I'll add that the map is still glitched and that some Fire Gleam points on the map are not removed after you already blown up the walls. I have to remember several on the map that I already did as the map doesn not update some items mostly firegleam.
Edit- another map gripe but the icons need to turn green when you have completed them. Campfires need to also turn a different color. Currently unvisited campfires are just a paler shade of white and thats not much help to my eyes.
All I can say about this game is, I have not felt so immersed in a long time.
Graphics and gameplay is just so appreciated.
I have to admit I did not enjoy the very start of the game as I also just started Elden Ring , and I was tossing up which game felt better.
HFW just took over as soon as it clicked with me.
Im so happy with the Melee improvements over the first game, as I tend to play up close most of the time.
Love this game and there is still so much to do.
*Sorry just a random gush*
Trying to get into this game, I just can’t. I really liked the first game but this game feels like more pointless meandering dialogue (Aloy needs to shut the fuck up when she’s alone, too) SJW influences, and tons of bloat. By bloat I mean that the side quests and activities just aren’t very compelling to me, particularly the new stuff. Melee combat still sucks. I’m barely level 10 and just kinda ready to move onto Elden Ring.
I can tell it’s a solid game for someone who wants to invest 100 hours into it, but the game isn’t giving me enough reason to keep playing currently.
it’s pure perfection in resolution mode. one of the first games I actively choose image quality over frame rate. 60fps is just too much a downgrade in quality in this game.
Trying to get into this game, I just can’t. I really liked the first game but this game feels like more pointless meandering dialogue (Aloy needs to shut the fuck up when she’s alone, too) SJW influences, and tons of bloat. By bloat I mean that the side quests and activities just aren’t very compelling to me, particularly the new stuff. Melee combat still sucks. I’m barely level 10 and just kinda ready to move onto Elden Ring.
I can tell it’s a solid game for someone who wants to invest 100 hours into it, but the game isn’t giving me enough reason to keep playing currently.
Yeah I'm there too. I'll hopefully jump in again later. Just got into the second area, got the glider and did a couple contracts and eh.... I've lost steam. I've never been that much of a souls fan but elden ring has me sucked way in and hFW can't compete for my time
I’d highly recommend playing this game with game mode off. I switched to vivid mode on my lg oled and it is still surprisingly responsive and looks like a completely different game. The colors are gorgeous and the game looks straight up next Gen.
Even switching to standard mode is still a massive difference. The TVs are super C expensive and yet their game modes make games look dated and washed out like bad LCD TVs from the mid 2000s. Wtf is the point of spending $2,000 on an oled when the best picture quality is disabled in game mode.
P.S i switched back from 60 fps to 30 fps while finishing up leveling up my guns because the game looked awful. Fidelity mode looks jaw dropping. The foliage, the detail, the lighting, its a shame they couldn’t get a good 60 fps mode going. One of these days someone will have to explain to me why native 4k games running at 30 fps can’t run at 1440p 60 fps with some settings paired back on the consoles.
I’d highly recommend playing this game with game mode off. I switched to vivid mode on my lg oled and it is still surprisingly responsive and looks like a completely different game. The colors are gorgeous and the game looks straight up next Gen.
Even switching to standard mode is still a massive difference. The TVs are super C expensive and yet their game modes make games look dated and washed out like bad LCD TVs from the mid 2000s. Wtf is the point of spending $2,000 on an oled when the best picture quality is disabled in game mode.
P.S i switched back from 60 fps to 30 fps while finishing up leveling up my guns because the game looked awful. Fidelity mode looks jaw dropping. The foliage, the detail, the lighting, its a shame they couldn’t get a good 60 fps mode going. One of these days someone will have to explain to me why native 4k games running at 30 fps can’t run at 1440p 60 fps with some settings paired back on the consoles.
Was about to post tons of pics but the USB stick corrupted most of them for some reason, this is what survived.
Performance Mode Gameplay:
Performance Mode Photo-Mode:
I think i'm in love with Aloy by the way. Haven't changed anything in the pic above, she made that expression as soon as snow started to fall.
Best looking game i've ever seen, however i fucking wish Guerrilla never listened to Digital Foundry and kept the hero lighting as it was. Hope it could be added back somehow with a patch or something, as a toggle of sort.
Do explain. Because this is usually a red flag for me.
Not the content, actually. I've been playing the game a good bit and haven't come across any alarm bells at all. So that red flag is actually for critiques using SJW as a buzzword with no actual examples to pull from. A lot of people just throw the term around these days even when there's no aggressive far-left agenda in the work (because that's what it used to stand for, anyway).
Do explain. Because this is usually a red flag for me.
Not the content, actually. I've been playing the game a good bit and haven't come across any alarm bells at all. So that red flag is actually for critiques using SJW as a buzzword with no actual examples to pull from. A lot of people just throw the term around these days even when there's no aggressive far-left agenda in the work (because that's what it used to stand for, anyway).
I'm always extremely turned off by it, and there's nothing* intellectually offensive so far in the game, 100 hours and hundreds of characters in. Tribes cultures are either perfectly explained or inspired by modern day (ancient for them) people customs. You come in contact with lots of relationships in the game and all of them are straight.
*With the exception of a single optional quest involving both a "man" who dresses as a woman (called crazy by his people, and yet still made captain of his squad, like wtf) giving off a weird and cringe vibe, and an implied homosexual character. Nothing wrong even here in theory, but the quest feels completely out of place and made with the sole purpose of keeping the REEE mob quiet.
I'm always extremely turned off by it, and there's nothing* intellectually offensive so far in the game, 100 hours and hundreds of characters in. Tribes cultures are either perfectly explained or inspired by modern day (ancient for them) people customs. You come in contact with lots of relationships in the game and all of them are straight.
*With the exception of a single optional quest involving both a "man" who dresses as a woman (called crazy by his people, and yet still made captain of his squad, like wtf) giving off a weird and cringe vibe, and an implied homosexual character. Nothing wrong even here in theory, but the quest feels completely out of place and made with the sole purpose of keeping the REEE mob quiet.
I dont think even that character looked off. I am not sure why people keep bringing SJW point for everything they disagree with.
And that face paint controversy by Left cult shows how little game reviewer pay attention to games they review. Face paints is directly related to "ten" the tribe revere.
About the representation, this is one of the very few games that represented a Muslim Fastival and event, also as a Father of autistic girl, representing the autism in such subtle way was so perfect and went directly through the heart as they say.
I love this IP and this game, such a leap from the first one, well done Guerrilla
I have already finished the game but i cant stop playing it. Sometimes i will be just moving around to admire the beauty of the world created GG. I have a PC on which i can play RDR2 at max settings but in most scenes HFW looks superior to me. I think this is the best looking game ever made.
If it comes to PC, i will buy it again just to see how better it will look on better hardware
I’d highly recommend playing this game with game mode off. I switched to vivid mode on my lg oled and it is still surprisingly responsive and looks like a completely different game. The colors are gorgeous and the game looks straight up next Gen.
Even switching to standard mode is still a massive difference. The TVs are super C expensive and yet their game modes make games look dated and washed out like bad LCD TVs from the mid 2000s. Wtf is the point of spending $2,000 on an oled when the best picture quality is disabled in game mode.
P.S i switched back from 60 fps to 30 fps while finishing up leveling up my guns because the game looked awful. Fidelity mode looks jaw dropping. The foliage, the detail, the lighting, its a shame they couldn’t get a good 60 fps mode going. One of these days someone will have to explain to me why native 4k games running at 30 fps can’t run at 1440p 60 fps with some settings paired back on the consoles.
Yeah I'm there too. I'll hopefully jump in again later. Just got into the second area, got the glider and did a couple contracts and eh.... I've lost steam. I've never been that much of a souls fan but elden ring has me sucked way in and hFW can't compete for my time
I was at that point to at that same point, what I recommend is STOP all side quest and get going directly into the main story, everything picks up a lot once you get the command center. Save the side quest for later, I say don’t start them until you have the swimming rebreather at the earliest.
I’d highly recommend playing this game with game mode off. I switched to vivid mode on my lg oled and it is still surprisingly responsive and looks like a completely different game. The colors are gorgeous and the game looks straight up next Gen.
Even switching to standard mode is still a massive difference. The TVs are super C expensive and yet their game modes make games look dated and washed out like bad LCD TVs from the mid 2000s. Wtf is the point of spending $2,000 on an oled when the best picture quality is disabled in game mode.
P.S i switched back from 60 fps to 30 fps while finishing up leveling up my guns because the game looked awful. Fidelity mode looks jaw dropping. The foliage, the detail, the lighting, its a shame they couldn’t get a good 60 fps mode going. One of these days someone will have to explain to me why native 4k games running at 30 fps can’t run at 1440p 60 fps with some settings paired back on the consoles.
Come on man, you're talking nonsense here. Just increase the color slider and be done with it, most of the processing being done by these TVs is meant to address the issues of lower quality video sources, not a game like Horizon outputting a 4k image with tons of post processing already.
And honestly, if Vivid mode is your go to, then more power to you but hell no.
Come on man, you're talking nonsense here. Just increase the color slider and be done with it, most of the processing being done by these TVs is meant to address the issues of lower quality video sources, not a game like Horizon outputting a 4k image with tons of post processing already.
And honestly, if Vivid mode is your go to, then more power to you but hell no.
Nah, Ive played around with the color slider before. Ive set my color slider is at 55 in all modes. Vivid simply looks better.
I am not forcing anyone to play the game on vivid or standard. Just recommending people give it a shot. In other games, i can instantly feel the hit to input lag. Not so much in this game and the difference in visual quality is staggering.
I’d highly recommend playing this game with game mode off. I switched to vivid mode on my lg oled and it is still surprisingly responsive and looks like a completely different game. The colors are gorgeous and the game looks straight up next Gen.
Even switching to standard mode is still a massive difference. The TVs are super C expensive and yet their game modes make games look dated and washed out like bad LCD TVs from the mid 2000s. Wtf is the point of spending $2,000 on an oled when the best picture quality is disabled in game mode.
P.S i switched back from 60 fps to 30 fps while finishing up leveling up my guns because the game looked awful. Fidelity mode looks jaw dropping. The foliage, the detail, the lighting, its a shame they couldn’t get a good 60 fps mode going. One of these days someone will have to explain to me why native 4k games running at 30 fps can’t run at 1440p 60 fps with some settings paired back on the consoles.
Trying to get into this game, I just can’t. I really liked the first game but this game feels like more pointless meandering dialogue (Aloy needs to shut the fuck up when she’s alone, too) SJW influences, and tons of bloat. By bloat I mean that the side quests and activities just aren’t very compelling to me, particularly the new stuff. Melee combat still sucks. I’m barely level 10 and just kinda ready to move onto Elden Ring.
I can tell it’s a solid game for someone who wants to invest 100 hours into it, but the game isn’t giving me enough reason to keep playing currently.
The biggest problem this game has for me is that the game world lost it's novelty. Discovering what happened in this world was one of the great things about Zero Dawn. Now that mystery is gone and the game only expands on the stuff we already know from part 1. This is completley fine if it's a short game but Zero Dawn was already a huge. So yeah...
Kinda reminds me of Bioshock where I had the very similar issue going from 1 to 2.
Trying to get into this game, I just can’t. I really liked the first game but this game feels like more pointless meandering dialogue (Aloy needs to shut the fuck up when she’s alone, too) SJW influences, and tons of bloat. By bloat I mean that the side quests and activities just aren’t very compelling to me, particularly the new stuff. Melee combat still sucks. I’m barely level 10 and just kinda ready to move onto Elden Ring.
I can tell it’s a solid game for someone who wants to invest 100 hours into it, but the game isn’t giving me enough reason to keep playing currently.
Stick to the story. The campaign has some excellent moments and missions.
I am kind of disappointed at the pandering on display here. I get what they were trying to do here by telling all kinds of different stories, but like you said none of them are compelling and they all come across as forced. Someone mentioned how there is an autistic character in this, but she came across as super weird since there is no context to her weirdness. You kinda have to assume it, and at that point it's like why? Why is the gay character who so obviously looks gay in this? Just to tell a story about how gay people can be brave too? I think the lack of subtlety might be the problem here. They beat you over the head with some of these characters and quests when doing the opposite might have been better.
I am watching Euphoria on HBO right now, and thats a show where everyone is either trans, gay, bi, or pansexual. HBO has never been one for subtlety, but the show is so good and the storylines are so interesting that I almost dont care if there is pandering or SJW influences in it. I think game devs need to get better at storytelling and stories before they try and copy hollywood. Mocapping and animating every single line of dialogue in the game isnt enough.
I'm always extremely turned off by it, and there's nothing* intellectually offensive so far in the game, 100 hours and hundreds of characters in. Tribes cultures are either perfectly explained or inspired by modern day (ancient for them) people customs. You come in contact with lots of relationships in the game and all of them are straight.
*With the exception of a single optional quest involving both a "man" who dresses as a woman (called crazy by his people, and yet still made captain of his squad, like wtf) giving off a weird and cringe vibe, and an implied homosexual character. Nothing wrong even here in theory, but the quest feels completely out of place and made with the sole purpose of keeping the REEE mob quiet.
I'm a bit surprised they did those type of characters because it seems even if you handle such things with nuance, care and complexity, extremely vocal people on places like Twitter and Era will chastise and criticize the efforts no matter what, like they can never be satisfied and realize that we're only human so you're never going to get "perfect" ideal representation for anyone because such a thing doesn't exist, and also because no one creating art, stories etc. is perfect, either.
Personally I have no issues with games or films, shows etc. that want more representation. I just don't want it at the expense where you're obviously looking to portray one group as good at the expense of vilifying an entire other group, because the world doesn't work like that, either. It's nuanced, and you have good and bad people in all groups but the majority if them all are good. And a lot of stories these days have also written a lot of these characters to be Mary Stu or Gary Stu types with no personality or flaws/quirks.
Thankfully I've not seen any of that in HFW and if you're way further into the game than I am and haven't come across that either, it's probably safe to say the story's well-written and respectful to its audience, and all demographics. Doesn't mean it's going to be perfect but it's not cool to vilify creators for seemingly innocuous mistakes either or try labeling things they do in a story that we don't immediately end up agreeing with as being a toxic buzzword (which also thankfully I haven't really seen anyone doing that with this game TBH, so I'm just speaking more in general I guess).
The biggest problem this game has for me is that the game world lost it's novelty. Discovering what happened in this world was one of the great things about Zero Dawn. Now that mystery is gone and the game only expands on the stuff we already know from part 1. This is completley fine if it's a short game but Zero Dawn was already a huge. So yeah...
Kinda reminds me of Bioshock where I had the very similar issue going from 1 to 2.
See, I never actually got around to playing HZD so in a way I guess I "lucked" out here because the world feels very much new to me. That doesn't take away anything from players who did thoroughly play the prequel and maybe want some other sense of bold newness that would hit hard with them, but I can only speak of it from my POV as a n00b to the IP.
It's a tough thing for sequels to do, actually, especially for large open-world games. However just seeing gameplay from the first game and playing this sequel one of the first things that struck me as a clear difference were some of the locales and environments as well as use of color and color grading. The first game, at least it seems like from footage, everything seemed very earthly in hues and tones, like everything took place during Fall season. There's still some of that in FW but it seems like they expanded on the sense of seasons. I hope that's even further realized getting deeper into the game.
I'm curious though what they'd do for a third installment. Do they make it more colonial/sci-fi or medieval/sci-fi with softening of the tribal aesthetic? It'll be interesting to see.
DF finally talk about the Quality mode downgrade. John says its related to Patch 1.7 but it actually was toned down a few patches ago.
Timestamped:
I wish I had never patched my game because I had finally fixed the Quality mode flickering and brightness issue by turning off motion blur and turning down the camera sensitivity settings. The game looked magnificent in Fidelity mode after that, and then boom, they just completely took away the biggest thing that made it look so stunning, the sharpness. I could make out detail on every single leaf and piece of foliage before that change.
This is why I almost never buy digital games anymore. A lot of times, the non-patched physical copy has the best visuals. I remember how GOW shipped with better volumetric lighting that was later downgraded, and of course, AC Origins had its graphics completely downgraded for no fucking reason after Digital Foundry bitched about a couple of framerate drops. I hate digital foundry with a passion, but devs need to offer more modes. John talked about how they shouldve just added a toggle on the menu instead of disabling the sharpness altogether.
At this point, both the performance mode and fidelity mode have their issues. You never feel like you are getting the best version of the game which sucks because I played the best version of the game at launch and know exactly what Im missing.
I'm a bit surprised they did those type of characters because it seems even if you handle such things with nuance, care and complexity, extremely vocal people on places like Twitter and Era will chastise and criticize the efforts no matter what, like they can never be satisfied and realize that we're only human so you're never going to get "perfect" ideal representation for anyone because such a thing doesn't exist, and also because no one creating art, stories etc. is perfect, either.
Personally I have no issues with games or films, shows etc. that want more representation. I just don't want it at the expense where you're obviously looking to portray one group as good at the expense of vilifying an entire other group, because the world doesn't work like that, either. It's nuanced, and you have good and bad people in all groups but the majority if them all are good. And a lot of stories these days have also written a lot of these characters to be Mary Stu or Gary Stu types with no personality or flaws/quirks.
Thankfully I've not seen any of that in HFW and if you're way further into the game than I am and haven't come across that either, it's probably safe to say the story's well-written and respectful to its audience, and all demographics. Doesn't mean it's going to be perfect but it's not cool to vilify creators for seemingly innocuous mistakes either or try labeling things they do in a story that we don't immediately end up agreeing with as being a toxic buzzword (which also thankfully I haven't really seen anyone doing that with this game TBH, so I'm just speaking more in general I guess).
See, I never actually got around to playing HZD so in a way I guess I "lucked" out here because the world feels very much new to me. That doesn't take away anything from players who did thoroughly play the prequel and maybe want some other sense of bold newness that would hit hard with them, but I can only speak of it from my POV as a n00b to the IP.
It's a tough thing for sequels to do, actually, especially for large open-world games. However just seeing gameplay from the first game and playing this sequel one of the first things that struck me as a clear difference were some of the locales and environments as well as use of color and color grading. The first game, at least it seems like from footage, everything seemed very earthly in hues and tones, like everything took place during Fall season. There's still some of that in FW but it seems like they expanded on the sense of seasons. I hope that's even further realized getting deeper into the game.
I'm curious though what they'd do for a third installment. Do they make it more colonial/sci-fi or medieval/sci-fi with softening of the tribal aesthetic? It'll be interesting to see.
Nah, I turn off motion smoothness on all modes. Even sports mode. I cant stand the soap opera effect in games, movies, tv shows or in baseball games.
I really dont understand the pushback against this. People SHOULD try it for themselves instead of listening to experts about everything. We have seen how ridiculous Digital Foundry can be when it comes to recommendations. They are by no means an expert. The frame drops they notice are imperceptible to 99% of the gamers. They love motion blur which is a big no-no to most gamers. I remember how John once recommended everyone play GOW at 30 fps just because the 60 fps mode on the Pro dropped frames. Then NX gamer did an analysis and the average framerate was literally 56 fps. We are at a point where experts are recommending 30 fps slide shows over 56 average frames.
Point is that people should trust their eyes. There are games where switching to vivid or standard mode adds so much input lag, it is literally unplayable, but Horizon aint it.
Nah, I turn off motion smoothness on all modes. Even sports mode. I cant stand the soap opera effect in games, movies, tv shows or in baseball games.
I really dont understand the pushback against this. People SHOULD try it for themselves instead of listening to experts about everything. We have seen how ridiculous Digital Foundry can be when it comes to recommendations. They are by no means an expert. The frame drops they notice are imperceptible to 99% of the gamers. They love motion blur which is a big no-no to most gamers. I remember how John once recommended everyone play GOW at 30 fps just because the 60 fps mode on the Pro dropped frames. Then NX gamer did an analysis and the average framerate was literally 56 fps. We are at a point where experts are recommending 30 fps slide shows over 56 average frames.
Point is that people should trust their eyes. There are games where switching to vivid or standard mode adds so much input lag, it is literally unplayable, but Horizon aint it.
The only games I will, in any consciousness, recommend people give game mode off a shot is turn based games which don't require much of any active input on the players part.
What's the point of potions when I am always completely stuffed on medicinal berries and they heal me 100% every time I use them? Like I have hundreds of these things and never come close to running out, even in the most frantic battles. But there's an entire skill tree dedicated to using potions faster and I'm just thinking, why, when the berries just fill you up to 100 and don't even take time to use.
it’s pure perfection in resolution mode. one of the first games I actively choose image quality over frame rate. 60fps is just too much a downgrade in quality in this game.
I've used portions only a handful of times and I agree. Those berries are everywhere except snow areas it seems. I spent some points in the soil tree though so I could carry more berries at a time which is helpful
The heath meter uses more Berries the more bars you fill up. I can’t believe I do t know this but I think its a berry for each bar if heath. So Berries would heal you almost 2.5 times in a battle. Yea potions are useless. Maybe in higher difficulty perhaps.
Ok after having finished it my personal mini review. Spoilers are featured, but Ill hide the story spoilers in a tag.
Visuals
One of, if not the best looking overall game I've played. Now of course that comes with the caveat I don't play PC games, just console. So I am going strictly on that, but I have never seen a game that crossed over the "uncanny valley" for me in terms of character animation. With more realistic rendering, many of these characters could have passed for real in terms of how they move, the subtlety of their facial expressions etc. Ironically Aloy was probably the least "real" looking in this sense, but I imagine that's because she is an amalgamation of two different people. The landscapes and vistas are just incredible much of the time. Standing high atop a ruined building and being able to look down into crystal blue water and see enemies and sunken locations that you know you can explore just felt like something else to me. The visuals when diving and crossing below the water line just feel like they are right out of a movie, especially with how expansive the underwater areas feel. I've just never experienced anything like that in a game. An easy 10 out of 10. Would love to see a PS5 pro where quality mode could run at 60 fps.
Gameplay
This is one of the areas I get iffy on. The game just does not feel that compelling to me from a combat and exploration standpoint and that is a serious problem. First off, the map. Yeah it's huge. But you're told about everything on it and exactly where to go, right down to where to go for each quest and how to get there. . So even though it's an "open world," there doesn't seem to be a need to explore. This is incredibly deflating and removes a lot of interest from the world itself. BotW seems like a love it or hate it game, and I'm in the camp that loved it. I think the idea of simple concepts layered to create complex gameplay and scenarios is far more appealing to me than throwing complex systems at me that result in a simple game. For me BotW is the first type of game, and Horizon is the second, and this applies to many facets of the game. But here let's mention climbing.
I've seen BotW climbing criticized as "simple" and "all you have to do is push up." Yes. That is the strength of that gameplay feature. It is easy to understand and execute. However there are other things tied to it, such as weather and stamina. There are absolutely places you cannot reach initially, but are able to grow your capabilities to do so. You know you are not limited by the gameplay mechanic, and that should get your creative juices flowing theoretically. Is there a way I can climb this mountain to recharge stamina at crucial points? Should I build up stamina and just do it that way? Is there something I could build that would get me on top of this mountain (such as hot air balloons and other contraptions people have built). Etc etc. In this game, where you can climb is explicitly laid out to you from the beginning and you can do no more and no less. It truly is Uncharted on a grander scale, and that is not a good thing. Going back to the criticism of the BotW climbing of "just pushing up," that is actually all this game really entails and there is no way to engage upon it further. Once you have the tool that lets you do the jump and climb (which you get very very early), you are maxed out on climbing, and everything literally is just push a direction. I consider that pretty bad and brainless design. A lot of people mentioned having issues with the platforming but I never saw this. You can clearly see where you need to go if you just tap your scan button. So all you generally have to do is push that direction. You can't fall. You can't miss. There is literally no skill involved in any of this, so it's just boring with no real sense that you can fail, something that is absolutely possible in BotW.
Talking about skill ... the combat. This game often feels cheap when taking on machines, especially in groups or larger tougher machines. Aloy is incredibly slow to get up when knocked down, and some of the bigger machines have incredible accuracy with their attacks. This often results in you getting absolutely pummeled, over and over, with a feeling of complete helplessness, as you're just trying to get out of the way, dodge, get moving, anything. I know I am not the only person to experience this as well. Combine this with the need to scan in so many battles, having bows with different elemental damage types, green, purple, blue weapons, etc etc. This comes back to the idea of having complex to do simple things. Whack things and shoot things. The skill trees also seem to be some of the most pointless ones I've ever seen in a game. Ghost of Tsushima had very noticeably helpful skill boosts, and I couldn't wait to upgrade my character in that game. Here I just stopped even upgrading things after awhile. My upgrades didn't feel like material benefits to what I was doing overall. I know there are going to be some who disagree and notice but again ... just felt like I couldn't be bothered. Also aiming with the bow could be difficult to hit your target with how wildly some creatures move and how small the targets you're trying to hit could be.
Quests. well they are totally laid out for you and there is never any question what you're supposed to do. And they generally consist of go here, fit some stuff, return to original location. So again there is no sense of discovery either.
Story - heavy spoilers.
I think the story in this game just goes off the rails towards the end. The Zeniths, the copy of Aloy as Beta, the killing of Varl followed shortly by Zo's "I'm pregnant" declaration. I mean how cliche and teeny bopper can you get? The entire story feels like it's written by very young people thinking they are being profound with what they are writing. And elements are just thrown in randomly. You go into Ted Faro's tomb and at the end he has turned into Monster Mash, but they ... don't show it? It just feels totally outside of the universe and that for a brief moment we are in Resident Evil.
I don't think there is enough variety with towns. When I hit Plainsong I was blown away. One of the high points for me, as the city is incredibly designed, with the plant based buildings, nestled in old satellite dishes, and the townspeople actually singing the game's background music. It felt like a creative high point to me. After that, just about everything was a Tenakth establishment that all looked the same.
The other weakness is just how hard the game leans into becoming a sci-fi tale. In the first game Aloy is discovering what is happening in her world, and the ending is a bit of a twist. In this one she's looking for computer code, fully understands what happened before, and seems annoyed that her fellow travelers don't get it, and they are so simple minded she has to ease them into the "truth." But they are all running around in pre historic looking get ups. But with some tech. It's a combo that can work, it just feels weirder in this one. At one point a side quest has you make a robot arm for Kotallo. He uses it in one battle and then you never see it again. It just felt like a decent side quest, but for nothing. I wanted to see that guy continue to use his arm! I get why that might be difficult from a production stand point, but if thats the case just don't do it. Anyway, by the end of the game it felt more like Mass Effect to me than Horizon. You had your squad of team members ready to infiltrate the final area, but you only get to control Aloy so ... it's all just Window dressing and again felt like random game design.
The Zeniths are the new big bad guys. And of course by the end of the game, there is *surprise*, a bigger and even badder new threat that sets us up for the third game! We went from Meridian being in trouble, to the world, and now ... I guess the world still, but now its even more dangerous. I just don't give a crap anymore. Going back to the Zeniths, I don't understand why people from the future would want to wear skin tight silver body suits covered in RGB LEDs, and why that is considered where clothing is going. Maybe PC users truly do become the master race.
This section feels pretty scattered, but that's how the game's story comes across to me in a way. There are both a lot of things going on, and yet not much that feels of consequence. I just don't care about the characters. One of the early theories was that "one of the things in this game is that Aloy is kind of a jerk." But that was not a story theme at all. That's just how she is written. But everyone in the game's world loves her and praises her constantly, to the very end.
So for me the story just doesn't work well. The blight is also hardly even mentioned after the beginning of the game. Yeah you get some tech to rebuild the Earth or what not but ... there is still no feeling of threat from the Blight when everything looks so incredible. There is one character I think that talks about her people not being able to feed themselves soon, but they live in an area that looks like Cancun so I am not exactly feeling sorry for them ...
Audio
Good music overall. Great sound effects. I think the main theme relies too much on the female vocalist and just comes across as too morose. Funnily enough, one of my criticisms in the past has been the game feels so heavy, all of the time, and Aloy encompasses this feeling by acting like she just has the weight of the world on her shoulders at all times. Track number 4 on the soundtrack is titled "The World on Her Shoulders." I guess they were literally going for this so, bravo I guess. Feels a bit too on the nose for me though. But overall great audio. Not a lot for me to say here. Voice acting is generally good, though there are times where people sound like they are just reading from a script and not acting. Doesn't bother me when I'm not really into the story anyways.
Verdict
I think this game is solid. My initial impression was low, then it got way higher a few hours in. Then I realized it was basically mostly visuals and my summation dropped again. I would give this game a 10 out of 10 for graphics, no question. It's ridiculous looking. But as a game, I think Guerilla has a lot of growing to do for this genre. I'm sure I will play the next one but at the end of this one I sure didn't want to. I would give the overall game a 7/10 all things considered. That equates to a "C" in my book, and that feels about right. Require more exploration, and remove all the explicit directions. Simplify the gameplay systems and make combat feel a bit more balanced. Scale back the story stakes just a tiny bit, and make it a bit more focused. Don't make Aloy the most dour character in all of gaming. I honestly think she has less cheer than characters in The Last of Us. But I don't think any of this will happen because Horizon 1 -> Horizon 2 just seemed to try and take the same thing and up the scale on all of it. Anyway, overall a mostly competent title, but there is no doubt IMO it could be a better game with some changes.
Looks way better. Plays perfectly smooth. I don't notice any of that BS like input lag and other shit. I have my C1 calibrated to perfection in Vivid mode to the point where it looks better and plays just as smooth.
I completely agree with him. That's what i'm doing, slow pace, exploring on my will one area at the time and doing side quests as i discover them. The game is full of surprises and thing to see in basically every corner. Best way to play it.
DF finally talk about the Quality mode downgrade. John says its related to Patch 1.7 but it actually was toned down a few patches ago.
Timestamped:
I wish I had never patched my game because I had finally fixed the Quality mode flickering and brightness issue by turning off motion blur and turning down the camera sensitivity settings. The game looked magnificent in Fidelity mode after that, and then boom, they just completely took away the biggest thing that made it look so stunning, the sharpness. I could make out detail on every single leaf and piece of foliage before that change.
This is why I almost never buy digital games anymore. A lot of times, the non-patched physical copy has the best visuals. I remember how GOW shipped with better volumetric lighting that was later downgraded, and of course, AC Origins had its graphics completely downgraded for no fucking reason after Digital Foundry bitched about a couple of framerate drops. I hate digital foundry with a passion, but devs need to offer more modes. John talked about how they shouldve just added a toggle on the menu instead of disabling the sharpness altogether.
At this point, both the performance mode and fidelity mode have their issues. You never feel like you are getting the best version of the game which sucks because I played the best version of the game at launch and know exactly what Im missing.
Could see that; maybe the next game taking place in another part of the world like India or the Mediterranean. Or maybe a place like Japan. Those would be pretty cool options.
In order to reduce an "issue" due to extreme sharpness, they reduce it in a later patch.
But that's not really the problem, the issue is that in order to reduce shimmering in Performance Mode they downgraded draw distances in both modes with patch 1.07.
Notice the shadows missing now on foliage under the car. Or the complete lack of specular highlights on the red foliage. These things reappear when getting closer resulting in pop-in which was completely absent before.
I complained to no end about it on Guerrilla support, hopefully they'll revert this.
Still, this is the best looking game i've seen by a long, long margin. I have found myself in the deep jungle near the
Zenith Island
and foliage density was literally IMPOSSIBLE, never seen anything like this in my life.
This game is living proof that world class graphics are key to immersion in video games. I got lost in this world. Easily the best living breathing world ever crafted in a game. So much detail. Guerilla really stepped it up.
Despite things some things I think could have been better (more creative weapons, larger scale battles, more creative gameplay mechanics), still an incredible experience overall.
Part 3 has the chance to be a real masterpiece though if they fire on all cylinders.
This game is living proof that world class graphics are key to immersion in video games. I got lost in this world. Easily the best living breathing world ever crafted in a game. So much detail. Guerilla really stepped it up.
Despite things some things I think could have been better (more creative weapons, larger scale battles, more creative gameplay mechanics), still an incredible experience overall.
Part 3 has the chance to be a real masterpiece though if they fire on all cylinders.
in performance mode the AA is so bad sometimes.
