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Horizon Zero Dawn |OT| The Land After Time

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leng jai

Member
Meridian isn't impressive at all, not sure why so many people found it amazing. It's not even close to something like Novigrad. It feels like a big settlement at best rather than an actual city.
 
Yeah, once that thing is on you it's a pain, spent half my time spin dashing away from it.
It's deceptively fast with it's dash attack. Like really fast.

Meridian isn't impressive at all, not sure why so many people found it amazing. It's not even close to something like Novigrad. It feels like a big settlement at best rather than an actual city.
I don't think it's supposed to be a city akin to Novigrad. Humans are far more tribal in this world than in the Witcher. And Meridian does look impressive.
 

firehawk12

Subete no aware
For me, Meridian looks gorgeous from afar, but underwhelming from inside. Quite disappointed with it, tbh.
Yeah, that's basically how I felt as well. I assume beyond just computing reasons, creating a giant city would be difficult for gameplay reasons because if you aren't going to use that real estate, then you're just making players needlessly navigate a complicated city for no good reason.
 
Have you explored the north eastern side of the map? there's a pure laje there where you can swim and lot's of ruins from the old ones. Also is infested of corrupted Snapmaw and if you reach the edge of the map it doesn't tell you that you're going off limit, it tells you that you can't access that location. Half the Snapmaw are way ahead the forbidden are and there are some graphical glitches that looks like tears of the past.

I can upload a video if necessary.
 
Not to mention those hydraulic jaws. I practically took off all of it's weapons before I fought it and it was still giving me problems, thing has so much health.
I managed to to kill it faster by picking it disc launcher. I feel like facing this and the inevitable multiple enemy in a Cauldron will be hell.
 

CHC

Member
Yeah the towns and settlements are kind of "meh" from a gameplay standpoint. They look impressive from afar, but the game never really gives much incentive to actually visit or do anything in them. They're more or less GTA levels of interaction, which is to say not very much.

I think it might have been nice if the merchants' inventories were not homogenized - i.e; to get the Banuk armor, you had to buy it at a Banuk settlement, etc. As it stands right now, there's little reason to go anywhere other than Meridian.

Not a major criticism since the game's strengths really lie elsewhere, but I would have liked a bit more reason to actually spend time in and explore the various towns.
 
So do you guys farm purple outfit mods from a thunderjaw? Or do the other large machines have a higher droprate? I keep getting only purple weapon mods from thunderjaws
 
I managed to to kill it faster by picking it disc launcher. I feel like facing this and the inevitable multiple enemy in a Cauldron will be hell.
If I am lucky I'll set enough traps to kill the other shit and fight the Thunderjaw solo. That motherfucker is tanky as hell, it just walks through blast traps. It'll take off some parts, but that's it, the traps will not kill it.
 
Welp Im a huge potatoe. All this time I thought Strong Melee attack was to hold R1, and light melee to tap it.
Just did the grazer statue trophy and found out that heavy melee is actually hold R2
It only took me 50hours to figure it out, no bigge
 
If I am lucky I'll set enough traps to kill the other shit and fight the Thunderjaw solo. That motherfucker is tanky as hell, it just walks through blast traps. It'll take off some parts, but that's it, the traps will not kill it.
It seems that for Thunderjaws, tear is your best friend rather than explosives.
 
Have you explored the north eastern side of the map? there's a pure laje there where you can swim and lot's of ruins from the old ones. Also is infested of corrupted Snapmaw and if you reach the edge of the map it doesn't tell you that you're going off limit, it tells you that you can't access that location. Half the Snapmaw are way ahead the forbidden are and there are some graphical glitches that looks like tears of the past.

I can upload a video if necessary.

Found some kind of maelstrom too! :O
 

Rhaknar

The Steam equivalent of the drunk friend who keeps offering to pay your tab all night.
Welp Im a huge potatoe. All this time I thought Strong Melee attack was to hold R1, and light melee to tap it.
Just did the grazer statue trophy and found out that heavy melee is actually hold R2
It only took me 50hours to figure it out, no bigge

dont even have to hold R2
 
When they said "city" I was expecting something more modern. Meridian is charming but without being able to interact with anything or anyone except a few merchants, it does feel hollow.
 

firehawk12

Subete no aware
Whoever designed the Glinthawk hunter trial should be fired. Design an enemy with like zero hit box and surrounded the area with tramplers who keep rushing you and killing the Glinthawks for you. Like what were they thinking?
 
Whoever designed the Glinthawk hunter trial should be fired. Design an enemy with like zero hit box and surrounded the area with tramplers who keep rushing you and killing the Glinthawks for you. Like what were they thinking?

Just go to the outer edge, Tramplers don't go there. And the hitbox is fine.
 

firehawk12

Subete no aware
So do you guys farm purple outfit mods from a thunderjaw? Or do the other large machines have a higher droprate? I keep getting only purple weapon mods from thunderjaws
Stormbirds drop them too, as do the giant Eclipse robot things. It's just that Thunderjaws are so easy to kill.

Just go to the outer edge, Tramplers don't go there. And the hitbox is fine.
I RARELY get the prompt for critical strike. I'm literally running around and on top of them and no prompt ever appears, at least not before they free themselves and I lose them.
 

Rhaknar

The Steam equivalent of the drunk friend who keeps offering to pay your tab all night.
So just to clear this up. There isnt actually a "tamed machines will randomly spawn to help you" mechanic like the giantbomb quicklook seemed to indicate right?

I assume that Jeff had just overrode that snapjaw nearby before the quicklook started and then it aggroed the mobs when he did?
 

firehawk12

Subete no aware
So just to clear this up. There isnt actually a "tamed machines will randomly spawn to help you" mechanic like the giantbomb quicklook seemed to indicate right?

I assume that Jeff had just overrode that snapjaw nearby before the quicklook started and then it aggroed the mobs when he did?
Yeah. The best you can do is have your mount come in to help you.
 
Stormbirds drop them too, as do the giant Eclipse robot things. It's just that Thunderjaws are so easy to kill.


I RARELY get the prompt for critical strike. I'm literally running around and on top of them and no prompt ever appears, at least not before they free themselves and I lose them.

If they fall to the ground via fire arrows, the prompt has an extremely short window because they get up quite quickly.

Otherwise, if they are actually on the ground (as opposed to in the getting up animation), just start doing a R2 heavy attack in the general direction. You can cancel the heavy attack into a critical hit at any time it pops up if you got it into the timing window. The other benefit of that is the R2 heavy attack also repositions you via tracking and often sets you up perfectly to go straight into a critical attack.

That latter aspect is great for all enemies in downed stated. Heavy attack > Critical attack cancel for maximum damage. Sometimes you can even do two heavy attacks and cancel the second one into a critical.
 

Blackthorn

"hello?" "this is vagina"
Like many games of this type, the economy is easily broken. Still plenty of game left and I'm swimming in shards and resources, with all the purple weapons and armour.

I don't scavenge unless there's a purple drop now, so I just tear through the machines like a badass and keep moving. Kinda fun this way, but I do miss the survival aspect of the early to mid game.

I'd love Guerilla to patch in a survivor difficulty like Ubisoft did with Far Cry Primal, especially if it came with some trophies too.

Also fuck me the corrupted zone with the two burrowing assholes was by far the most difficult thing I've done in the game so far. Took me many deaths before I figured out a strategy.
 
Like many games of this type, the economy is easily broken. Still plenty of game left and I'm swimming in shards and resources, with all the purple weapons and armour.

I don't scavenge unless there's a purple drop now, so I just tear through the machines like a badass and keep moving. Kinda fun this way, but I do miss the survival aspect of the early to mid game.

I'd love Guerilla to patch in a survivor difficulty like Ubisoft did with Far Cry Primal, especially if it came with some trophies too.

Also fuck me the corrupted zone with the two burrowing assholes was by far the most difficult thing I've done in the game so far. Took me many deaths before I figured out a strategy.

The good thing about the game is that it never stops being challenging despite you outleveling it. Great job in that regard.
 
When they said "city" I was expecting something more modern.
Meridian has agriculture and relatively advanced irrigation techniques. Compared to most of the other tribes, they're cutting edge.

Meridian isn't impressive at all, not sure why so many people found it amazing. It's not even close to something like Novigrad. It feels like a big settlement at best rather than an actual city.
If Novigrad is your personal baseline post-Witcher 3, prepare for a long string of disappointing open world cities. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 

LiK

Member
Damn, a bunch of new sidequests are popping up in past locations and others that I didn't bother revisiting before beating it. Should keep me entertained while I go trophy hunting.

I really hope they do some form of DLC or expansion.
 

mokeyjoe

Member
I walked past the first sidequest in the game and didn't get to it until after completing the main story at level 46.

Poor guy's been lying there with a broken leg the whole time.
 

Eklesp

Member
Finished tonight at 35 hours. I was too intrigued by the story later on so I skipped lots of the side quests after
Meridian
.

End game
really did not like any of the ending battles starting with Helis. Really felt like they just wanted to throw everything at you by the end.

Loved the first half of the game. Real sense of wonder and awe. The graphics and technique in robot fights really make the game shine.
 
So did the patch affect texture streaming? I'm pretty sure mountains in the distance were always textured. But right now they look like low quality assets.
 

truly101

I got grudge sucked!
I've decided to concentrate on Horizon over Zelda because a) I was simply further along in it and trying to play both of these intently at the same time just isn't feasible for me and b) the constant fellating and overwrought evangelizing of BotW makes me want to have some distance from it for the time being. I really like what I've played, but it can wait.

Its too bad most of the press has focused on Zelda and the Switch (but its certainly understandable) but Horizon deserves to be more of an afterthought. I've really enjoyed the combat, the lore and the overall aesthetics of the game. I've read some people bag on the sidequests as too cookie cutter but I don't agree. Sure, they follow the same well worn templates a lot of open worlds employ, but so do the quests of Witcher 3. I felt these have done a good job in furthering the world building and providing good reasons to explore the environment.

I've had a really good time navigating the overworld, hunting machines, finding my first cauldron (haven't found any others yet) and having crazy battles like
that rock crusher thing, yikes, I barely survived that one

Anyway, I've really enjoyed the game and don't understand why some are already dismissing it from any GOTY conversations. Maybe I'm just not that jaded and cynical.
 

TheFatMan

Member
Took down my first Thunderjaw, Stormbird and Behemoth (Two of them at once!) tonight. Was pretty awesome and came away with a whole bunch of purple mods. Also wrapped up the Hunter's Lodge quest and it was pretty awesome, although I was hoping for a better reward.

Also, some random shit I came across in the wild...not really a spoiler but I'll tag it anyways.

I saw a campsite with two dead bodies in it and went in to check it out. Heard someone yell "Now!" and a damn ring of fire shot up around me and I started gettng pecked with bandit arrows. I was shocked, hadn't seen anything like that in the game thus far 28 hours in. No quest marker or anything, just a random thing.

Game is truly beautiful and I love the side quests and fighting machines. So glad I decided to wait on the Switch until the hype died down and play this instead.
 
Anyway, I've really enjoyed the game and don't understand why some are already dismissing it from any GOTY conversations. Maybe I'm just not that jaded and cynical.

I'm pretty sure it's gonna be up there in the top five for the press and institutes. I'd say it's a lock for game of the year nominee for most awards, might grab some. It depends how many more games break the mold, japanese games aren't always well considered for awards despite being well reviewed so, I'd say outside of Zelda it's the runner up.
 

Balphon

Member
So do you guys farm purple outfit mods from a thunderjaw? Or do the other large machines have a higher droprate? I keep getting only purple weapon mods from thunderjaws

Behemoths seem like the easiest large machines in my experience but I'm not sure if the mod droprate or quality varies between them. They all drop 3 purple mods every time as far as I can tell.
 
Took down my first Thunderjaw, Stormbird and Behemoth (Two of them at once!) tonight. Was pretty awesome and came away with a whole bunch of purple mods. Also wrapped up the Hunter's Lodge quest and it was pretty awesome, although I was hoping for a better reward.

Also, some random shit I came across in the wild...not really a spoiler but I'll tag it anyways.

I saw a campsite with two dead bodies in it and went in to check it out. Heard someone yell "Now!" and a damn ring of fire shot up around me and I started gettng pecked with bandit arrows. I was shocked, hadn't seen anything like that in the game thus far 28 hours in. No quest marker or anything, just a random thing.

Game is truly beautiful and I love the side quests and fighting machines. So glad I decided to wait on the Switch until the hype died down and play this instead.

Yeah, there's several ambushes by bandits and by machines too! I never got caught in bandit ambushes because I always was lucky enough to focus on the grass and discovered them in hidding. Machines tho... they fooled me a couple of times. -_-
 

LiK

Member
I am so friggin' impressed with the story. It was just paced so well even with the open world setting. The main story really came together. The reveals always surprised me or was presented differently than expected. It was just so well done.

Also, the voice acting was amazing across the board. Haven't heard such good consistent performances in a long time in a game.
 

mokeyjoe

Member
Well it's pretty early to say, but it'll definitely be a part of my GOTY thoughts.

At the very least it's the most interesting game world I've experienced in ages. I'm not really into game-based novels or anything, but I'd totally be up for some extended fiction based on this.
 

TheFatMan

Member
Well it's pretty early to say, but it'll definitely be a part of my GOTY thoughts.

At the very least it's the most interesting game world I've experienced in ages. I'm not really into game-based novels or anything, but I'd totally be up for some extended fiction based on this.

It will get a ton of votes I am sure, will most likely win PS4 GOTY, if it can beat Persona 5, which I think it will. I just don't see anything touching the craze that is Zelda this year, especially on GAF which loves Nintendo.
 

mokeyjoe

Member
It will get a ton of votes I am sure, will most likely win PS4 GOTY, if it can beat Persona 5, which I think it will. I just don't see anything touching the craze that is Zelda this year, especially on GAF which loves Nintendo.

I hope so. I mean Zelda will obviously be a popular choice, but it's RDR2 later this year that I'm keeping my eye on. Another technical showcase open world game, and also the sequel to the best game of last gen (imo obviously).
 

Rhaknar

The Steam equivalent of the drunk friend who keeps offering to pay your tab all night.
Like many games of this type, the economy is easily broken. Still plenty of game left and I'm swimming in shards and resources, with all the purple weapons and armour.

I don't scavenge unless there's a purple drop now, so I just tear through the machines like a badass and keep moving. Kinda fun this way, but I do miss the survival aspect of the early to mid game.

I'd love Guerilla to patch in a survivor difficulty like Ubisoft did with Far Cry Primal, especially if it came with some trophies too.

Also fuck me the corrupted zone with the two burrowing assholes was by far the most difficult thing I've done in the game so far. Took me many deaths before I figured out a strategy.

at least shards are also used for arrows
 

TheFatMan

Member
I hope so. I mean Zelda will obviously be a popular choice, but it's RDR2 later this year that I'm keeping my eye on. Another technical showcase open world game, and also the sequel to the best game of last gen (imo obviously).

I've just been assuming RDR2 will get delayed until next year haha.
 

Grisby

Member
Going from Breath of the Wild back to Horizon to finish up the bunkers feels nuts.

Horizon is so smooth while BOTW framerate is so poor a lot of the time.
The armor breaking arrows in Horizon are badass.
It's the sound. That hum followed by a whump is great.

I thought it was a machine weapon at first before I realized it was the arrow making the noise.
Meridian isn't impressive at all, not sure why so many people found it amazing. It's not even close to something like Novigrad. It feels like a big settlement at best rather than an actual city.
Yeah, the populated areas were a disappointment. Witcher killed it with the townsfolk but in Horizon? Not so much.
 
Shit, is there no way to get the power cell from the 'heart of the mountain' area after you've left? Trying to get that armor but that area's blocked off after that early mission.
 
Shit, is there no way to get the power cell from the 'heart of the mountain' area after you've left? Trying to get that armor and but that area's blocked off.

Pretty sure you can get back into every area... I think that part you have to sneak through a little crack in the wall or something like that.

Also, if that's not what you are talking about, there are some YouTube videos on how to get back into certain areas that seem gated off once you leave.
 
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