more like horizon forgotten rest amirite
horizon is one of those games that i feel like works fine as a standalone game but doesn't profit from sequels whatsoever.
if there are no big changes how do you make this type of game worth your time when the all the fun of the first one was bc of it's novelty? anyway been there done that might revisit when i need another aaa slop to nibble on.
horizon is one of those games that i feel like works fine as a standalone game but doesn't profit from sequels whatsoever.
if there are no big changes how do you make this type of game worth your time when the all the fun of the first one was bc of it's novelty? anyway been there done that might revisit when i need another aaa slop to nibble on.
I enjoyed Zero Dawn and thought it was a great game, it’s the only PSN game I ever got a Plat on. I do feel it gets rather unfairly maligned at times, especially when it was compared to Breath of the Wild, which came out the same year. (I think Horizon is far superior) I enjoyed the combat and exploration and I do think the narrative was real nice; it felt like New Vegas in spirit in some ways which isn’t surprising considering they shared the same head writer. So I was obviously looking forward to Forbidden West. Thing is though when I finally played it I actually ended up dropping it.
You see what pushed me to finally drop it was when I tried starting a sidequest by following an NPC but he kept getting stuck walking around preventing progression. This kept happening even when I left and came back. This game is so much buggier than the OG game. Not long before that I got almost softlocked by a robot falling on top of me, trapping me in the ground. If I didn’t have a fast travel pack on hand I would have had to reset the game. But you see that sidequest bug was just the straw that broke the camel’s back for me because there were a bunch of flaws that were building up that didn’t make the game bad persay, but were making it more mediocre for me and an inferior experience compared to Zero Dawn.
First of all, the combat is expanded upon, but to the game’s detriment I feel. Now you have to juggle so many different weapon, element, and damage types that it feels excessive and convoluted. The game keeps throwing all these weapons at you that there’s little point in upgrading your weapons as well. The game forces you to have to juggle all these weapons too because enemies are just annoyingly more tanky and hyper aggro than they ever were in the first game across the board and the game heavily pushes you to have to use the exact strategies the devs want you to do, limiting the freedom the original game gave you to some degree. Climbing is so much worse because I guess too many people complained about all climbable objects being readily visible with yellow paint because now you pretty much have to have Aloy’s focus on at all times to have any idea of what you can actually climb on. It sucks.
The narrative is much worse than the OG’s game as the sense of mystery is gone and all we have left is just the most rote genre fiction direction they could have possibly gone with the series, especially when the new bland doomsday villains who stick out from the series’ aesthetic like a sore thumb show up. Admittedly, I stopped about a quarter of the way in the game, at the start of looking for the AI cores, but I don’t think the narrative would have gotten much better. (And from the sound of it, it doesn’t.)
Aloy also seems more of an asshole for some reason? Like its completely understandable why she’s short with people because she has to deal with their petty bullshit squabbles when she has a looming apocalyptic deadline fast approaching, but she feels really full of herself in a way that feels complete anathema to the character in the last game, who rejected being lauded as a Chosen One by the people who had considered her an outcast for her entire life up until that moment. That element of her being this relative stranger curious for answers in a strange land when it came to the world outside of the Noras’ domain, is quickly lost and she becomes a lot more generic because of that. She’s just become the bog standard Chosen One protag and she won’t let you forget it. They also add this weird character flaw that gets harped on that she doesn’t want any help from her friends and it feels like how Back to the Future 2 just shoehorned in Marty being unable to accept being called a chicken when it didn’t exist at all in the OG movie, but that was forgivable because BttF is mainly comedic, unlike Horizon.
The only real improvement I feel Forbidden West has over Dawn is that the sidequests are much more fleshed out. They are actually multi-part in some regards and you need to progress the story along before you can complete the next chain on some of them. The characters will even acknowledge having done some of the sidequests in unrelated scenes too which is a neat attention to detail.
Really thinking Horizon should have seriously been a one and done game because even if I didn’t run into these bugs and decided to make it through this game I don’t think I’d be looking forward to a third game. Just a middling disappointment overall.
You see what pushed me to finally drop it was when I tried starting a sidequest by following an NPC but he kept getting stuck walking around preventing progression. This kept happening even when I left and came back. This game is so much buggier than the OG game. Not long before that I got almost softlocked by a robot falling on top of me, trapping me in the ground. If I didn’t have a fast travel pack on hand I would have had to reset the game. But you see that sidequest bug was just the straw that broke the camel’s back for me because there were a bunch of flaws that were building up that didn’t make the game bad persay, but were making it more mediocre for me and an inferior experience compared to Zero Dawn.
First of all, the combat is expanded upon, but to the game’s detriment I feel. Now you have to juggle so many different weapon, element, and damage types that it feels excessive and convoluted. The game keeps throwing all these weapons at you that there’s little point in upgrading your weapons as well. The game forces you to have to juggle all these weapons too because enemies are just annoyingly more tanky and hyper aggro than they ever were in the first game across the board and the game heavily pushes you to have to use the exact strategies the devs want you to do, limiting the freedom the original game gave you to some degree. Climbing is so much worse because I guess too many people complained about all climbable objects being readily visible with yellow paint because now you pretty much have to have Aloy’s focus on at all times to have any idea of what you can actually climb on. It sucks.
The narrative is much worse than the OG’s game as the sense of mystery is gone and all we have left is just the most rote genre fiction direction they could have possibly gone with the series, especially when the new bland doomsday villains who stick out from the series’ aesthetic like a sore thumb show up. Admittedly, I stopped about a quarter of the way in the game, at the start of looking for the AI cores, but I don’t think the narrative would have gotten much better. (And from the sound of it, it doesn’t.)
Aloy also seems more of an asshole for some reason? Like its completely understandable why she’s short with people because she has to deal with their petty bullshit squabbles when she has a looming apocalyptic deadline fast approaching, but she feels really full of herself in a way that feels complete anathema to the character in the last game, who rejected being lauded as a Chosen One by the people who had considered her an outcast for her entire life up until that moment. That element of her being this relative stranger curious for answers in a strange land when it came to the world outside of the Noras’ domain, is quickly lost and she becomes a lot more generic because of that. She’s just become the bog standard Chosen One protag and she won’t let you forget it. They also add this weird character flaw that gets harped on that she doesn’t want any help from her friends and it feels like how Back to the Future 2 just shoehorned in Marty being unable to accept being called a chicken when it didn’t exist at all in the OG movie, but that was forgivable because BttF is mainly comedic, unlike Horizon.
The only real improvement I feel Forbidden West has over Dawn is that the sidequests are much more fleshed out. They are actually multi-part in some regards and you need to progress the story along before you can complete the next chain on some of them. The characters will even acknowledge having done some of the sidequests in unrelated scenes too which is a neat attention to detail.
Really thinking Horizon should have seriously been a one and done game because even if I didn’t run into these bugs and decided to make it through this game I don’t think I’d be looking forward to a third game. Just a middling disappointment overall.
It's incredibly well done, which makes the fact that this game is generic and boring much worse, something the first one was less so even though it tired me out too.
I guess I should start with the fact that the story feels incredibly rushed, that the villains are cartoonishly evil for, as it turns out, no real reason. The game also really tries focusing on character relationships and especially Aloy's growth through sort of creating a tribe of her own, but it falls extremely flat since her allies barely feature in the game, and don't really matter until the final mission where it's still a case of a few of them definitely being more important than others, and even those that do have about zero chemistry with each other. Very frustrating for someone like me who really enjoys character driven stories.
At the same time, there're also some parts of the gameplay that just supremely annoy me, like how Aloy takes an actual eternity to get up after getting knocked down by an enemy, making her feel a lot more sluggish than she really should. The climbing, while sort of better than in Zero Dawn, also feels weirdly restricted despite almost every wall being climbable, with Aloy not being able to climb further upwards if not at the exactly right part of the wall, which seldom makes sense. Many times did I have to do a weird climb to some section diagonally downwards, and then jump from there to get up where I wanted rather than just being able to normally keep climbing from a more natural position, and I have no idea why that's the case. Some walls are also just arbitrarily not climbable because the game wants you to solve a puzzle, which just makes me feel like maybe they should have designed the puzzle better as to not break the game's logick for it to work?
There are some UI issues as well, like how the trap/potion "quick" menu has about a million items in it (and you can clear things out of it, but the vacant spots will just be filled up automatically when picking up itmes along the journey, so it's mainly just a waste of time doing so), making it almost impossible to use in a pinch since so many of the icons are similar to each other, but there's also just so many different things to scroll past to get to the thing you want, which is probably just a potion since traps are pretty useless unless you really plan out an encounter in advance. There are also just too many different weapons with minimal differences, and most of the different ammo types that are exclusive to some of these weapons don't really matter in the long run. Just needless clutter when looking to change to the weapon you actually want to use.
And don't even get me started on the mounts. They weren't very good in Zero Dawn, and I don't think they were made the least bit better here. Outside of the flying ones, they just control like shit, getting stuck on everything and just feeling like they have a life on their own even when I'm the one controlling them. The very short time the offensive robots can be controlled is also frustrating since it just makes me not want to use them to my advantage. Feels like this should be one of the whole franchise's biggest selling points, and yet it just doesn't work well in either games.
And yet, I loved my time with Forbidden West. It's a shallow, very formulaic open world Action RPG that does end on a pretty nice twist, but otherwise feels like the safest game Sony has released in a good while. Does it feel like there's been even a single risk taken during any part of the game? Not really, no, but it does feel very nice to sometimes just play a game where I can get completely lost in a beautiful world and spend too much time trying to get the perfect angle in photo mode. It's virtual tourism at its peak, and I get that this isn't something for everyone, but personally I really appreciate the gargantuan effort on Guerilla's part to make a world map this large, and for it to feel both so believable and at the same time so dense in the sense that there's new things to discover on basically every path, and the extremely good side quests always gave me a good reason to explore even more unknown areas. This (the exploration, that is. The side quests in that game were pretty forgettable) was already fantastic in Zero Dawn, but the heightened fidelity and, in my mind at least, more varied eco systems just makes it even more magical to wander around, and the added underwater sections, despite not being able to really defend yourself against enemies, are so charmingly relaxing. It might sound a bit strange to enjoy most the more calm parts of an action game, but maybe that's just where I am in my life at the moment.
The action is there, though, and I obviously didn't spend as much time as I did with Forbidden West just looking at beautiful things. I also did some fight'n, after all. I've seen a lot of people criticize Forbidden West for the combat feeling more tedious, or something, but I could honestly not really notice any big differences other than Aloy getting a few new weapon types to make fighting a bit more fun, at least to me. The exploding spear is one that I can probably never again be without now that I've experienced it, for example. As previously mentioned, Aloy being so slow at getting back up can be a big issue when fighting larger enemies, but otherwise it just feels like the last game, i.e. pretty good and with added satisfaction every time an enemy's component gets shot off. Nice to see better robot variety as well, with most of the new ones feeling fittingly a bit more complicated to fight efficiently than the ones introduced in the previous game.
So, uh, I guess play Forbidden West if you want to witness beautiful things and just in general have a calm and relaxing time, vibing with the world around you. It's formulaic and severely flawed in a lot of departments, but there really is something special there for anyone (me) who needs something to kill a mere 100 hours with, and also sometimes just want something very predictable.
At the same time, there're also some parts of the gameplay that just supremely annoy me, like how Aloy takes an actual eternity to get up after getting knocked down by an enemy, making her feel a lot more sluggish than she really should. The climbing, while sort of better than in Zero Dawn, also feels weirdly restricted despite almost every wall being climbable, with Aloy not being able to climb further upwards if not at the exactly right part of the wall, which seldom makes sense. Many times did I have to do a weird climb to some section diagonally downwards, and then jump from there to get up where I wanted rather than just being able to normally keep climbing from a more natural position, and I have no idea why that's the case. Some walls are also just arbitrarily not climbable because the game wants you to solve a puzzle, which just makes me feel like maybe they should have designed the puzzle better as to not break the game's logick for it to work?
There are some UI issues as well, like how the trap/potion "quick" menu has about a million items in it (and you can clear things out of it, but the vacant spots will just be filled up automatically when picking up itmes along the journey, so it's mainly just a waste of time doing so), making it almost impossible to use in a pinch since so many of the icons are similar to each other, but there's also just so many different things to scroll past to get to the thing you want, which is probably just a potion since traps are pretty useless unless you really plan out an encounter in advance. There are also just too many different weapons with minimal differences, and most of the different ammo types that are exclusive to some of these weapons don't really matter in the long run. Just needless clutter when looking to change to the weapon you actually want to use.
And don't even get me started on the mounts. They weren't very good in Zero Dawn, and I don't think they were made the least bit better here. Outside of the flying ones, they just control like shit, getting stuck on everything and just feeling like they have a life on their own even when I'm the one controlling them. The very short time the offensive robots can be controlled is also frustrating since it just makes me not want to use them to my advantage. Feels like this should be one of the whole franchise's biggest selling points, and yet it just doesn't work well in either games.
And yet, I loved my time with Forbidden West. It's a shallow, very formulaic open world Action RPG that does end on a pretty nice twist, but otherwise feels like the safest game Sony has released in a good while. Does it feel like there's been even a single risk taken during any part of the game? Not really, no, but it does feel very nice to sometimes just play a game where I can get completely lost in a beautiful world and spend too much time trying to get the perfect angle in photo mode. It's virtual tourism at its peak, and I get that this isn't something for everyone, but personally I really appreciate the gargantuan effort on Guerilla's part to make a world map this large, and for it to feel both so believable and at the same time so dense in the sense that there's new things to discover on basically every path, and the extremely good side quests always gave me a good reason to explore even more unknown areas. This (the exploration, that is. The side quests in that game were pretty forgettable) was already fantastic in Zero Dawn, but the heightened fidelity and, in my mind at least, more varied eco systems just makes it even more magical to wander around, and the added underwater sections, despite not being able to really defend yourself against enemies, are so charmingly relaxing. It might sound a bit strange to enjoy most the more calm parts of an action game, but maybe that's just where I am in my life at the moment.
The action is there, though, and I obviously didn't spend as much time as I did with Forbidden West just looking at beautiful things. I also did some fight'n, after all. I've seen a lot of people criticize Forbidden West for the combat feeling more tedious, or something, but I could honestly not really notice any big differences other than Aloy getting a few new weapon types to make fighting a bit more fun, at least to me. The exploding spear is one that I can probably never again be without now that I've experienced it, for example. As previously mentioned, Aloy being so slow at getting back up can be a big issue when fighting larger enemies, but otherwise it just feels like the last game, i.e. pretty good and with added satisfaction every time an enemy's component gets shot off. Nice to see better robot variety as well, with most of the new ones feeling fittingly a bit more complicated to fight efficiently than the ones introduced in the previous game.
So, uh, I guess play Forbidden West if you want to witness beautiful things and just in general have a calm and relaxing time, vibing with the world around you. It's formulaic and severely flawed in a lot of departments, but there really is something special there for anyone (me) who needs something to kill a mere 100 hours with, and also sometimes just want something very predictable.
Don't think there will ever be a day where I'll understand why this game came out the same day as elden ring
As a huge fan of the first game I was overall disappointed. Game looked great and had an alright story but the combat was awful. Aloy constantly getting tossed around like a rag doll with no way to break out of knock downs is some seriously garbage design. enemies being able to constantly spam their attacks giving you little chances to do anything but dodge and pray. Curve ball/Magic missile attacks that track your position no matter where/how you dodge. It's really just not a fun game to play.
Дуже гарне продовження з виправленими помилками з першої частини: діалоги, сайд квести та інше. Звісно, що вже не викликає таких емоцій гра як перша частина, бо тоді інтригувала сама необізнаність цього світу, хто, що, чому, як, постійно були питання тоді що до цих живих механізмів та інше. Тут вже повноцінне розуміння є, головна героіня нарешті стала більш сильною духом та характером щоб з кимось сперечатись та стояти на своєму. Сюжет цікавий, цікаво буде подивитись що буде далі. А, ну і для мене це була перша гра яку я повноцінно міг би назвати некст геном, коли вона вийшла. Вона і досі виглядає та грається офігезно. Особливо коли ставиш режим складності по-важче та починаєш битися з якимось монстром побільше, то процес стає більш цікавий але і іноді хотілося розбитий контролер об стіну з за камери яка крутиться або дуже дивно пропадає за Елой коли підходиш ближче до якихось обєктів. Це один з мінусів який мене дуже бісив. Елементи паркуру, які часто тут згадують, то це великий примітів, який був доданий саме таким, бо якщо б він був більш поширений в плані механік, то грати було б вже не так цікаво, бо все ж таки розробники вклали більше зусиль на бойовку з машинами та, скоріш за все, гарну картинку.
It's Mass Effect 2 all over again. I'm awed at just how much they could make this series better. It makes the first game look abysmal
The side quests are more interesting and memorable, the main characters both old and new are wonderful, there is a shit ton more machines, the world is like 5x bigger it might as well be fucking to scale to Nevada, melee combat is more than 2 buttons, razor boomerang blades are fun af, and most of all for me was the fucking animations.
Whoever animated this game deserves a fucking raise because literally every little emotion, dialoge, detail, action, idle, etc is animated so well. No more wax models standing at attention talking to eachother, I'm talking animation so well done that they you don't see the same motion twice in dialogue.
The main story isn't anything too amazing, I'll admit. They create some really cool ideas or potentially great moments for characters but then kinda ignore them or move on. It's still pretty decent for what it is, though. In fact my favorite part involves art history lessons given to Aloy.
Just gotta say I'm excited for any DLC they do and even more so for the final third of this. This game feels way more memorable than the first which is important because I literally didn't know anyone or any of the lore besides Erend and the opening area of the first game. The hints at the next game look promising and I just hope we don't have anymore global contastrophies to push this one back.
P.s. paragliding
The side quests are more interesting and memorable, the main characters both old and new are wonderful, there is a shit ton more machines, the world is like 5x bigger it might as well be fucking to scale to Nevada, melee combat is more than 2 buttons, razor boomerang blades are fun af, and most of all for me was the fucking animations.
Whoever animated this game deserves a fucking raise because literally every little emotion, dialoge, detail, action, idle, etc is animated so well. No more wax models standing at attention talking to eachother, I'm talking animation so well done that they you don't see the same motion twice in dialogue.
The main story isn't anything too amazing, I'll admit. They create some really cool ideas or potentially great moments for characters but then kinda ignore them or move on. It's still pretty decent for what it is, though. In fact my favorite part involves art history lessons given to Aloy.
Just gotta say I'm excited for any DLC they do and even more so for the final third of this. This game feels way more memorable than the first which is important because I literally didn't know anyone or any of the lore besides Erend and the opening area of the first game. The hints at the next game look promising and I just hope we don't have anymore global contastrophies to push this one back.
P.s. paragliding
On one hand, beautiful, on the other, bloated, boring, and tedious. If you can tolerate run of the mill open-world checklisting, by all means, but I cannot stand this game.
This sequel was one of the most solid experiences I've had this console generation. The gameplay loop is as good as the first game with some good refinements to both combat and exploration. It is also a graphical powerhouse, being one of the most beautiful games I have ever experienced hands down. From the lighting, to the dense intractable foliage, to the stunning machine and settlement designs. This games visuals have never once left me disappointed, and are constantly leaving me in awe at the environments on display.
This review contains spoilers
Back when Horizon Forbidden West first released, I decided to play it on the toughest difficulty, to force myself into playing strategically. Also, since I had loved the first game so much, I was set on 100% completing the sequel. That left me with 27 hours of playtime in which I accomplished only half of the game's story, a dull experience where even the simplest enemy is a damage sponge, and an overall dissapointing experience.
I was however keen on going back to the game eventually. I believed that with an easier difficulty setting and a focus on main quests accompanied by a few side quests, this game could be pretty good. Turns out, I wasn't completely wrong, but the experience still wasn't up to what the original accomplished.
Now don't get me wrong: Horizon Zero Dawn is no absolute masterpiece. It's one of my favourite games of all time, sure, but that's more down to the story and worldbuilding than anything else. Sure, the gameplay is really interesting with it's focus on targeting parts, mixing arrow shooting and trapping, really excelling at makign you feel like a hunter stalking it's giant mechanical prey. The sense of scale of the fights is immaculate, the sense of progression is really well done, the quests are mostly pretty good, the side activities are abundant but not overwhelming... Horizon Zero Dawn is a good game made great by its lore and worldbuilding. It's also a game that knows its ambition, and limits its scale in consequence. The game is by no means small, but the upgrade system is on the simpler side of things, there aren't a thousand different weapon types, and the skill tree is small but really gives you a sense of progression, as you unlock new moves. Zero Dawn wasn't trying to be the best game ever, and it made it great.
Forbidden West on the other hand, clearly wanted to put its name next to the likes of The Last of Us, Uncharted or God of War as a Sony classic, and it shows. The game seems to be trying to justify its own existence so bad, it really hinders the experience. The simple, coil based upgrade system from Horizon Zero Dawn ? Add a crafting based upgrade system on top of that. The amazing skill tree from the first game ? Replace it by one of the dullest skill trees ever, where every "skill" is just a stat boost. The limited but perfectly decent weapon selection from the first game ? Add more weapons, most of which are useless or very context sensitive, more ammo types, so that no two weapons play alike to such a degree that the player is confused as to which ammo goes with which weapon and what each does, which discourages him from engaging with shopkeepers and using different weapons. The map from the original, which is (relatively) dense compared to other open worlds ? Make it twice the size with the same number of activities, including an introductory part of the world which could've been cut off without any problem.
Forbidden West feels like it was scared of being told it wasn't enough of a sequel, so it just kept adding stuff to justify its existence, when it really didn't need to, because the stuff we actually wanted to see a sequel to, that being the worldbuilding, really excells. The tenakth are fascinating, the Faro twist is great, the world is beautiful (although I was severly dissapointed with San Francisco). It's a shame that Guerrilla didn't believe in its project's strength and felt like they needed to do way more than necessary. Sometimes, less is more.
The story sucks though. It just feels confused, and the theme of "Aloy learning to accept help" was interesting on paper, as it made perfect sense to push Aloy's character in that direction as she grew up an outcast, but it doesn't really have any meaningful beats. She just suddenly accepts help. There is no emotional low point, she just changes her mind. Not great.
Less is more, especially in a gaming landscape saturated with way too big open worlds. I truly do believe that there is a huge gap in the market for a small, dense, linear open world with a well crafted story and measured ambition, something even smaller than Zero Dawn. Instead, Forbidden West decided to fight fire with fire, to combat the other huge open worlds of our day with something even bigger, and the result is a nauseatingly big game that most will never want to touch again.
I was however keen on going back to the game eventually. I believed that with an easier difficulty setting and a focus on main quests accompanied by a few side quests, this game could be pretty good. Turns out, I wasn't completely wrong, but the experience still wasn't up to what the original accomplished.
Now don't get me wrong: Horizon Zero Dawn is no absolute masterpiece. It's one of my favourite games of all time, sure, but that's more down to the story and worldbuilding than anything else. Sure, the gameplay is really interesting with it's focus on targeting parts, mixing arrow shooting and trapping, really excelling at makign you feel like a hunter stalking it's giant mechanical prey. The sense of scale of the fights is immaculate, the sense of progression is really well done, the quests are mostly pretty good, the side activities are abundant but not overwhelming... Horizon Zero Dawn is a good game made great by its lore and worldbuilding. It's also a game that knows its ambition, and limits its scale in consequence. The game is by no means small, but the upgrade system is on the simpler side of things, there aren't a thousand different weapon types, and the skill tree is small but really gives you a sense of progression, as you unlock new moves. Zero Dawn wasn't trying to be the best game ever, and it made it great.
Forbidden West on the other hand, clearly wanted to put its name next to the likes of The Last of Us, Uncharted or God of War as a Sony classic, and it shows. The game seems to be trying to justify its own existence so bad, it really hinders the experience. The simple, coil based upgrade system from Horizon Zero Dawn ? Add a crafting based upgrade system on top of that. The amazing skill tree from the first game ? Replace it by one of the dullest skill trees ever, where every "skill" is just a stat boost. The limited but perfectly decent weapon selection from the first game ? Add more weapons, most of which are useless or very context sensitive, more ammo types, so that no two weapons play alike to such a degree that the player is confused as to which ammo goes with which weapon and what each does, which discourages him from engaging with shopkeepers and using different weapons. The map from the original, which is (relatively) dense compared to other open worlds ? Make it twice the size with the same number of activities, including an introductory part of the world which could've been cut off without any problem.
Forbidden West feels like it was scared of being told it wasn't enough of a sequel, so it just kept adding stuff to justify its existence, when it really didn't need to, because the stuff we actually wanted to see a sequel to, that being the worldbuilding, really excells. The tenakth are fascinating, the Faro twist is great, the world is beautiful (although I was severly dissapointed with San Francisco). It's a shame that Guerrilla didn't believe in its project's strength and felt like they needed to do way more than necessary. Sometimes, less is more.
The story sucks though. It just feels confused, and the theme of "Aloy learning to accept help" was interesting on paper, as it made perfect sense to push Aloy's character in that direction as she grew up an outcast, but it doesn't really have any meaningful beats. She just suddenly accepts help. There is no emotional low point, she just changes her mind. Not great.
Less is more, especially in a gaming landscape saturated with way too big open worlds. I truly do believe that there is a huge gap in the market for a small, dense, linear open world with a well crafted story and measured ambition, something even smaller than Zero Dawn. Instead, Forbidden West decided to fight fire with fire, to combat the other huge open worlds of our day with something even bigger, and the result is a nauseatingly big game that most will never want to touch again.
The new machine designs are EXCELLENT. The story went in a direction I did not expect! Gameplay is still amazing and the new flight mechanics are a welcomed addition.
Hmm...
This game is frustrating, because it is a clear improvement in some areas (gorgeous graphics, more weapons/customization, smoother gameplay) but failed to address the some glaring issues with the story telling, acting, and writing. Also the plot boils down to “oh no that thing we defeated is somehow back”
A post apocalyptic as well as post charisma world. If only anyone in the cast (not counting Lance Reddick) had a fraction of the character put into each of the robo animals the story wouldn't be as awkward to get through.
Gameplay: enjoyable if only slightly flexible. I ignored most other weapons and stuck with a collection of elemental bows.
Graphics: cluttered. I would regularly have to mark a fire or location in my map even if it was 10 meters away. With incredible detail you risk obfuscating landmarks, and this game is the poster-child of that. Same with the character and enemy designs. Overly complicated and cluttered IS the art style. Don't get me wrong, this is one of the best looking games of all time. The just went a bit too greebley with it.
Gameplay: enjoyable if only slightly flexible. I ignored most other weapons and stuck with a collection of elemental bows.
Graphics: cluttered. I would regularly have to mark a fire or location in my map even if it was 10 meters away. With incredible detail you risk obfuscating landmarks, and this game is the poster-child of that. Same with the character and enemy designs. Overly complicated and cluttered IS the art style. Don't get me wrong, this is one of the best looking games of all time. The just went a bit too greebley with it.
horizon zero dawn was the game that made me stop liking PlayStation open-world exclusives the utter formulaic design that was poisoning single player games at the time because I guess witcher 3 made money so lets all try to be the witch 3 and accidentally just make a million far cry rip-offs anyways forbidden west is more of the same its the "more" type of sequel and I just don't care boring menus slow repetitive quests dry characters and story the saving grace of this game is by far the enemies and their unique design if it wasn't for that this got for me at least has nothing going for it like even graphically it looks great sure but it doesn't even look distinctive from the first game despite taking place in a completely new setting? and I was thinking about this while playing but does this even look THAT much better than crisis 3 a game with a very similar setting that came out 11years ago anyways I will probably try to beat the DLC since its included and it also reminded me that I need to beat the DLC for zero dawn because I got that for free a long time ago and it just never crossed my mind to play it oh well I am making it sound like I am in pain but its really like a competent game overall lol
Outstanding visuals, loved the gameplay and the characters. story was bit mediocre, but I didn't really play for the story :)
Maybe playing the first game and this one back to back was not a good idea. Might've had a slightly more positive view on this one if I hadn't played both the games back to back cuz most of the core elements whether it's the story, gameplay feel very identical. Also despite me taking my sweet time to finish the main story I was barely invested in all the crafting, skilling up and upgrading. I barely levelled up and completed quests despite being too under levelled, don't know if it enhanced the challenge or increased the tedium or a bit of both, cuz I hardly even changed the weapons until the final set of missions. The first game had a better lore, I barely cared about the zenith crap, not that I had any expectations for both the games in the first place. But the graphics and art style of the game are absolutely best in the business, I think its even better than Alan Wake 2. AW looks more realistic but this one's more gorgeous to look at. Deciding to play this game at 21:9 Aspect Ratio instead of the usual 16:9 might be the best decision I made regarding this game, makes the art style and visuals look even more godly.
They did add new elements to the gameplay and revamped the skill tree and also brought forth changes to melee and other stuff but I don't know the combat somehow feels better on the first game, maybe has to do with how the machines move while in combat. The characters were a mixed bag, they did a decent job with returning characters like Varl etc but had some annoying new characters as well. Overall I did actually like it I'd give it a 3 if I hadn't played Zero Dawn right before playing this. It's fun to shoot robotic animals and roam around in a setting like this with such gorgeous visuals. Onto the DLC now 🫡.
They did add new elements to the gameplay and revamped the skill tree and also brought forth changes to melee and other stuff but I don't know the combat somehow feels better on the first game, maybe has to do with how the machines move while in combat. The characters were a mixed bag, they did a decent job with returning characters like Varl etc but had some annoying new characters as well. Overall I did actually like it I'd give it a 3 if I hadn't played Zero Dawn right before playing this. It's fun to shoot robotic animals and roam around in a setting like this with such gorgeous visuals. Onto the DLC now 🫡.
I really liked Zero Dawn, but man the beginning was boring and it took me a while to get into. So when Forbidden West here had a super slow start, I figured it was just a matter of time before it gets good. And then it never did.
It's a shame because there is quality stuff here, it's just buried underneath so much monotony. Every now and then there's a really cool story point or fun boss fight, but it's just not worth the hours of abysmal platforming, soulless looting, and boring one-dimensional characters that you can't escape from. Big disappointment.
It's a shame because there is quality stuff here, it's just buried underneath so much monotony. Every now and then there's a really cool story point or fun boss fight, but it's just not worth the hours of abysmal platforming, soulless looting, and boring one-dimensional characters that you can't escape from. Big disappointment.
Pegaram o 1° e melhoraram em tudo, inclusive historia! ansioso pelo 3°, jogão!
Followup to Zero Dawn with somewhat improved combat and a story that's probably a step backwards.
Compared to the first game the story is less scifi with an interesting setup and instead diverges into generic marvel movie territory. The novelty of the unique setting is lost and you are left with some of the most worthless/forgettable villain characters I've seen in anything in a long time. There are some likeable characters mainly because the actors perform well. Aloy becomes a bit more of a character which I think is a positive development. It's not the worst thing ever but the writing hardly seems like a reason to play the game..
Combat is mostly the same but has new techniques and weapon types to mix things up. There are a lot of great new enemy types and enemies are more aggressive in general. Though the valor surge system feels really jank with a forced cut-in animation and inability to switch types without going back to your skill tree.
I still think the constant slow-motion system with concentration and weapon wheel menu is wonky, the game is in constant slowmo switching speeds which was alright for one game but seems a bit off to continue with. To keep up enemies become more and more fast but I don't think that deals with the core issue. Some enemies like Stalkers still feel well designed and fun to fight with the system.
VS humans combat is still ass but the more fleshed out melee combo system makes it better. Fighting bandits in the first game was very forgettable and this isn't too different.
Open world traversal is alright with very accessible fast travel options and pretty environments. Like the first game the 'platforming' mostly plays itself and is turning your brain off, same with puzzles. Somehow the game only stops giving tooltips for basic controls during the final mission (amazing that they noticed it would detract from the scenario). The worst thing is probably Aloy talking to herself constantly and also spoiling every small puzzle solution.
The few Cauldron 'dungeons' might be a step above the first game, each is fairly unique + if you're in it for the mechanical designs these are fun to look at as before.
Compared to the first game the story is less scifi with an interesting setup and instead diverges into generic marvel movie territory. The novelty of the unique setting is lost and you are left with some of the most worthless/forgettable villain characters I've seen in anything in a long time. There are some likeable characters mainly because the actors perform well. Aloy becomes a bit more of a character which I think is a positive development. It's not the worst thing ever but the writing hardly seems like a reason to play the game..
Combat is mostly the same but has new techniques and weapon types to mix things up. There are a lot of great new enemy types and enemies are more aggressive in general. Though the valor surge system feels really jank with a forced cut-in animation and inability to switch types without going back to your skill tree.
I still think the constant slow-motion system with concentration and weapon wheel menu is wonky, the game is in constant slowmo switching speeds which was alright for one game but seems a bit off to continue with. To keep up enemies become more and more fast but I don't think that deals with the core issue. Some enemies like Stalkers still feel well designed and fun to fight with the system.
VS humans combat is still ass but the more fleshed out melee combo system makes it better. Fighting bandits in the first game was very forgettable and this isn't too different.
Open world traversal is alright with very accessible fast travel options and pretty environments. Like the first game the 'platforming' mostly plays itself and is turning your brain off, same with puzzles. Somehow the game only stops giving tooltips for basic controls during the final mission (amazing that they noticed it would detract from the scenario). The worst thing is probably Aloy talking to herself constantly and also spoiling every small puzzle solution.
The few Cauldron 'dungeons' might be a step above the first game, each is fairly unique + if you're in it for the mechanical designs these are fun to look at as before.
I believe that despite some woes Guerrilla Games really did make something special here. They may not be winning any awards for release timing, but they provided a beautiful world to explore, filled with deep lore and great enemy design
At the time of writing, only 62% of players on PS5 have made it past the opening questline. That kind of makes me sad. While the pacing is better than Zero Dawn it does still take a bit for the main plot to move forward. And I am certainly not going to pretend that all of the writing works here.
But between the incredible voice cast with the likes of Ashly Burch and the late great Lance Riddick, I think its more high sci-fi ideas are more interesting than people give it credit for. Both Horizon games are filled with unique tribes, internal myths and ideas that really do make this world feel like its own.
Traversing that world is even better. Whether swimming through the flooded remains of a sunken casino, walking across a vast desert or gliding through an icy tundra. The visual spectacle here is impressive and just walking through it is a sight to behold.
And of course the machine combat is just absolutely incredible. At one moment you'll be fighting a giant turtle that tends to burrow underground for surprise attacks. The next you will be jumped by a pack of kangaroos, wielding elemental yo-yos. New weapon types add to this experience with some tools that feel ripped right from a Ratchet and Clank game. Machine combat was the biggest strength in Zero Dawn and it is only improved here.
I am not going to lie to you and tell you that every element of this game is completely unique but its highs more than make up for its lows. If you have the stomach for another open world adventure I would say give this a go. It might surprise you.
At the time of writing, only 62% of players on PS5 have made it past the opening questline. That kind of makes me sad. While the pacing is better than Zero Dawn it does still take a bit for the main plot to move forward. And I am certainly not going to pretend that all of the writing works here.
But between the incredible voice cast with the likes of Ashly Burch and the late great Lance Riddick, I think its more high sci-fi ideas are more interesting than people give it credit for. Both Horizon games are filled with unique tribes, internal myths and ideas that really do make this world feel like its own.
Traversing that world is even better. Whether swimming through the flooded remains of a sunken casino, walking across a vast desert or gliding through an icy tundra. The visual spectacle here is impressive and just walking through it is a sight to behold.
And of course the machine combat is just absolutely incredible. At one moment you'll be fighting a giant turtle that tends to burrow underground for surprise attacks. The next you will be jumped by a pack of kangaroos, wielding elemental yo-yos. New weapon types add to this experience with some tools that feel ripped right from a Ratchet and Clank game. Machine combat was the biggest strength in Zero Dawn and it is only improved here.
I am not going to lie to you and tell you that every element of this game is completely unique but its highs more than make up for its lows. If you have the stomach for another open world adventure I would say give this a go. It might surprise you.
Name 5 horizon characters
esse jogo é só tipo, o melhor jogo lançado nos ultimos 4 anos e eu sou completamente devota a ele !
Bom, um pouco frustrante. Não que seja um jogo ruim, pelo contrário, o que importa - gameplay e história - é otimo. O combate é realmente muito bom e a história, apesar de achar um pouco inferior à do primeiro jogo, é boa. O problema aqui é repetição de atividades desnecessárias e que não te levam a muita coisa. Você poderia dizer "basta não fazer, ué", mas deixar de explorar o mundo não me parecia muito legal. O gráfico é deslumbrante, um dos melhores que já vi, o confronto contra as máquinas, principalmente as grandes, é de tirar o fôlego, mas infelizmente o tempo perdido com as atividades do mundo aberto me deixaram um pouco frustrado. Bom, pra platinar e jogar por quase 90h alguma coisa realmente vale a pena.
Went for a second play-through, anticipating playing the Burning Shores DLC.
Re-confirmed my previous thoughts:
It’s enjoyable at times. It looks incredible. But despite the sheer scale, it’s rather empty in a number of ways.
The story never hooked me. It’s an interesting premise, but never delivers the goods like other AAA games of Sony do. Too much focus on in-game politics rather than interesting aspects of this post apocalyptic world.
The NPCs are really dull, even the main ones. Not helped by so many boring conversation options.
Aloy is insufferable as a protagonist at times with her cringey over-confidence. She constantly commentates over the gameplay rather than leaving you to discover the surroundings.
I did like the combat. But even this can be marred by the mechanics of constantly slowing down, switching to the correct type of weapon to exploit enemy weaknesses. I ended up just using whatever I liked as I couldn’t be bothered to wait in the grass, studying weaknesses and targeting parts. There were some decent boss fights however.
It’s worth a backlog spot, but don’t expect to be blown away in the same vain as other PlayStation AAAs.
Re-confirmed my previous thoughts:
It’s enjoyable at times. It looks incredible. But despite the sheer scale, it’s rather empty in a number of ways.
The story never hooked me. It’s an interesting premise, but never delivers the goods like other AAA games of Sony do. Too much focus on in-game politics rather than interesting aspects of this post apocalyptic world.
The NPCs are really dull, even the main ones. Not helped by so many boring conversation options.
Aloy is insufferable as a protagonist at times with her cringey over-confidence. She constantly commentates over the gameplay rather than leaving you to discover the surroundings.
I did like the combat. But even this can be marred by the mechanics of constantly slowing down, switching to the correct type of weapon to exploit enemy weaknesses. I ended up just using whatever I liked as I couldn’t be bothered to wait in the grass, studying weaknesses and targeting parts. There were some decent boss fights however.
It’s worth a backlog spot, but don’t expect to be blown away in the same vain as other PlayStation AAAs.
Horizon Forbidden West's gameplay evolution in comparison to its 2017 predecessor is incredible. Climbing, paragliding, swimming, refined skill trees, enhanced combat, and more travel choices all stand out as drastic improvements and although not new for the industry, do feel like a necessary modernisation for the franchise. Horizon Forbidden West struggles with an issue that many modern sequels have, that being a larger story scope with the same length. Everything feels crammed in or out of place, and frankly, the game's story could (and maybe should) have been split into two instalments.
So in the 60 or so hours I put into HFW, I beat the main game, completed nearly all side content, and only stopped when I became just too worn down by the grind. So I didn't bother with the Hunting Grounds, the Arena, or getting every collectable on the map. That shit just felt like filler. And I didn't even bother with trying NG+, which had almost nothing new but some new weapons and face paints (whoop de doo, fucking FACE PAINTS, ugh). Why the fuck would I put another 60 hours into this to just get new cosmetics??? Give me something more worthwhile than that Guerilla!
The game looks tremendous, with some of the most beautiful graphics on PS5, and some of the prettiest scenery ever seen in a video game thus far. Music is very pretty at times. Voice acting is generally top tier, although I got pretty annoyed by Aloy's constant breathy whispery voice after a while. I think she's been listening to a little too much Billie Eilish.
Story and characters, much like the first game, are for me the games weakest aspects. The writing is just too bland, the characters too one dimensional, the story too generic. Ill just be honest, I started skipping dialogue and cut scenes after about the first 10 hours. Apart from saving myself about 20 hours of gameplay, I just knew that every single cut scene would just lead to another fetch/kill/follow quest, so why bother sitting through the boring ass cut scenes and dialogue? And Lord is there so much dialogue. Just soooooo much. Just way way way too much. Like its Persona level the amount of pointless dialogue. I have no regrets skipping most of it. Oh no, i may have missed out on some key piece of lore for the Zeniths or one of the generic ass tribes? Give a fuck.
So anyway, gameplay is pretty much unchanged from the first game, which is kinda fine but also disappointing too. It needed a little bit more than "oh wow, now i can mount a flying machine". But damn its still pretty damn fun! Taking down giant fucking dinosaur machines is still thrilling. The open world is impressively huge, but is full of filler content and pointless side quests, its very Ubisoft in that respect.
So lots to like, but lots that got boring pretty quickly too. I don't think id play another in the series, especially if they just keep adding more and more filler content. Give me a tight 20-30 hr game with everything feeling essential, rather than an 80 hour game that feels like a grind-a-thon.
The game looks tremendous, with some of the most beautiful graphics on PS5, and some of the prettiest scenery ever seen in a video game thus far. Music is very pretty at times. Voice acting is generally top tier, although I got pretty annoyed by Aloy's constant breathy whispery voice after a while. I think she's been listening to a little too much Billie Eilish.
Story and characters, much like the first game, are for me the games weakest aspects. The writing is just too bland, the characters too one dimensional, the story too generic. Ill just be honest, I started skipping dialogue and cut scenes after about the first 10 hours. Apart from saving myself about 20 hours of gameplay, I just knew that every single cut scene would just lead to another fetch/kill/follow quest, so why bother sitting through the boring ass cut scenes and dialogue? And Lord is there so much dialogue. Just soooooo much. Just way way way too much. Like its Persona level the amount of pointless dialogue. I have no regrets skipping most of it. Oh no, i may have missed out on some key piece of lore for the Zeniths or one of the generic ass tribes? Give a fuck.
So anyway, gameplay is pretty much unchanged from the first game, which is kinda fine but also disappointing too. It needed a little bit more than "oh wow, now i can mount a flying machine". But damn its still pretty damn fun! Taking down giant fucking dinosaur machines is still thrilling. The open world is impressively huge, but is full of filler content and pointless side quests, its very Ubisoft in that respect.
So lots to like, but lots that got boring pretty quickly too. I don't think id play another in the series, especially if they just keep adding more and more filler content. Give me a tight 20-30 hr game with everything feeling essential, rather than an 80 hour game that feels like a grind-a-thon.
I'm only a rough 4 hours or so in right now since it was released for PC this week. One thing I've noticed with late PS5 games is just how horrid they are for the incessant need to hold your hand and tell you what you 'should do' after even what feels like 5-10 seconds. Uncharted 4 had a really quality system with this and why the hell don't more people use it? When you were stuck on something, Uncharted 4 would flash a button prompt asking if you needed a hint. I'm one of those stubborn assholes who won't fucking do it though. I'll stay stuck on a section for a week until I figure it out.
...and it's great to give people that OPTION when they don't feel like being stuck forever on a puzzle etc etc. With many PS5 games the last few years now, you don't get that option. They just tell you ... after like 10 seconds.
...and it's great to give people that OPTION when they don't feel like being stuck forever on a puzzle etc etc. With many PS5 games the last few years now, you don't get that option. They just tell you ... after like 10 seconds.
I don't know why I sunk eighty hours into this. I don't think I had much fun but I had to see it through. Something about this one compared to the first just didn't click for me. Amazing visuals but not the funnest gameplay, I'm sorry.