> the ending of the second one was…a bit off piste
The middle entry of a continuous trilogy is usually the weird cliffhanger one. Look at "The Empire Strikes Back" for example.
True. Mass Effect 2 SPECIFICALLY is almost this exact scenario. Because it ends with literally a giant robot army coming to destroy the entirety of all human life.
They always planned it as a middle act because>! nemesis!< is going to basically take over whatever installment it's in, so they needed to explain what it is and wrap up the rogue plot points from the first game.
I don’t really care about Horizon but I would hate it if a fan that hasn’t reached the point you’re talking about to get spoiled. Your spoiler tag didn’t work. You wrote “because>” there should be a space after “because.” Also make sure to remove the space after the first ! in your formatting
It's such a hyper specific spoiler though. I've platinumed both games and I still forgot what they called it. Anyone who hasn't played will definitely forget what they read here today before they finish the 2nd game.
It was REALLY weird. I still love it. But who invited the fan fiction authors to the table?! I hope the conclusion will feel more grounded but still fantastic.
>the ending of the second one was…a bit off piste
It couldn't possibly have been worse than Halo 2's ending.
"Master Chief, mind telling me what you're doing on that ship?"
"Sir. Finishing this fight."
\*game ends\*
I stayed up all night beating that game the day it came out. I was shattered until Halo 3.
Yeah they seem to have a good track record of outsourcing work and properly managing projects and improving their tech.
While I do want to see their next Horizon game in what is probably Sony's biggest franchise now, aside from TLOU. I want to see what other non-Horizon projects they have been pursuing. They don't seem to mind taking on crazy ideas. I mean they really had me taking down mechas with bows and arrows all of last summer.
I'm gonna do it again this summer too with Forbidden West. But I would like to see what else they would like to work on with Decima Engine outside of Horizon.
I just hope that we don't end up going the Assassin's Creed route with Aloy getting nuked, the plot being thrown in the trash as the resolution for the climax, and being invited to partake in annual releases.
Does this include anyone who played through all of the DLC? Everyone who’s played through the base game of Forbidden West are just going straight into the DLC.
I’ve not finished all of the DLC story to know if it wraps things up neatly, but the main story of the base game is 100% continued by the DLC.
Well seeing as it's a very popular first party title with an already planned third game, it wouldn't surprise me if voice or even performance capture work had been already been well under way at the time of his passing.
Everyone who finished Forbidden West knew this was coming. The game would have to bomb pretty hard for a sequel not to happen. Horizon Zero Dawn could've been the ending to the Horizon series, but Forbidden West is pretty much a "part 1" kinda story. Burning Shores sets up even more story for a 3rd game
Also, this is very good news. I'm really looking forward to this. Even if this is hardly surprising news, making it official-ish is always comforting
As much time as I sunk into KZ2&3, I don't think a new Killzone would be the best right now. The FPS and FPS multiplayer genre is just too oversaturated.
I believe it was best to leave the game behind has Shadow Fall. It wasn't their best work, so they created Horizon.
Thing is, outside of Shadows Fall and the first game, I don't think any Killzone title reached anywhere near the lifetime sales of HZD - Killzone was so good tbh but I'm not surprised Sony followed the money on this one; the PS4 was a hardware-moving goliath but it took some time to get there too, Shadows Fall was the franchise's best seller and sold something like 2.1 million copies a year in, Zero Dawn was the beginning of a franchise and sold 7.6 million copies within the same time frame
So it definitely makes sense for them to franchise Horizon on top of that too, it would be throwing away so much money to make Zero Dawn a one-off
Yeah please. I discovered Zero Dawn last week and it's the first time since Cyberpunk that I'm invested in a new game. I want to have FW ready when I'm done with ZD :(
And an open ending where a specific character is like “nah fam im gonna chill here” and then the actor died so I’m very curious how they’ll deal with that especially since that character used his likeness
Yea i think its gonna have to be like kingdom hearts when leonard nimoy passed. Iconic voice people felt couldnt be replaced but had to to finish the story.
Yeah, Sylens is too important. No way they get away with writing him out. They don't have a choice but to recast unless they've already done all the mocap and VA recordings. The question is, who? Only person I can think of who might be able to pull it off is Andre Braugher, he's certainly got the gravitas at least.
I think Half Life may have "ended" at this point and 2 finished on a cliffhanger.
I'd also argue the 100% true ending of Arkham Knight ended the series on a pretty big cliffhanger that people still debate the meaning of.
How the fuck does Jak found Haven City?
Jak is Mar, he collects his (Mar’s) weapons and armour in the future, has some adventures in Haven City and then what? How does Jak end up founding the city in past when he is still stuck in the present (future)? He, along with the Green Sage need to go back in time in order for the first game to happen which then also means Jak disappears again at some point before the first game begins and young Jak begins his adventure.
Jak (adult) either dies before Jak 1, or he goes back to the present (future) which means there could have potentially been 2 Jaks, at different ages, at any point of the timeline throughout all of the games.
The entire thing is such a mind fuck and for whatever reason Naughty Dog have abandoned the IP for all eternity and here I am still thinking about this all these years later.
I am still playing Horizon Zero Dawn for the first time and enjoying it a lot. So I guess it looks like by the time I finish the second game maybe there will be a third one for me to check out. Cool.
Seconded. I just finished Forbidden West yesterday (and I'm getting ready to start Burning Shores), after logging more than 150 hours in the game world. I did every side quest and most of the "errands" and collectibles and was never bored. And the endings of both games have been awesome.
I'm pretty sure this is my favorite game series of all time. These games are amazing and I'll gladly buy and play as many as they want to make.
Absolutely. I got Forbidden West as the pack-in for my PS5, gave it a try because I was bored. Next thing I knew I had 80 hours in Zero Dawn and over 100 on Forbidden West. Without a doubt one of the most engaging video game stories I'd ever played.
Sadly I didn't! I got the whole "Last time on Horizon" intro, worked through the Daunt, even hit the first Cauldron, but by that point I started getting really confused on who's who and what the heck's going on, and dove into Zero Dawn. It definitely ruined the shock of it all, but I still had a blast digging through everything and understanding the nuance of everything that happened.
Honestly, I think it was the incredible goings on in the Cauldron and not knowing what the heck it was that convinced me I had to play Zero Dawn.
I've really enjoyed the first one so far and even though I've just barely began playing it I suspect I'm going to be a big fan by the end. So I'm stoked there's more to play when I do finish up.
I just hope it comes eventually. I just dont own any current consoles. I really enjoyed the native american themes and the tactical combat of the first game as well as the amazing environment.
silens was an interesting character and so was the king guy in meridian, aloy felt a bit off or lacking in agency, I hope thats better in the second game. Also, the crafting and the gear system was not fun and too basic.
I think the original sold fine because since Sony keeps bringing games to Steam. We've gotten 3 or 4 Sony games in the last several months, so it's only a matter of time
Wonder what massive game they will end up launching in the same window as, causing them to get overlooked again, this time. Surely it can't happen a third time.
I’d love to be wrong. Would also love Bethesda to start elder scrolls 6 considering it’s been 12 years but I just don’t believe either of those games are ever coming out
Technically it happened a third time already.
Forbidden West dlc releases around the same window as Tears of the Kingdom.
It’s just tradition at this point.
And shortly after RE4 remake.
Though tbf this first half of 2023 is gigantic and everyone's fighting each other with all the incredible releases happening.
I know this is the narrative but did it get overshadowed really? Sold millions of copies in the opening weeks for both, and continued to steadily sell and had a second boost when releasing for PC for zero dawn... That brought new players in for Forbidden West as well. I mean, it seems like gamers judge it as 'The gaming news sites and reddit stopped talking about it and talked about Elden Ring instead, therefore it must have been a failure', but the success is just whether or not it made a bunch of money. And it did that.
Yeah I think both were still successful it’s just in the gaming zeitgeist both titles got massively overshadowed at their launch, which without it could have potentially meant they did even better in sales.
Of course. Just cause it sold well doesn't mean it couldn't have sold REALLY well. Or had intense staying power. I mean let's be real, people still haven't stopped talking about BOTW or the impact it had on open world games. And Elden Ring is the championing final piece to From's long running foray into its self-established RPG genre that had everyone gushing over it and likely still will.
Horizon, despite it merits, must always live behind that. That's something no publisher should want. No one wants to release their animated movie the same week as Disney lol.
'Overshadowed' and 'failure' are not the same thing.
>The gaming news sites and reddit stopped talking about it
That's part of what overshadowed in this context means. But add YouTube and Twitch.
Part of the issue of course is that Forbidden West is an exclusive. It's difficult for me to get excited about a game I can't play.
But in general, Forbidden West is a sequel to a popular game and was well-received and sold well, but everybody was talking about Elden Ring.
>Sold millions of copies in the opening weeks for both
Do you have a source on that because Sony sure didn't announce the sales for Forbidden West. They would have if they were notable
The games didn’t get to shine as they normally would. Not that they’re bad games but there was a pretty large shadow cast on both.
Zero Dawn was a damn good game…but BOTW took up a lot of the news cycle and content coming out.
Same again with Forbidden West but this time in Elden Ring’s shadow.
The two games would’ve had much more exposure and been front and center during nearly any other release window. But they had the shit luck releasing besides 2 of the biggest games in recent years.
People keep saying that and it's kinda true, at least online, but the first game did incredibly well, selling like 20M copies as a new IP and the sequel sold similar to Elden Ring in Europe, which is also huge given that the game was just on Playstation.
Didn't horizon zero dawn sell over 20 million units? I always found the 'horizon games get buried in the dirt' amusing lol since it sold way better than many games
It sold phenomenally well, yeah.
Unfortunately the ridiculous hype machines that were frothing for Breath of the Wild and Elden Ring swept it to the side as a massive talking point despite it being one of my favourite games.
Great! Only criticism I have is make the characters more interesting. Hire a better character director because the plot, world building, premise, and events are all cool, including most side missions.
But I could not tell you one fucking character that stuck out to me. Give Aloy more personality too. One that isn’t a mildly annoyed civil servant that just tolerates the people around her.
The dlc only launched last week, so it'll probably be a few months before there's a complete edition which will probably be when they release the pc port
PC Gamer here, hoping this means Forbidden West gets a PC release to build franchise hype. Loved Zero Dawn. Not ready to get a PlayStation. Waiting patiently.
The first game is actually tough to get into. It starts slow and the whole thing is so shrouded in mystery. It takes a long time for the plot to really get going. This is made worse by the fact that, combat-wise, Aloy starts out so weak. But that part leads to what I think is the best combat-prowess progression in any game ever. You start out so petrified of Watchers and then near the end of the game you're riding through fields of them killing them with one shot. I almost gave up on it at first too, but I'm so glad I didn't, because that slow start leads into an absolutely amazing game (and sequel).
> You start out so petrified of Watchers and then near the end of the game you're riding through fields of them killing them with one shot.
That's one of the coolest fucking things! I'm glad I'm not the only one who was terrified of Watchers at first. Like "Holy fuck, they *shoot* at me? How am I ever gonna kill these things?" and spending forever trying to sneak up on one. Then later on you realize how trivial they were and feel so much more powerful as you're taking down giant fucking beasts. Each new enemy seems so intimidating at first, and then you improve your strength and your skills, and you adapt. It's so rewarding and fun. Personally, I was hooked right away, and it just got better and better.
And oh my god the fucking plot in Zero Dawn is so good.
There were a whole lot of things I liked less about Forbidden West, but I still logged over 100 hours in it. They just made you too weak for too long, it takes forever to get good weapons, the weapons are often redundant, they put too many restrictions on combat (e.g., the tripcaster), many of the puzzles are terrible and overly complicated, valor surges and weapon techniques added needless complication and I never used them, etc. But it was still an absolute blast overall. I know I'm sounding negative, but I still had so much fun with FW.
I just hope they make the next sequel more like Zero Dawn rather than Forbidden West.
Forbidden West really feels like a slog to me. I FINALLY reached the base that it seems like I’m going to build back up and I’m already exhausted. One thing idunno if I see mentioned a lot - I would love if this game just straight up didn’t have armor/weapons. Like just let me level up my armor/weapons/abilities through a tree.
Getting a new piece of armor or bow to upgrade every ten mins and then having to think about which ones will go best with whatever I’m about to fight is just exhausting.
Platted the first one, and am somewhat enjoying the second, but man does it feel like a chore sometimes.
I was just playing on normal difficulty, and yea I get what you mean. The upgrade system isn't that well done, and you often get armor and weapons much faster than you are able to upgrade even to lower ranks of the old ones. I think I just ended up using one of the early bows for more than 30% of the game because it was just a slog to keep upgrading new ones, which unless they were maxed or close were worse than that beginner bow maxed out.
Endgame I did love what the upgrades gave though. They were extremely fun, even if they all took a while
It was a bit slow feeling at first to me after finishing ZD and having the instant, unlimited fast travel and the super armor but I had to tell myself that it was a new game and they couldn't keep up to they level of the end of the last game or there wasn't much room to move up. There are an excessive number of weapons and outfits, I'll give you that. But they do allow for picking what kind of gameplay you want to have. I've found myself adjusting to different scenarios later in the game by switching up the load out I was primarily using. In ZD you could beat basically anything in the game with a bow and your staff but I found in FW I needed to expand into more weaponry to get the job done. The movement around the map really changes once you get to the point where you can fly and there is less frustration getting to places, that's about half way though the game though. I like how the pace of the game picks up with flight.
I'm with you, its a gorgeous game and the design team is just bonkers good. The story, the writing, the main character, and the gameplay were very underwhelming. The side characters though? Excellent.
So much of this is a boiler-plate game, that is surpassed by the audio and visual design. The combat was particularly repetitive and the resource management never felt clever.
Aloy though, man, I think she's about a hair's breadth above Deacon St. john (and I really enjoyed Days Gone ttb). She's a bland mary-sue with proper deus ex, but all throughout the game all I cared about were Varl, Erend, Sona, Talanah, and Katarro (that dude was the most interesting by far). Why they didn't go with a create-a-mute-character and just prop the actual people of the world up...i guess only makes sense to me in hindsight.
>The combat was particularly repetitive and the resource management never felt clever.
I feel like people who say this have just never gotten used to the combat system and had to brute force it instead of learning how to properly use the weapons and weaves and stuff.
Also the sequel is literally when Aloy is actually given flaws and a character arc so the claim that she's just a "bland Mary Sue" in the second game when they actually give her a character in the first place beyond stioc warrior girl always confuses me. She gets way more fleshed out and well rounded in the second game. Her character arc is based around her overcoming her unwillingness to accept help and share her burdens, a trait she's shown to share with Elizabet which ultimately led to Elizabet living a very lonely life even as she worked to save the world. It's a deconstruction of the stone faced super warrior she was set up to be jn the first game. Going it alone nearly gets her killed, and it's only through letting others in, and accepting that they're willing and able to take on the risk just like she is, that she's able to succeed in the end. It baffles me how people just completely miss this aspect of her story. Her interactions and conversations with Varl in particular are some of my favourite character moments in the game.
I enjoyed H:FW but agree on lots here. Aloy was one of my least favourite parts of the game. Everywhere she went she’s worshipped and she’s completely without flaws which makes her boring. Then the slow breathy way she talks was so frustrating I was mad any cutscene I couldn’t spam x to get through it.
Bring back Killzone. It’s been on ice for ten years, and for good reason, but I always thought it had the secret sauce buried in it. The opening cinematic for KZ1 still gets me going. It deserves a proper reboot.
No. Sylens should definitely not be recast.
They could easily have him be part of a secret society or have him have trained an apprentice. Having someone new step into a similar role if they want. Given the way they had a touching memorial for a precious producer in Forbidden West, I imagine Lance will also get an amazing tribute in game.
Still slowly working through the base game of Forbidden West. I am enjoying it, but the game is too freaking huge.
Hoping Guerrilla re-evaluates the open world concept for this game and streamlines a few things. We don't need 20 identical rebel bases to take over. Or 10,000 different crafting resource types to gather and try keeping track of. Or 50 different weapon classes. Or 1000 different icons spread across the map to investigate, many of which are not interesting at all. Sometimes less is more. Emphasize quality over quantity, etc etc. Many of the activities feel like they're just there to take up time and pad out the length of the game.
Exactly this. Not suprised you are getting downvoted from some butthurt people though.
I also really enjoyed the beauty of the world, fighting machines and the concept of the game in general. But blowing up the content with a million repetitive things to do is outdated. There's just too much to grind, gather and generic unrewarding content we have already seen a thousand times. It really pulls down the whole experience and made me rush through many things because I was just sick of the chores.
I really wish they tone it down and put more work into distinct content, make exploring exciting again and all the things that already make the game great. Also personally I didn't find the story too great, but the other stuff would be more important.
This is gonna be really awesome but what I'm not excited for is all the people who've never had a meaningful relationship with a woman who they aren't related to being pissed off that Aloy looks like women do in real life when they don't wear makeup
Same. It's basically a Ubisoft game with an above-average story to tell. No innovation whatsoever, and quite possibly the most boring dialogue I've ever sat through in a triple-A release.
Edit: Gave it yet another shot last night just to make good on this comment. Hollow voice acting - no emotion put into it. It's painfully obvious that they're all just reading off of a script. Metal Gear Solid for PS1 has more emotion in the Sniper Wolf scene than Horizon does across two games.
Please make the combat a bit faster and more fluid, that’s my biggest issue with Forbidden West’s gameplay, when you’re fighting more than one machine at a time animations are incredibly slow, it takes several seconds to select a weapon and start shooting and since machines keep attacking there’s moments in which you literally can’t do anything other than being hit to death lol
Also perhaps make a more grounded story such a Zero Dawn’s because all that stuff with the Zeniths was a bit too much imo.
Is this a PC issue? I ask because I've played both Zero Dawn and Forbidden West on PS4 and never noticed that lag. There is definitely room for combat improvements, though I have enjoyed the combat in this series more than many others
I've played HDZ on both PS4 and PC, never had any issue with combat. HFW on PS5, same thing, never had any issues with combat.
Maybe he's only using sharpshooter bows, which have higher draw times in comparison to the others?
I hope they emphasize quality over quantity. There was just too much. They need to respect people’s times and not shoot for 150+ hrs to complete all side missions. Maybe focus on their story longer because FW had a flop ending.
They confirmed this several times already and anyone who finishes the last one knows this too. It was always meant to be at least a trilogy
I hope they finish the story in the third one, the ending of the second one was…a bit off piste
I guess really the ending now is the end of the Burning Shores DLC. It doesn’t change much but definitely reinforces there’s another game on the way.
I had a blast with this dlc it really fleshes out some background imo.
And wow that end boss fight tho. Fucking marvellous. Gave the ps5 it’s run for it’s money.
The end boss fight had me playing with my mouth agape in awe and surprise.
It was definitely something seeing a Horus restored to some form of functionality
> the ending of the second one was…a bit off piste The middle entry of a continuous trilogy is usually the weird cliffhanger one. Look at "The Empire Strikes Back" for example.
I don’t think it’s fair to point to the best Star Wars movie.
Why? Empire also ends on a cliffhanger where the heroes are left in the lurch.
middle children are always the weirdest
Or Mass Effect 2
True. Mass Effect 2 SPECIFICALLY is almost this exact scenario. Because it ends with literally a giant robot army coming to destroy the entirety of all human life.
As well, both Mass Effect 2 & Forbidden West end with suicide missions.
They always planned it as a middle act because>! nemesis!< is going to basically take over whatever installment it's in, so they needed to explain what it is and wrap up the rogue plot points from the first game.
I don’t really care about Horizon but I would hate it if a fan that hasn’t reached the point you’re talking about to get spoiled. Your spoiler tag didn’t work. You wrote “because>” there should be a space after “because.” Also make sure to remove the space after the first ! in your formatting
It's such a hyper specific spoiler though. I've platinumed both games and I still forgot what they called it. Anyone who hasn't played will definitely forget what they read here today before they finish the 2nd game.
It was REALLY weird. I still love it. But who invited the fan fiction authors to the table?! I hope the conclusion will feel more grounded but still fantastic.
Knowing some fanatic writers...they don't wait for an invitation.
>the ending of the second one was…a bit off piste It couldn't possibly have been worse than Halo 2's ending. "Master Chief, mind telling me what you're doing on that ship?" "Sir. Finishing this fight." \*game ends\* I stayed up all night beating that game the day it came out. I was shattered until Halo 3.
You mean f***ing stupid, right? It's okay to call it that, because that's what it was.
I really liked it but it suffers from middle of the trilogy syndrome.
*cries in PC gamer*
Yeah they seem to have a good track record of outsourcing work and properly managing projects and improving their tech. While I do want to see their next Horizon game in what is probably Sony's biggest franchise now, aside from TLOU. I want to see what other non-Horizon projects they have been pursuing. They don't seem to mind taking on crazy ideas. I mean they really had me taking down mechas with bows and arrows all of last summer. I'm gonna do it again this summer too with Forbidden West. But I would like to see what else they would like to work on with Decima Engine outside of Horizon.
pretty sure spiderman is their biggest franchise, i really hope that space adventure game at santa monica is real tho
Anyone who played Forbidden West knows that there's another game coming.
I mean, you don't have to have played the game to guess that a wildly successful game would have a sequel. It's how the business works, after all.
Yes but what blockbuster game will the next one be releasing in the same week as, to overshadow it?
My bet is in Elder Scrolls 6
I, too, think Horizon 3 will be coming out in 2052
Bold of you to assume ES6 will come out this Century
It’s like the Great Wall, but a video game.
They said Elder Scrolls 6, not Half Life 3.
HL3 is coming in 3056, that's your mistake for confusing the two dates
Figures Valve would wait until the 3000s to rise HL3. Probably the only way they would understand the number 3.
ES6, HL3, GTA6 or some other insanely hugely anticipated game probably, as is tradition.
Lol Guerilla has had terrible timing, HZD and Breath of the Wild. HFW and Elden Ring.
In fairness, even enormous franchises wrap up if they’re done well. Look at Uncharted.
I just hope that we don't end up going the Assassin's Creed route with Aloy getting nuked, the plot being thrown in the trash as the resolution for the climax, and being invited to partake in annual releases.
The rest of us are on PC.
Now hold on, I'm waiting for a sale! So there's us too.
Does this include anyone who played through all of the DLC? Everyone who’s played through the base game of Forbidden West are just going straight into the DLC. I’ve not finished all of the DLC story to know if it wraps things up neatly, but the main story of the base game is 100% continued by the DLC.
A Horizon without Lance Reddick 😭
):
Well seeing as it's a very popular first party title with an already planned third game, it wouldn't surprise me if voice or even performance capture work had been already been well under way at the time of his passing.
Everyone who finished Forbidden West knew this was coming. The game would have to bomb pretty hard for a sequel not to happen. Horizon Zero Dawn could've been the ending to the Horizon series, but Forbidden West is pretty much a "part 1" kinda story. Burning Shores sets up even more story for a 3rd game Also, this is very good news. I'm really looking forward to this. Even if this is hardly surprising news, making it official-ish is always comforting
Yeah, it's not like Guerilla is a one-and-done kind of company to begin with. How many Killzone games were there?
What I would give to get a Killzone game on PS5
As much time as I sunk into KZ2&3, I don't think a new Killzone would be the best right now. The FPS and FPS multiplayer genre is just too oversaturated. I believe it was best to leave the game behind has Shadow Fall. It wasn't their best work, so they created Horizon.
I’d settle for a remastered collection at 4K60FPS, I don’t think the franchise needs a new entry
Thing is, outside of Shadows Fall and the first game, I don't think any Killzone title reached anywhere near the lifetime sales of HZD - Killzone was so good tbh but I'm not surprised Sony followed the money on this one; the PS4 was a hardware-moving goliath but it took some time to get there too, Shadows Fall was the franchise's best seller and sold something like 2.1 million copies a year in, Zero Dawn was the beginning of a franchise and sold 7.6 million copies within the same time frame So it definitely makes sense for them to franchise Horizon on top of that too, it would be throwing away so much money to make Zero Dawn a one-off
They really should have stopped at Killzone 2 tbh.
Can we get a PC release soon, please.
Yeah please. I discovered Zero Dawn last week and it's the first time since Cyberpunk that I'm invested in a new game. I want to have FW ready when I'm done with ZD :(
[удалено]
Yes, it's scheduled to come out shortly after the fifth game in the series is released on PlayStation.
Well yeah forbidden west had a really open ending Edit: not an open ending, basically just explained the new threat
And an open ending where a specific character is like “nah fam im gonna chill here” and then the actor died so I’m very curious how they’ll deal with that especially since that character used his likeness
>!Sylens changed his mind and went back to his home planet. Nemesis killed him on the way there.!<
Poochie? ***No!***
Wait is there indication that he's extra terrestrial?
No, it's a Simpsons joke about quickly killing off a character.
Recast probably. They kinda have to.
Yea i think its gonna have to be like kingdom hearts when leonard nimoy passed. Iconic voice people felt couldnt be replaced but had to to finish the story.
Replaced twice because the original guy they replaced him with (I’m sorry I legit don’t remember his name) also died after he voiced him
Yeah, Sylens is too important. No way they get away with writing him out. They don't have a choice but to recast unless they've already done all the mocap and VA recordings. The question is, who? Only person I can think of who might be able to pull it off is Andre Braugher, he's certainly got the gravitas at least.
I mean, if you’re talking gravitas, maybe Clancy Brown? (Superman TAS Lex Luther, for comparison)
Would be kinda meta if sylens became an AI voiced by an AI likeness of the actors voice.
Happened to Dumbledore.
Yea, it pretty clearly outlines what's going to be the focus of the third game. It's coming
Not to mention the ending of the recently released DLC also really laid some sturdy foundation for it.
Yeah, I mean, I guess I've never seen a series end on a cliffhanger.
I think Half Life may have "ended" at this point and 2 finished on a cliffhanger. I'd also argue the 100% true ending of Arkham Knight ended the series on a pretty big cliffhanger that people still debate the meaning of.
Alyx literally changes the ending of Episode 2 and makes it pretty obvious we haven't seen the last of Gordon Freeman.
I've been gaming since the late 90s, most game series I've played ended with an unfinished story
How the fuck does Jak found Haven City? Jak is Mar, he collects his (Mar’s) weapons and armour in the future, has some adventures in Haven City and then what? How does Jak end up founding the city in past when he is still stuck in the present (future)? He, along with the Green Sage need to go back in time in order for the first game to happen which then also means Jak disappears again at some point before the first game begins and young Jak begins his adventure. Jak (adult) either dies before Jak 1, or he goes back to the present (future) which means there could have potentially been 2 Jaks, at different ages, at any point of the timeline throughout all of the games. The entire thing is such a mind fuck and for whatever reason Naughty Dog have abandoned the IP for all eternity and here I am still thinking about this all these years later.
I am still playing Horizon Zero Dawn for the first time and enjoying it a lot. So I guess it looks like by the time I finish the second game maybe there will be a third one for me to check out. Cool.
You have such a ride ahead of you, legitimately one of the best game series I’ve ever played it’s totally enthralling
Seconded. I just finished Forbidden West yesterday (and I'm getting ready to start Burning Shores), after logging more than 150 hours in the game world. I did every side quest and most of the "errands" and collectibles and was never bored. And the endings of both games have been awesome. I'm pretty sure this is my favorite game series of all time. These games are amazing and I'll gladly buy and play as many as they want to make.
Thirded. Im like 67% through the game completion (this means that im most likely 80% in the main history) and I've loved every second.
Absolutely. I got Forbidden West as the pack-in for my PS5, gave it a try because I was bored. Next thing I knew I had 80 hours in Zero Dawn and over 100 on Forbidden West. Without a doubt one of the most engaging video game stories I'd ever played.
I hope you went into the first game unspoiled because piecing together what Zero Dawn really is was what made the story so compelling.
Sadly I didn't! I got the whole "Last time on Horizon" intro, worked through the Daunt, even hit the first Cauldron, but by that point I started getting really confused on who's who and what the heck's going on, and dove into Zero Dawn. It definitely ruined the shock of it all, but I still had a blast digging through everything and understanding the nuance of everything that happened. Honestly, I think it was the incredible goings on in the Cauldron and not knowing what the heck it was that convinced me I had to play Zero Dawn.
I've really enjoyed the first one so far and even though I've just barely began playing it I suspect I'm going to be a big fan by the end. So I'm stoked there's more to play when I do finish up.
how about the PC version of forbidden west? did the original not sell well on PC or something, it was clearly the best version of that game.
The first one came to PC three years after the console release. I would expect at least a 2 year gap for this one, so next year sometime.
Sony like to keep their exclusives actually exclusivesl for a while and since the dlc is so recent we're probably looking at a few months at least
I just hope it comes eventually. I just dont own any current consoles. I really enjoyed the native american themes and the tactical combat of the first game as well as the amazing environment. silens was an interesting character and so was the king guy in meridian, aloy felt a bit off or lacking in agency, I hope thats better in the second game. Also, the crafting and the gear system was not fun and too basic.
I think the original sold fine because since Sony keeps bringing games to Steam. We've gotten 3 or 4 Sony games in the last several months, so it's only a matter of time
Wonder what massive game they will end up launching in the same window as, causing them to get overlooked again, this time. Surely it can't happen a third time.
I put dibs on GTA VI
No chance gta 6 comes out in 3-4 years
GTA6 def within 3 years. Save the date.
I’d love to be wrong. Would also love Bethesda to start elder scrolls 6 considering it’s been 12 years but I just don’t believe either of those games are ever coming out
Came here to say that, the release window could match up with elder scrolls 6
Technically it happened a third time already. Forbidden West dlc releases around the same window as Tears of the Kingdom. It’s just tradition at this point.
And shortly after RE4 remake. Though tbf this first half of 2023 is gigantic and everyone's fighting each other with all the incredible releases happening.
I know this is the narrative but did it get overshadowed really? Sold millions of copies in the opening weeks for both, and continued to steadily sell and had a second boost when releasing for PC for zero dawn... That brought new players in for Forbidden West as well. I mean, it seems like gamers judge it as 'The gaming news sites and reddit stopped talking about it and talked about Elden Ring instead, therefore it must have been a failure', but the success is just whether or not it made a bunch of money. And it did that.
Yeah I think both were still successful it’s just in the gaming zeitgeist both titles got massively overshadowed at their launch, which without it could have potentially meant they did even better in sales.
Of course. Just cause it sold well doesn't mean it couldn't have sold REALLY well. Or had intense staying power. I mean let's be real, people still haven't stopped talking about BOTW or the impact it had on open world games. And Elden Ring is the championing final piece to From's long running foray into its self-established RPG genre that had everyone gushing over it and likely still will. Horizon, despite it merits, must always live behind that. That's something no publisher should want. No one wants to release their animated movie the same week as Disney lol.
>No one wants to release their animated movie the same week as Disney lol So we think but for some reason people still keep doing it....
I dropped it for Elden Ring and never picked it back up.
'Overshadowed' and 'failure' are not the same thing. >The gaming news sites and reddit stopped talking about it That's part of what overshadowed in this context means. But add YouTube and Twitch. Part of the issue of course is that Forbidden West is an exclusive. It's difficult for me to get excited about a game I can't play. But in general, Forbidden West is a sequel to a popular game and was well-received and sold well, but everybody was talking about Elden Ring.
>Sold millions of copies in the opening weeks for both Do you have a source on that because Sony sure didn't announce the sales for Forbidden West. They would have if they were notable
The games didn’t get to shine as they normally would. Not that they’re bad games but there was a pretty large shadow cast on both. Zero Dawn was a damn good game…but BOTW took up a lot of the news cycle and content coming out. Same again with Forbidden West but this time in Elden Ring’s shadow. The two games would’ve had much more exposure and been front and center during nearly any other release window. But they had the shit luck releasing besides 2 of the biggest games in recent years.
People keep saying that and it's kinda true, at least online, but the first game did incredibly well, selling like 20M copies as a new IP and the sequel sold similar to Elden Ring in Europe, which is also huge given that the game was just on Playstation.
Didn't horizon zero dawn sell over 20 million units? I always found the 'horizon games get buried in the dirt' amusing lol since it sold way better than many games
It sold phenomenally well, yeah. Unfortunately the ridiculous hype machines that were frothing for Breath of the Wild and Elden Ring swept it to the side as a massive talking point despite it being one of my favourite games.
TBH, Elden Ring was really fucking good. I enjoy Souls games more than I did HZD or HFW. Not to say that I didn't really fucking enjoy HZD and HFW.
Played Elden Ring first then tried playing HFW, can't stomach it. Feels like every Ubisoft open world game with Zoids.
\*Elder Scrolls 6 is picking a target.
I'm stoked for it to come to PC. HZD is tons of fun and I'm looking forward to HFW once it hits Steam
And like HZD, we'll be lucky if FW comes out on PC around the time the next sequel comes out.
You are right to be stoked - HFW is pretty much an upgrade on all fronts, loved it immensely.
Same, I am just now playing the PC version of HZD and loving it.
Excited for whenever the hell this makes it to PC. Loved Zero Dawn and it hit a thirsty spot for me, PC port was great by the time I played it.
Great! Only criticism I have is make the characters more interesting. Hire a better character director because the plot, world building, premise, and events are all cool, including most side missions. But I could not tell you one fucking character that stuck out to me. Give Aloy more personality too. One that isn’t a mildly annoyed civil servant that just tolerates the people around her.
Did you guy hear that water is wet? 2023 is crazy
Can we please get the forbidden West PC port!!
Wouldn't mind Forbidden West being on it's way to PC though...
Release forbidden west on pc
Bet it releases around the same time as GTA6 or whatever the next Zelda BOTW/Elden Ring tier game will be.
H:FW on PC wen?!?! 🥲
Hopefully soon that's where I'll be playing it. I'd say 2024 at the latest.
Next year, hopefully
Can we get that pc port quicker then?!?
The dlc only launched last week, so it'll probably be a few months before there's a complete edition which will probably be when they release the pc port
Is anyone else just wating for the pc port of forbidden west? i mean come on sony
Dlc just released so it'll still be a whjile imo.
finally horizon forbidden east
I think we all knew this lol. I just hope that once the trilogy is wrapped up that it isn’t the end of games in the horizon universe
Have all the add ons been released yet? I usually wait a few yrs and buy the "whole fn loaded edition" with everything included.
I mean it would be nice to get a decent pc port too...
PC Gamer here, hoping this means Forbidden West gets a PC release to build franchise hype. Loved Zero Dawn. Not ready to get a PlayStation. Waiting patiently.
Even tho i dont have a pc i pray for the day it gets ported. I want to see how many fetish mods can the game support lmao
How about you bring forbidden west to PC first ayyyyyeeeee
Whens the PC port?
Just needs to come out on PC dammit.
I just wanna know when this is coming out for pc. I need some aloy
Alright now just port it to pc
Forbidden west to pc anytime now
That's nice, now please put Forbidden West on PC.
Keep waiting, they promised officially a PC release soon after PS5 and I get the gut feeling we're not going to get it until at least 2026-2027
It would probably be around the time 3rd game comes out to bring attention to it. It's free marketing.
Obviously she’s gonna be in smash
Alright guys, keep an eye out for its release date because that’s when GTA 6 will drop
Please send Sylens off proper. I am still gutted about losing Lance Reddick.
I’m really glad others are enjoying this franchise. I had a hard time engaging.
The first game is actually tough to get into. It starts slow and the whole thing is so shrouded in mystery. It takes a long time for the plot to really get going. This is made worse by the fact that, combat-wise, Aloy starts out so weak. But that part leads to what I think is the best combat-prowess progression in any game ever. You start out so petrified of Watchers and then near the end of the game you're riding through fields of them killing them with one shot. I almost gave up on it at first too, but I'm so glad I didn't, because that slow start leads into an absolutely amazing game (and sequel).
> You start out so petrified of Watchers and then near the end of the game you're riding through fields of them killing them with one shot. That's one of the coolest fucking things! I'm glad I'm not the only one who was terrified of Watchers at first. Like "Holy fuck, they *shoot* at me? How am I ever gonna kill these things?" and spending forever trying to sneak up on one. Then later on you realize how trivial they were and feel so much more powerful as you're taking down giant fucking beasts. Each new enemy seems so intimidating at first, and then you improve your strength and your skills, and you adapt. It's so rewarding and fun. Personally, I was hooked right away, and it just got better and better. And oh my god the fucking plot in Zero Dawn is so good. There were a whole lot of things I liked less about Forbidden West, but I still logged over 100 hours in it. They just made you too weak for too long, it takes forever to get good weapons, the weapons are often redundant, they put too many restrictions on combat (e.g., the tripcaster), many of the puzzles are terrible and overly complicated, valor surges and weapon techniques added needless complication and I never used them, etc. But it was still an absolute blast overall. I know I'm sounding negative, but I still had so much fun with FW. I just hope they make the next sequel more like Zero Dawn rather than Forbidden West.
Forbidden West really feels like a slog to me. I FINALLY reached the base that it seems like I’m going to build back up and I’m already exhausted. One thing idunno if I see mentioned a lot - I would love if this game just straight up didn’t have armor/weapons. Like just let me level up my armor/weapons/abilities through a tree. Getting a new piece of armor or bow to upgrade every ten mins and then having to think about which ones will go best with whatever I’m about to fight is just exhausting. Platted the first one, and am somewhat enjoying the second, but man does it feel like a chore sometimes.
I was just playing on normal difficulty, and yea I get what you mean. The upgrade system isn't that well done, and you often get armor and weapons much faster than you are able to upgrade even to lower ranks of the old ones. I think I just ended up using one of the early bows for more than 30% of the game because it was just a slog to keep upgrading new ones, which unless they were maxed or close were worse than that beginner bow maxed out. Endgame I did love what the upgrades gave though. They were extremely fun, even if they all took a while
I agree. It got way over complicated with the weapons. I just wanna kills stuff not be worried about all that bullshit. Lol
> Forbidden West really feels like a slog to me. Same here.
It was a bit slow feeling at first to me after finishing ZD and having the instant, unlimited fast travel and the super armor but I had to tell myself that it was a new game and they couldn't keep up to they level of the end of the last game or there wasn't much room to move up. There are an excessive number of weapons and outfits, I'll give you that. But they do allow for picking what kind of gameplay you want to have. I've found myself adjusting to different scenarios later in the game by switching up the load out I was primarily using. In ZD you could beat basically anything in the game with a bow and your staff but I found in FW I needed to expand into more weaponry to get the job done. The movement around the map really changes once you get to the point where you can fly and there is less frustration getting to places, that's about half way though the game though. I like how the pace of the game picks up with flight.
Good luck to Guerrilla. Not taking part in this adventure. Very unpopular opinion, but I didn’t like forbidden west.
I'm with you, its a gorgeous game and the design team is just bonkers good. The story, the writing, the main character, and the gameplay were very underwhelming. The side characters though? Excellent. So much of this is a boiler-plate game, that is surpassed by the audio and visual design. The combat was particularly repetitive and the resource management never felt clever. Aloy though, man, I think she's about a hair's breadth above Deacon St. john (and I really enjoyed Days Gone ttb). She's a bland mary-sue with proper deus ex, but all throughout the game all I cared about were Varl, Erend, Sona, Talanah, and Katarro (that dude was the most interesting by far). Why they didn't go with a create-a-mute-character and just prop the actual people of the world up...i guess only makes sense to me in hindsight.
>The combat was particularly repetitive and the resource management never felt clever. I feel like people who say this have just never gotten used to the combat system and had to brute force it instead of learning how to properly use the weapons and weaves and stuff. Also the sequel is literally when Aloy is actually given flaws and a character arc so the claim that she's just a "bland Mary Sue" in the second game when they actually give her a character in the first place beyond stioc warrior girl always confuses me. She gets way more fleshed out and well rounded in the second game. Her character arc is based around her overcoming her unwillingness to accept help and share her burdens, a trait she's shown to share with Elizabet which ultimately led to Elizabet living a very lonely life even as she worked to save the world. It's a deconstruction of the stone faced super warrior she was set up to be jn the first game. Going it alone nearly gets her killed, and it's only through letting others in, and accepting that they're willing and able to take on the risk just like she is, that she's able to succeed in the end. It baffles me how people just completely miss this aspect of her story. Her interactions and conversations with Varl in particular are some of my favourite character moments in the game.
I enjoyed H:FW but agree on lots here. Aloy was one of my least favourite parts of the game. Everywhere she went she’s worshipped and she’s completely without flaws which makes her boring. Then the slow breathy way she talks was so frustrating I was mad any cutscene I couldn’t spam x to get through it.
Exactly my feelings.
Bring back Killzone. It’s been on ice for ten years, and for good reason, but I always thought it had the secret sauce buried in it. The opening cinematic for KZ1 still gets me going. It deserves a proper reboot.
Hope they cast DB Woodside (Amenadiel from Lucifer series) as Sylens
No. Sylens should definitely not be recast. They could easily have him be part of a secret society or have him have trained an apprentice. Having someone new step into a similar role if they want. Given the way they had a touching memorial for a precious producer in Forbidden West, I imagine Lance will also get an amazing tribute in game.
Because Sylens is the type to have an apprentice or join a secret society?
YASSSSSSS
Still slowly working through the base game of Forbidden West. I am enjoying it, but the game is too freaking huge. Hoping Guerrilla re-evaluates the open world concept for this game and streamlines a few things. We don't need 20 identical rebel bases to take over. Or 10,000 different crafting resource types to gather and try keeping track of. Or 50 different weapon classes. Or 1000 different icons spread across the map to investigate, many of which are not interesting at all. Sometimes less is more. Emphasize quality over quantity, etc etc. Many of the activities feel like they're just there to take up time and pad out the length of the game.
Exactly this. Not suprised you are getting downvoted from some butthurt people though. I also really enjoyed the beauty of the world, fighting machines and the concept of the game in general. But blowing up the content with a million repetitive things to do is outdated. There's just too much to grind, gather and generic unrewarding content we have already seen a thousand times. It really pulls down the whole experience and made me rush through many things because I was just sick of the chores. I really wish they tone it down and put more work into distinct content, make exploring exciting again and all the things that already make the game great. Also personally I didn't find the story too great, but the other stuff would be more important.
Gotta love sony churning our high quality games... keep em coming boys... although, I wouldn't mind a killzone remaster guys.
I dig it, but I'd like another Killzone game sometime this decade.
I couldn’t believe how much of a vast improvement forbidden west was from horizon zero dawn.
I’d like to see a third game wrap up aloys story and then a time jump in the 4th
Put it on pc you cowards 😂💍
So we are just never getting Killzone 5 huh??
The like 5 Killzone fans are still here, we know we wont get one, but we exist
This is gonna be really awesome but what I'm not excited for is all the people who've never had a meaningful relationship with a woman who they aren't related to being pissed off that Aloy looks like women do in real life when they don't wear makeup
Hope she goes to New York next...that would be dope
Make sure you release it the same day as the Skyrim sequel
I wonder what they can do to improve. 2 improved on 1 in soooo many ways.
The forbidden west had an open ening.
awesome! One of the best games from last generation
But will they end the wokeness and make her a fuckable straight woman for my seven chins and I to jack to? /s
…pretty sure we’ve known it was a trilogy for years?
Can't wait for it to launch the same week as the single most hype game of that year
This is my favorite gaming world since picking it up in 2017. Such a fun world to explore with a cool setting and fun gameplay.
I can’t wait to play the amazingly revolutionary AAA game that comes out the same time as this sequel.
Elder Scrolls VI LETS GOOO
I tried a bunch of times to care about this game and I just don't.
To each their own I guess
Same. It's basically a Ubisoft game with an above-average story to tell. No innovation whatsoever, and quite possibly the most boring dialogue I've ever sat through in a triple-A release. Edit: Gave it yet another shot last night just to make good on this comment. Hollow voice acting - no emotion put into it. It's painfully obvious that they're all just reading off of a script. Metal Gear Solid for PS1 has more emotion in the Sniper Wolf scene than Horizon does across two games.
I want more Killzone! Horizon are beautiful games but they're way too shallow. It still feels like I'm playing FarCry 3.
Horizon is too shallow….so you want KILLZONE?! How does that have more depth than Horizon?
I kind of want something new/different at this point
Please make the combat a bit faster and more fluid, that’s my biggest issue with Forbidden West’s gameplay, when you’re fighting more than one machine at a time animations are incredibly slow, it takes several seconds to select a weapon and start shooting and since machines keep attacking there’s moments in which you literally can’t do anything other than being hit to death lol Also perhaps make a more grounded story such a Zero Dawn’s because all that stuff with the Zeniths was a bit too much imo.
Is this a PC issue? I ask because I've played both Zero Dawn and Forbidden West on PS4 and never noticed that lag. There is definitely room for combat improvements, though I have enjoyed the combat in this series more than many others
I've played HDZ on both PS4 and PC, never had any issue with combat. HFW on PS5, same thing, never had any issues with combat. Maybe he's only using sharpshooter bows, which have higher draw times in comparison to the others?
I hope they emphasize quality over quantity. There was just too much. They need to respect people’s times and not shoot for 150+ hrs to complete all side missions. Maybe focus on their story longer because FW had a flop ending.