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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Gaming Horizon Series: Zero Dawn (PS4) and Forbidden West (PS4/5)

Discussion in 'Community' started by JEDI-SOLO, Feb 28, 2017.

  1. Ahsoka's Tano

    Ahsoka's Tano Force Ghost star 7

    Registered:
    Oct 28, 2014

    A favorite pastime is shooting a herd of Grazers with a fire arrow directly at a canister and watching the explosion.

     
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  2. Jedi Ben

    Jedi Ben Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Jul 19, 1999
    Yup, such a guilty pleasure - I did two of them at once the other night.

    Some time back, I set off a Grazer explosion, pissed off two Sawtooths and they ran into the set of explosive tripwires I'd set up - it was a very cost-effective slaughter.

    EDIT: Time for a new avatar.
     
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  3. Moll

    Moll Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Jan 3, 2016
    Hi Horizon fans!

    I have had a chance to play a bit more recently and took some really nice screenshot and I wanted to share them with you:

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    This is one of my favorites and I have actually set it as my laptop background.

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    As you can see, I am a massive fan of the scenery and this is what I tend to take photos of. I absolutely love the photo mode that you can do, it allows you to take beautiful images. These are just some of the images that I have taken, sorry for so many, but I could not resist as the game is set in such lovely locations.
     
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  4. Jedi Ben

    Jedi Ben Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Jul 19, 1999
    I have yet to explore the Photo Mode.

    It's probably excellent.
     
  5. Ahsoka's Tano

    Ahsoka's Tano Force Ghost star 7

    Registered:
    Oct 28, 2014
    I'm actually a member of the FB group. One thing I can't understand is that whenever someone posts from photo mode it has a little HZD logo at some corner of the screen. I don't get that on mine.
     
  6. Moll

    Moll Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Jan 3, 2016
    It is very good. Allows you to get great angles of scenery :)
     
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  7. Moll

    Moll Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Jan 3, 2016
    I don't seem to get that on mine either, as you can see above. Maybe they are adding the logo?


    Sorry for the double post!
     
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  8. Ahsoka's Tano

    Ahsoka's Tano Force Ghost star 7

    Registered:
    Oct 28, 2014
    Coming in October!

    [​IMG]
     
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  9. Jedi Ben

    Jedi Ben Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Jul 19, 1999
    So, save for 3 cauldrons and 4 bandit camps, all that remains on HZD, some 80-odd hours later is the finale quests.

    It's a strange game: The exploring, acquiring and learning new weaponry, utilising that on robo-enemies ranging from the small to the absolutely ****ing massive is excellent. The story-telling and characters are good, but tends to be better on the sidequests, albeit not equal to Witcher 3. But the main quest gameplay? Too often reverts to the worst videogame bullcrap. The game is set up to be played a certain way and it rewards the player's understanding of that way, but the main quest throws that out the window in favour of straight up fighting which it really isn't designed for! It's as if they ran out of imagination.

    I did a sidequest, Traitor's Bounty, that was just awful and it culminated in 3 guys with super-armour and weapons - not a fun quest by any standard. The sequel to it though, Queen's Gambit, was superb and I took out a Corrupted Thunderjaw no less. Had a quite satisfying resolution too.

    So, started the big next part of the main quest - and yes, enter the humes. Whenever this game throws humans in, it nosedives. Sure, setting up a deathfield of traps is fun, but it's still a pain, very much modelled on the Batman Arkham system, which is now getting on. On one part they spring an ambush, 3 dudes wearing black in a dark corridor - I could barely see them, but they had perfect sight of me! Yes, they still died, but it wasn't good. A later fight decided to go for waves, which is also a pain - I'm done, oh look, they're dropping in - literally - new enemies.

    So, later on I end up in the Sun-Ring where the game decides to strip Aloy of weapons and armour. Great, that's fun, no, it really isn't. So do what I need to get those back and in the fight that ensues I watch a Corrupted Behemoth run straight a solid stone pillar! If it' not doing stuff like that i's always out of camera shot, but the game wasn't finished being an idiot....

    On the next quest I'm sure I was supposed to walk into the village and have a huge fight. Stuff that, I grabbed a high spot and bombed the hell out of them instead. Kept doing that until the last bit where a Corrupted Thunderjaw turns up, so I go about it in the usual fashion - except no damage! Turns out it takes no damage until you get close enough to trigger a cutscene, whereupon the Nora come out fighting and then it takes damage. It's that bad. So, I still took out its weapons, set it on fire and so on, but it was easily the worst way to take one of these on. Strangely there was a Deathbringer in the valley earlier and that just vanishes afterwards - very odd.

    So, went to Gaia Prime - turns out I'd previously explored - and killed everything in - the area, so it was an easy waltz to the entry. After that some rather devastating but very well-executed story sequences hit.

    I finished it off by getting the Shield-Weaver armour, involving some puzzle bollocks that shouldn't have been there - they contributed nothing of worth to it.

    Might finish it tomorrow, might not.
     
  10. Jedi Ben

    Jedi Ben Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Jul 19, 1999
    So, turned out I did need to do the bandit camps after all thus:

    Then I looked and saw a pale horse. Its rider's name was Death

    So it was for the bandits, all the bandits. Save for the last camp, doing these with the Shield-Weaver armour was the definition of overkill, but very fun.

    So the endgame beckons.... One day, one day I'll play an endgame that isn't total arse - to be fair Yakuza 0's was actually pretty good. HZD's really isn't, the best way I can summarise it? Imagine a guy on a balance beam, he takes a few steps forward, slips, cue crushed balls - and the game does that again and again.

    It starts with a boss fight with Helis, who ain't actually man enough to go mano-a-mano, nah he has a load of goons with him, those die quick. But Helis? Oh no, this supposed human takes more ordinance to kill than a damn Thunderjaw! Which really breaks the story completely because he is still supposed to be human, a human does not get to walk through 10+ explosive tripwires - story goes out the window in favour of video game artifice. Still, finally killed the ******** so next bit?

    The next bit has you using the same type of cannon from the Free Heap mission and it's as inaccurate as ever - the game then throws Deathbringers, plus a host of corrupted enemies - Watchers, Scrappers, Longlegs, Ravagers, Bellowbacks then, just for fun, as you've got this crappy, unreliable cannon, throws in a load of Glinthawks and a Stormbird. Yeah, it was as fun as it sounds - not very. So you get through that and it really is more of a chore than the big climatic action sequence it wants to sell itself as and what happens?

    Well, the game strips you of health and then you have to leg to the Spire. Once there you have a Corrupted Deathbringer boss, plus Corrupted minions and a time limit. This is not forgetting of course that the Deathbringer can always regenerate the weapons you blow off it and never runs out of ammo. I did it with 5 mins to spare but was it good? Was it fun? Absolutely not, it was a pain in the arse.

    The storytelling and the characters remained very good to the end, what let it down was the gamewplay and structure of the final quest. The penultimate quest was very well-executed and I was very happy I got the All Allies Joined trophy, which is what I was really going for.

    It'd be fair to say I probably hated around 75% of the main quest, certainly the majority of it - the narrative was excellent but the bits in-between the pieces of it? Far less so, especially the human enemy sections. In contrast I found most of the sidequests, errands and other miscellaneous pieces far, far better.

    The world design is quite brilliant, setting a new graphical standard for the PS4, with a high variety in environments but with a geographical sense of logic to how they work, altitude being a key indicator.

    The robot creatures are a triumph of aesthetic design and gameplay, in that you will have to frequently changes strategy and tactics - it is massively satisfying to take out an entire set of enemies having prepared everything - you can even do this to a Thunderjaw, though be very careful in how you set it off, those things can kill you quick and do not go down easily no matter what preparations you make.

    I racked up just over 88 hours on it, but certain pieces of it did really piss me off. There's also a good few, quite key, mechanics in it that the game doesn't do that good a job of explaining too - the aiming being one example of this.

    Finally it's biggest success is Aloy, as they've created an excellent lead character and hero. One of Aloy's best traits is she's confident without being arrogant or acerbic, she's not a character who is abrasive in order to maintain their 'edge', she's confident enough that she doesn't need to be. As a game character she gets and keeps the player interested, in part this is due to the brilliant opening tutorial which really gives a sense of attachment to the character.

    How do I rate it overall? That's a hard one, it does a whole lot of things very well but that main quest is seriously flawed in its gameplay. A flawed masterpiece? Yeah, that fits. It's going to be interesting to see what they do with the upcoming DLC, hopefully more robots, less humans, at least in terms of enemies.

    It is, in every sense, a very good exclusive for the PS4. It has a gameworld and adversaries like no other and realised in a way that it probably couldn't be until the current generation of consoles came along. Have you played a game like this before? No, you haven't.
     
  11. Ahsoka's Tano

    Ahsoka's Tano Force Ghost star 7

    Registered:
    Oct 28, 2014
    I love even the little details of the open world aspect of the game. In Meridian you can take that elevator down to the village and you can actually glance outside and look at the environment you're about to go into.



    In most games, you'll enter the elevator and after a moment's blank screen you'll be the floor you want to be. It's a cheap trick to save time and effort as opposed to showing the details of the otherwise uneventful ride up or down. And this is a pretty long ride too!
     
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  12. Jedi Ben

    Jedi Ben Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Jul 19, 1999
    Yeah, there's also about 3 different elevators and they all have different views at night and day - there's a huge amount I like about this game.

    That main quest though....
     
  13. Ahsoka's Tano

    Ahsoka's Tano Force Ghost star 7

    Registered:
    Oct 28, 2014
    I'm still taking my time with the main quest. It was funny yesterday. I took a side quest from Meridian that took me on the outskirts of the city, and I "accidentally" ran into Erend and started a main quest task (searching for what really happened to his sister). After completing that, I went back to the side quest that wasn't too far away.
     
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  14. Jedi Ben

    Jedi Ben Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Jul 19, 1999
    It's a really good quest line that. One thing I'll say is the Ally quests are all well worth doing.

    Back to the details, you know the descent from Daytower? When you really enter Carja territory? First time I went down it, it was night-time and it looked stunning with the torches and the light effect on the rock tunnel walls. Some time later went back in day time - it was still very impressive.
     
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  15. Ahsoka's Tano

    Ahsoka's Tano Force Ghost star 7

    Registered:
    Oct 28, 2014

    May be some ways away, but eventually I'm gonna get a 4K TV and will get to see the details in their true glory!
     
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  16. Jedi Ben

    Jedi Ben Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Jul 19, 1999
    Oh, so you've got the Pro then? Yeah, it'll be something to see all right.
     
  17. Ahsoka's Tano

    Ahsoka's Tano Force Ghost star 7

    Registered:
    Oct 28, 2014

    I don't have the Pro. I really don't have an intention of getting it unless something happens to my original console.
     
  18. Jedi Ben

    Jedi Ben Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Jul 19, 1999
    Ah, I thought the higher graphics setting was restricted to the Pro, not just a case of having a 4K TV.

    (Not that I've got one or will be getting one any time soon.)
     
  19. Ahsoka's Tano

    Ahsoka's Tano Force Ghost star 7

    Registered:
    Oct 28, 2014

    It probably is restricted to the Pro. I'm pretty sure there's an option in the settings menu of the game to up the ante on the graphics; but it's grayed out for me. I assume it only appears with a Pro console.
     
  20. Moll

    Moll Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Jan 3, 2016

    Oh My gosh! They are sooocool! :eek:
     
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  21. Ahsoka's Tano

    Ahsoka's Tano Force Ghost star 7

    Registered:
    Oct 28, 2014
    This one's cute.

    [​IMG]
     
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  22. Jedi Ben

    Jedi Ben Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Jul 19, 1999
    We're going to end up with Thunderjaw plushes.
     
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  23. Ahsoka's Tano

    Ahsoka's Tano Force Ghost star 7

    Registered:
    Oct 28, 2014
    Took down my first Stormbird last night. Took me about 10 to 15 minutes to bring down; and that was with some peasants/hunters attacking it as well. Only later have I read there were strategies to bring it down quickly.
     
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  24. SG-17

    SG-17 Jedi Knight star 1

    Registered:
    Sep 4, 2017
    I started my New Game + Ultra Hard playthrough last night. I can't just leave those two trophies sitting there, especially after having the Platinum. Its almost cheating to have the Ancient Armor and the Blast Sling.
     
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  25. Jedi Ben

    Jedi Ben Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Jul 19, 1999
    Even when you know the how, those things are still total bastards to bring down.

    Absolute triumph of animation and aesthetics yeah, but total bastard to kill.

    In some ways Thunderjaw is easier!
     
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