Topic: Horizon Zero Dawn (PS4,SIE)

[Garlicbread]

God I wish Aloy existed when I was a little girl.

Great to see developers sticking to their guns and having female characters like Aloy being a protagonist in a big budget game like this, despite the nonsense you get from incels online.

[BER]

Feel like I'm always fighting the camera during combat. Most games the camera will gradually snap back around over your shoulder automatically but you're constantly having to do that manually here and it just makes the combat feel a bit clunky and less smooth than it could be. Minor but irritating nitpick.

[Darren G]

Just started it mate. It's good so far, I know it's probably not needed for Forbidden West but feel like I'm not ready unless I've clocked it.

Yeah, I get that mate and as far as I'm aware you're correct in that it has no bearing on, or characters which carry over into Forbidden West.  It's a nice little story though and gives a bit more lore in a sense about the Banuk and A.Is. Couple of nice side quests too.  I really enjoyed my time with Frozen Wilds.   

[macca007]

Yeah, I get that mate and as far as I'm aware you're correct in that it has no bearing on, or characters which carry over into Forbidden West.  It's a nice little story though and gives a bit more lore in a sense about the Banuk and A.Is. Couple of nice side quests too.  I really enjoyed my time with Frozen Wilds.   

Not quite correct, it does help understand something in the game

[Darren G]

Not quite correct, it does help understand something in the game

Ah, that's interesting.  I'm not going to spoiler it for myself, but I'm intrigued. I have a couple of theories, which will probably turn out to be completely wrong. 

[El Lobo]

Not quite correct, it does help understand something in the game

I've got it in its wrapper ready to play, trying to palm the missus off to her mates!

Spoiler

I'd have thought that Sylens at least is pretty predominant in HFW

[close]

[macca007]

I've got it in its wrapper ready to play, trying to palm the missus off to her mates!

Spoiler

I'd have thought that Sylens at least is pretty predominant in HFW

[close]

There's defo loads from the 1st game, so far I'm surprised how much they've developed from that story.

But I actually meant about the expansion specifically. Purposely been vague though

[Red Viper]

Blimey there's alot of new mechanics going on in this. Feels very overwhelming.

[Snail]

God almighty it’s pretty.

[Snail]

The soundtrack is absolutely amazing by the way, it makes you want to explore as much as you can so you can carry on listening to it.

[Darren G]

Man, that is indeed beautiful looking.  I've been telling myself that I'm going to be an idiot and buy a console for one game and instead wait for the PC version.  But....

[Dench57]

God almighty it’s pretty.

Wow.

Man, that is indeed beautiful looking.  I've been telling myself that I'm going to be an idiot and buy a console for one game and instead wait for the PC version.  But....

same

really hope they bring it to PC sooner than the first one

[Darren G]

Wow.

same

really hope they bring it to PC sooner than the first one

 Geforce leaks says September this year.  I'm doubtful about that personally.  Sony are slowly merging into the PC market though and some time in 2023 wouldn't surprise me.

[naYoRHa2b]

Lots of improvements over the first. One of the biggest being the motion capture and the the dialogue. The first one felt slightly wooden, awkward to me and weird pauses in between speaking. This flows much better, just more immersive and the lip syncing is more on point.

Also find myself more interested in the markers round the map. Still early days though just past chainscrape and into no man's land.

[BER]

The soundtrack is absolutely amazing by the way, it makes you want to explore as much as you can so you can carry on listening to it.

Might be my favourite thing about the game, some boss Sci-fi synth in there.

[Red Viper]

Checked my stats for Forbidden West earlier. 30 hours played and 38% game progression. Only done 11 main quests and 11 side missions. Think about 2/3 of my play time has just been exploring and farming for cool armour and weapons.

Really enjoying taking my time with it.

[Elmo!]

I've always been an Xbox guy, never owned a Playstation, but I really like the look of this (and Zero Dawn as well).

Is it worth picking up a cheap second hand PS4 to play? There are a few other PS exclusives I'd get benefit of as well.

I want to get an Xbox Series X at some point when I can find somewhere that has stock so I'm definitely not getting a PS5.

[El Lobo]

I've always been an Xbox guy, never owned a Playstation, but I really like the look of this (and Zero Dawn as well).

Is it worth picking up a cheap second hand PS4 to play? There are a few other PS exclusives I'd get benefit of as well.

I want to get an Xbox Series X at some point when I can find somewhere that has stock so I'm definitely not getting a PS5.

Both Horizons, both Last of Us, God of War, Ratchet and Clank, Spiderman, Ghost of Tsushima, Uncharted.....yeah definitely worth it!

[Elmo!]

Both Horizons, both Last of Us, God of War, Ratchet and Clank, Spiderman, Ghost of Tsushima, Uncharted.....yeah definitely worth it!

You've convinced me, just bought a PS4 with Zero Dawn bundled in off Ebay... 

That's basically the exact list of games I've wanted to play on PS for ages now.

[El Lobo]

You've convinced me, just bought a PS4 with Zero Dawn bundled in off Ebay... 

That's basically the exact list of games I've wanted to play on PS for ages now.

Wise move

Its definitely the best console I've owned.

[macca007]

Both Horizons, both Last of Us, God of War, Ratchet and Clank, Spiderman, Ghost of Tsushima, Uncharted.....yeah definitely worth it!

Only one of these I was disappointed with is the last of us 2. But otherwise yeah, all these. Worth it just for horizon alone

[BER]

Checked my stats for Forbidden West earlier. 30 hours played and 38% game progression. Only done 11 main quests and 11 side missions. Think about 2/3 of my play time has just been exploring and farming for cool armour and weapons.

Really enjoying taking my time with it.

Just for comparison, I completed the main story in pretty much exactly the same time by avoiding practically all the side quest stuff.

[macca007]

Fuck me! I normally hate underwater levels. Mechanics are normally shit but that was one of the best looking things I've seen on a screen!

[Red Viper]

40 hours played and finished the main quest line and I'm at 52% overall progression. Still alot to do then.

Enjoyed the story, the ending felt suitably epic although some of the twists and turns were very predictable.

Spoiler

Slight criticism I have is that considering how big the setting of San Francisco was in the marketing I thought we would have spent a bit more time there. Looking forward to exploring it more now but was a bit of a shame we only got 1 or 2 main quests there and they were both underground and were probably the worst parts of the story.

[close]

[macca007]

40 hours played and finished the main quest line and I'm at 52% overall progression. Still alot to do then.

Enjoyed the story, the ending felt suitably epic although some of the twists and turns were very predictable.

Spoiler

Slight criticism I have is that considering how big the setting of San Francisco was in the marketing I thought we would have spent a bit more time there. Looking forward to exploring it more now but was a bit of a shame we only got 1 or 2 main quests there and they were both underground and were probably the worst parts of the story.

[close]

I'm 52 hours in and haven't done demeter yet!

[El Lobo]

I’m only about an hour in so far, managed to jib the missus off to her mates tomorrow night so I can have a nice big binge

[Elmo!]

Just got my PS4 set up and getting started on HZD.... just finished tutorial.

Was supposed to be busy this weekend for my mum's 65th birthday but she got Covid and still in isolation so......

 

(she is on the mend)

[Broad Spectrum]

No idea how people have completed this already, I’ll be playing this for months! To be fair I’m really taking my time, working through the side quests because they’re excellent. Aloy has got to be one of the best lead video game characters in a long time, she’s really good Sony have done a superb job.

[Red Viper]

No idea how people have completed this already, I’ll be playing this for months! To be fair I’m really taking my time, working through the side quests because they’re excellent. Aloy has got to be one of the best lead video game characters in a long time, she’s really good Sony have done a superb job.

Yeah she's great. Just a badass woman trying to get shit done in a world full of idiotic men slowing her down with their bullshit.

I wish more effort had gone into the other characters in the game. Some of the dialogue and cut scenes are a real slog because of how dull some of the side characters are.

[macca007]

Finally finished the game and what I thought was everything else except 1 arena challenge amd I'm 96.05% done and can't see the arena challenge as the only thing I'm missing.

Don't know if it's just me but does anyone else think slaughterspines aren't that hard to beat. Same with tiderippers when you take advantage of their weakness. Actually think of the newer machines shell snappers have possibly been the most difficult to deal with aswell as tremortusks.

Spoiler

Also bit disappointed with tilda at the very end. That and i wish theyd have done more with san fransisco and the quen. They just feel like they been stuck in there. Although i can see a quen based add on at some point.

Actually wish they had a hunters lodge with more very individual machines to go after again. One thing i missed from the 1st game.

[close]

[El Lobo]

Finally finished the game and what I thought was everything else except 1 arena challenge amd I'm 96.05% done and can't see the arena challenge as the only thing I'm missing.

Don't know if it's just me but does anyone else think slaughterspines aren't that hard to beat. Same with tiderippers when you take advantage of their weakness. Actually think of the newer machines shell snappers have possibly been the most difficult to deal with aswell as tremortusks.

Not far enough in yet to have had any of the water robots, but have fought a shell snapper and a Tremortusk and the shell snapper was much harder. Battered the Tremortusk but its always easier when you've got someone else distracting it! I think I'm at level 28ish at the moment and have done a fair few side tasks so probably have better weapons than my level, which is bound to help.

[abs-ibs]

This is, without doubt, THE MOST BEAUTIFUL video game to have ever been produced. The faces of the characters are far beyond any other game I have ever seen. After being an Xbox man since 2004 (due to a lack of PS2's around at the time), I bought a PS4 to play Zero Dawn after watching some of it on Youtube and it was amazing then.

Now however. Sony and Guerilla have completely torn it up again and made an absolutely stunning, immersive, addictive, enjoyable sequel to a game that insanely good, and have bettered it. Incredible.

I have played it for nearly two days and just done 10% of the game, just coz I love roaming around and exploring yet I don't feel like I need to rush to get the main story finished anytime soon.

All the exclusive games of Sony in the last two generations have been excellent. GoW, Ghost of Tsushima, Uncharted, HZD & HFW, Days Gone, Spiderman (both) are just miles better than the games that MS have brought out. The only game that I really liked that was a MS exclusive was Quantum Break. Halo is great but needs to be improved on. And i never really enjoyed the Gears of War series. So other than them and the Forza series, there was never really anything to keep me with Xbox.

Anyhow - I'm off to bed, been up playing this damn game all night lol.

[naYoRHa2b]

GG released an update last night which improves the performance on err performance mode. I played most of the game on fidelity due to the shimmering effect you could sometimes see on performance was distracting for me. I finished it the other night, there's some things I preferred in this one and some things I preferred in the first. The world is much more fun to explore in this, and the world building is better. The facial animation is hugely improved and the side characters feel alot more fleshed out.

I actually preferred the story in the first and even the combat, though the combat in this is much deeper i found it tedious having to scan so many machine parts, it's also not easy to do if you have 3 or 4 machines coming at you at once. You just can't utilise everything at your disposal, between upgrading weapons and the skill tree, I never felt completely comfortable with what I was using.

[Casta]

Wonder if they mess this up? 

https://www.eurogamer.net/horizon-zero-dawn-netflix-project-in-development

[El Lobo]

Cool….but to make it good you’d need a monstrous budget to get the machines right

[El Lobo]

Just finished it (well the main story anyway)

Great game

Spoiler

but I’m really not a fan of it being quite so obvious they’re setting up for another sequel/add-on. I was geared up to see what happened and how the world was put ‘back to normal’ and then ‘oh we’re still fucked tho’

[close]

[macca007]

Just finished it (well the main story anyway)

Great game

Spoiler

but I’m really not a fan of it being quite so obvious they’re setting up for another sequel/add-on. I was geared up to see what happened and how the world was put ‘back to normal’ and then ‘oh we’re still fucked tho’

[close]

I agree with this. Think the ending was disappointing considering the rest of the game and the story. Aside from that I think that san fran is massively underused as is the quen.

[El Lobo]

I agree with this. Think the ending was disappointing considering the rest of the game and the story. Aside from that I think that san fran is massively underused as is the quen.

Yeah I think

Spoiler

once you get the Sunwing override its pretty much a cheat code to the end of the game, so once you're onto that section of the game its all a bit neglected. There's quite a few storylines around that area which take about five minutes because you can fly in, do what you need to do, and then fly back out

[close]

[jackh]

Finished the Zero Dawn story recently, and I've just got a few trophies to collect - hunting grounds and all skills. All skills is going to take a fair amount of skill points I think - do your skills points carry over between the main game and the Frozen Wilds DLC (which was included on my late-purchase disc)?

Not sure whether thread title needs changing to include both main games, or some of the posts on the last page or two should be split off into a Forbidden West thread...?

[SamAteTheRedAcid]

Finished the Zero Dawn story recently, and I've just got a few trophies to collect - hunting grounds and all skills. All skills is going to take a fair amount of skill points I think - do your skills points carry over between the main game and the Frozen Wilds DLC (which was included on my late-purchase disc)?

Not sure whether thread title needs changing to include both main games, or some of the posts on the last page or two should be split off into a Forbidden West thread...?

Pretty sure they do carry over yeah.