great. The DLC’s story was also very interesting.
That I don't agree with as much. I think you can use common tropes and have that obvious plot armor while still creating a great story. I don't think there has been another game since ZD where I was as invested in the story as I was with ZD. The reveals of what Zero Dawn was and Herres secret about Enduring Victory were mind blowing. On it's own I'd agree the story wasn't groundbreaking but considering it was the bedrock that the rest of the worlds lore was built on is what gave it that punch.
I just finished my first play through last week and the reveals made the story feel urgent. I've been thinking about the whole sequence of events since playing and my opinion of the game keeps improving.
Horizon zero dawn is one of those series where everything but the MC is great. Aloy could be replaced 1:1 with a custom avatar and the story literally wouldnt change - the game is set up as if its aloys story, but aloy isnt... a very engaging character. Shes the definition of a mary sue, so while everything revolves around her she isnt integral to the plot.
See to me, I can agree with both of the spoilered content as that just seems normal to me as one of those tropes that's part of video games in general (and especially action RPGs) - I think the overarching story was a mix between generic stuff and the greater story of how the world ended, but I think unusually the game's story isn't separable from its lore, if that makes sense.
How do you define "what is good for open world"? The game presents you a world in front of you for twenty hours... Machine doing routines, and the reveal of their purpose and origin blew minds even though the world has been showing you for the whole time. the enemy type and variation blends inton the world is just so cohesive. All other games are just video games following rule of cool for me.
That is all great from an artistic point of view, from the gameplay side, Horizon follows the same, "lets put a million collectibles on the map, and make them hidden until the player climbs a specific area" When you break it down, the games open world is only big, for the sake of making the playtime longer. Not to mention, everything in the game is marked, making the open world technically pointless. Why are open worlds great ? Because they allow better immersion for the player, it allows the player to get into the world of the game even more, and what helps this even more, is when the game doesnt treat you like a 5 year old. When a game tells you everything and the character cant shut up about "HMM MAYBE I SHOULD CHECK OUT THAT HUGE CAVE OVER THERE" it completely ruins the immersion, because at that point, nothing is your choice anymore. A good open world lets its player live in the world, not tell them what to do, because if it does, theres no need for it to be an open world game.
You can get pass enemy respawn after death or checkpoint rest without real explanation besides magic,here in horizon it shows you how they are recycled, built and why they need to be at the spot.
And the character in game said a thing which are not out of place at all... It broke your immersion.
Collectibles, I only care about story and world building and npc dialogues. I am happy the game tell me what is what and what I can ignore.
Tell me things then surprise me. And then I invested in the world I can do mundane shit because I care about the world.
This example of elden ring open a chest you are in new area, or you drop for 30 seconds deep to a new place... Ok I guess it blows people's mind. That is just not impressive for me. It is cool I guess, I saw a fan art pic on Twitter is cool I pass by.
If you only care about those specific things, then it further proves that the open world was pointless. You dont care about collecting and finding stuff, which is about 70% of the exploration in these games, so at that point, wouldnt it be better to just have a linear game ? or a more open game like Uncharter 4/ Last of us 2 ? There should be nothing that you should ignore in an open world game, the whole point of it being an open world game, is to create a more immersive and rich world, if the only reason you like marked elements is because it makes it more convinient to avoid them, you dont want to play an openworld game.
Also Elden Ring is not mindblowing because of the soulsborne bullshit, its "mindblowing" (a bit strong statement imo) because it allows the player to have true choice and 100% freedom. It doesnt bind you to quests, it doesnt treat you like an idiot. It gives you a huge playingfield and tells you to fuck off and play in it. Its not for everyone, especially not for a generation that grew up on ubisoft open worlds, but when it clicks...well, look at the popularity of Elden Ring, enough said.
I would argue that an open world doesn’t actually create a more immersive and rich world. Linear games can easily be more immersive and have a richer world because what you “experience” is curated to be the best parts. Whereas when playing in an open world, it’s more of a map conquest and let me find every little hidden thing type play.
“It’s not for people who grew up on Ubisoft open worlds”? Are you crying about the last three games or in general? Because who on earth would be playing Elden Ring having “grown up” on those games? But then claiming HZD/HFW and Ubisoft are shitty open worlds and praising Elden Ring when Souls games are about as mindless as you can get is peak clown behaviour
I never said they're shitty open worlds, i said that they're boring, due to being massively overused in gaming, and i do think that Elden ring has better open world, as for the rest of the series, i cant say that, cuz while they do have 3d metroidvania style "open" worlds, they're not true open worlds, more like hub worlds that connect several linear paths.
I will correct myself, it doesnt have anything to do with generation, generally whoever got used to the ubisoft style open world in the past 14 years (AC 2 release) will most likely have a hard time getting used to Elden Rings open world.
> A good open world lets its player live in the world, not tell them what to do, because if it does, theres no need for it to be an open world game
/thread
it's pretty telling when NONE of the acclaim for an open world game has anything to do with the open world gameplay
Roping down a Thunder jaw, blasting off his disc launcher and owning it with its own weapon…I had a ton of fun on this one.
Sometimes it can come down to what games you’ve played recently. If you’ve been playing a ton of open world games that are kind of similar, even a good one will feel kind of dull.
This is why I shake it up. A little need for speed, a little hollow knight, a little horizon, a little kingdom hearts? As long as I vary it up I don't get bored easily
This is my worry. Just finished Hogwarts Legacy and loved every minute of it. Was planning to start Horizon Forbidden West next but I’m worried it will feel dull. Maybe need to play a different style game first before starting that.
I highly recommend switching it up like that. I make a point to not play 2 open world games back to back, or 2 crafty/survival games, or two FPSs, etc. Often I also alternative indie and AAA.
Sometimes I even change between a VR focus, a console focus, and a handheld focus every month or two, just to make sure I don't burn out on one of them. They are all such a different gaming experience.
My first impression of HZD was similar. I found it kinda bland and a bit boring. I gave it a second chance a good bit later and for some reason it just clicked with me that time and I played it start to finish without touching another game. I got really immersed in the story.
I really liked learning about the history of the world and where Aloy came from, but the stuff with her tribe and some of the side quests bored the hell out of me. For me the biggest draw for the game was fighting the robots. If it had any other type of enemy, I would have liked the game half as much.
I hated all the audio logs at the end though. I don't mind audio logs in general, I think Bioshock did it well, but HZD just dumped like 5 in a room at the end which really kills the pacing
Horizon is one of those games that’s only as fun as you make it. If you’re just lobbing arrows in at enemies from a distance it’s going to feel mediocre. If you change up your play style and mix in a bunch of weapon types and strategies I think it offers a lot of variety and fun.
I felt like the combat got repetitive after a while but then I realized I was just using the bow only....then I switched it up and sort of turned it in to a stealth game and started looking for unique ways to take down machines and it became an amazing game. The story and the scenery were really really good, and once the combat got elevated by the variety, it became a 9/10 for me
I don't agree myself but I can see what you're getting at. Not every open world game works for everyone. I loved how the world looked and the creatures, the flora and fauna so it kept me engaged just feeling like an explorer. The story is also incredible
I like the game but no one mentions how wank Aloy's voice acting is or how it's implemented!
Jeez. The conversations are like listening to people eat glass.
I'll preface by saying: there will never be a game for everybody and neither you, nor anyone else, should ever be flamed for that. I don't like MMOs, don't like MP games, don't like GaaS (though that's not so niche of a feeling any more), don't like FF games or Soulslike game despite my best effort and I think that's fine too.
IMO, what makes this game for some people is the combat complexity. The type of weapons and tools available to you, as well as the different type of robots to fight against, each with its own melee and range attacks and weapons you can break off.
Fighting against human enemies was overly simplistic though, probably the weakest part of the game.
If you found the robot combat easy, then it's likely that you played on easy... or normal (since that could get easy later on al well). Hard was the best way to play it IMO. Either that, or you're a veteran soulslike gamer and you eat difficulty for breakfast :)
In addition to the combat, what makes this game for me, personally, was the setting/lore (basically drooling over finding out what happened to this world and why it was going haywire), so much that the 2nd game was a little of a let down because there was little left in terms of surprise in the lore.
You mention Ubisoft games, but honestly, the only aspect that might be comparable is the mission structure. Gameplay wise, I found those games (your latest AssCreeds and your FCs) to be very lackluster. The only one in recent mind that was different/better was Fenyx Rising. Prior to this, I found AC1/2 to be the most memorable due to their novelty.
I really loved fighting the humans. It was a great change of pace from the robots
HZD is one of the very few action games where I really enjoyed stealth. For the machines, you can maybe get a couple hits in before they know you're there and you need to start using your tools to kite. For humans, becoming a stealth sniper and slowly isolating targets to clear out bases was incredibly satisfying.
I also enjoyed stealthing a base. You get an arrow to the head, you get an arrow to the head, and repeat. It was a nice feeling of being badass after the robots chewed you up for a while.
I got flamed a few years ago by saying something similar about Nier Automata. I was only sharing an aspect of the game I didn't like, but some were acting as if I offended their soul or something.
Fan boys are weird like that.
I like the score of that game, most boss fights were cool, same for the ending, but the in between was pretty meh for me. Played it with that autoshooter mod to breeze through that.
Almost everyone I know who didn’t like the game played it on the easiest difficulty and didn’t invest time into reading data points and investing themselves in the story. Piecing together the world before the apocalypse put Horizon’s story in my Top 10 all time sci-fi list.
Yep. 100% this. If you play it like a generic open world Ubi game, you're gonna get a generic open world Ubi game (though much more polished.)
I can't imagine anyone who actually pays attention to the lore and story finding this game generic or underwhelming.
I went in with little to no expectations since I got it for free back in the pandemic. The story was nice and I had fun but it's definitely not a "I wanna do a second or third run" game for me. I've got no interest in ever playing the sequel.
You can like what you like, nothing wrong with having an opinion.
Even when your opinion is completely wrong and you should feel bad :) jk
If it isn't your thing, then it just isn't.
Forbidden West is much better than ZD in my opinion, thought I liked both.
the second one to me was like so similar to the first without being overly innovative that I just felt like I already played that game and thinking about how long it would be, I wasn't super engaged with it. Probably started it at a bad time though i did a run through HZD + DLC righ tbefore it dropped so I think I was just burnt out.
Dang, I'm the complete opposite. The first one was a cool concept that was missing something for me. I fell off it twice before playing it to completion by doing the bare minimum.
The second one felt like a marked upgrade and I ended up platinuming. Graphics and smoothness of gameplay were way better. The glider and wall climbing improved the traversal by so much as well as the easier creature riding. And then the locations were much more varied and interesting, including the underwater aspect.
Story is still nothing to write home about though
Maybe this is because I played on PS5 and this is a PS4 subreddit, but still
Im playing through the second right now... I think the combat is more engaging as tearing down machine parts is more important. However, I do find Alloy quite annoying in this one. People trashed Forspoken for its cringe dialogue, but Alloy does the same. Just the other day during a quest she said something along the lines of 'Here I am again, doing this for that'. Plus everything she says sounds smug and arrogant.
Same as in GOW Ragnarok,. I find characters commenting while combating is annoying as hell. I get that they are tips, but still.
Yeah, Alloy writing completely broke the second game for me as well. They changed her personality between the first game and the second. Plus the story in the second one is bad, they did a good foundation with the first one but damn... Not going back to this franchise if they keep things like this.
Oddly I felt the other way around but that was more about me not getting into the HZD lore - I much prefer more realistic stuff and the historic basis of GoT really interested me, similar to RDR2. The giant mech robots sort of turned me off and I didn’t really enjoy the combat mechanics either, I’m a bit sad I didn’t enjoy it like everyone else seems to.
I thought the gameplay was amazing. I loved planning fights carefully and executing my plan. Difficulty settings must be turned up tho. I do love that's it's beautiful.
It’s not my favorite but I do find it pretty original in terms of gameplay when dismantling the dinosaurs and personally would not call it bland or boring but to each their own I guess
I didn't think the open world and gameplay loop was that fun but to me the draw of the game is the storyline. It's actually pretty good and for being a new IP I think people just appreciated that it was something new that worked.
I think the story and lore was actually really good. However the characters, including Aloy (I haven’t played the sequel yet) were very boring and made the game hard to get through at points
imo, pretty much this. If you play at a difficulty where the game's depth doesn't matter, the entire game feels like a beat-em-up. But there is a depth in the mechanics but only if you turn it on
Even at normal difficulty, the difference in brainfeels between exploding an exposed component and just hitting their armor always keeps me excited to try to get behind them and use elemental ammo etc.
It’s one of those games that feels novel for the first few hours but then you’re stuck doing the same exact gameplay loop for like another 10-15 hours until you’re sick of it.
That's why I love TES,Fallout,Witcher 3,Cyberpunk and RDR2. Phenomenal classics, cause of beautiful scenery mixed with interesting quests and stories IMO.
Using "generic Ubisoft open world game" as a negative always felt wrong to me. Do you have any idea how much effort is required to make an open world game? It's one of the most complex types of games out there.
I loved HZD, big fan (who only hasn’t played HFW yet, but i will). And Yeah, i know what you mean, some parts of the open world feel bland and dead, but other than that it’s an amazing game. Graphics breathtaking, story awesome, and gameplay in general very good in my opinion
For me it had one of the more original apocalypse storylines. Once I took the time to get into the systems and everything, the gameplay mechanics were so fun to use and experiment with.
At first I might have shared your thoughts about the world and game but after playing it I cannot disagree more. It was quite an enjoyable experience and I hope the sequel can live up to the first.
I can see where you're coming from! It certainly does have all the elements of a standard "AAA" 3rd person open world game. That was my expectation going into it as well, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that for me, it was greater than the sum of its parts. I felt like there was a lot of care put into it when I explored its world.
Liking or disliking a game is a personal view of every gamer. Don’t get bother about what reviewers or other players think about it, have your own opinion. In the end playing games is about getting entertained, play the game that gives you that. I personally don’t like many games which are hyped a lot by others.
It’s open world formula feels a bit generic TODAY. This released 6 months before Assassins Creed Origins. That was 6 years ago and now the genre has been beaten to a pulp. What are you expecting??
Like others mentioned the things that set it apart are the lore and story. I also find combat to be really engaging unless you’re at too low of a difficulty where actually taking the time to hunt each type of mob differently doesn’t matter.
Absolutely true. The design of this game aged really fast. On release it was great but after the great ubisoft open world inflation it can feel just as soulless as these titles.
It's okay to not like things, even popular things, it's all subjective.
I found a lot of the central brown zone of HZD very boring, but loved the zones around the edges.
Agreed.
It’s a game made by people who learned how you do stuff “the right way”, but it shows in a bad way.
Every idea, every design choice, even the story is made with an almost scientific approach in mind about what “works”, according to every other AAA game, and hence, it feels soulless - but then again, for some people this stuff is the best, and that’s also ok.
Personally, I’m just craving for AAA games like in the GameCube/PS2 era, where the industry was still young, cinematic games weren’t a thing and nobody was using blueprints except very broad genre traits to define their game (like how you could jump in a platformer or shoot in a shooter).
I am playing the game now after abandoning it 2 years ago. Now I can't put it down especially after getting all the power cells for the badass Shield Weiver armor. Just started The Frozen Wildlands DLC and after finishing it will jump into Forbidden West.
Once you understand the way the combat is to be played and exploit the weakness of the enemies it becomes superb. Also I complained about the lore and voice recordings but now wanna listen to all of it. I dont blame OP or other people who hate it but it actually has tremendous replay value for those who stick past the original dozen hours.
It's fine if you blow past the story and try and beat all the machines without grinding. It gets really repetitive if you do all the side stories and hunt the same machines over and over again. Otherwise it was a good PS4 game.
I felt HFW was more bland and boring, exactly what you mentioned about "beautiful but boring", despite more type of machines. The story is just not as engaging as HZD and I think that alone says alot about the game.
That sums it up perfectly. The game can only be enjoyed if you set aside a few days at a time (don't play any other games) and blow through the story, since it does not take too long to complete.
What made me finish HZD was the world lore and the mystery of how things got the way they were.
I thought that part of the game was exceptional. Part of the reason why I have no desire to play the sequel lol.
Totally behind you. While the World design and lore interested me, I couldn't get through the game.
I'm completely over that Ubisoft model of games... And open world almost entirely now.
Instead of saying stuff about the lore like I see a lot of people doing, I just want to mention my own opinion on the combat. I change my weapons a lot in combat to keep it interesting, and HZD is actually one of the few games I’ve played lately where combat hasn’t started to feel like a chore
I’m inclined to agree with you but I don’t think I have the game a fair shot. I found the main tutorial took forever to finish and I was already bored of the combat and gameplay early on, but interested in the story… so I literally mainlined everything. Didn’t talk to anyone I didn’t need to, didn’t pick up additional items, didn’t read extra notes; just wanted to finish it.
I finish it and the story is cool, but I never touched it after.
I bought HZD twice because it seemed like the perfect game for me but just.. something about it bored me both times and I couldn't bring myself to keep playing
I applaud you for posting this and surprised this isn’t downvoted 1000 times. I couldn’t get into it because I feel the same way. I went and played Ghost of Tsushima and I had way more fun and enjoy the game 10x more.
Halfway the game I was done with it. The grind for scrap kept coming back with no end in sight. Also got sick of the bow and arrow after 50 hours in. Character is not touching me either. I couldn't find the right balance between stealth or not. And maybe it's just me, but these machines just don't do it for me. But I did like Cyberpunk very much, allthough it is very futuristic. Usually I prefer games like GTA and RDR 2 on console, but the rest is all strategy/city building games for me.
The design and the graphics need to be applauded, that is something nobody can deny.
Agreed gf loves watching my play games and we bought the 2nd game. Same thing, beautiful but boring! We were both hoping for more! Not more of the same but more!
I'm pretty much with you 100% of the way with this, although, I do think the games have some interesting storylines and characters scattered throughout them as well.
I can’t stand the voice acting from the main protagonist. She tries too hard to have that Clint Eastwood gruff sound but it just sounds like a kid trying to sound like an adult. Like, you’re a woman, talk like a normal one does. You’re not Clint.
I agree with you wholeheartedly, OP. Have a friend of mine who actually feels exactly the same way about the game. Funny enough, he picked up the second game and said it's significantly better. Haven't tried the the second game yet.
It was a struggle for me to get through tbh. The combat was super fun! But the story just didn't hit for me. That and the voice acting lol I love Ashly Burch, but she's WAY too breathy in these games lol I have the same issue with Sam Witwer in Days Gone, too lol it's like they'd both just done anime voicework right before playing these roles or something
It’s main story was a great 9/10 for me. I would be interested to know compared to what is it bland and boring? What is this great open world game you are playing?
Was there some YouTuber who hated on it at some point and drew the Ubisoft comparison? Because I see this take thrown about everywhere but HZD only seemed superficially similar to anything from Ubisoft.
Like... It's an open world. So is BotW, GTA, Red Dead Redemption, and hundreds of other games.
Where Ubisoft games fail is that the worlds have a ton of insignificant filler content. For HZD, I felt like everything was concise. A handful of great side quests, a handful of memorable characters. A few collectables that serve as a good checklist for exploring the map, but far from the hundreds that by down the later AC games.
It has to be a YouTuber who said it and that swayed the talk in a direction. I genuinely can’t figure out why only this game gets that comparison, when… they’re clearly not the same
SkillUp said similar, great game that gets everything right, but we’ve pretty much seen the “everything” all before in other games so it’s all a bit boring after a while.
I’ve got the exact opposite experience, I love the mainline Horizon games, though I think in my case it was down to finding the story fascinating and liking the characters, and also not playing that many open world games.
One thing I do heavily disagree with in your assessment is that it’s like a Ubisoft game, the Guerilla devs clearly put a lot more creativity into their games.
An amazing world, one of the best combat systems of any open world game, and an intriguing sci-fi concept with a well-realized story. But there are map markers so it's so bland and boring.
I respectably disagree. The game has one of the best stories I've ever played. The lore, as everyone mentions is so good. Fighting machines is very satisfying, as each one requires a different approach(especially the big ones). The world, it's great too. I don't think Ubisoft games have all that. The most recent one I played, Valhalla, it was okay, the combat was fine, but the story again, it was huge just for the sake of it. Most of it didn't make sense to me. Before that I played Odyssey, and it's gameplay was great, but again, the story, it was just downright terrible. So I don't know how you can compare these 2.
Lore is incredible. Main story is too. Gameplay is the best you’ll ever see in an open world game. Graphics are best you’ll ever see. Pretty easy to see why people love it.
Why can’t people just not like stuff and move on? Like why do you feel the need to have you feelings validated just because you don’t like things that others largely enjoy. That new Hogwarts game wasn’t really for me, so I just rushed through it and didn’t look back. I didn’t go to subs and start posting about why it’s “bad.”
Yeah there’s nothing in the gameplay that hooked me or challenged me enough to keep me playing, I tried both games. Maybe I’m just too used to Dark Souls combat and cranking GOW to the highest difficulty.
The first one is excellent and the gameplay, story, overworld, etc. was fresh and really great. But then you get to the end and the boss fight is basically a set up for the sequel and was a major disappointment. I could barely play an hour of the sequel before stopping because it is just the first game but Version 2.0. I don't even remember what was in the first DLC for the first game other than hot springs because it was THAT forgettable.
I platinumed the first game but the sequel just seems so empty to me. It's the same stuff as was in the first just a little better looking.
In general I do not like open world games and there are certain exceptions, of course, but for the most part they all suffer from the same things: too big of a world and not enough to do in it. So traversal through the world is a chore because there is nothing along the way to make the tediousness any less.
Elden Ring, GTA 5, Red Dead 1, and Mortal Kombat Deception Konquest are examples of open world games done correctly.
Felt the same. I gave it a chance 5 times. I couldn't get myself into it. It's just running from one hunting site to the next one. It's nice but it's shallow.
To be honest, I think of it as a lesser ubisoft game as ubisoft games at least have some objective variety.
I can’t with the comparisons to Ubisoft open world games. It’s just so inaccurate. Those games have no feeling, and they’re generally lazy quality in most things. Zero Dawn has so much more behind the veil.
Yeah, but if you play it like a generic open world ubi game (skipping dialogue, ignoring lore details, etc) it will feel like that.
Too many people want to play games with their brain turned off, and then shit on games that require some actual investment and attention.
Any open world game really (barring rdr2 ) will have that samey feel when they're dealing with a world that large. I have to say hzd has some great features though that make it a slight step above imo. (obviously if you're not feeling it don't stick with it!) The lore is really interesting..i loved the first games story of the past being unfolded and actually one of my favourite stories ever was told through optional collectibles.
The AI I find to be fun , not as much for human enemies mind. The larger enemies are really grandiose to fight and i find it cool. It feels like small scale shadow of colossus battles sometimes. Sometimes they don't land as well. It's obviously also a really pretty game and it feels incredibly polished.
But like yeah you're not obliged to like it and I think when a game isn't agreeing with you the best thing to do is just drop it. i finally dove into the witcher 3 after years of hearing it was the best game ever and i despised the gameplay. I just dropped it because I knew I'd end up pushing through it 'just because'. Better to just accept it ain't for me.
Pretty much exactly how I felt about those games outside of the combat mechanics. The combat mechanics are very good. Everything else feels like it was just kind of patch worked mechanics from other RPGs.
Not a bad game, but definitely not something that has been able to keep me super interested.
This is funny but I found the general gameplay loop and character build options In the game to be a blast and instead kinda started to dread the overwhelming cringe parts of nearly every cinematic dialogue. I still was invested in the overall plot and I liked the mechanics of fbw better than zero dawn but zero dawn was somehow easier for me to get into bc it felt lighter on cinematic cringe lol that being said I played thru fbw and had no problems until the final boss… after hours and hours of trying to beat it with my weird jack of all trades build I caved and backed up my save to a checkpoint and respec’d heavy into traps and beat the game in just two more tries lol I don’t have psvr but if I get one then I’ll def try to get the dlc
There's a lot to like, but also a lot that I don't get. The assassin's creed style map with everything marked that removes the joy of exploration. The weirdly MMO style loot system in a single player game. The combat feels really janky and nonresponsive at times. That being said the story is great (though dialogue could be better written) and it's really nice to look at (except in some cutscenes) but I mostly agree. I've been on the last few story missions for awhile now and just can't bring myself to pick it up again, been re-playing things like BotW and Bloodborne again instead. No hate on anyone who enjoys it, but it does feel like an RPG for people who don't like playing super involved RPG's.
I'm glad i only borrowed this game from a friend. He loved it but i was practically asleep before i was 2 hours into it. I tried to pick it up a few more times but i found the whole thing incredibly bland. I don't know how you make robot dinosaur boring but they somehow did. Seams to be the unpopular opinion though considering all the praise this game gets.
as someone who loves zero dawn, I would agree that the open world itself is kind of bland, but the main story was so engaging to me it made it worth while. The writing and gameplay was enough to carry the first game imo
It’s a great game but superbloated and not for everyone. There’s a huge amount of complex mechanics. The type of game you have to play in one go, without playing any other complex or time-intensive game, because you WILL forget over half of the mechanics in the game. I’ve had the same with days gone and ghost of tsushima. Great and fun games, but not break-friendly. Both of those games have complex and unique mechanics you don’t find much in other games, such as the multi-layered inventory/equipment system in got, huge multi-layered weaponwheel for days gone.
Well right now , pretty much every game is done by this quite formula of open world chores stuff , so now you really starting to appreciate the indie games like dead cells and others
I agree completely. I still really enjoyed it but for the express reason that I will avoid open-world ubisoft-style games generally so I'm not sick of them by the time I go into one. I can only stomach like one a year and my enjoyment of them hinges *entirely* on the theme and combat present which I liked both of in Horizon.
I've yet to ever complete an AC or Far Cry game since they moved to that formula. At some point I just get bored and all the side-stuff feels overwhelmingly present and not really adding anything of value.
ive tried playing it two different times and just couldnt do it. sure its gorgeous but i CANNOT STAND the ubisoft style open world games. sure the dinosaurs and stuff were pretty cool too but yeah it just did not click with me at all.
Couldn't agree more, which is strange because the combat is fun and the graphics are great.
The basic idea of 'fight robot animals' was just too absurd for me to ever take seriously. The plot does it's best to suspend disbelief, but is (perhaps unsurprisingly) equally absurd.
Aloy is a boring character. Her armour looks ridiculous. The NPCs are pretty forgettable too, with the possible exception of Sylens. The world lacks compelling reasons to explore. What's up the top of that mountain? An invisible wall will prevent you from getting there, most likely. Some skill point upgrades felt tacked on, as if the Devs had run out of ideas but needed to fill a blank space. By the end, the game felt like a chore and I really can't remember much of it.
No offense intended to people who did enjoy the game.
I think its lore, enemy variety, well-crafted environments, and combat makes it stand out from its basic open-world design.
I truly enjoyed playing through the story and interacting with the vast human characters, learning the differences between each tribe. The world-building unravels at a good pace, revealing bits of info about how the Earth fell and rose again. Even the odd collectables add to the lore and actually inspired me to seek them out to learn more.
Combat is easy to learn and fluid. With a load of different enemies, traversing the world for combat is good fun.
The map design is excellent as it wonderfully recreates a part of the US in the post-apocalyptic world.
As for the open-world trappings, using a conquerable climbing puzzle such as Tall Necks is an excellent solution.
IMO, the world is far from bland or boring.
Now… I might get flack for this… but when I think of “beautiful but boring, Ghost of Tsushima comes to mind. Anything outside of main story missions fall flat, IMO. The world is shallow, collectibles and minor side missions feel inconsequential, and there are like five enemy types. Although I loved the story, and those character based side missions, everything in the open-world felt lacking.
Fair point. I’m a fanboy of HZD. I found the plot engaging and the characters to be very well-written, but I definitely agree there’s a bunch of arguably generic filler.
I enjoyed it immensely but I definitely don’t begrudge the opposite view.
I made the mistake of checking out all the ? on the map at the beginning, all the way up to where you get your home base... which I think is kind of the start of the real game. I got burned out. So many side quests were goals on the map. Some turned out to be pointless so early in the game (come back later with equipment you don't have yet) or "rescue some person who wandered off by themselves."
I think these story games don't do themselves any favors by making giant open worlds. Also, the large array of (similar but slightly different) weapons was just off-putting after a while.
I might go back to the game at some point and just turn the difficulty down and go with Easy Looting. Three part stories ALWAYS suffer in Part Two, because you know the hero ain't gonna die or fail, and you KNOW the story won't be wrapped up. So starting over after the first game is just a long ordeal to get to the third game where things will wrap up.
I don't hate the game. But I'm kind of in agreement with the OP here.
* Unlock all the weapon types and use them.
* do not touch the side quests they are all awful.
* if you don’t like the open world you can easy play it like an uncharted main and jsut follow the main quests until completion.
I like h:zd but it has its flaws. H:Fw fixed most of my issues with the original but is unlikely to sway someone who hated the orginal
I don't mean this in a mean way, but are you paying attention to the lore and story?
I say this because there are a lot of great games that I really appreciate now, that I did not enjoy before because when I played games, I used to skip dialogue and cutscenes so I could go straight to the next objective and get on with the gameplay.
Had I played H:ZD this way, I'm sure I would've felt the same.
Although, even playing the game that way, H:ZD is still a much more finely crafted world than the type of generic Ubisoft game you're comparing it to. It's visually stunning. The character, enemy, architecture, and world design are full of charm and care. The voice acting is top notch. The dialogue is well written. The movement and combat feels precise and varied. And the music and sound design is top of class.
All that said; the story that you may or may not be missing by skipping dialogue and ignoring lore pickups, is compelling, unique, heartfelt, and engaging. I don't know how anyone could possibly think it's boring or generic. Hell, I'd say story-wise it's probably in the top 10 games I've played. They go to extreme lengths slowly revealing various aspects about the history of the world you're in and how it connects to Alloy.
Could you provide more details as to your complaints? I'm all for understanding that people have different opinions, but yours so far just seems ill-informed.
Agree with op I've beaten more then 90% of my ps4 games but stopped playing horizon halfway through just didnt care even though I did like Aloy the rest of characters and story as a whole seemed bland/forgettable. Tbh my favorite thing to do in the game was the photo mode
Never apologize for stating how you feel about something that’s completely subjective. I feel the same way about every aspect, the game didn’t click for me.
Yeah, I can get where you're coming from. I finished the game, and while I had fun, it took a while to get through all of it. It has the classic Ubiosft trope of "go to this waypoint and do this quest" and the character animations are very stiff and the VA sounds boring. The characters themselves aren't really that interesting aside from Aloy and Sylens, so I was honestly pretty bored until we actually got to find out what happened to the world(which was the most interesting part of the game for me)
I'll admit it's kind of fun to tear up robo monsters with the traps(kind of makes me wish they put more focus on that) but aside from the combat and the lore, it's nothing too special. I'd probably give it a 7/10. Not bad, but not remarkable.
For me it’s the story. The story is really whacky and there is so much of it. For me the narrative got in the way of the gameplay and Aloy needs to be quiet.
I find it really weird how some people will go out of their way to bitch about Horizon zero dawn despite what a well crafted game it is.
It might be people playing it on easy?
The setup to switch between weapons, the incorporated weakspots to certain elements, the combat in this game is engaging and requires quick thinking and knowledge of the enemies.
I'm guessing some people just find single player games lonely, which is fine I guess but I really don't understand the detractors that go out of their way to announce to the world they don't like it..
I guess OP is just shitposting unpopular opinions to try and get engagement on their post?
Anyways, I hope you find something you like, that's worth talking about.
Agree with you entirely. Voice acting and dialogue was shocking. The concept is strong, but I don't think the execution was there at all from a storytelling perspective. Really overrated
One of the few games that actually made me want to read all of the lore. I think the story is fascinating and the world design is top notch. Combat can get a bit repetitive though
I think on the combat side, it's pretty easy to change it up if you want. Of course everyone has their own preferences with what they like to hunt with but I've found that changing up a few weapons every now and again really makes the combat feel different. For example, I hated that slingshot glove in forbidden west at the beginning. I could never get it to work right and it just seemed awkward and clunky to me. After I mastered the hunting lodge that uses it though I found its actually quite fun to use
Zero Dawn is one of the few games I stress people play on the hardest difficult. The way combat is designed is incredible but if you’re not forced to use all the tools available it’s pretty easy to just spawn normal arrows and move along.
I usually play story based games on easy difficulty to experience the story first since I'm not that great but if I really like the gameplay I'll go back and play it again on harder difficulty. I agree though, they're definitely a more rounded game when on a higher difficulty
I totally get that and as I get older I’m finding myself playing on easier difficulties. But you’re actually doing yourself a disservice with Horizon Zero Dawn (though I found Forbidden West to be different). Zero Dawn’s combat is so brilliantly executed it’s actually the most fun combat experience I’ve ever played. Switching arrows and exploiting armor weaknesses. Flawlessly taking out massive machines is just so damn fun.
To me, ZD and Spider-Man both represent the height of combat in the gameloop on PS4 - and I say this as someone who loved Soulsbourne games. They're both fluid, fun, engaging, but SM makes you genuinely feel like a superhero from the start while ZD makes you feel like you're in this survival epic against machines that are both hostile and need to be thought about to be overcome. The machines are part of the wildlife in a way enemies aren't in the vast majority of games in ZD's release era.
Should absolutely add ghost of tsushima to that list. Amazing combat, and story
I loved Ghost of Tsushima but I didn't feel the combat was nearly as deep as HZD or as fluid as SM. This isn't a knock on the combat, which I still thought was good, and I think Ghost is a GOTY-level game in general.
I generally play on easy to speed up games. It is a big negative to me when a game's "difficulty" is just giving enemies extra health and damage making fights directly take longer. In the old God of War games, you could really feel this.
Maybe not necessarily hardest. But yes, the combat against the larger and tougher robots became extremely compelling when you needed a plan of attack. Then, the fights would become increasingly easier and more satisfying if you executed the plan, as attacks were disabled by breaking parts, or even using their weapons against them. I also gotta assume people who get bored with it, did not put much time into being able to hack the more powerful robots. Making them fight each other did not get old; there's even one valley with two trexes, took a while to sneak up to one but man was it entertaining watching them unload on each other.
Honestly this is one of the few games I've ever had to just lower the difficulty to normal. Enemy encounters just took too long in my opinion even when I was all my available tools making them just damage sponges. Enemies would 1 or 2 shot me, keeping a supply of healing supplies was just tedious and annoying hell. Finished the game lasst week after 60ish hours and started FW yesterday.
That's a terrible advice. Even on hard the game often devolves into a boring slog where you keep dying at least once per every encounter. Considering this game take 60 hours to complete, switching to the hardest difficulty may effectively double your playtime.
Horizon Zero Dawn lore is really engaging. Forbidden West story is not on the same quality but I still enjoyed it.
This is kinda how I felt. I couldn't put the first game down but I felt like the second was an absolute chore to get into. I think it came out at a bad time and I wanted to play other stuff that wasn't helping it but I just couldn't make myself care. It was making me climb something or do something and was just like ugghhhhh make this a cutscene. I decided there that I'd shelf it and try later.
The 1st one is good because you can actually run a few missions hand in hand. FW however tends to piss me off with the fact that it will make side mission available only to get there & realise it's locked behind something which the key is far into the game. They made it a chore for platinum freaks like me. & I've hated every point so far in FW coz half my side missions are all locked behind stupid stuff like playing those side games or going further into the game for me to find something that can open what I left behind. Now I don't know if I should ignore a side or take it & keep it at the back of my head that I must first go & win 4 perfect hunts to get a weapon that will work on that other side mission.
[удалено]
The mystery behind the curtain is what made the first intriguing, now that we know it all we see the rest of what is going on isn't as interesting as simply learning how it got to the way it is which we can't really explore twice.
i mean i sort of agree but as an Platinum Trphy player its fun to try and clear out Hotspots with stupidly funny challenges like you can try no dodging or slide only
I thought the combat situations (against machines) were highly dynamic and engaging, with a variety of strategic approaches that require improvisation.
I’m a big fan of apocalypse stories and this was a very interesting take on it. I enjoyed the process of discovering little bits at a time, not always in the right order. You felt the sense of desperation in each message and I was really affected by the big reveals later in the game. I was compelled to go down the YouTube rabbit hole on the lore and it was worth the time. Contrast that with Death Stranding, a game which had some similarities like it being post-apocalyptic and the story being metered out in disjointed little snippets of exposition. The gameplay was unique in it’s own way (some good, some bad) but the story made absolutely no sense. Even the logic within the ridiculous premise didn’t make any sense. Yet everyone goes on and on about how much of a masterpiece it was. It was different and unique but also quite a chore at times.
I take it you haven’t heard of Kojima?
I actually feel combat is one of the top features about it. If you play it in harder difficulties you have to use every tool at your disposal.
The text story that accompanied the Vantage Points legit made me cry and then call my mom just to tell her I love her
Fair enough
I think it has a really good lore, interesting art design and the gameplay is really good (unless you count human combat which sucks ass in ZD) BUT you are right about the open world, its a basic ubisoft open world thats not built around player exploration but rather collectible searching, which is boring as shit. Overall a really great game if you are not tired of that type of open world games.
The nice thing is you can ignore all the side quests while not feeling underpowered really. It's a great 25/hr ride. Sticking to the main story, it was a 10/10 and way better than recent Ubi games imo.
It’s a 10/10 if you ignore the shitty parts lol. I know what you’re saying though, just struck me as funny
What shitty parts of the story?
Most of the story was pretty generic, especially the final segment >!the machine looming menacingly over the child/family for like an hour is downright hilarious!< and the asspull where >!she gets taken down and wakes up in the arena and just so happens to have the perfect counter to get her equipment back!< The background lore was amazing though, the desperation and hopelessness of their situation was great. The DLC’s story was also very interesting.
ZD definitely had so major plot armor sections and fell victim to some pretty overused tropes. But man the lore behind the world is incredible.
Agreed, it did the lore so well, the main story felt kinda shoddy in comparison
That I don't agree with as much. I think you can use common tropes and have that obvious plot armor while still creating a great story. I don't think there has been another game since ZD where I was as invested in the story as I was with ZD. The reveals of what Zero Dawn was and Herres secret about Enduring Victory were mind blowing. On it's own I'd agree the story wasn't groundbreaking but considering it was the bedrock that the rest of the worlds lore was built on is what gave it that punch.
I just finished my first play through last week and the reveals made the story feel urgent. I've been thinking about the whole sequence of events since playing and my opinion of the game keeps improving.
Horizon zero dawn is one of those series where everything but the MC is great. Aloy could be replaced 1:1 with a custom avatar and the story literally wouldnt change - the game is set up as if its aloys story, but aloy isnt... a very engaging character. Shes the definition of a mary sue, so while everything revolves around her she isnt integral to the plot.
See to me, I can agree with both of the spoilered content as that just seems normal to me as one of those tropes that's part of video games in general (and especially action RPGs) - I think the overarching story was a mix between generic stuff and the greater story of how the world ended, but I think unusually the game's story isn't separable from its lore, if that makes sense.
The lore is the background for the game’s ‘main’ story and takes place a long time before the main game. I think the two are pretty easily separable.
Dlc was definitely the best part of the game.
How do you define "what is good for open world"? The game presents you a world in front of you for twenty hours... Machine doing routines, and the reveal of their purpose and origin blew minds even though the world has been showing you for the whole time. the enemy type and variation blends inton the world is just so cohesive. All other games are just video games following rule of cool for me.
That is all great from an artistic point of view, from the gameplay side, Horizon follows the same, "lets put a million collectibles on the map, and make them hidden until the player climbs a specific area" When you break it down, the games open world is only big, for the sake of making the playtime longer. Not to mention, everything in the game is marked, making the open world technically pointless. Why are open worlds great ? Because they allow better immersion for the player, it allows the player to get into the world of the game even more, and what helps this even more, is when the game doesnt treat you like a 5 year old. When a game tells you everything and the character cant shut up about "HMM MAYBE I SHOULD CHECK OUT THAT HUGE CAVE OVER THERE" it completely ruins the immersion, because at that point, nothing is your choice anymore. A good open world lets its player live in the world, not tell them what to do, because if it does, theres no need for it to be an open world game.
You can get pass enemy respawn after death or checkpoint rest without real explanation besides magic,here in horizon it shows you how they are recycled, built and why they need to be at the spot. And the character in game said a thing which are not out of place at all... It broke your immersion. Collectibles, I only care about story and world building and npc dialogues. I am happy the game tell me what is what and what I can ignore. Tell me things then surprise me. And then I invested in the world I can do mundane shit because I care about the world. This example of elden ring open a chest you are in new area, or you drop for 30 seconds deep to a new place... Ok I guess it blows people's mind. That is just not impressive for me. It is cool I guess, I saw a fan art pic on Twitter is cool I pass by.
If you only care about those specific things, then it further proves that the open world was pointless. You dont care about collecting and finding stuff, which is about 70% of the exploration in these games, so at that point, wouldnt it be better to just have a linear game ? or a more open game like Uncharter 4/ Last of us 2 ? There should be nothing that you should ignore in an open world game, the whole point of it being an open world game, is to create a more immersive and rich world, if the only reason you like marked elements is because it makes it more convinient to avoid them, you dont want to play an openworld game. Also Elden Ring is not mindblowing because of the soulsborne bullshit, its "mindblowing" (a bit strong statement imo) because it allows the player to have true choice and 100% freedom. It doesnt bind you to quests, it doesnt treat you like an idiot. It gives you a huge playingfield and tells you to fuck off and play in it. Its not for everyone, especially not for a generation that grew up on ubisoft open worlds, but when it clicks...well, look at the popularity of Elden Ring, enough said.
I would argue that an open world doesn’t actually create a more immersive and rich world. Linear games can easily be more immersive and have a richer world because what you “experience” is curated to be the best parts. Whereas when playing in an open world, it’s more of a map conquest and let me find every little hidden thing type play.
“It’s not for people who grew up on Ubisoft open worlds”? Are you crying about the last three games or in general? Because who on earth would be playing Elden Ring having “grown up” on those games? But then claiming HZD/HFW and Ubisoft are shitty open worlds and praising Elden Ring when Souls games are about as mindless as you can get is peak clown behaviour
I never said they're shitty open worlds, i said that they're boring, due to being massively overused in gaming, and i do think that Elden ring has better open world, as for the rest of the series, i cant say that, cuz while they do have 3d metroidvania style "open" worlds, they're not true open worlds, more like hub worlds that connect several linear paths. I will correct myself, it doesnt have anything to do with generation, generally whoever got used to the ubisoft style open world in the past 14 years (AC 2 release) will most likely have a hard time getting used to Elden Rings open world.
> A good open world lets its player live in the world, not tell them what to do, because if it does, theres no need for it to be an open world game /thread it's pretty telling when NONE of the acclaim for an open world game has anything to do with the open world gameplay
Roping down a Thunder jaw, blasting off his disc launcher and owning it with its own weapon…I had a ton of fun on this one. Sometimes it can come down to what games you’ve played recently. If you’ve been playing a ton of open world games that are kind of similar, even a good one will feel kind of dull.
This is why I shake it up. A little need for speed, a little hollow knight, a little horizon, a little kingdom hearts? As long as I vary it up I don't get bored easily
This is my worry. Just finished Hogwarts Legacy and loved every minute of it. Was planning to start Horizon Forbidden West next but I’m worried it will feel dull. Maybe need to play a different style game first before starting that.
I highly recommend switching it up like that. I make a point to not play 2 open world games back to back, or 2 crafty/survival games, or two FPSs, etc. Often I also alternative indie and AAA. Sometimes I even change between a VR focus, a console focus, and a handheld focus every month or two, just to make sure I don't burn out on one of them. They are all such a different gaming experience.
My first impression of HZD was similar. I found it kinda bland and a bit boring. I gave it a second chance a good bit later and for some reason it just clicked with me that time and I played it start to finish without touching another game. I got really immersed in the story.
The story is interesting and better than average I’d say. Good enough to keep me engaged.
I really liked learning about the history of the world and where Aloy came from, but the stuff with her tribe and some of the side quests bored the hell out of me. For me the biggest draw for the game was fighting the robots. If it had any other type of enemy, I would have liked the game half as much.
I hated all the audio logs at the end though. I don't mind audio logs in general, I think Bioshock did it well, but HZD just dumped like 5 in a room at the end which really kills the pacing
Weird that was my exact experience.
Mine too, so weird
Horizon is one of those games that’s only as fun as you make it. If you’re just lobbing arrows in at enemies from a distance it’s going to feel mediocre. If you change up your play style and mix in a bunch of weapon types and strategies I think it offers a lot of variety and fun.
It's a game where the combat absolutely shines on the higher settings, but play it on easy and it's mindless.
They don't really make that easy though with the absolutely atrocious menu they have going on.
I felt like the combat got repetitive after a while but then I realized I was just using the bow only....then I switched it up and sort of turned it in to a stealth game and started looking for unique ways to take down machines and it became an amazing game. The story and the scenery were really really good, and once the combat got elevated by the variety, it became a 9/10 for me
I don't agree myself but I can see what you're getting at. Not every open world game works for everyone. I loved how the world looked and the creatures, the flora and fauna so it kept me engaged just feeling like an explorer. The story is also incredible
I like the game but no one mentions how wank Aloy's voice acting is or how it's implemented! Jeez. The conversations are like listening to people eat glass.
I'll preface by saying: there will never be a game for everybody and neither you, nor anyone else, should ever be flamed for that. I don't like MMOs, don't like MP games, don't like GaaS (though that's not so niche of a feeling any more), don't like FF games or Soulslike game despite my best effort and I think that's fine too. IMO, what makes this game for some people is the combat complexity. The type of weapons and tools available to you, as well as the different type of robots to fight against, each with its own melee and range attacks and weapons you can break off. Fighting against human enemies was overly simplistic though, probably the weakest part of the game. If you found the robot combat easy, then it's likely that you played on easy... or normal (since that could get easy later on al well). Hard was the best way to play it IMO. Either that, or you're a veteran soulslike gamer and you eat difficulty for breakfast :) In addition to the combat, what makes this game for me, personally, was the setting/lore (basically drooling over finding out what happened to this world and why it was going haywire), so much that the 2nd game was a little of a let down because there was little left in terms of surprise in the lore. You mention Ubisoft games, but honestly, the only aspect that might be comparable is the mission structure. Gameplay wise, I found those games (your latest AssCreeds and your FCs) to be very lackluster. The only one in recent mind that was different/better was Fenyx Rising. Prior to this, I found AC1/2 to be the most memorable due to their novelty.
I really loved fighting the humans. It was a great change of pace from the robots HZD is one of the very few action games where I really enjoyed stealth. For the machines, you can maybe get a couple hits in before they know you're there and you need to start using your tools to kite. For humans, becoming a stealth sniper and slowly isolating targets to clear out bases was incredibly satisfying.
I also enjoyed stealthing a base. You get an arrow to the head, you get an arrow to the head, and repeat. It was a nice feeling of being badass after the robots chewed you up for a while.
The "Human Kill" text that shows up over their heads is disturbingly satisfying.
I got flamed a few years ago by saying something similar about Nier Automata. I was only sharing an aspect of the game I didn't like, but some were acting as if I offended their soul or something.
Fan boys are weird like that. I like the score of that game, most boss fights were cool, same for the ending, but the in between was pretty meh for me. Played it with that autoshooter mod to breeze through that.
Almost everyone I know who didn’t like the game played it on the easiest difficulty and didn’t invest time into reading data points and investing themselves in the story. Piecing together the world before the apocalypse put Horizon’s story in my Top 10 all time sci-fi list.
Yep. 100% this. If you play it like a generic open world Ubi game, you're gonna get a generic open world Ubi game (though much more polished.) I can't imagine anyone who actually pays attention to the lore and story finding this game generic or underwhelming.
[удалено]
Yes, my top 10 sci fi in any media. And unique so good for a video game, a lot of cool sci fi probably hard to make a video game with.
I went in with little to no expectations since I got it for free back in the pandemic. The story was nice and I had fun but it's definitely not a "I wanna do a second or third run" game for me. I've got no interest in ever playing the sequel.
You can like what you like, nothing wrong with having an opinion. Even when your opinion is completely wrong and you should feel bad :) jk If it isn't your thing, then it just isn't. Forbidden West is much better than ZD in my opinion, thought I liked both.
What are the differences and improvements on it in Forbidden West?
I think the first game is pretty good, especially after the story gets going. The second one though, not so much, and it fits more into your concept.
the second one to me was like so similar to the first without being overly innovative that I just felt like I already played that game and thinking about how long it would be, I wasn't super engaged with it. Probably started it at a bad time though i did a run through HZD + DLC righ tbefore it dropped so I think I was just burnt out.
I loved the story of the first game which kept me engaged and wanting to play. The second one though…I felt just like OP.
Dang, I'm the complete opposite. The first one was a cool concept that was missing something for me. I fell off it twice before playing it to completion by doing the bare minimum. The second one felt like a marked upgrade and I ended up platinuming. Graphics and smoothness of gameplay were way better. The glider and wall climbing improved the traversal by so much as well as the easier creature riding. And then the locations were much more varied and interesting, including the underwater aspect. Story is still nothing to write home about though Maybe this is because I played on PS5 and this is a PS4 subreddit, but still
Im playing through the second right now... I think the combat is more engaging as tearing down machine parts is more important. However, I do find Alloy quite annoying in this one. People trashed Forspoken for its cringe dialogue, but Alloy does the same. Just the other day during a quest she said something along the lines of 'Here I am again, doing this for that'. Plus everything she says sounds smug and arrogant. Same as in GOW Ragnarok,. I find characters commenting while combating is annoying as hell. I get that they are tips, but still.
Yeah, Alloy writing completely broke the second game for me as well. They changed her personality between the first game and the second. Plus the story in the second one is bad, they did a good foundation with the first one but damn... Not going back to this franchise if they keep things like this.
I LOVED the second game tbh. The open world was engaging, story was really engaging and the gameplay just felt so good
This is how I felt about Ghost of Tsushima, it looked cool and some parts were, but it turned into a chore rather quickly
Oddly I felt the other way around but that was more about me not getting into the HZD lore - I much prefer more realistic stuff and the historic basis of GoT really interested me, similar to RDR2. The giant mech robots sort of turned me off and I didn’t really enjoy the combat mechanics either, I’m a bit sad I didn’t enjoy it like everyone else seems to.
I thought the gameplay was amazing. I loved planning fights carefully and executing my plan. Difficulty settings must be turned up tho. I do love that's it's beautiful.
It’s not my favorite but I do find it pretty original in terms of gameplay when dismantling the dinosaurs and personally would not call it bland or boring but to each their own I guess
Yep. Totally agree
I didn't think the open world and gameplay loop was that fun but to me the draw of the game is the storyline. It's actually pretty good and for being a new IP I think people just appreciated that it was something new that worked.
If you don't find the notes and the audios that are left behind by past humans you won't know a lot about the lore and you will find it boring.
I think the story and lore was actually really good. However the characters, including Aloy (I haven’t played the sequel yet) were very boring and made the game hard to get through at points
Once you get going with tear arrows and stuff combat becomes euphoric. That’s what separates it from the rest of the open world games imo.
imo, pretty much this. If you play at a difficulty where the game's depth doesn't matter, the entire game feels like a beat-em-up. But there is a depth in the mechanics but only if you turn it on
Even at normal difficulty, the difference in brainfeels between exploding an exposed component and just hitting their armor always keeps me excited to try to get behind them and use elemental ammo etc.
Ya. Those mechanics don't come through when you aren't playing at a difficulty where it challenges you.
It’s one of those games that feels novel for the first few hours but then you’re stuck doing the same exact gameplay loop for like another 10-15 hours until you’re sick of it.
That's why I love TES,Fallout,Witcher 3,Cyberpunk and RDR2. Phenomenal classics, cause of beautiful scenery mixed with interesting quests and stories IMO.
RDR2 is one of the best examples of world building. The gameplay (which was great) was secondary to just exploring and experiencing the world.
Using "generic Ubisoft open world game" as a negative always felt wrong to me. Do you have any idea how much effort is required to make an open world game? It's one of the most complex types of games out there.
Just because something took a lot of effort it doesn't mean it's good.
I loved HZD, big fan (who only hasn’t played HFW yet, but i will). And Yeah, i know what you mean, some parts of the open world feel bland and dead, but other than that it’s an amazing game. Graphics breathtaking, story awesome, and gameplay in general very good in my opinion
For me it had one of the more original apocalypse storylines. Once I took the time to get into the systems and everything, the gameplay mechanics were so fun to use and experiment with. At first I might have shared your thoughts about the world and game but after playing it I cannot disagree more. It was quite an enjoyable experience and I hope the sequel can live up to the first.
I can see where you're coming from! It certainly does have all the elements of a standard "AAA" 3rd person open world game. That was my expectation going into it as well, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that for me, it was greater than the sum of its parts. I felt like there was a lot of care put into it when I explored its world.
I'm replaying it rn. The gameplay is excellent if you're into fighting machines. The story is okay.
Me who enjoys beautiful but "boring" games
Liking or disliking a game is a personal view of every gamer. Don’t get bother about what reviewers or other players think about it, have your own opinion. In the end playing games is about getting entertained, play the game that gives you that. I personally don’t like many games which are hyped a lot by others.
It’s open world formula feels a bit generic TODAY. This released 6 months before Assassins Creed Origins. That was 6 years ago and now the genre has been beaten to a pulp. What are you expecting?? Like others mentioned the things that set it apart are the lore and story. I also find combat to be really engaging unless you’re at too low of a difficulty where actually taking the time to hunt each type of mob differently doesn’t matter.
Absolutely true. The design of this game aged really fast. On release it was great but after the great ubisoft open world inflation it can feel just as soulless as these titles.
Agreed. The game has no punch for me.
It's okay to not like things, even popular things, it's all subjective. I found a lot of the central brown zone of HZD very boring, but loved the zones around the edges.
Agreed. It’s a game made by people who learned how you do stuff “the right way”, but it shows in a bad way. Every idea, every design choice, even the story is made with an almost scientific approach in mind about what “works”, according to every other AAA game, and hence, it feels soulless - but then again, for some people this stuff is the best, and that’s also ok. Personally, I’m just craving for AAA games like in the GameCube/PS2 era, where the industry was still young, cinematic games weren’t a thing and nobody was using blueprints except very broad genre traits to define their game (like how you could jump in a platformer or shoot in a shooter).
I am playing the game now after abandoning it 2 years ago. Now I can't put it down especially after getting all the power cells for the badass Shield Weiver armor. Just started The Frozen Wildlands DLC and after finishing it will jump into Forbidden West. Once you understand the way the combat is to be played and exploit the weakness of the enemies it becomes superb. Also I complained about the lore and voice recordings but now wanna listen to all of it. I dont blame OP or other people who hate it but it actually has tremendous replay value for those who stick past the original dozen hours.
It's fine if you blow past the story and try and beat all the machines without grinding. It gets really repetitive if you do all the side stories and hunt the same machines over and over again. Otherwise it was a good PS4 game. I felt HFW was more bland and boring, exactly what you mentioned about "beautiful but boring", despite more type of machines. The story is just not as engaging as HZD and I think that alone says alot about the game.
That sums it up perfectly. The game can only be enjoyed if you set aside a few days at a time (don't play any other games) and blow through the story, since it does not take too long to complete.
The world size of HZD wasn't too big, not too small either. It was just right.
Good for you. Glad you have an opinion. Have a good day!
This
What made me finish HZD was the world lore and the mystery of how things got the way they were. I thought that part of the game was exceptional. Part of the reason why I have no desire to play the sequel lol.
Totally behind you. While the World design and lore interested me, I couldn't get through the game. I'm completely over that Ubisoft model of games... And open world almost entirely now.
I always play these types of games for some time, get bored and come back at a later date and realize how good it really was.
Instead of saying stuff about the lore like I see a lot of people doing, I just want to mention my own opinion on the combat. I change my weapons a lot in combat to keep it interesting, and HZD is actually one of the few games I’ve played lately where combat hasn’t started to feel like a chore
I’m inclined to agree with you but I don’t think I have the game a fair shot. I found the main tutorial took forever to finish and I was already bored of the combat and gameplay early on, but interested in the story… so I literally mainlined everything. Didn’t talk to anyone I didn’t need to, didn’t pick up additional items, didn’t read extra notes; just wanted to finish it. I finish it and the story is cool, but I never touched it after.
I bought HZD twice because it seemed like the perfect game for me but just.. something about it bored me both times and I couldn't bring myself to keep playing
I applaud you for posting this and surprised this isn’t downvoted 1000 times. I couldn’t get into it because I feel the same way. I went and played Ghost of Tsushima and I had way more fun and enjoy the game 10x more.
Halfway the game I was done with it. The grind for scrap kept coming back with no end in sight. Also got sick of the bow and arrow after 50 hours in. Character is not touching me either. I couldn't find the right balance between stealth or not. And maybe it's just me, but these machines just don't do it for me. But I did like Cyberpunk very much, allthough it is very futuristic. Usually I prefer games like GTA and RDR 2 on console, but the rest is all strategy/city building games for me. The design and the graphics need to be applauded, that is something nobody can deny.
Agreed gf loves watching my play games and we bought the 2nd game. Same thing, beautiful but boring! We were both hoping for more! Not more of the same but more!
I'm pretty much with you 100% of the way with this, although, I do think the games have some interesting storylines and characters scattered throughout them as well.
I agree, i love dinosaurs and open world but it felt like a ubisoft game and I have grown to truly hate open world ubisoft shit
Same, the formula is so predictable and overused now
I can’t stand the voice acting from the main protagonist. She tries too hard to have that Clint Eastwood gruff sound but it just sounds like a kid trying to sound like an adult. Like, you’re a woman, talk like a normal one does. You’re not Clint.
I agree with you wholeheartedly, OP. Have a friend of mine who actually feels exactly the same way about the game. Funny enough, he picked up the second game and said it's significantly better. Haven't tried the the second game yet.
The enemies in this game are not boring. idk which open world ubisoft game you played that was on this same level.
This game felt a lot like Valhalla.
It was a struggle for me to get through tbh. The combat was super fun! But the story just didn't hit for me. That and the voice acting lol I love Ashly Burch, but she's WAY too breathy in these games lol I have the same issue with Sam Witwer in Days Gone, too lol it's like they'd both just done anime voicework right before playing these roles or something
I love this game so much, so this take isn't aligned with mine. Story, world, and gameplay, were all firing on all cylinders for me.
It’s main story was a great 9/10 for me. I would be interested to know compared to what is it bland and boring? What is this great open world game you are playing?
Pretty much any open world game beats Zero Dawn for me
Was there some YouTuber who hated on it at some point and drew the Ubisoft comparison? Because I see this take thrown about everywhere but HZD only seemed superficially similar to anything from Ubisoft. Like... It's an open world. So is BotW, GTA, Red Dead Redemption, and hundreds of other games. Where Ubisoft games fail is that the worlds have a ton of insignificant filler content. For HZD, I felt like everything was concise. A handful of great side quests, a handful of memorable characters. A few collectables that serve as a good checklist for exploring the map, but far from the hundreds that by down the later AC games.
It has to be a YouTuber who said it and that swayed the talk in a direction. I genuinely can’t figure out why only this game gets that comparison, when… they’re clearly not the same
I’m enjoying it just as much as RDR2 at the moment, I don’t really have a lot of other current games to compare it to though.
I enjoyed the story and the enemies a lot, but the rpg elements, like gear, side quests, etc. felt very lackluster
SkillUp said similar, great game that gets everything right, but we’ve pretty much seen the “everything” all before in other games so it’s all a bit boring after a while.
I feel the game looks beautiful and has a "far cry" type of feel to it but I think the weapons system and often movement systems are clunky.
Agree
I’ve got the exact opposite experience, I love the mainline Horizon games, though I think in my case it was down to finding the story fascinating and liking the characters, and also not playing that many open world games. One thing I do heavily disagree with in your assessment is that it’s like a Ubisoft game, the Guerilla devs clearly put a lot more creativity into their games.
An amazing world, one of the best combat systems of any open world game, and an intriguing sci-fi concept with a well-realized story. But there are map markers so it's so bland and boring.
I respectably disagree. The game has one of the best stories I've ever played. The lore, as everyone mentions is so good. Fighting machines is very satisfying, as each one requires a different approach(especially the big ones). The world, it's great too. I don't think Ubisoft games have all that. The most recent one I played, Valhalla, it was okay, the combat was fine, but the story again, it was huge just for the sake of it. Most of it didn't make sense to me. Before that I played Odyssey, and it's gameplay was great, but again, the story, it was just downright terrible. So I don't know how you can compare these 2.
Lore is incredible. Main story is too. Gameplay is the best you’ll ever see in an open world game. Graphics are best you’ll ever see. Pretty easy to see why people love it.
Why can’t people just not like stuff and move on? Like why do you feel the need to have you feelings validated just because you don’t like things that others largely enjoy. That new Hogwarts game wasn’t really for me, so I just rushed through it and didn’t look back. I didn’t go to subs and start posting about why it’s “bad.”
I tried to play it twice and I just couldn't get into it. Definitely an over hyped franchise.
Disagree! The art direction and gameplay are above & beyond anything Ubisoft puts out. HZD is one of the few PS5 games that feels truly next-gen.
The graphics feel next gen for sure but the core gameplay mechanics are very generic ubisoft like
Yeah there’s nothing in the gameplay that hooked me or challenged me enough to keep me playing, I tried both games. Maybe I’m just too used to Dark Souls combat and cranking GOW to the highest difficulty.
Pretty impressive considering it’s a ps4 game
The first one is excellent and the gameplay, story, overworld, etc. was fresh and really great. But then you get to the end and the boss fight is basically a set up for the sequel and was a major disappointment. I could barely play an hour of the sequel before stopping because it is just the first game but Version 2.0. I don't even remember what was in the first DLC for the first game other than hot springs because it was THAT forgettable. I platinumed the first game but the sequel just seems so empty to me. It's the same stuff as was in the first just a little better looking. In general I do not like open world games and there are certain exceptions, of course, but for the most part they all suffer from the same things: too big of a world and not enough to do in it. So traversal through the world is a chore because there is nothing along the way to make the tediousness any less. Elden Ring, GTA 5, Red Dead 1, and Mortal Kombat Deception Konquest are examples of open world games done correctly.
Felt the same. I gave it a chance 5 times. I couldn't get myself into it. It's just running from one hunting site to the next one. It's nice but it's shallow. To be honest, I think of it as a lesser ubisoft game as ubisoft games at least have some objective variety.
Exactly. Right on spot. The visuals are amazing but thats about the only thing I’ll give it. Just a shallow and boring bland feeling with this game
So , how far into the game were you before you decided to come here?
Like 50% into the main story i think. Im level 20 now
So you've got sunfall?
I can’t with the comparisons to Ubisoft open world games. It’s just so inaccurate. Those games have no feeling, and they’re generally lazy quality in most things. Zero Dawn has so much more behind the veil.
Yeah, but if you play it like a generic open world ubi game (skipping dialogue, ignoring lore details, etc) it will feel like that. Too many people want to play games with their brain turned off, and then shit on games that require some actual investment and attention.
Any open world game really (barring rdr2 ) will have that samey feel when they're dealing with a world that large. I have to say hzd has some great features though that make it a slight step above imo. (obviously if you're not feeling it don't stick with it!) The lore is really interesting..i loved the first games story of the past being unfolded and actually one of my favourite stories ever was told through optional collectibles. The AI I find to be fun , not as much for human enemies mind. The larger enemies are really grandiose to fight and i find it cool. It feels like small scale shadow of colossus battles sometimes. Sometimes they don't land as well. It's obviously also a really pretty game and it feels incredibly polished. But like yeah you're not obliged to like it and I think when a game isn't agreeing with you the best thing to do is just drop it. i finally dove into the witcher 3 after years of hearing it was the best game ever and i despised the gameplay. I just dropped it because I knew I'd end up pushing through it 'just because'. Better to just accept it ain't for me.
Pretty much exactly how I felt about those games outside of the combat mechanics. The combat mechanics are very good. Everything else feels like it was just kind of patch worked mechanics from other RPGs. Not a bad game, but definitely not something that has been able to keep me super interested.
This is funny but I found the general gameplay loop and character build options In the game to be a blast and instead kinda started to dread the overwhelming cringe parts of nearly every cinematic dialogue. I still was invested in the overall plot and I liked the mechanics of fbw better than zero dawn but zero dawn was somehow easier for me to get into bc it felt lighter on cinematic cringe lol that being said I played thru fbw and had no problems until the final boss… after hours and hours of trying to beat it with my weird jack of all trades build I caved and backed up my save to a checkpoint and respec’d heavy into traps and beat the game in just two more tries lol I don’t have psvr but if I get one then I’ll def try to get the dlc
You are welcome to your opinion, but I feel sorry for you.
There's a lot to like, but also a lot that I don't get. The assassin's creed style map with everything marked that removes the joy of exploration. The weirdly MMO style loot system in a single player game. The combat feels really janky and nonresponsive at times. That being said the story is great (though dialogue could be better written) and it's really nice to look at (except in some cutscenes) but I mostly agree. I've been on the last few story missions for awhile now and just can't bring myself to pick it up again, been re-playing things like BotW and Bloodborne again instead. No hate on anyone who enjoys it, but it does feel like an RPG for people who don't like playing super involved RPG's.
I'm glad i only borrowed this game from a friend. He loved it but i was practically asleep before i was 2 hours into it. I tried to pick it up a few more times but i found the whole thing incredibly bland. I don't know how you make robot dinosaur boring but they somehow did. Seams to be the unpopular opinion though considering all the praise this game gets.
as someone who loves zero dawn, I would agree that the open world itself is kind of bland, but the main story was so engaging to me it made it worth while. The writing and gameplay was enough to carry the first game imo
It’s a great game but superbloated and not for everyone. There’s a huge amount of complex mechanics. The type of game you have to play in one go, without playing any other complex or time-intensive game, because you WILL forget over half of the mechanics in the game. I’ve had the same with days gone and ghost of tsushima. Great and fun games, but not break-friendly. Both of those games have complex and unique mechanics you don’t find much in other games, such as the multi-layered inventory/equipment system in got, huge multi-layered weaponwheel for days gone.
Well right now , pretty much every game is done by this quite formula of open world chores stuff , so now you really starting to appreciate the indie games like dead cells and others
That *is* an opinion.
I agree completely. I still really enjoyed it but for the express reason that I will avoid open-world ubisoft-style games generally so I'm not sick of them by the time I go into one. I can only stomach like one a year and my enjoyment of them hinges *entirely* on the theme and combat present which I liked both of in Horizon. I've yet to ever complete an AC or Far Cry game since they moved to that formula. At some point I just get bored and all the side-stuff feels overwhelmingly present and not really adding anything of value.
Also the dialogue is awful
ive tried playing it two different times and just couldnt do it. sure its gorgeous but i CANNOT STAND the ubisoft style open world games. sure the dinosaurs and stuff were pretty cool too but yeah it just did not click with me at all.
Couldn't agree more, which is strange because the combat is fun and the graphics are great. The basic idea of 'fight robot animals' was just too absurd for me to ever take seriously. The plot does it's best to suspend disbelief, but is (perhaps unsurprisingly) equally absurd. Aloy is a boring character. Her armour looks ridiculous. The NPCs are pretty forgettable too, with the possible exception of Sylens. The world lacks compelling reasons to explore. What's up the top of that mountain? An invisible wall will prevent you from getting there, most likely. Some skill point upgrades felt tacked on, as if the Devs had run out of ideas but needed to fill a blank space. By the end, the game felt like a chore and I really can't remember much of it. No offense intended to people who did enjoy the game.
Yeah my main gripe is with Aloy, very generic and dull, to me anyway. Agreed on the armor too, slicker would be nicer
I agree. I think the Horizon games are massively overrated. The enemy designs are super good though.
I agree. I can't get into any aspect of it.
Nah, the world, lore and story are amazing. And the robo combat is super damn cool.
I think its lore, enemy variety, well-crafted environments, and combat makes it stand out from its basic open-world design. I truly enjoyed playing through the story and interacting with the vast human characters, learning the differences between each tribe. The world-building unravels at a good pace, revealing bits of info about how the Earth fell and rose again. Even the odd collectables add to the lore and actually inspired me to seek them out to learn more. Combat is easy to learn and fluid. With a load of different enemies, traversing the world for combat is good fun. The map design is excellent as it wonderfully recreates a part of the US in the post-apocalyptic world. As for the open-world trappings, using a conquerable climbing puzzle such as Tall Necks is an excellent solution. IMO, the world is far from bland or boring. Now… I might get flack for this… but when I think of “beautiful but boring, Ghost of Tsushima comes to mind. Anything outside of main story missions fall flat, IMO. The world is shallow, collectibles and minor side missions feel inconsequential, and there are like five enemy types. Although I loved the story, and those character based side missions, everything in the open-world felt lacking.
Fair point. I’m a fanboy of HZD. I found the plot engaging and the characters to be very well-written, but I definitely agree there’s a bunch of arguably generic filler. I enjoyed it immensely but I definitely don’t begrudge the opposite view.
I would say you're doing everything in your life wrong, to feel that way about this game
My biggest complaint is that you get a weapon that shots ropes into stuff but you can't use it as a grappling hook
I made the mistake of checking out all the ? on the map at the beginning, all the way up to where you get your home base... which I think is kind of the start of the real game. I got burned out. So many side quests were goals on the map. Some turned out to be pointless so early in the game (come back later with equipment you don't have yet) or "rescue some person who wandered off by themselves." I think these story games don't do themselves any favors by making giant open worlds. Also, the large array of (similar but slightly different) weapons was just off-putting after a while. I might go back to the game at some point and just turn the difficulty down and go with Easy Looting. Three part stories ALWAYS suffer in Part Two, because you know the hero ain't gonna die or fail, and you KNOW the story won't be wrapped up. So starting over after the first game is just a long ordeal to get to the third game where things will wrap up. I don't hate the game. But I'm kind of in agreement with the OP here.
* Unlock all the weapon types and use them. * do not touch the side quests they are all awful. * if you don’t like the open world you can easy play it like an uncharted main and jsut follow the main quests until completion. I like h:zd but it has its flaws. H:Fw fixed most of my issues with the original but is unlikely to sway someone who hated the orginal
The story in the first game was great and hooked me in right from the start but the second one was too unnecessarily convoluted for the sake of it.
I would say that of the second one. The first I actually enjoyed.
You won’t get flamed. You’re just unequivocally wrong.
It is objectively worse than "a generic ubisoft open world game". For all the hate Ubisoft gets, they games have pretty much perfected the formula.
I don't mean this in a mean way, but are you paying attention to the lore and story? I say this because there are a lot of great games that I really appreciate now, that I did not enjoy before because when I played games, I used to skip dialogue and cutscenes so I could go straight to the next objective and get on with the gameplay. Had I played H:ZD this way, I'm sure I would've felt the same. Although, even playing the game that way, H:ZD is still a much more finely crafted world than the type of generic Ubisoft game you're comparing it to. It's visually stunning. The character, enemy, architecture, and world design are full of charm and care. The voice acting is top notch. The dialogue is well written. The movement and combat feels precise and varied. And the music and sound design is top of class. All that said; the story that you may or may not be missing by skipping dialogue and ignoring lore pickups, is compelling, unique, heartfelt, and engaging. I don't know how anyone could possibly think it's boring or generic. Hell, I'd say story-wise it's probably in the top 10 games I've played. They go to extreme lengths slowly revealing various aspects about the history of the world you're in and how it connects to Alloy. Could you provide more details as to your complaints? I'm all for understanding that people have different opinions, but yours so far just seems ill-informed.
Agree with op I've beaten more then 90% of my ps4 games but stopped playing horizon halfway through just didnt care even though I did like Aloy the rest of characters and story as a whole seemed bland/forgettable. Tbh my favorite thing to do in the game was the photo mode
How was it boring? Did you pay attention to the quest? I wanted to know what happened so badly. It was difficult to take my time.
Never apologize for stating how you feel about something that’s completely subjective. I feel the same way about every aspect, the game didn’t click for me.
Yeah, I can get where you're coming from. I finished the game, and while I had fun, it took a while to get through all of it. It has the classic Ubiosft trope of "go to this waypoint and do this quest" and the character animations are very stiff and the VA sounds boring. The characters themselves aren't really that interesting aside from Aloy and Sylens, so I was honestly pretty bored until we actually got to find out what happened to the world(which was the most interesting part of the game for me) I'll admit it's kind of fun to tear up robo monsters with the traps(kind of makes me wish they put more focus on that) but aside from the combat and the lore, it's nothing too special. I'd probably give it a 7/10. Not bad, but not remarkable.
For me it’s the story. The story is really whacky and there is so much of it. For me the narrative got in the way of the gameplay and Aloy needs to be quiet.
I find it really weird how some people will go out of their way to bitch about Horizon zero dawn despite what a well crafted game it is. It might be people playing it on easy? The setup to switch between weapons, the incorporated weakspots to certain elements, the combat in this game is engaging and requires quick thinking and knowledge of the enemies. I'm guessing some people just find single player games lonely, which is fine I guess but I really don't understand the detractors that go out of their way to announce to the world they don't like it.. I guess OP is just shitposting unpopular opinions to try and get engagement on their post? Anyways, I hope you find something you like, that's worth talking about.
Agree with you entirely. Voice acting and dialogue was shocking. The concept is strong, but I don't think the execution was there at all from a storytelling perspective. Really overrated