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Horizon Zero Dawn |OT| The Land After Time

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I tried to overlap the Horizon map with the real world: Link
The Horizon map has a slight abstract scale (I believe it should have gone a tiny bit more south, maybe west, if it was to map 1:1 with real world).
And obviously those distances can't be reached by 30 minutes in the real world.

I actually wish it went more east. Too much of the map is desert IMO
 
I was looking at the IGN quest list of quests you need to complete to get the best ending. The one puzzling me is
Sunstone Rock.
Is this a proper quest I need to activate or do I just show up to a certain place? If it's a proper quest, how do I begin it?

I'm gonna guess this is referring to part of a quest where you have to visit three places for a sun priest in Meridian, I did it earlier and visited that location.
 

hydruxo

Member
I tried to overlap the Horizon map with the real world: Link
The Horizon map has a slight abstract scale (I believe it should have gone a tiny bit more south, maybe west, if it was to map 1:1 with real world).
And obviously those distances can't be reached by 30 minutes in the real world.

I was kind of hoping the map was further down to the southwest so that the
Four Corners monument would be in the game. Would've been cool to stand in that spot between all four states.
 
I'm gonna gues this is part of a quest where you have to visit three places for a sun priest in Meridian, I did it earlier and visited that location.

I just did that quest earlier today and it definitely wasn't that. I know where this place is so I'm just gonna show up there and see if that triggers it.
 

MaKTaiL

Member
I actually wish it went more east. Too much of the map is desert IMO
Just a reminder that
Earth has been terraformed multiple times on a span of 350 thousand years until it reached perfection.
It's entirely possible to have desert in the area. Actually you see it was the complete opposite when reaching the Vantage points.
 

ActWan

Member
I've reached
Meridian
and did some sidequests and I'm pretty overwhelmed. lvl 21 and I still don't think I can take on a Thunderjaw (hell, even Sawtooths still give me chills).
The largest machine I've killed is probably the
Ravager
, and it was really hard too.
I just love this aspect of the game - all the planning and hitting weak spots of machines with specific arrows plus planting strategic traps...and I still have the feeling that no fight can be cruised by, I always have to be concentrated and can die at any moment.
I think some hunting quests will be good for me, as I have the sling and I don't use it at all.
 

Ashhong

Member
Quick question, all of these parts and stuff that say "used for selling for metal pieces", is that really ALL they're used for? I'm hesitant in selling them because I'm worried I might need it later for some special weapon or some shit. Things like Watcher Heart or something
 

Balphon

Member
Of the bigger dinos, I think it is. Stormbirds, Rockbreakers and Behemoths are way more intimidating. Bellowbacks might be easier though.

Behemoths are pretty simple. Just blow one or both of their freeze canisters and spam hardpoint arrows at them, they'll die before they can do much of anything.

Stormbirds telegraph their attacks and don't really do much but fly around.

Rockbreakers are the only ones that are more difficult to deal with than Thinderjaws.
 

mokeyjoe

Member
My approach tends to be stay away, stay in cover, and aim for the weak spots. It's hardly spectacular, but it is effective.

Also, overridden machines are great distractions.
 

Skux

Member
Quick question, all of these parts and stuff that say "used for selling for metal pieces", is that really ALL they're used for? I'm hesitant in selling them because I'm worried I might need it later for some special weapon or some shit. Things like Watcher Heart or something

No - you'll need Hearts and some other items to buy the better gear, but you can buy these later on. You may want to keep one or two of them just in case.

Anything Ancient you can safely sell.
 

nel e nel

Member
- Aloy is a wonderful main character. She controls and animates flawlessly, and personality wise she's incredibly likeable. They did a great job with her design, it's logical and attractive at the same time. Aside from Aloy, I would struggle to name a single other character in Horizon that was interesting or memorable. I honestly don't care about anyone in this game outside of the main character. They're obviously high fidelity but there's something robotic about all of them, like they're devoid of any genuine personality.

- Sound design ranges from incredible to slightly above average. Guess which part sounds incredible? Yeah, the dinobots. They sound suitably aggressive and the mechanical creaking is really convincing. There's an appropriate sense of dread whenever you hear a Rockbreaker or Snapmaw approaching in the distance. Again, the audio for everything else is a step down. The ambience in the open world is decent, but it's nowhere near as immersive as RDR or Witcher 3. It certainly doesn't marry as well to visuals. Set pieces also sound a bit lacklustre, they're not as bombastic or detailed as I'd like. Even the soundtrack is at its best in epic dinobot fights and largely forgettable everywhere else. Horizon is still a great sounding game, but it's not consistent like the visuals are. The Killzone games also sound great but inconsistent, so essentially they've kept their standard but failed to improve.

- I'm not too far in, but I loved how goofy Sona was.

- I agree about the sound, but I see it more as a problem with the mixing. I usually have to turn down the music and effects levels in games because oftentimes they are all cranked up to eleven and it's hard for me to hear dialogue. With Horizon I have everything at full volume and much of the sound is on the flat side.
 

jdstorm

Banned
Hmm. Might have to switch up and see. But with tear mods don't you lose fire mods? Do you just leave standard fire damage or have another hunter bow with fire mods on?

I could perhaps see starting out with the tearblast arrow and then switching to the hardpoints - rate of fire for the first shot isnt an issue from cover at least.

Are there any stats on rate of fire of the different bows?

You can find some purple mods that can have both on them, but yeah you are sacrificing Fire Damage. But Regular Fire Arrows will still do solid amounts of Damage. Especially if you freeze your enemies first.

You can also set a bunch of enemies on fire by exploding weakpoints or equiping a slingshot with fire damage or the Shadow tripcaster has fire/explosive damage
 

mokeyjoe

Member
Quick question, all of these parts and stuff that say "used for selling for metal pieces", is that really ALL they're used for? I'm hesitant in selling them because I'm worried I might need it later for some special weapon or some shit. Things like Watcher Heart or something

Yeah it really is.

Tbh you can sell the 'trade with merchants' stuff too for the most part, seeing as you can buy the pieces you might need from the right trader anyway. They are expensive, sure, but i was never short of shards in this game, and they don't fill up the inventory. There's not a lot of point in hording.
 
I just did that quest earlier today and it definitely wasn't that. I know where this place is so I'm just gonna show up there and see if that triggers it.

Ah wait, sorry, I got that totally confused with the names, I was thinking of elsewhere. I have did a mission at sunstone rock today. When you arrive at sunstone rock
there should be Behemoths attacking? When you defeat them, the guard inside gives you a mission
I haven't actually looked at the requirements for best ending, but that is a thing that happens there. Could be it.
 
I'm at 70.34% completion and I've only gone five minutes into Meridian's main quest. ahhhaaa Seriously, I'm a stickler for story in open world games, this has never happened before. I think it's because it is still quite thrilling just wandering around - enemy combinations, enemy density, etc. I never feel like my time is being wasted moving from Point A to Point B, because there is always some to encounter on the way, or items to pick up. Even with a ton of purple mods now, one wrong move can still lead to disaster and a hemorrhaging of health potions. I don't think I've seen an open world game empowering you whilst still keeping you on your toes, the balance is extremely impressive. There is a constant threat if you become complacent.

I don't mind the side-quests, but some are definitely more exiting than others. At least there aren't that many side-quests to begin with, and I like that they don't automatically pop up on your map unless you're close by. I think they could have removed the filler side-quests, and just left the really distinct ones. The side-quests in Meridian were a step up from the ones on the east side of the map. 'Heap of Trouble' has been my absolute favorite thus far - amazing quest giver in design/writing/voice work, awesome weapon, fun (and surprisingly large) level design for the side quest. I actually laughed out loud twice, awkward Aloy was something I hadn't seen yet.

I finished off all the Cauldrons, too,
XI spoiler-spoiler!
was a huge surprise, definitely one of my memorable areas in the game thus far. I'm pleased the Cauldrons never ended up feeling too repetitive, which could have easily happened. Ditto to the areas surrounding the Tallnecks.

Also, thank you to the person who mentioned there was, you know, actual readable info on the Flowers/Vantage points/Banuk figures. I never clicked on them to realize, I feel rather stupid. I'm looking forward to giving them a read.

They have already reduced the disc launcher ammo from 12 down to 8.

Oh, is that what happened? I couldn't understand why 2x Disc Launchers wasn't taking them down all of a sudden, I thought I was doing something wrong. My Shadow Rattler easily makes up the difference, at least.

After watching me fight through the proving my 7yo daughter disappeared and came back dressed as Aloy. Replete with toy bow, a quiver attached to her shorts and she even fashioned herself her own focus device out of cardboard.

When I overrided a Strider, she even went to get a toy tricycle to pretend she was on a Strider.

Guerilla done something very right with Aloys character. I've never seen my daughter connect with one of my games like this before, and anyone arguing we don't need gender diversity in games is wrong.

Though I was not happy when she pinged me in the side of the head with one of her arrows.

Great game so far, really intriguing. Bring on OT2!

That is absolutely amazing - outside of the arrow to the head, of course! I'm looking forward to seeing Aloy inspire a generation of kids, props to GG and Sony for doing such a wonderful job with Aloy.
 
Ah wait, sorry, I got that totally confused with the names, I was thinking of elsewhere. I have did a mission at sunstone rock today. When you arrive at sunstone rock
there should be Behemoths attacking? When you defeat them, the guard inside gives you a mission
I haven't actually looked at the requirements for best ending, but that is a thing that happens there. Could be it.

Yup. That's exactly what happened.
 
After watching me fight through the proving my 7yo daughter disappeared and came back dressed as Aloy. Replete with toy bow, a quiver attached to her shorts and she even fashioned herself her own focus device out of cardboard.

When I overrided a Strider, she even went to get a toy tricycle to pretend she was on a Strider.

Guerilla done something very right with Aloys character. I've never seen my daughter connect with one of my games like this before, and anyone arguing we don't need gender diversity in games is wrong.

Though I was not happy when she pinged me in the side of the head with one of her arrows.

Great game so far, really intriguing. Bring on OT2!
lol, that sounds cool!

Agreed on the diversity too.
 
dhhxTbg.gif
 
the most recent patch made it noticeably worse

This is disconcerting. I hope they fix it.

I had one really jarring instance where the terrain rose up into little hills before dipping down low on an incline, and when I ran up over the hill a very large patch of grass and ground and detail that wasn't in my line of sight all popped in at once. This was in the area outside the entrance to the first cauldron. It was the worst I've seen from this game, in terms of performance. Luckily that only happened once, but little things like rocks on the ground in the Cauldron were popping up as well.

Overall, the game is stunning and really polished, but pop-in bothers me more than anything else while I'm gaming. Even more than drops in frame rate.
 

Wollan

Member
I love the concept of the Stalkers. The
signal-flare traps going off with these is very atmospheric and reminding of Predator/Vietnam. Soon after you will see the stealth shimmers moving down a cliff wall...
They are highly agile, keeping their distance and pumping you full of darts. Lean cats/chameleon mix. I only wish they could take an even stronger beating.
 
Just a brief summary of my thought on the game.

What I like:
- The combat system. The meat of the game, and GG nailed it.
- They somehow managed to make finding collectibles fun. Finding those metal flowers usually takes me to interesting places with interesting machine encounters.
- Gorgeous world and machine designs.
- The weapon wheel.
- Create a quest system, sadly doesn't work for racoon skin.
- The last chapter. SPOILER
When the people you helped along your journey came to help defending the spire

What I don't like:
- Collecting things for crafting.
- NPCs. I find some of them interesting, like Petra and the chick with abs, but they aren't fleshed out enough.
- The settlements do not feel alive. This one is understandable as this was GG's first foray into the genre.
- Too many tracking quests.
- Human enemies.

What I want to see in the sequel:
- Equipment system needs to be revamped that you'll be able to mix and match armor.
- Cauldrons to be designed more like psi and sigma, rather than rho or zeta-
- sea and sky battles
 

Ason

Member
Quick question, all of these parts and stuff that say "used for selling for metal pieces", is that really ALL they're used for?

Just to be clear.

If it only says 'sell for metal shards', that item isn't used for anything else, and it is safe to sell.
 
Wow I really enjoyed the story though I think the pacing led to the mysteries being revealed in batches rather than like puzzle pieces to be fit together. Easy plat as well.
 

TheMan

Member
picked this up thursday, it's dope so far.

question, are all the human enemies arrow sponges? I mean I get that Aloy would be, but I hate it you shoot a human in the fucking head and they shrug it off.
 
picked this up thursday, it's dope so far.

question, are all the human enemies arrow sponges? I mean I get that Aloy would be, but I hate it you shoot a human in the fucking head and they shrug it off.

Shooting a human in the head (with the high impact best arrow) will give you a 1 shot kill even on very hard if they are not wearing a helmet/mask.
 
Best moment of the game IMO
Is when Slyens rescues you from the arena and then you ride all the way across the desert back to your village, with that one gorgeous track playing the whole time. And then you get there and shit's on fire and there are deathbringers all over the place.
 

Chance

Member
The "freeze status + triple precision/hardpoint arrow (+damage mod)" combo is so fucking OP, just wrecked those two corrupted rockbreakers using that strategy lol

Freeze + precision is always my go-to. I'd never fought a
Rockbreaker
, but the stories here had left me super-intimidated. Then one day I stumble into the corrupted zone with 2 of them, go to my comfort zone, freeze and exploit the giant glowing weak spots on their back and I'm like "wtf was everyone complaining about?"
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Just finished. Credits rolling as I type this.

Holy shit, what an experience. Amazing game through and through. 11 out of 10 marks for the visual presentation. Story was also better than I expected. Game play started off slow but once you get the multitude of ranged weapon options and skills to knock down enemies easier with melee, combat becomes real fun.

Here's hoping this turns into a viable franchise and we get a Horizon 2 sooner rather than later.

And Platinum'ed along with the first time finishing the game, no need to grind. Few games engross me this much that I literally complete everything before finishing the story.


Also, I'm no SunhiLegend but heres' my first attempt at a Horizon .gif using PS4's share factory, not sure how to increase resolution size.

sharefactory_20170311qdkd0.gif
 

Falchion

Member
I'm doing this side quest in the mountains and a Stormbird that I have to beat is fucking my shit up. I can only get like a fourth of its health down before he stomps all over my shit.
 

pixelation

Member
Question to folks with BotW and Horizon, which one do you find to be the better game in your opinion?, if BotW were a new IP like Horizon is... leaving Zelda brand attachment behind, do you guys still think that BotW is the better game?, i haven't played either so i'm wondering.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
I'm doing this side quest in the mountains and a Stormbird that I have to beat is fucking my shit up. I can only get like a fourth of its health down before he stomps all over my shit.

Is it for the "Acquired Taste" side quest ?Just finished that an hour ago myself. Use tear blast arrows on it's big center piece so it stops doing its electro attacks, you can tear off the components on it's wings as well. You can always use ropecaster to bring it down and give you more time to pluck it full of arrows.

Hitting the canisters on its back (preferably once its down) yields a lot of damage. If you have the notch 3 arrows at once, that should help you out.

Storm Birds are my favorite enemy in the game, the fights with them are always pretty damn thrilling and engaging. This is from the same fight :
 

leng jai

Member
Question to folks with BotW and Horizon, which one do you find to be the better game in your opinion?, if BotW were a new IP like Horizon is... leaving Zelda brand attachment behind, do you guys still think that BotW is the better game?, i haven't played either so i'm wondering.

Two completely different experiences and design philosophies, there's almost no point in comparing them. Zelda is probably a better game but they're both undeniably great.
 

Wollan

Member
So who's Aloy's potentially best suited love interest?
She seemed to cooly turn down everyone except
Varl which she agreed to come see later
.
She seems to like
Erend
but maybe not as a steady partner.
 
I had no idea there were criteria for the best ending until I read your post, maybe I should double check that before the end... I'm about 40 hours in now, don't really fancy spending this amount of time and getting a poor ending :L

It's really just a list of quests you need to complete before the final mission.
 

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
Just took down
Red Maw
with Talanah and it was a much tougher fight than I was expecting at level 42 decked out in purple everytthing and several normal Thunderjaws under my belt. Hope they do more legendary robos in the future as DLC or in a sequel.

Also the Shadow Stalwart armor is also the best looking armor, even the Heavy version is pretty nice looking.
 
So who's Aloy's potentially best suited love interest?
She seemed to cooly turn down everyone except
Varl which she agreed to come see later
.
She seems to like
Erend
but maybe not as a steady partner.

Varl fucked up when he said
he wanted to worship her
 
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