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

If that's the invincible outfit that I've heard about, what's to stop you from trying out the hard mode?

 

It is the shielded armour. It's like having 2 health bars where one regenerates after a short while.

I shall consider hard mode but in general I don't enjoy games when the make things Nintendo hard.

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Just finished it.

Beautiful game and can't wait for the expansion

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Blimey - you didn't hang around!

 

Meanwhile I'm taking my time. Trying to figure out the whole Vantage thing.

 

Got nearly 60hrs of playing time and completed all side quests bar the hunter site ones.

Going for vantages ban UK items and a general explore now.

Once done I'll go back and finish witcher

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The good, the bad and the explosive today:

The bad:

Cauldron Sigma, sure it looks pretty but playing was an exercise in frustration - fire vent to get cover? OK, do that - fire at vent, vent stays closed. Bastard. Had I not gotten a lot better with tripwires the Bellowback would have been much harder, but it was still a crappy experience. (Also used a tripwire or two on the Shellwalker)

The excavation site - this ended up being a pain the ass due to one of the corruptors just doing random crap, no pattern or anything - the other? Walked into 4 explosive tripwires.

Oh and when this game ambushes you, it doesn't do it by halves, just about survived a Snapmaw ambush - which wasn't helped by Aloy not doing a Critical Hit when prompted, another time it was Stormbird + Snapmaws! Yeah, stuff that, I legged it.

The good:

Most of the good has been fun with explosive tripwires - it's hugely fun to watch a Sawtooth top itself by walking into a set of wires, 3-4 does it! Took out a load of Forelegs with sneaky electric arrows to the power cells.

A big coup was surviving taking out a Thunderwing! Bunch of Carja turned up to run interference, I managed to knock off its disc launchers, grabbed one and near-killed it - had I known where the other launcher was it would have been over far faster! As it was, it was very satisfying blowing a monsyer robo T-Rex to crap, with its own weapon, then melee'd it to death. Yes, a Thunderwing, a near-death one yes, but still.

The explosive:

So, I took on a Snapjaw pack - set up a brace of protective explosive trips near my position, double fire shot the blaze canisters, then one walked into a tripwire. So did another, the third must have still had its blaze canisters intact and walked into a couple because the entire horizon behind Aloy just went up in flame! It was a big boom - so peaked over the hill to check if anything was still active- nope, just fire and dead robos.

Finally:

Getting some more Shadow weaponry does make quite the difference to Aloy's arsenal. Also pulled off some headshots when going after Olin. Also killed Zaid and saved Nakoa - bye bye bastard.

Meridian is suitably impressive too. Have racked up just over 30 hours and am Lv 28.

It is quite funny watching a punch-up: A pair of Ravagers decided to kill the guards and their Watchers outside the excavation site, so I watched the show, let the Ravagers go off and then went and looted it all!

 

I actually did Cauldron Sigma about a week ago; and I was only around level 14 at that point. My biggest pet peeve of that area was that it was very dark and hard to see the gaps when you're moving from one platform to the other. I fell down several times before realizing where I needed to go.

 

Got it in one!

 

Something I forgot to mention yesterday that was quite cool is I trekked all the way back from the outskirts of Meridian - which might be one thing that really separates PS3 / PS4 games - cities feel like cities and you have all these outlying buildings outside the gates - to the abandoned village to get Lakir, which is also where I set off that massive inferno.

I then headed back to Meridian, but by a completely different route more-or-less, had done a small couple of new route detours on the prior trek but nothing like this and it really showed up the 3d design of the world, that this path links to this bit here and here and so on.

 

A nice accomplishment tonight. It was pretty frustrating trying to knock off the canisters from the fire bellowbacks in the hunting trial; but I finally managed to do it. That's two complete Hunting Ground Trials so far.

 

Well, tonight's mini-run started with aim of getting the fatty meat for the Golden Travel Pack and ended up as far more robo-slaughter with Broadheads, Grazers, Lancehorns, Watchers, Sawtooths, Scrappers and Redeye Watchers all on the menu.

On one I decided to melee a trio of perpetually suspicious Scrappers, which then widened to involve 4-5 watchers, 3-4 more scrappers and 3-4 Lancehorns - with Aloy kitted out for melee armour! So, yes, they all went down and she got to loot about 10 robots, that was followed by doing 6 more scrappers on the other side, by power cell overload.

Yep, my Aloy is definitely very scrappy.

Do have the fatty meat, so that just leaves Fox Skin to get, but that'll be for another time.

 

I actually picked up the Golden Travel Pack over the weekend. In terms of the actual story, I'd imagine I'm still at a very early stage; but I'm going around on errands, Hunting Ground Trials, and seek and override the Cauldrons.

One of the new things I'm working on now is to obtain the materials for the Carja Blazon Medium outfit. I have the shards but need to find and hunt a Glinthawk to get its lens. You've gotta admit this is probably among her best looking outfits.

 

My current armour but I agree the Carja Blazon Armour is impressive looking

 

So, was having an excellent session - I meant to get the Golden Travel pack, as a fire explosion took out a fox with Fox Skin, but it instead ended as robo-slaughter.

This included taking out 2 Sawtooths very quickly. I had a line on a Grazer, so set up 8 blast tripwires - set the Grazer alight, the blast killed it and two others, plus a Watcher. The two now pissed Sawtooths headed my way, right into the wires, one, two dead Sawtooths. Then, a short time later, I'm trying to a Glinthawk from a cliff top, get it, jump down to kill it - instant death kill out of nowhere! Then to add insult to injury there had been no autosave since my last manual save! So all gone - bastards.

So, went back to a killspree - took out numerous Watchers, Scrappers, Sawtooths, even a Glinthawk pack.

Did one kill shot and it was over very fast, the list oif XP points just kept on going - burning, stealth, canister, silent etc.

Got some new outfits too, plus reached the Banuk camp.

Will get the Golden Travel pack on the next playthrough, really.

 

I'm quite a long way away from being able to override a Behemoth machine (have yet to even meet one), but you have to admit this video is pretty amazing anyway.

 

So I explored a bit of the world beneath Meridian - which brings in a rainforest environment! The way they've integrated the different environments with altitude is very impressive.

Done a couple of sidequests, got the Golden Travel pack but also some top-of-the-line outfits and weaponry - there's only one piece of Shadow weaponry left I really want - the War bow. (Yes, there's the sling and rattler, but those can wait.)

Got a little better at doing Snapmaws, but the real coup was on Glinthawks - having the Shadow Ropecaster made bringing those birds down to earth far easier.

 

So did a sidequest where I properly screwed over a Ravager, it lost its cannon, its power cells and then gut lured into death-by-tripwire. Then a bunch of Glinthawks turned up. Say, you know that Ravager cannon that was lying around? Made taking out the birds a hell of a lot easier.

Also managed to take out 3 Stalkers with a tripwire set, one by one.

So, an excellent little mini-session.

 

Yesterday on HZD:

I ran out of explosive tripwires - damn, I knew I'd been using them a lot but even so, thought my Blaze supplies were up to it. Will just have to go a mass Grazer killing spree.

Outside of that surprise, I found the answer to the Q of: Do tripwires work on humans? Yes, yes they do. So set up a chokepoint, lured a load to it by shooting them and the heavy went right into a pair of 'em. Boom and bye. The others followed quickly. This was despite my sniping a guard and the game then deciding to remove the stealth - I was crouched in bushes - and sic 13 enemies on me. So, a few minutes, a couple of health potions, a good amount of dodging and a whole lot killing, they were done too. This was for the Robbing the Rich quest.

Saw my first pair of Behemoths, decided against engaging. Got far better at dealing with Glinthawks - the Shadow Ropecaster makes a difference in the respect. Also, finally completed the Shadow weaponry set bar the sling and rattler.

Found Kendart and that was a pain, the guy is up a mountain and it's hard to tell he's there. Still did that quest, with the most timid Trampler herd ever - I wanted them to charge to their deaths by tripwire, would they hell! I kept shooting, I kept pissing them off, all to no avail - only got a couple of the six to hit the wires. Still, did avoid getting the attention of the Thunderwing duo in the area!

Progressed the Hunting Lodge quest too - really want to hand Ahsis his arse. Also did the quest with Erend, took out load of human enemies and then two Ravagers.

One thing I've noticed on the sidequests is they are trying to make them more than go here, kill this - they're not the equal of Witcher 3, whose influence can definitely be seen, but they're way ahead of Dragon Age / Mass Effect.

Today:

I did Olin's Quest, so having said he'd follow me, what happened? As soon as a guard got suspicious he immediately runs in! If the idiot wasn't immortal.... I take out the heavy, get his gun which then ends up being the most inaccurate piece of crap you ever saw. Still, despite that, they all die. Olin gets his family back which was quite satisfying.

What was funnier was on the way to that location a load of Elite Bandits take on Glinthawks, Scrappers and then a herd Tramplers! It can only end one way - they kill some machines, the remaining machines kill them - I wait until those are gone, waltz in and get a load of stuff free of charge.

EDIT:

Now I've gotten a good way into the game, with the expanded arsenal giving Aloy quite the set of offensive options, it really makes the full stealth section it threw in early on look quite misplaced. There hasn't really been anything since that, I know there is another one or two to come but neither sounds quite as tricky - and Aloy's far more kitted out too.

 

Yesterday when I was playing the game I took down a handful of Glinthawks with the hope that they'd produce a lens for the Carja Blazon Medium outfit. Apparently it's so random some people have said that they've taken as many as 15 down without a single lens. From what I understand, the alternative is to go to Meridian (which I have yet to go to) and purchase the resource from a merchant there.

 

Suppose it doesn't help that I've got 2 of 'em?

 

Lol I actually managed to get one after bringing a Glinthawk down today. I've finally started to work my way West after spending so much time in the eastern portion of the map. I've reached Level 29 now. The next major goal is overriding my second Tallneck.

 

I recently did two Tallnecks - the whole sequence with them is superb, the animation, design, all of it - one thing that happened on one of them is I got spotted briefly by a Longleg! Yes, you can be spotted as you climb!

I've two Tallnecks to go and am in the vicinity of one of them currently.

 

I remember reading somewhere about a gamer questioning the notion of actually having to defeat a Tallneck. Now that would be something.

 

So, got Tallneck 4 - but it 'twas a bastard due to a Snapmaw pack, where one blew the plan to hell by walking onto Aly, another refused to die with a sliver of health and I'm convinced a 4th turned up. After they were finally dead - went and got it.

Had another bastard fight - this time with a Stormbird. Though, first time ever, I tied that bastard down. Used it to do the Shadow Ropecaster Tutorial too. Add in a good few melee strikes, fire and Tearblast arrows and the bugger went down - cue Stormbird trophy for me.

Oh yeah, a Longleg decided to join in, it didn't last long.

I really shouldn't play games when tired, it's not a good idea. Still, coming up on 50 hours on this now.