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Horizon: Zero Dawn | Review Thread

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atr0cious

Member
review that serves no purpose other than to voice the reviewers opinion that she didn't like
Literally every review and critique is this. I've already talked about the review. They found the narrative logic to be too cliche as someone who is constantly shunned and told to stay apart by her mentor is still a plucky errand boy for the ones who shunned her. When a game is hanging part of its weight on narrative, it's gonna be weighed as such. They talk about how the fetch quests aren't that great and get repetitive, which other outlets agree with. It has as much merit as the next which says the game is revolutionizing the genre.

Have you read the review? It's filled with many paragraphs and hints to why it was scored the way it was:

USGamer said:
Horizon Zero Dawn waddles in an identity crisis. The game is action-packed and "open world" to the fullest extent of the definition, but then it shoves you into another battle of running in a big circle, flinging arrows aimlessly at your devilishly (and as the game drags on, redundant) massive target. It urges you to embark on bountiful side quests, but the bulk of them feel pointless and distracting to the central, pressing conflict. It attempts to tell a grand science fiction tale of humans and the mistakes we make with technology, but its central heart feels cold and unearned, and grows increasingly reliant on boring information dumps.(waypoint had similar issues)
I feel the same way about watch dogs 2 at the moment, though I did enjoy the broad narrative and characters, after the first maybe 7 hours, you've basically seen everything the game is gonna show you mechanically. I would come back to the game,wonder what to do, do a couple missions (which all sort of run together, though some spaces they created are really cool) then just run around the world just kind of fucking around till I turn it off.

You obviously care.
 
So... Going back to Horizon reviews. Any other major outlets that haven't released their review yet? Edge is also taking its sweet time to appear in MC and get that score up to 89. LOL

Green man gaming is selling the digital copy for $55.99. $4 off but still better than $60.

How do PS4 pre-orders work with GMG? Do they provide the game code as soon as preload is made available or do they only provide them on the actual day of release? Also, the screenshot above seems to imply that they're already accepting orders for HZD but it still says Coming Soon for me. Thoughts, anyone?
 

King_Moc

Banned
This is ABSOLUTELY a thing that happens with high profile games. Not "only" good reviews because of its pedigree, but there's some inflation built in.

GTA4 is the poster child for this one. Absurdly high reviews for that one. Dark Souls 2? Probably the same.

FFXIII may be an even better example: reviews for the sequel almost universally noted that "this game is better than its predecessor" yet scores were lower across the board.

There's a lot of reasons for this, from reviewers wanting to avoid backlash, to advertiser pressure, to reviewers themselves buying into hype, but it's obvious that it happens for certain established titles.

Not just Zelda, but many Nintendo games.

It's mostly true.

That's cool. All three of you need to watch more videos of the new Zelda game. And maybe play on something other than just your Playstation every now and then.
 
So... Going back to Horizon reviews. Any other major outlets that haven't released their review yet? Edge is also taking its sweet time to appear in MC and get that score up to 89. LOL

All of the major sites and mags are accounted for now with Edge's review coming in. If Metacritic does weight sites, then it'd be hard for any of the smaller sites to really pull it in either direction.
 

Loudninja

Member
All of the major sites and mags are accounted for now with Edge's review coming in. If Metacritic does weight sites, then it'd be hard for any of the smaller sites to really pull it in either direction.
Yeah about 20 or so reviews to go I imagine.

The Last Guardian has 109.
 
So... Going back to Horizon reviews. Any other major outlets that haven't released their review yet? Edge is also taking its sweet time to appear in MC and get that score up to 89. LOL

There's one or two 9.5 yet to appear on MC besides Edge 9 so it's pretty much at 89, it just needs to be updated.

There's nothing as big left like Edge but Playstation Magazine from UK and Australia reviews are yet to be known, same as Time's and Sidney Herald and others.
 

pixelbox

Member
That's cool. All three of you need to watch more videos of the new Zelda game. And maybe play on something other than just your Playstation every now and then.

Breh, a good game is a good game no matter what.

You folks need to let this go. Zelda as a franchise has a consistent level of quality. The reviewers are supposed to mark it down because it's Zelda or something?

Chill im not saying it's bad. It was a blanketed statement. Nostalgia will make anyone bias and most reviewers are from the 80's/90's. I wonder if it would have the same impact with 18-20 year olds.
 
There one or two 9.5 yet to appear on MC besides Edge 10 so it's pretty much at 89, it just needs to be updated.

There's nothing as big left like Edge but Playstation Magazine from UK and Australia reviews are yet to be known, same as Time's and Sidney Herald and others.

All of the major sites and mags are accounted for now with Edge's review coming in. If Metacritic does weight sites, then it'd be hard for any of the smaller sites to really pull it in either direction.

Ahhh, great to know. Thanks for the info! Not that MC is the be-all-end-all of game quality, but it'll be sweet if HZD can hit 89. But hey, 85 is the new 90 so this is great as it is!
 
Literally every review and critique is this. I've already talked about the review. They found the narrative logic to be too cliche as someone who is constantly shunned and told to stay apart by her mentor is still a plucky errand boy for the ones who shunned her. When a game is hanging part of its weight on narrative, it's gonna be weighed as such. They talk about how the fetch quests aren't that great and get repetitive, which other outlets agree with. It has as much merit as the next which says the game is revolutionizing the genre.

Have you read the review? It's filled with many paragraphs and hints to why it was scored the way it was:

I feel the same way about watch dogs 2 at the moment, though I did enjoy the broad narrative and characters, after the first maybe 7 hours, you've basically seen everything the game is gonna show you mechanically. I would come back to the game,wonder what to do, do a couple missions (which all sort of run together, though some spaces they created are really cool) then just run around the world just kind of fucking around till I turn it off.

You obviously care.

I mean, if you don't find the core of the game — the exhilarating battles against robotic creatures — entertaining, then you aren't going to enjoy the game much. If you don't enjoy the combat loop in Monster Hunter, you aren't going to enjoy that game, either. Thankfully, it's almost universally liked, so these outliers are just that — outliers.

Also, whoever gave this game a 2.5/5 has lost absolutely all credibility with me.

Guys, this game is really really good.

See, this is totally fine. You've now played the game and can put less stock in that reviewer's opinions since you disagree here. It doesn't mean their opinion is invalid, of course.
 

Lady Gaia

Member
But its their opinion™

It is indeed. Do you really think they're the only person on the planet who will think the game isn't really their cup of tea? Chances are that one review out of nearly a hundred may even underrepresent the portion of the gamer population who won't be especially enamored of the game.

Why the GamerGate contingent alone has clearly already decided to hate the game without playing it. So they clearly exist, and they're welcome to their opinions, however toxic. The likelihood that they're going to be hugely outnumbered is quite reassuring. I'm certainly expecting to enjoy the heck out of it.
 

King_Moc

Banned
Chill im not saying it's bad. It was a blanketed statement. Nostalgia will make anyone bias and most reviewers are from the 80's/90's. I wonder if it would have the same impact with 18-20 year olds.

Yawn. Your argument is tired. It not being a new IP somehow means the new IP is better? Read what people are saying.
 

pixelbox

Member
Hmm, you are not helping either.
Especially if he doesn't know what's in people's homes. Nostalgia will always, play on feelings. Personally, when I see Zelda i see survival games like 7 days to die and a bit of souls with the weapon durability. Some skyrim influence with some witcher. I see the charm.
 

pixelbox

Member
Yawn. Your argument is tired. It not being a new IP somehow means the new IP is better? Read what people are saying.
You're putting words in my mouth. I never said HZD was better or worse, but you'd be a fool to ignore nostalgia. How did the last zelda get a 10? Hype plays too.
 

reKon

Banned
This seems like the type of game that I'd actually try to platinum and be happy about it. I never try to platinum anything, lol (I'm 84% there on FFXV without realizing it).
 

Loudninja

Member
People Zelda has zero to do with this topic please take it elsewhere before the thread gets locked, the mods warn us already.

This seems like the type of game that I'd actually try to platinum and be happy about it. I never try to platinum anything, lol (I'm 84% there on FFXV without realizing it).
The trophies don't seem all tat hard for the game.
 

atr0cious

Member
Chill im not saying it's bad. It was a blanketed statement. Nostalgia will make anyone bias and most reviewers are from the 80's/90's. I wonder if it would have the same impact with 18-20 year olds.
Nostalgia doesn't factor when something is constantly present, that's just called remembering the last one. Are reviewers suffering from nostalgia over naughty dogs offerings?
I mean, if you don't find the core of the game — the exhilarating battles against robotic creatures — entertaining, then you aren't going to enjoy the game much. If you don't enjoy the combat loop in Monster Hunter, you aren't going to enjoy that game, either. Thankfully, it's almost universally liked, so these outliers are just that — outliers.
The thing is, you try to make a gameplay differentiater with robot dinosaurs, when really you should be saying, if you don't like battling against multiple varied creatures. Robot textures are cool, but in comparison to monster hunter it comes up a little short, as the robot motif and how they have applied it to weak points, allows easier and quicker ways to kill an enemy in horizon, while in MH, you have to use logic and community knowledge, especially if you're trying to make armor, not to mention the multiple fully featured weapon types.

It's good a lot of people didn't mind it, and maybe you'll be like minded. But others, even the EiC of US Gamer and not just a "rookie staffer" don't care for all the game is trying to do, and that's fine too.
 

Tubie

Member
I can't remember the last time I was so hyped for a game.

I even worked extra today in order to have more time to play on Tuesday and Wednesday.
 
This seems like the type of game that I'd actually try to platinum and be happy about it. I never try to platinum anything, lol (I'm 84% there on FFXV without realizing it).

I think I read somewhere that the game is pretty good to platinum because it makes you explore it in a good way... or maybe I am inventing it. :p
 

Chamber

love on your sleeve
This last page...
dame2.png
 

atr0cious

Member
You're putting words in my mouth. I never said HZD was better or worse, but you'd be a fool to ignore nostalgia. How did the last zelda get a 10? Hype plays too.
You should actually read the review. Ss is considered to have one of if not the best story of the franchise and a lot of players would be more than happy. But adding arguably perfected motion controls and utilizing them in some franchise high dungeons, is more than enough for some to place it so high. And how come MM, my person #1, or TP didn't get 10s?
 
Nostalgia doesn't factor when something is constantly present, that's just called remembering the last one. Are reviewers suffering from nostalgia over naughty dogs offerings?
The thing is, you try to make a gameplay differentiater with robot dinosaurs, when really you should be saying, if you don't like battling against multiple varied creatures. Robot textures are cool, but in comparison to monster hunter it comes up a little short, as the robot motif and how they have applied it to weak points, allows easier and quicker ways to kill an enemy in horizon, while in MH, you have to use logic and community knowledge and, especially if you're trying to make armor, not to mention the multiple fully featured weapon types.

It's good a lot of people didn't mind it, and maybe you'll be like minded. But others, even the EiC of US Gamer and not just a "rookie staffer" don't care for all the game is trying to do, and that's fine too.

It sounds like you totally missed the point of my comment. Also, out of curiosity, have you played Horizon? You've been pretty adamant about pushing the less favorable reviews, so I'm wondering if you came to a similar conclusion.
 

Styles

Member
zelda zelda zelda, we get it.

raw


So do games normally unlock universally on PSN, or by timezone? If it's the former then I won't have to deprive myself of sleep to play the game.
 

atr0cious

Member
It sounds like you totally missed the point of my comment.
Which was? You tried to make a distinction between MH and horizon, when horizon is a "true" open world MH with only a bow and more of a focus on narrative. Yes people have different tastes, but that also means they know what they don't like.
 
Which was? You tried to make a distinction between MH and horizon, when horizon is a "true" open world MH with only a bow and more of a focus on narrative. Yes people have different tastes, but that also means they know what they don't like.

That if you don't like the core of a title, you likely won't enjoy it much. For whatever reason, you ran with my mention of Monster Hunter, when it was just a throwaway example. Also, that the overwhelming majority of reviewers enjoyed it. It's valid to dislike it, but it's also suspect when you only want to push the outlier opinion despite, presumably, never having played it.
 

hbkdx12

Member
As an eastcoaster i'm kind of salty that the west gets to play "early" at 9pm rather than having to wait til midnight

That being said, i'll take the current unlock times rather than the ones when they first started rolling out digital titles that unlocked at 3am EST.
 
I'm kinda lucky since in my country we have a 4 day weekend this week because festivities (Carnaval), so I have the whole tuesday free to play. I'll give it like 15hs straight haha.
 

Vice

Member
Has any review gone into detail about how enemy interactions work {ex: walking in on robots vs human enemies] and how common they are? I was listening to Waypoints podcast and Austin walker and Patrick Klepeck describe them as
infrequent.
 
PRE-LOAD IS UP! (US)

Has any review gone into detail about how enemy interactions work {ex: walking in on robots vs human enemies] and how common they are? I was listening to Waypoints podcast and Austin walker and Patrick Klepeck describe them as
infrequent.

I've read stuff like that, especially in the impressions thread but in some reviews too. Although I'm not sure in which ones and I believe I haven't read anything regarding frequency.
 
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