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Horizon: Zero Dawn | Review Thread

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T

Truant

Member
The Killzone universe is great, as opposed to the terrible games. I'd love to see a Horizon-style game in the KZ universe.
 
L

Lifejumper

Member
vivekTO said:
Somebod stop this man!!

43ba4c84_o.png
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Lmao. Was yoshida responsible for greenlighting Horizon?
 
S

Salex_

Member
Rozart said:
The combat sounds so good. A lot of reviewers place a lot emphasis on the importance of having a battle strategy too. This is great stuff.
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Universal combat praise. Nice to see this coming from a WRPG. I hope they continue refine the combat and add more depth (specially the melee which seems to be the weakest part) in the sequel.
 
D

Donniewahlberg

Banned
Truant said:
The Killzone universe is great, as opposed to the terrible games. I'd love to see a Horizon-style game in the KZ universe.
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I could get behind that, KZ had a very cool aesthetic and an interesting premise. I wouldn't say all the games are terrible but they were definitely very hit and miss.
 
K

KyleOnTheRun

Member
AudioEppa said:
What other games does horizon compared to, storytelling quality wise? For those who completed the game. I'll be playing it next week. But I'm still very unsure on what type of experience I'm getting myself into. For an example, will it be something near TLOU/U4. Or FFXV...
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In the quality of its world-building, and the way it really earns its plot twists and surprises, I'd say... BioShock? That pops into my head as something equally well done.

Apologies for the word wall, but I think a passage from my review really explains this:

The pace and exposition make for truly excellent science-fiction. This is post-post-apocalyptic Earth. Animalistic machines with the appearance of predatory wolves, grazing cattle, ferocious birds, and everything in-between stalk lush forests and vast desert stretches. In the spaces between, pockets of humanity have adopted tribal cultures, placing community and sacred traditions above all else. People have filled in the gaps left by the apocalypse with new gods--and with them, new reasons to go to war and cast judgment. The commentary on our own world isn't subtle, but it's extremely well done. Guerrilla has imagined a future where, reduced to a simpler existence and harsh conditions, humanity's darkest and brightest traits are on display--in the Nora tribe's fanatical devotion to the All-mother, in the Oseram tribe's pragmatic wartime readiness.

The tribes and their starkly unique cultures make Aloy and player alike feel like true foreigners from region to region. Aloy is usually discovering things about her world at the same time you are, which lends intrigue to the journey and its ever-present question: How did we get here? When it comes to answering this question, Horizon Zero Dawn is supremely satisfying. The danger of a world this interesting is that its makers won't follow through on the very questions and concepts that make it so. Too often we've been left hanging in service to a sequel, or because the answers didn't exist yet.

Not so with Horizon. So many questions are raised as the game expertly unfolds its storytelling layers, and nearly all of them are answered. The tale is epic and sweeping, but remarkably self-contained, for which the writing deserves immense credit. This isn't the longest of RPGs, which means dialogue has to quickly and convincingly introduce megaton plot twists that still feel earned, all while avoiding plot holes and feeling believable. Horizon doesn't just do this, it does so often, and sometimes in quick succession. This cohesion elevates Horizon's narrative to masterpiece status. There's allegory and symbolism to unpack if you so desire, but more importantly, Horizon offers a robust, fascinating tale that steps on the gas early and never lets up.
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V

vivekTO

Member
SomTervo said:
Um, yeah, I'm familiar with PCs.

The point is that you had to take the screenshot before the person even made their edit to make a comparison screenshot. So in theory you must screencap like every post you see just in case that happens, like in case someone makes an edit. (Unless there's an easy way to access caches or something.)
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What ??

My dear u are Looking too much into it, its just a snarky comment.
its still there , he still not edited it.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=230654217&postcount=2182

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=230654255&postcount=2188

I should not step this low, its really pathetic!!
 
D

DangerMouse

Member
bombshell said:
Hermen Hulst's reaction seeing the reviews.

https://twitter.com/hermenhulst/status/833625327129731076

Other Guerrilla devs are obviously very happy on Twitter too. Same with Shuhei Yoshida.
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Haha, that's great. Those twitter names too lol.

Wow. Fantastic scores, and really consistent too. The game has looked great so it's awesome to hear that it's really come through in the final game.

galvenize said:
I want guerilla to be as highly regarded as naughty dog is. Good for them.
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Yeah, they have so much potential and have been so good technically and art direction wise and it looks like this really put it all together.
 
W

Weyland Y.

Member
So happy and well deserved for GG. They finally might have a game in their hands that puts them on the same level as Naughty Dog or Rockstar.

I hope Dutch media will recognise the success as well through mainstream television and radio coverage. It'll hopefully result in a decent boost to game development for our little country.
 
J

jacksepticeye

Member
I was one of those people very unsure about this game before release because I thought it looked too much like an Ubisoft game (as was the majority of pre-release criticism). It definitely borrows a lot from other games but it's so much better than I expected.
The world is gorgeous and actually fun to go around. Many open worlds bore me but this one has a real charm to it.
The story is a little lacking at times but it gets to the point and hits all the notes. Not bad, just not spectacular either. Definitely not enough to take away from the game. That being said there is a real sense of intrigue all the time as to what's actually going on in the game and it's fun to explore and uncover truths.
The combat is the part that surprised me most. I really love that I can't just rush into battle. These types of games have a tendency to make you overpowered too soon and thus you can snowball most enemies early on. Not this game. You have to plan a lot of fights in advance and bigger creatures will seriously fuck you up in a couple of hits if not ready.

Overall I'm really impressed with the game
 
Z

Zia

Member
Saw the OP and was prepared to eat all of the crow until I read reviews from writers I actually care about in Eurogamer, The Guardian and Kotaku UK. About what I'd expect from Guerilla. I'm calling an Edge 7, maybe a generous 8.
 
S

SomTervo

Member
O

Omnistalgic

Member
KyleOnTheRun said:
In the quality of its world-building, and the way it really earns its plot twists and surprises, I'd say... BioShock? That pops into my head as something equally well done.

Apologies for the word wall, but I think a passage from my review really explains this:
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This is honestly the most surprising element of the game, the high praise for the story. Colin from Kinda Funny said it's up their with horizon, and his gripes are so small they can easily be overlooked.

Would you say the story here, the lore, is good enough to develop into a book series?

Something like Wool/Shift/Dust or Hunger Games?
 
ISee

ISee

Member
ironcreed said:
So it is going to be a drop dead gorgeous and smooth running beast on my slim as well. Excellent.
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Yes. It's running at 1080p/30 without problems, impressive work. I assumed it would run at 900p after seeing the reveal trailer last e3.

By the way: Kojima's death stranding is apparently going to use the same engine.

X-Frame said:
I'm very curious about this new performance-mode they intend to patch in over the next week. If the game is 99% rock-solid 30 fps on both consoles, what performance is lacking for there to improve upon?
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Probably an unlocked 1080p mode (can reach 60fps). Hopefully more useful then the FF15 60 fps pro mode.
 
R

RyanHardy101

Banned
wild wild rice said:
Not really. The reviewer found it average and explained why in detail.
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I know right? I don't get why people have to deny every opinion contrary to their own.

Ok, USGamer didn't like the game very much, so what? Is it going to influence your opinion on the game? Jesus.

I'm just happy that GG now has the success it deserves.
 
D

daveo42

Banned
Coxy100 said:
yeah pretty weird how metacritic can work. The scores across the board read like a 90.

Will we ever get 90's again this gen?
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Blame Destructoid, USGamer, and the weighting of Metacritic tbh. I'm sure there are valid reasons for the scores they do give, but just over 18% gave it a score of 80 or less while only 5.6% scored below 80 in general. Compare that to 69% of reviews scored at or above the current metacritic of 88, with 64.8% scoring at 90 or above.

Btw, this is based on the current 71 scores available on Metacritic.
 
A

Admiral Woofington

Member
X-Frame said:
Just woke up, wow seeing all these reviews is really incredible. Amazing job GG and Sony, this will just make the next week even harder to get through.



I'm very curious about this new performance-mode they intend to patch in over the next week. If the game is 99% rock-solid 30 fps on both consoles, what performance is lacking for there to improve upon?
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If there's a performance mode being added I can only hope it's so they can have ~60 fps. I mean consistent 30 fps is damn good, but I can always see drops below 30 fps while drops below 60 I might not notice unless it goes under 50
 
B

BannedEpisode

Member
Good reviews. I have to be honest, I expected the reception to be middling after I saw some videos with some distinct jank related to facial animations and dialogue options.

Going to have to check this out.
 
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