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What are your thoughts on the Horizon series?

Flutta

Banned
First game i thought the gameplay was fun, didn’t like the story so much, it was OK.
Second one for some reason the gameplay didn’t click with me even tho it’s basically the same shit and i thought the melee got even worse. The story was absolute garbage on every level. Aloy does her best to make you hate her. Todays writers man sheesh.

Yeah stay away from this game don’t get fooled by the graphics 🤣
 
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I think most of OP's points are valid, but

not this one. The visual uplift is significant.
It is somewhat noticeable but overall not that big of an upgrade. It isn't as big as say the leap from Mortal Kombat X to 11 or from COD Advanced Warfare to COD Modern Warfare(2019). All of which are 8th gen games. The only area in which is is a big upgrade graphically is during cutscenes.
 

TintoConCasera

I bought a sex doll, but I keep it inflated 100% of the time and use it like a regular wife
ZD bored me to tears. Robodinos were cool but everything else felt samey and tiresome. It also has what might be the worst inventory system ever.

Haven't played FW and probably never will.
 
The Ubisoft formula is too pervasive in modern gaming. I think RDR2 follows its long established formula but perfected. Cyber punk yea, Witcher 3 too, but it’s narrative and choice sets it apart. Ghost for sure, it’s art style and combat separates it but I couldn’t finish because of that tedious ubi style. BOTW is more Skyrim than Ubi
But how are Skyrim quests any different than Ubisoft quests? They are all mostly fetch quests for items and helping characters. Like I said Ubisoft just bloats those games with hundreds of repetitive things to interact with. Games need to escape this formula of fetch quests and tower climbing side quests. I really would like to see a breakthrough in A.I. tech. Funnily enough Far Cr 2 had the best A.I. I've ever seen and nothing as good has come out since.
 

tommib

Member
It’s just a tacky Assassin’s Creed with b-movie tier writing, focus group tested to hell and back with the blandest protagonist an AI could come up with. Everything in it is made to affect some part of the audience leaving nothing but a shell of a AAA revenue bullet list with no density, no friction, no grit, nothing.

The Titanic pan-pipe flutes from the soundtrack and the overall art direction lack nuance, style, a vision. There’s no personal hand in anything making the game a true industrial product. Everything is only made worst by robot-like-characters fighting robot dinosaurs and nothing has a sense of purpose or enthusiasm. It’s like you’re in the afterlife, everyone’s dead but hey - tropical beaches, so pretty. Photo mode on. 10/10
 

Rush2112

Banned
I like traditional western fantasy lore like dark souls, elder scrolls and witcher. I dont care for horizons main character or the weird costumes that look inappropriately bright and shiny for a post - apocalyptic hunter gatherer society.
 

bender

What time is it?
The open world design is very formulaic. The bow in the game feels flimsy. I dropped Zero Dawn pretty quickly into the world opening up. The robo-dinosaur designs are cool though.
 
sylens reduced to hanging out with aloy's get-along gang? as a former president would say, 'sad'...
Better for him to be present throughout most of the next game than to just see him show up at the start and end like in FW. He pretty much carries every scene he's in.

And it's not like he's just hanging out with them because he wants company, he's serving his own interest.
 

Banjo64

cumsessed
But how are Skyrim quests any different than Ubisoft quests?
The Dark Brotherhood, Companions, Thieves Guild, Mages Guild, collecting the Daedric Artefacts & defeating the Dragon Priests are some of the best side content in gaming. Only rivalled by The Witcher 3.

Not to mention earning enough favour to buy the various houses and then customising them.

The Radiant Quests are shit, but the custom ones above are incredible.
 

noise36

Member
Finished the first, couldn't do more than 10-15 (cant remember) hours of the second.

Part of it is I am too time poor these days for open world time sink quests that feel pointless.
 

Topher

Gold Member
Finished the first, couldn't do more than 10-15 (cant remember) hours of the second.

Part of it is I am too time poor these days for open world time sink quests that feel pointless.

Probably the biggest that bothers me about both Horizon games is that when it is done I'm ready for it to be done whereas other games leaving me wanting more. Horizon is fun, but it is also forgettable. It's good enough though.
 

Banjo64

cumsessed
I have to say I like to judge things for myself but the less than stellar commentary is making me nervous - I finished Miles Morales today and Forbidden West is next in my agenda :messenger_grinning_sweat:
 

Mozzarella

Member
Horizon series is incredibly bland, dull and soulless in my opinion ofcourse.

I heard a lot of hype around it in 2017 but i only got to play it in 2019, after i started the game i was immensely bored.
The characters are so unlikable, i dont know why but i never could relate to any of them, Aloy and her friends are just lackluster in any interesting or fun trait, they come off as predictable and bland in every sense.
What caught my attention immediately is the pretty visuals and i think thats one of the series main strengths, the art team is talented. although only at environment and not at character/enemy design.
The gameplay started out so boring and repetitive, all i did was use the bow to hit machine weak parts but later in the game the combat improved a lot with different types of elements and strategies to destroy big machines, that i would say is the best aspect of the game.
It's basically Ubisoft game why because the writing and the story are generic, so putting it aside AC Odyssey is probably fitting but Horizon had slightly better combat and slightly worse realized open world.
I thought the story is dull and uninteresting and the concept didnt catch my attention, at many segments of the game i was in a hurry to finish because of how padded and uninteresting the story was.

I wrote a lot more in the time i was playing but im too lazy to look it up now, in short i just think the games are uninteresting, uninspired and generally not good, but overall its decent, i would rate them 3/5 trying to be as objective and unbiased as i can be here, if im rating purely on instinct and fun then it would be 2/5 but i dont do that.

I think Horizon and Dragon Dogma are two games that proved to me that Combat alone cannot carry open world games.
To make interesting and engaging open world game you have to nail at least one of the 3 aspects.
(Exploration) - Example: Elden Ring, Breath of the Wild, Outer Wilds
(Writing, aka quests and story) - Fallout New Vegas, Witcher 3, Red Dead Redemption 2
(Sandbox or rich RPG mechanics to mess around with) - The Elder Scrolls series, GTA, KCD?

I dont find Horizon nailing any of that, so it falls into the stereotypical Ubisoft camp, sorry.
 
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Mobilemofo

Member
Like em both. Waiting for the second to hit the bins before I plunge. My days of fine dining are over for now. I have a gas habit to pay for 😄
 

fart town usa

Gold Member
I bought the Zero Dawn remaster or Complete Edition, whatever it is I got it for cheap the other month. I think I was at 50% completion but wasn't super far in the overall story, I was mostly doing the side missions and unlocking the map.

It's fun but honestly struck me as a proof of concept when it came to core gameplay. There just isn't much there; sneak up on robots, mash some buttons and dodge. Nothing to really interact with and the platforming is just bad. It's mindless, here's some yellow indicators so you know you can interact with it, any other surface is just there for show.

I don't think it's a bad game but it honestly just served as a reminder as to why I don't really seek out most Sony developed games. Lots of production value that I can appreciate but the gameplay just feels incredibly bland to me.
 

STARSBarry

Gold Member
I bought the Zero Dawn remaster or Complete Edition, whatever it is I got it for cheap the other month. I think I was at 50% completion but wasn't super far in the overall story, I was mostly doing the side missions and unlocking the map.

It's fun but honestly struck me as a proof of concept when it came to core gameplay. There just isn't much there; sneak up on robots, mash some buttons and dodge. Nothing to really interact with and the platforming is just bad. It's mindless, here's some yellow indicators so you know you can interact with it, any other surface is just there for show.

I don't think it's a bad game but it honestly just served as a reminder as to why I don't really seek out most Sony developed games. Lots of production value that I can appreciate but the gameplay just feels incredibly bland to me.

It essentially becomes the amalgamation of every open world game, as every company produces games that attempt to copy what other systems have been found to be successful resulting in this sort of generic blob of a game genre that feels so similair to every other game in terms of what you are actually doing.

Compare this to the unfinished phantom pain and how you interacted with the open world in that and how enemies responded and you start to get a grasp of the wall that most game developers are only able to achieve and they stick to it like a textbook.
 
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EverydayBeast

thinks Halo Infinite is a new graphical benchmark
Very cool franchise, there’s a connection to indigenous people I think of ancient Americas, the open space and all the hard work that studio put into the game.
 

Mobile Suit Gooch

Grundle: The Awakening
I mean, I guess I'm the oddball here but I love FW over ZD. That said, I feel the games would be much better if they didn't make Aloy into some Mary-sue-like character. The world literally built around her or some shit. But when I played FW, it was a blast.
 

ChiefDada

Gold Member
They lost their way with the story in HFW and I think the franchise needs a long break. I'll keep an eye on the rumored HZD remake and if it has next gen features that go beyond visuals and into gameplay, then I'll consider it.
 
I mean, it's pretty much the only arcade racer left these days that is worth it's salt or has adequate production behind it.

Sometimes when I drive I imagine I am running over orph- oh you meant the Killzone team game series.

I'm going to be honest, I preferred with GG was making Killzone. I think they should try a 5th game with an open environment and do a lot more world building to get players invested. make it a reboot or a new start so they can establish lore.
 

20cent

Banned
First game had mystery to it as you wanted to know what happened to our world to turn like this. I believe that they've already answered the question.

The universe itself is not that interesting anymore and I don't care about the conflicts between the tribes in the game (I have no idea what the 2nd game is about, but 1st one was OK and felt enough).
 
Aloy is super cute, but the games feel so bloated with unnecessary side "quests." I would prefer them to be linear than open world. I think it suffers by being open world.
 

YukiOnna

Member
Unfortunately, really boring. The thought of mecha dinos should evoke some excitement, but the story around it and the delivery of that WRPG style story and quests just isn't my thing. Aloy is also boring.
 
Well, I intend to get a PS5 early next year and with all the backlog I'm looking forward to playing like Uncharted, TLOU, Spiderman, Ghost, Ratchet etc, Horizon is on the lowest of levels of interest. Not sure why, but I would prefer to play a remake of Killzone 2 and 3 over Horizon. It is pretty tho.
 
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Hoppa

Member
Climbing mechanics from assassins creed would be a huge upgrade
Totally!! Horizon is a more polished game than the ACs but the AC team have them beat when it comes to traversal. Horizon sometimes felt a bit clunky especially with the new rope grapple(?) mechanic

Also they could really benefit from a new protagonist. Aloy is just OK, I would put her on the same level as an AC protagonist. Same actually goes for the side characters - they’re all a little subdued. I want a cyber ungabunga robo cavewoman who moves like an an animal and has plasma swords for hands!! GOTY
 

Gudji

Member
I have to say I like to judge things for myself but the less than stellar commentary is making me nervous - I finished Miles Morales today and Forbidden West is next in my agenda :messenger_grinning_sweat:
if Jim Ryan didn't pay Geoff it wouldn't get nominated for goty. 😔
 

tmlDan

Member
Horizon ZD had the great story, FW had the best open world combat ive played in years.

Once you unlock all the abilities it's so fkn fun to take on mobs and fight dinos, having a mount that you can make aggressive is also awesome.

Just had a great time tbh, i know people in this thread just want to shit on it but who tf cares, the games fun and sells and reviews well.
 

Ywap

Member
Yeah, loved the first game. Reading quite alot of negative comments about Forbidden but i would buy it day one if it was released on PC.

Haven't seen any footage other than some graphics porn since i don't want any spoilers.
 

realcool

Member
the franchise is easy on the eyes.

story wise, ZD had some mystery where i believed there was potential for more.
FW, however, wasted the potential by going too far, too fast and it was actually embarrassing to experience.

me (coping): well, since having a focus doesnt set aloy apart from anyone anymore, at least aloy's DNA is unique so nobody else can access facilities.
the writers (introducing beta):
tenor.gif
 

Haggard

Banned
loved the first. Great sense of exploration and mystery. Uncovering the plot felt great. First time ever I actually listened to every audiolog in such a game.
The second did too little to evolve the formula and the story fell flat on its nose imho. I had "horizon fatigue" set in at some point.
 

Humdinger

Member
I loved the first one; it was my GOTG. Played it through several times. Great story (for a videogame), beautiful environments, plus interesting and strategic combat.

I thought the second one was good enough, but not great. I'd give the first one a 9.5, the second one a 7.5, maybe 8 if I'm feeling generous.

The sequel expands on the beautiful environments and graphics of the first, and the sidequests are much deeper. However, it suffers from bloat, with tons of added weapons, machines, mechanics, and a long list of side-activities which do more to weigh the game down than lift it up. The story is convoluted and weaker than the first. Aloy is unlikeable for a good portion of the game, due to a contrived character arc. They also nerfed a lot of what made the combat in the first game fun and strategic. The silly "inclusivity" elements don't help, either.

In short, I loved the first but thought the second was just okay.
 
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nowhat

Member
They're awesome games. The first had much better story than the second, though. Suspiciously good for a Guerilla game...
The first game had John Gonzalez (of Fallout New Vegas fame) as the narrative director. He pretty much created all the lore and how the world came to be as it is in Zero Dawn. He also switched to another studio (that we haven't yet heard anything about thus far, AFAIK) while Forbidden West was being made, which I'm assuming had some effect on the end product. Hopefully Guerrilla will make another strategic hire for the inevitable sequel.
 

Certinty

Member
Thought the first game was horrible. I actually enjoyed the introduction when it was rather linear and then after that it was just so dull and boring. Uninteresting open world, bland story, characters I didn't care about and what not. Forced myself to finish it.

Then I got the sequel hoping it would be a lot better and five hours in I realised it was more or less exactly the same crap again and gave up.

No idea how both gaves have been praised so much in all honesty.
 

Gudji

Member
Thought the first game was horrible. I actually enjoyed the introduction when it was rather linear and then after that it was just so dull and boring. Uninteresting open world, bland story, characters I didn't care about and what not. Forced myself to finish it.

Then I got the sequel hoping it would be a lot better and five hours in I realised it was more or less exactly the same crap again and gave up.

No idea how both gaves have been praised so much in all honesty.
Because they're spetacular games even if you don't like them.
 
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