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

I just assumed that the cradle clones kept speaking English and it stuck. Aloy and others can read the technology and notes left behind by the Old Ones and that's English.

 

That’s what I assumed as well. But at some point someone I think Aloy says “looks to be Carja” when talking about a piece of paper she was reading. It’s also possible the Carja were some of the only tribe that actually wrote in English. Since I highly doubt the Tanakh or the Nora wrote things down.


Anyway I decided to go check out Faro’s tomb. His fate is not that surprising. What a ****ing horrible way to live though. Like I am all for living a few extra centuries so long as aging is ceased or drastically slowed down. There is so much to do in just one lifetime after all. But to live like that for almost a thousand years. Christ. Wouldn’t wish that on anyone not even the destroyer of all life on earth.

However it was satisfying to see that annoying CEO I forget his name already get crushed by Ted Faro’s head.

To be the worlds first trillionaire you would need to be so self absorbed and narcissistic, but Ted seemed to be the only one who could get the resources together and save the planet in the 2030s and 2040s. The one good thing about narcissists. They want to survive.

I will end this post here for now
human life finds a way. We are like cockroaches in that regard. I doubt anything minus the earth being destroyed by the sun would actually stop human life. Not even a nuclear apocalypse or a in this case an ever expanding hoard of robots.

The only disappointment is I do wish we could talk to Ted.

 

Well I finished the game. The main quest hooked me to much after the San Francisco missions.


There is just so much to discuss. About the ending and the game as a whole.


First I will say this the game improves upon the first in almost every way imaginable. Take for instance Aloy. She wasn’t my favorite protagonist in the first game, but they really got me to like her this time around. Like a lot.


Also I must say this about both games and I am not really a graphics guy, but these games both look amazing.


This world is just so great. I really hope they don’t stop with a third game and that PSVR stuff. Even outside of Aloy there is so much to do with this universe.


However the stand out character for me continues to be Sylens. He always has a surprise for you. The most surprising thing of all was showing he actually cared. The reason he didn’t take off in the end was because he saw how much Aloy loved her friends. That’s what got him to stay. Not for saving humanity. But because he has grown attached to Aloy. He offered a ride to her because he has grown to trust and like her in his own weird way.


Tilda. It’s a real shame she and the rest of the far Zenith people died. But she was driven insane by her grief over losing Liz the first time. And had 1000 years to think about it. I do have a question about the far zenith people. Why stop at earth at all? Also why not tell the truth. That they are trying to run from a machine. I don’t fault the game for this. I think this was part of it. To show how truly far gone they were. They could not seek help from anyone. They were egomaniac narcissistic immortals who had a 1000 years to continue to think they were better than everyone.


Also don’t think I have forgotten about Varl. Fictional things usually don’t make me choke up but that did. Not his death. I was sadly spoiled on it. Cause I stupidly looked something up about the game once. No it was the aftermath. And not really with Zo. It was after you fishing the game. If you return to his grave you can say how you won, but there is still a battle to be had. That’s what got me. It takes a lot to get me but this game has.


I can now see why my friend wanted me to play these so much.



My hopes for a third game are this.


Please let me change Aloy’s hair style. You let me costumize everything else. Just add it to the pile.


Take us somewhere new again. They didn’t really hint at where that could be like the last game where they mentioned the forbidden west every once in a while.


Lastly don’t end the series with a third game. Again there is still so much to do. That you won’t be able to do all in another game.


Man I loved this series

 

The one thing I didn't like in TFW is the trap / tripwire limitation.

Setting up a load of tripwires in ZD was immensely sayisfying. In the sequel? You eventually get to deploy four. Four.

 

@Jedi Knight Fett what was your favorite go-to weapon? After finishing the game and leveling up some of the Legendary Weapons, I've gotten the hang of using the Spike Thrower. It's pretty effective; just don't throw it right away, hold for a few seconds until the weapon lights up, and then fling it to a machine. It does some initial damage, but after a little while it explodes and you get some massive damage.

 

I forget which one it is. But it’s the exploding spear. You just gotta hit the right places. Although just an old fashion bow is also up there. Just with the PS5 controller all the weapons just feel so good.

I never Used traps. Just relied on on spears and bows. I almost exclusively used bows in the first game. It’s actually why I didn’t like the Hunting lodges. I got to annoyed by that harpoon thing. I already forget it’s name.

mine thing the second game had against it. And maybe I am just dumb as a pile of rocks. But for some of the side quests I had to look up what I had to do. However that barely takes away from the game. Although I don’t like it.

 

Traps are sometimes good when you're in stealth mode against an Apex machine. Did you throw the "exploding spear" or was that just the weapon you slashed with? The throwing "spear" is the Spike Thrower.

The Rope Caster weapons weren't as popular in the new game as they were in the previous one. It's hard to get them to work effectively enough on the bigger machines in this game.

 

I find that with most games that have multiple weapon types I usually just settle for one. Even in games where you can spec into multiple. Maybe I am just lazy. It’s probably also that combat in itself has never interested me as much as any games given story. It’s still important that it’s good. But it doesn’t need to blow me away for a game to be amazing for me.

it’s probably why I never got into Call of Duty and the like. The only major exception is the battlefront series.

 

I take back what I said about the horizon series. It’s map distortion has nothing on death stranding where you walk across America in about probably 100-200 in game miles if that

 

I just wonder how much details of new states are included as you cross borders; compared to the more condensed HFW map.

 

There is nothing recognizable in death stranding at least that I can tell. You don’t even need recognizable buildings just natural landmarks. But no they have squat.

market is good though. Out of the recent games I have played my ranking based on story alone is
Spider-Man
Forbidden west
Zero dawn
Miles morales
Death stranding

all good games worth playing I would say

In other news I might have gotten a friend to play the horizon games. A win for me as it’s another person I can talk to about them

 

So I finished the game last night. I kept putting off the final quest Singularity until I upgraded my armour and favourite weapons, but it seems that made me slightly overpowered at the end, which meant the final boss fights felt a little underwhelming. For instance, fighting Erik wasn't as challenging as fighting the Enduring. And even that aside, the final boss (Tilda's Spectre Prime) didn't feel as big and impressive as the final boss of HZD.

But it was still a good ending and an interesting set up of hopefully the third game.

I would say that storywise, Zero Dawn is still the better game. Forbidden West has got the breathtaking visuals, richness of environments - and flying! (Speaking of, the final credits were simply gorgeous! )

And once again, it's the characters that made it for me. I think my favourite one is Kotallo. Stoic and hard on the outside, but surprisingly sensitive on the inside, and slightly awkward and hesitant to show it.

Varl... You will be missed. But I hope your and Zo's baby will grow up beautiful and strong. And I'm already picturing the gang taking turns in babysitting. Erend would probably be the best.

And Sylens. Well well well, the SOB actually does have a heart after all...

 

A handful of spoilers in there, but I guess since this is the official thread for the game it's all right.

There's a lot of speculation regarding what a potential DLC might be for the game. I like the idea of Aloy returning to the sacred Nora lands with Zo and her baby; where they meet with Varl's mother.

 

I think I'm at the end…I’ve done wings of the ten and then explored sone places I couldn’t go before. Need to wrap up the races (terrible) and start, then finish, machine strike (even worse).

Those two aside, really like the game, but it still feels like its missing the magic the first one had, i just cant place my finger on what that was exactly. Like its just out of reach.

 

Don't bother with Machine strike if it's too frustrating for you. You don't get any special rewards from it. There are some very helpful videos on YouTube regarding the races. It just takes some practice, but also a special technique that helps you get the edge.

 

I haven't bothered with Strike, or the races, and only did like one Hunting Ground.

 

The hunting grounds were meh that I never even touched them in the second game.

 

They're a great way to practice your skills and learn techniques.

 

So HFW has a new update, with the main feature being a new facepoint celebrating pride.



As you can imagine, the homophobe complainers are out in full force; completely ignoring the fact there are blatantly gay characters throughout the game.

 

Shouldn’t they already hate the game? Since the main character from the past is already LGBTQ. The main villain of the second game is also LGBTQ. Well depends on how you define main I guess.

there is also probably a couple other characters who are LGBTQ that I have forgotten. Oh Petra. That Oseram is very gay.

lol this reminds me of when Bethesda added in LGBT player icons and people were throwing a fit. Fallout had gay characters since basically the start. Hell it was created by a gay dude.

I just wish people could just not care who others loved. So long as it’s two consenting adults I really don’t care. But gamers gonna gamer I guess.

 

That's pretty much the point I was making. A handful of people posted about the new facepaint in an HZD/HFW group I follow on Facebook, and there were some whiners about it along with defenders.

 

Eh just tell them if they don’t like it they were obviously playing the wrong game anyway. People confuse me

 

I would usually ask them point blank if they recognize which group they're posting in.

 

I've finally picked up this game again where I left off. Recovered Poseidon, and am now headed for Demeter. Redwood forests looking nice on the way.

 

Rumor mill is claiming that a PS5 remaster/remake of HZD is in the works. If it does end up happening, I hope they use it as an opportunity to fix the game’s stilted facial animations.