I started this about a week before Elden Ring and finished it a long time after I finished ER, which says it all. Funny how one was made on an old engine with a fraction of the budget and no real cut scenes or story to speak of but was just a far, far superior experience.
Gaming Horizon Forbidden West (PS4/PS5)
- Thread starter esmufc07
- Start date
Git gud!
For real though why do you need multiple hunter bows? Was it you that was struggling with combat before? Or someone else?
I'm definitely going to do a video and link it for you. The only time I've even felt like Aloy isn't agile enough when compared to the machines was in the arena, and that's due to space constraints. The combat is better than the first and that was great for combat already. You need to use the weapons you like and get variants that cover all the elements between them so you don't need to switch them out often, if at all. Do the melee pits and unlock some of those moves.
Time your dives and rolls better, it helps trust me. Use some of the melee skills to stun or get space when you need it. I'm taking about fighting machines here, no point trying to aim and fire when you can hit, vault over and get some space. Agree about Valor surges but I don't swap them enough for it to be an issue.
Other option is to lower the difficulty.
Reading through all the criticisms here, it seems my intuition was right. I haven't played the game because I was put off by what I saw and read. From what I can tell it appears to be another bloated, open-world game, where they seem to think that more means better. Also, I don't like the character of Aloy so that's not even making me want to play it, either. It doesn't help that Elden Ring literally came out a few days after and is immeasurably better.
I will say though, that the game looks incredible and the combat appears to be fun? At least it was fun in the first game. So that could get me to play it when it drops in price.
I will say though, that the game looks incredible and the combat appears to be fun? At least it was fun in the first game. So that could get me to play it when it drops in price.
You can take words of a (vocal) minority, or you could look at your preferred review sites?
Personally I'm enjoying my time with it, story was decent, and combat is fun (and better than the first) as you go from timid encounters to rushing in and fecking shit up as you get comfortable with the controls and level/gear up.... It's a great game.
Nah that wasn't me, this was my first rant post about the game. I'm not exactly the type of person that gives up easily when the combat system is good and provides a fair but tough challenge. But when I just don't enjoy it and it doesn't feel balanced, yeah it's easy mode or lower all the way.
Edit: I do think I should clarify that I didn't actually think the game was hard on normal difficulty. That's not what that post was about. Between the pretty much endless arrow crafting and extremely generous healing options, I never once ran the risk of dying. I just thought it was getting so tedious and unenjoyable that I wanted combat to be over. That's not a good sign.
Fair enough mate.
I have. Push Square gave it a nine, so did Game Informer. It's not necessarily the negative comments that have put me off, sometimes it's the things that those sites are gushing over. Like Game Informer makes it a point to highlight how much bigger this game is, and how it has many more quests than the previous game. And they're saying that as a positive thing. I just read that as the game being more bloated. That obviously has a lot to do with me getting open-world fatigue.
Again, it just comes back to my critique that more doesn't equal better, which is something these sequels sometimes find difficult to understand (IMO, of course). And then you read about the number of characters, dialogue, questlines...that's a massive turn-off for me.
The combat does look fun though, and that was the main draw in the first one. Because it wasn't necessarily the story or the character of Aloy.
The problems with the combat are nothing to do with the difficulty. It’s not a hard game, it’s an annoying one.
My gripe with the combat is trying to remember every fecking weakness of every different machine, then that machine has 8 variations, and they always pair machines with others which have the opposite strengths and weaknesses. You feel like you're forever changing things out in the weapon wheel.
Think I loved everything else about it though. Great visually, music was good, didn't feel too long either. Side quests were actually worth it as they gave you new items or abilities, instead of a bit of xp and a some shite currency.
Think I loved everything else about it though. Great visually, music was good, didn't feel too long either. Side quests were actually worth it as they gave you new items or abilities, instead of a bit of xp and a some shite currency.
Performance mode on OLED finally looks like it should rather than a shimmering watercolour painting. Very happy they properly addressed that issue.
I would agree with the comments saying the combat gets irritating after awhile. The main story also went in a wild direction that I hated (probably exacerbated by Zero Dawn being my favourite game storyline of last gen), and Aloy has way too much in game dialogue.
Almost everything else about the game is great though. It's still an 8.5/10 or so for me, and I think it made some big strides in addressing the Ubisoft style open world bloat thing. Many of the most interesting side quests (which are often quite substantial) have you running around in a local-ish area rather than "get item X from the other side of the map and bring it to me". The explorer mode helped with that as well.
Unfortunately Elden Ring came out a week later and blew the socks off the open world formula. I think this game gets more criticism than it deserves as a result.
I would agree with the comments saying the combat gets irritating after awhile. The main story also went in a wild direction that I hated (probably exacerbated by Zero Dawn being my favourite game storyline of last gen), and Aloy has way too much in game dialogue.
Almost everything else about the game is great though. It's still an 8.5/10 or so for me, and I think it made some big strides in addressing the Ubisoft style open world bloat thing. Many of the most interesting side quests (which are often quite substantial) have you running around in a local-ish area rather than "get item X from the other side of the map and bring it to me". The explorer mode helped with that as well.
Unfortunately Elden Ring came out a week later and blew the socks off the open world formula. I think this game gets more criticism than it deserves as a result.
I agree about the direction of the story, although it is understandable in a way. I didn't like it either tbh, wasn't a major no no, but thought they could have went a different direction instead.
Yup, wasn't terrible but just felt too "Marvel-ish" for me.
I'd have much rather the story been about Aloy finding a copy of Apollo and grappling with whether/how to share it with the various tribes. The ecology/technology and cultural tensions of Horizon's world are far more interesting to me than an "invaders from space" storyline.
I finished this yesterday and I have to say I'm glad to be done with it. I've already detailed some of my complaints in an earlier post so I won't go over those again, but the conclusion is this is basically a retread of the first game, only with a lot of bloat added in pretty much every gameplay system across the board. They did little to improve or advance the - mostly solid - foundations of the first game but only made stuff more tedious.
In terms of story I found it fairly enjoyable, with a surprisingly good cast of supporting characters (one of the few areas I consider a major improvement over the first game). The big caveat being that they failed to develop Aloy as a character, who still remains dull and pretty much devoid of any personality. I didn't mind it in the first game but it became increasingly problematic in the second. She's jut not an interesting character at all.
All in all I have to say this sequel is a giant missed opportunity and has not made me look forward to the inevitable third game. I can't really recommend it to anyone, unless they really want more of the same. People who are already a bit burnt out on open world games should stay away from this one.
In terms of story I found it fairly enjoyable, with a surprisingly good cast of supporting characters (one of the few areas I consider a major improvement over the first game). The big caveat being that they failed to develop Aloy as a character, who still remains dull and pretty much devoid of any personality. I didn't mind it in the first game but it became increasingly problematic in the second. She's jut not an interesting character at all.
All in all I have to say this sequel is a giant missed opportunity and has not made me look forward to the inevitable third game. I can't really recommend it to anyone, unless they really want more of the same. People who are already a bit burnt out on open world games should stay away from this one.
Finally completed the game after I’ve like had it since it’s release back in February. Not a game that I think you can complete in one sitting without it growing tedious quickly, I had to step away and come back to it at various times. Overall, despite it being a very good game with loads of great moments, it hasn’t quite met the hype and is debatably not a big step up on the first one. There is surely going to be a third game in the series so there is a number of things I would like them to tweak to take the game to another level.
I overall really liked the combat as ever. It’s slick, intense and satisfying, with a small element of strategy too. I do have two gripes with it however, one offensive and one defensive. Using elemental attacks to expose enemy weaknesses is a pretty tried and tested formula, I sometimes didn’t feel like the payoff for exploiting a weakness was there, I would like for more explosive and crippling effects for getting machines into this state, a bigger reward effectively. The other thing I dislike is the leading attacks used by enemies, it’s not a unique problem to Horizon, but I’ve always detested it. I think if they used an invincible window when rolling like the Souls games (perhaps some early game gear), then that would alleviate this somewhat.
Crafting is again quite a used formula. I didn’t really like the crafting in this game, I found there was a spike up in the difficulty of acquiring the parts after the first upgrade and so didn’t really go past that point. I didn’t really find the enthusiasm for going out and getting those parts (which is another problem all together), and some parts were very tedious to get. I don’t know if anyone else has that feeling? Other than that there were loads of great equipment you could get, and loads of different kinds of load outs to suit your style which was great, I did however find myself just stick with hunter bows as I found a lot of the other equipment just a bit awkward to use in comparison to the hunter bow which felt very accessible in comparison.
In terms, of the world, it is absolutely beautiful and full of a fantastic detail, it’s been a pleasure to explore and soak in the surroundings. It’s also full of stuff to do, but here lies a problem, it’s full of stuff I don’t want to do. I think I focused my efforts on main, side and errand quests, I didn’t really have the desire to to many of the other stuff like rebel camps, races, survey drones etc so ultimately I would say there was just too much to do and distract you from the main story. The game would have benefited from a more streamlined approach, a few less markers as most of them feel a little pointless at times. I would want them to take out a bit of content and focus more on its strong gameplay and story elements.
Story was overall great, loads of great missions and battles. A few were a bit too difficult for me but just adjusted the settings to get through bits I wasn’t enjoying anymore. I didn’t find the quest from the trailer which was a bummer but I don’t find the tremortusks fun to fight so I guess that’s okay. I think the next one will be a bit more gritty than this one, in hoping that they do improve upon the formula somewhat.
I overall really liked the combat as ever. It’s slick, intense and satisfying, with a small element of strategy too. I do have two gripes with it however, one offensive and one defensive. Using elemental attacks to expose enemy weaknesses is a pretty tried and tested formula, I sometimes didn’t feel like the payoff for exploiting a weakness was there, I would like for more explosive and crippling effects for getting machines into this state, a bigger reward effectively. The other thing I dislike is the leading attacks used by enemies, it’s not a unique problem to Horizon, but I’ve always detested it. I think if they used an invincible window when rolling like the Souls games (perhaps some early game gear), then that would alleviate this somewhat.
Crafting is again quite a used formula. I didn’t really like the crafting in this game, I found there was a spike up in the difficulty of acquiring the parts after the first upgrade and so didn’t really go past that point. I didn’t really find the enthusiasm for going out and getting those parts (which is another problem all together), and some parts were very tedious to get. I don’t know if anyone else has that feeling? Other than that there were loads of great equipment you could get, and loads of different kinds of load outs to suit your style which was great, I did however find myself just stick with hunter bows as I found a lot of the other equipment just a bit awkward to use in comparison to the hunter bow which felt very accessible in comparison.
In terms, of the world, it is absolutely beautiful and full of a fantastic detail, it’s been a pleasure to explore and soak in the surroundings. It’s also full of stuff to do, but here lies a problem, it’s full of stuff I don’t want to do. I think I focused my efforts on main, side and errand quests, I didn’t really have the desire to to many of the other stuff like rebel camps, races, survey drones etc so ultimately I would say there was just too much to do and distract you from the main story. The game would have benefited from a more streamlined approach, a few less markers as most of them feel a little pointless at times. I would want them to take out a bit of content and focus more on its strong gameplay and story elements.
Story was overall great, loads of great missions and battles. A few were a bit too difficult for me but just adjusted the settings to get through bits I wasn’t enjoying anymore. I didn’t find the quest from the trailer which was a bummer but I don’t find the tremortusks fun to fight so I guess that’s okay. I think the next one will be a bit more gritty than this one, in hoping that they do improve upon the formula somewhat.
Got this a few weeks and love it. Was a choice between this and Elden Ring, ended up going for HFW because it seemed more colourful & with a more social character & game.
Spent more time then I’d like on it and most of my time has been spent on the side quests, contracts, relic hunts etc so haven’t even progressed to far into the story.
Great game, highly recommended, only slight issue is the weapon systems is confusing too many things seem identical, as are the parts you acquire hard to figure out what to keep or seek apart from the obvious ones used for ammo
Spent more time then I’d like on it and most of my time has been spent on the side quests, contracts, relic hunts etc so haven’t even progressed to far into the story.
Great game, highly recommended, only slight issue is the weapon systems is confusing too many things seem identical, as are the parts you acquire hard to figure out what to keep or seek apart from the obvious ones used for ammo
Yeah some of the machines are incredibly fast and/or move like Olympic gymnast. I think there’s special armour you have to do side quest to receive. But usually there’s ways you can trap them, example “Thunder Jaw” (near jagged deep and beside the surveyor drone), has two disadvantages you can attack it from height and if you quickly remove its drone bombs the other bullets he fires is easy to avoid, also you can run around between the two big rocks and fire as he turns but one slip up and it can crush you.
About to finish and Platinum this... and it may be the first game I've done that for and not loved it.
Don't get me wrong I like the game (I think?) but there is so much stuff wrong with it that I didn't really find it to be a whole satisfying experience.
- I didn't find the side quests to be all that interesting - certainly not up there with something like The Witcher anyway
- In fact, most things outside of the main story are a bit dull... with the mount races and vista points being outright awful.
- Agree with some stuff being mentioned about the combat - no lock on feature and Alloy taking an eternity to get up are incredibly frustrating
- The grind for parts for gear upgrades on the bigger ticket items is a bit frustrating - when you have to kill a Tideripper 8 times before it drops the one part you need, there's probably something not quite right there.
- Did anyone else feel like there is a LOT of talking?
Don't get me wrong I like the game (I think?) but there is so much stuff wrong with it that I didn't really find it to be a whole satisfying experience.
- I didn't find the side quests to be all that interesting - certainly not up there with something like The Witcher anyway
- In fact, most things outside of the main story are a bit dull... with the mount races and vista points being outright awful.
- Agree with some stuff being mentioned about the combat - no lock on feature and Alloy taking an eternity to get up are incredibly frustrating
- The grind for parts for gear upgrades on the bigger ticket items is a bit frustrating - when you have to kill a Tideripper 8 times before it drops the one part you need, there's probably something not quite right there.
- Did anyone else feel like there is a LOT of talking?
Not finished it yet. But agreed about the combat. Alloy can be slow, clumbersomen, takes ages to get up, sometimes gets killed too easily, and probably my biggest gripe is the pouch tool, takes forever to scroll through and plant/consume.
But it’s a great game overall
Regarding this point, it's too late for you by now, but one of the first things I did was turn on autoloot in the settings. With this enabled, you don't have to worry about losing components when you destroy pieces of an enemy. It removes most of the tedium of grinding for parts, which is utterly pointless and a waste of time.
Agree with everything here. Lots and lots of dialogue to the point where I just got bored towards the end of the game and was just skipping through it. And didn't do any of the side content, even the board game which was hailed as something as good as Gwent got boring very quickly.
Also, is it just me or is there a lack of big missions in the game? I remember in Zero Dawn where you protect the castle against an army of machines. There's only 1 mission of that sort in FW from what I remember. Would have liked more of them. Didn't like the final mission either. Felt like they could have done more there rather than 2 1v1 fights with the bosses.
Been playing through this finally in the last week or so. Slowly been getting into it more as the world opens up and it's pretty much what I expected. I still love the the ranged combat and tearing off machine parts with precision arrows never gets old but my God the cut scenes are interminable most of the time. Can't skip them fast enough.
I like the levelling up trees as well. Gives you plenty of scope to build a character to match your play style which for me is all about the ranged combat. That valor thing that lets you fire an exploding shot from crouch is *chefs kiss*
I like the levelling up trees as well. Gives you plenty of scope to build a character to match your play style which for me is all about the ranged combat. That valor thing that lets you fire an exploding shot from crouch is *chefs kiss*
Got this on sale recently and enjoying it just as i enjoyed HZD. Only complaint is how much Aloy speaks.
I just can't find the motivation to finish this, the plot moves so slow and theres so much filler. Someone really needed to take a sharp editing knife to this. Almost feels like one fo the more recent Assassins Creeds in terms of the huge map with so much filler.
Where are you upto?
Not sure I found it slow moving, I thought it was at an ok pace actually. Think I felt it was much better and more engaging with good headphones.
I'm just where I think its really getting started funny enough, just after
the Aether when you go to StoneCrest
Ah yeah, that's where it starts to get more fun
you got 3 main mission options now if I'm correct?Ah yeah, that's where it starts to get more fun
I think so, its been a couple of weeks since I jumped on.
X button is your friend although admittedly there are some un-skippable ones.
I'm really quite enjoying my sessions on it now. As someone said in another thread the Las Vegas in the desert area is visually spectacular. There's an almost overwhelming amount of skills to tinker with as well and thankfully you can respec whenever you want.
Aye, the LV section is mentally good. I like the first time seeing some of the machines too, it's like "wtf? How do I deal with this?"
DLC announced and being released on 19th April 2023.
Can't feckin wait, love the game.
Watched a video about the weapons in the base game and explained them better than the game does. Makes me wanna start it again
Is it possible to rate these games if you're not into robot dinosaurs?
Probably not but those kinds of people don't exist. Everyone loves robot dinosaurs.
I came back to this after completing Ragnarok. I started it when it released, but shelved it when the Destiny 2 expansion came out. I'm really enjoying it. I loved the first game, too, so it's not really a surprise. I think Guerilla really took the criticism to heart over the NPC's dead eyeing you during conversations in Zero Dawn. They're so much better in this game. Very expressive body language and great facial animations.
I just got to Las Vegas and did the story mission there. It was amazing. The music in that area is wonderful. Rusted Sands.
It's the setting that I really enjoy in this series. The only thing I don't really like is human combat. I didn't like it in Zero Dawn, either. They tried to change it, but I still don't think it's that good. It would be a better game if you only fought machines. Tearing parts off machines is consistently satisfying.
I just got to Las Vegas and did the story mission there. It was amazing. The music in that area is wonderful. Rusted Sands.
It's the setting that I really enjoy in this series. The only thing I don't really like is human combat. I didn't like it in Zero Dawn, either. They tried to change it, but I still don't think it's that good. It would be a better game if you only fought machines. Tearing parts off machines is consistently satisfying.
Yeah people were praising the melee and human combat in this but I didn't understand it, it has improved over the first game but it still sucks.
The setting is great and some of the music is brilliant. One of my favourite games.
I wouldn't mind the human fights, but they can take arrows to the head and not die, they're like feckin robots the amount of shite it takes to kill them.
Finding new ways to take down machines is great fun.
If you want decent melee you need to spec into it. I thought it was decent but I had the finishers and techniques unlocked and I completed the melee pits.
Also if your sniping bow isn't 1 shotting most humans without a helmet then your bow is probably weak, or maybe you are...
It's not for everyone though, you can't please everyone.
Also if your sniping bow isn't 1 shotting most humans without a helmet then your bow is probably weak, or maybe you are...
It's not for everyone though, you can't please everyone.
This was gonna be my Christmas game but now I see that there's an expansion coming out, I'll probably wait and experience the full thing.
HZD was my favourite game of last gen. I've not finished HFW yet, but I think this one is even better. I love the mix of a post apocalyptic world and sci-fi.
It's the helmets. Most of the enemies in HZD didn't have helmets. You could one shot them and kill everybody without alerting the camp. This game forces you to alert everybody or you need to sneak around and silent kill everybody.
There are new elements and weapons in this game. I'm still learning to see what is good. Acid feels really good. Fire feels nerfed from the first games. Acid feels like fire from HZD.
Most of them have helmets, though? The vast majority of them I see in rebel camps have helmets. You can't one shot them, so they alert the whole camp.
You are most likely right about needing to spec into it. I only use it to knock over small machines to get an R1 finisher ready. I also use it on human enemies you have no choice but fight in CQC.
Agreed. The amount of similar weapons was overkill. But I enjoyed the game, although not to the extent that I’ve continued the extra side quests after completing. Might actually trade it in and get either MW2 or whatever next great game comes out.
I liked to snipe the enemies I could, usually the other snipers and those without helmets. Then run in and smash everyone! I was one of those that enjoyed that aspect, especially the tough fecks with shield or heavy weapons (take it and use it on them).
There are some good melee skills for different situations and positions. Could they improve it? Sure they could but it's way better than it was. Imagine the 3rd