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What are your thoughts on the Horizon series?

SmokedMeat

Gamer™
I was unable to maintain interest in Zero Dawn on both PS4 and PC.

Just not something I feel like playing over other games.
 
I liked the story of the first game that I got to see halfway through but didn't enjoy the world design and the pathways, it felt so bland and pieced together like a scalextric track. Also while pretty it may have been the FOV that gave it a warped wrap around feel to the background landscape.

I'd like to finish it or maybe try the PC version, not sure I'll bother though.
 
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AndrewRyan

Member
Only played through half of HZD and love the combat and combat strategy. The story was okay but eye-rolling contrived. The thing that ruined it over time is the boring traversal picking up everything, everywhere; so you can craft everything, anywhere.

Years ago it was tolerable but now it's just meaningless padding. It's the first thing I checked when HFW was released but seems it's still a problem.
 
I'm still not over how the sequel was both the best looking game ever and the most boring sequel i've ever played to the point i haven't been able to play another open world all year.

Seriously...i still can't believe i got the platinum for this.

At this point i'm so traumatized with this IP that all i want is Guerrilla to move on from it.
 
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Kenneth Haight

Gold Member
I'm still not over how the sequel was both the best looking game ever and the most boring sequel i've ever played to the point i haven't been able to play another open world all year.

Seriously...i still can't believe i got the platinum for this.

At this point i'm so traumatized with this IP that all i want is Guerrilla to move on from it.
This is precisely how I feel.
 

Gudji

Member
I'm still not over how the sequel was both the best looking game ever and the most boring sequel i've ever played to the point i haven't been able to play another open world all year.

Seriously...i still can't believe i got the platinum for this.

At this point i'm so traumatized with this IP that all i want is Guerrilla to move on from it.
Be Quiet Go Away GIF by Ryn Dean
 

DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
I platinumed zero dawn and thoroughly enjoyed frozen wilds. Forbidden west just looked off to me and the reviews really put me off. Once I heard feedback on here that lined up with my fears I couldn't be less interested.

Done with the series tbh. Needs a new protag as she doesn't even seem like she wants to be there and the story is a joke from what I've heard.

Cant believe it ended up as an 88, should have been like a 75 to 80 tops.
 

oji-san

Banned
Both great games, with main highlights for me is the combat and dino robots design, truly awesome work. I also like the "old world" story, but the present story and characters are ok i guess but not more, i ended up not so excited after FW ending.
 

BbMajor7th

Member
Yeah, agree with OP. First game felt really fresh, the world lore was really well considered and though it had plenty of problems consistent with a studio taking on something completely different, the uniqueness of the concept and the stellar visuals made it more than worth the price of entry. It was a good length too - I think the platinum took me about 70 hours, which for an open world game is positively a heartbeat - but the second game just fell flat. The concept no longer had the same wow factor and though the visuals on PS5 are really quite incredible, the writing, the game structure and the over-wrought mechanics just drag it down really hard.
 

Jigsaah

Gold Member
I couldn't bring myself to finish Zero Dawn until it came out on PC. Because of this I passed on Forbidden West until I saw what the first adopters thought. There was no real big splash so I'm content to wait it to come to PC as well. That's unless I stumble across a PS5 this holiday season for a decent price. Rumors about a mid gen upgrade has me waiting patiently.

As for the story itself. I thought it was okay in Zero Dawn. Took a bit to really get into it because I was so much into the side quests. I think that the Sun Trials kinda killed it for me because it took too long to find better weapons after I completed all the sun trials with equipment I don't think the devs really anticipated. I felt pretty stagnant in terms of what I expected my power would be moving forward in the game. When I did replay it on Steam, I found that I was largely correct. I got the weapons from the Suntrials and those weapons would have carried me to the end of the game if I chose. It's at that point that I realize I probably was doing things out of the intended order. The game is honestly too easy on Mouse and Keyboard.
 
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Kvally

Banned
I liked playing both, but I am done. If they do another, I probably won't buy it. I had my fill. It was a good fill, but I am full.
 
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.

Both great games, with main highlights for me is the combat and dino robots design, truly awesome work. I also like the "old world" story, but the present story and characters are ok i guess but not more, i ended up not so excited after FW ending.
not delibertely singling you guys out, because so many also refer to the creatures this way. but, why? in zero dawn, other than the tallneck & thunderjaw, the creatures are either made up (watcher, bellowback), or based on mammals (deer, bulls, steers, bison, cougars), birds (chickens, hawks, eagles ), or alligators, crabs, etc. pretty much the same for forbidden west, which even includes kangaroos...
 

Elios83

Member
They're both great games but they lack the final spark to be actual masterpieces.
The first one could count on the mistery behind the story and gameplay wise fighting robot dinosaurs was something new, but the cities felt like fake dioramas and all the side quests were forgetabble.
The sequel has probably the best graphics in a videogame ever, it improved a lot on many aspects like dialogues with NPCs, side quests were really interesting and the cities/villages felt alive but too many fillers in pure Ubisoft style hurted the pace of the main story. Guerrilla has to master how to constantly keep the pace. Main story missions can't be the reward for hours of fillers.
The third one should be free of the PS4 legacy so I hope they can introduce some substantial innovations.
 
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sobaka770

Banned
It's very simole: Horizon ZD was an amazing game that was self contained and didn't need a sequel. Its story was over, protagonist arc finished, combat mechanics were just good enough for one run through.

As expected Forbidden West didn't innovate enough, picked up from where original left off totally neglecting the fact that Aloy's journey was over by that point and the sci fi plot just jumped the shark. It's polished and grand and perfectly fine but part three needs some major shake up. It's a classic sequel mistake where the original did everything it had to but money had to be made (also see: The Matrix, Pirates of the Caribbean etc)

GoW did it right with only being a two parter because it's mechanics are also getting repetitive. But the story in GoW is actually a good continuation and characters did not finish their respective arcs in part one by design.
 

The Stig

Member
I love the graphics and the setting is intriguing. But I couldn't quite get the hang of the combat. I should probably give it another go. Especially considering I play a lot of games that are kind of similar.

solid franchise but doesn't do it for me
 
Honestly I found the first game a bit tedious after a while. It's a good game and all, but I just didn't really feel like playing it any further. Very pretty game though, and I had more than enough fun with it.
 

Killer8

Member
AAA design-by-committee garbage. It's every open world, 'woman with bow' game you've ever played - except prettier. The theme tune is so hokey it makes me want to vomit.
 

Crayon

Member
Really good games. That kind of thing is not normmally my cup of tea so I' not in love with them, but they manage to get me to play all the way through to the end. For context, I played ac odyssey for 4 hours but died laughing at how bad it was.
 

Aenima

Member
Loved the 1st one, especially the combat against the various robo dinos, good exploration too, only thing i felt was weak was how the story was told cuz only near the end i started getting interested in it.

Still need to play the 2nd one.
 

Umbral

Member
But isn't literally every open world game made in this style? Ubisoft just bloats their games more.

Horizon, Ghost of Tsushima, Death Stranding, Days Gone, Witcher 3, Cyberpunk, Far Cry 2 through 6, Zelda, Red Dead, and now even God of War have "Go here and do this/collect this/help this npc" missions.
In Death Stranding, traversing the terrain is the gameplay. In almost every other open-world game, traversing the terrain is the boring filler to get to the gameplay.
 

Tiamat2san

Member
I liked the first game more than its sequel.
Maybe because it was a novelty at the time.
Forbidden west is just boring.
The story was ok in the first game but FW is terrible.

I still don’t like character design at all.
Clothes while technically well realised are often laughable.

Child alloy is nightmare fuel

I’d prefer that the game was a little less open world and more focused on well design « dungeons ».

I hope the next game is far away so they can rework the formula.

And maybe, they will nail the combat and the climbing this time.
 
I thought the first game was terrific, with some flaws. I really didn't care for most of the characters except for Aloy and the side missions were kind of bland. The main story was super cool though and there was something fresh about the game!

Really nice exploration and the cauldrons were amazing. I loved the sense of progression when you finished a new cauldron. Seeing remnants of our old world in the wilderness was amazing.

Forbidden West.. I don't think that game improved on anything from the original except for the graphics, but even that felt like a minor upgrade since the original was already super impressive.

It had far too many new weapons to care about, far too many new enemies - started to feel a bit washed out. The story was really bad and I hated that suddenly we got remnants from a futuristic world (from our perspective today), I really didn't feel connected to that at all.

Also, there were very few cauldrons and I felt like they didn't matter as much as in the first game.

Those two aspects made exploration kind of pointless for me. Also, I really didn't feel the antagonists at all.. They were just super cringey and forgettable. I love exploring but I need some kind of incentive and reward to do so, and I didn't feel that in Forbidden West.

Overall, one of the best aspects about the first games to me was the connection between the 21st century in which we live, and the distant post-apocalyptic future of HZD. That was pretty much lost in Forbidden West.

Also, many of the side missions were just boring. Far too much pointless dialogue, many of them were so slow, bland and kind of just there. Bloated, I guess.
 
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In Death Stranding, traversing the terrain is the gameplay. In almost every other open-world game, traversing the terrain is the boring filler to get to the gameplay.
That is a stand out feature of DS. I like that game a lot. Imagine a military themed game with this type of walking mechanic. Balancing your gear and loadout. It would be pretty sick.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Horizon Zero Dawn: Arguably best gaming plot i've ever witnessed. Great sense of mystery as you slowly unravel truths throughout the game. Great plot twist. The gameplay is incredibly fun and in depth both combat wise and crafting. Lore is very deep and intriguing. Graphics look stunning for a PS4 game. The world feels alive and very beautiful.

Horizon Forbidden West: Plot is decent but very lackluster compared to ZD. I don't like how half of the main plot just feels like side quests unlike the more focused narrative of ZD. The actual conflicts in the forbidden west between the different tribes should have played a more prominent role. Gameplay feels like a step backwards with some of the changes they made. Machines feel overly spongey. Heavy attacks feel weightless now and you have to hold charge to get knockdowns. The "super modes" do more harm than good, I don't like that it slows the pace of the gameplay down and it doesn't feel fitting for this type of game. You also have to change them in the main menu which gets tedious. I didn't like the new weapons, besides maybe the elemental boltblaster. I didn't really like the changes to crafting either that made it more restrictive. Graphics hardly look different(this game should have been PS5 exclusive). I do like how you get the option to play in 60fps though.

I feel like ZD just went way too hard for a first entry and as a result the sequel couldn't really do anything to improve on it as a result.
Pretty much my thoughts. Incredible IP that deserved a way better sequel than the by the numbers snoozefest they released. Devs needed to be more ambitious. And while they delivered on the graphics, they are still rooted in last gen game design that simply isnt good enough. The changes to the combat were simply awful and made a great combat system unfun.
 
I have not liked HZD enough to get HZW... but I did like it, just not that much, so when the game is cheap I'll probably just pick it up.
 

Kagoshima_Luke

Gold Member
Aloy is one of the worst AAA game protagonists of our time.

Somehow Guerilla made an open world filled with robot dinos boring, which is a feat in itself.
 
Pretty much my thoughts. Incredible IP that deserved a way better sequel than the by the numbers snoozefest they released. Devs needed to be more ambitious. And while they delivered on the graphics, they are still rooted in last gen game design that simply isnt good enough. The changes to the combat were simply awful and made a great combat system unfun.
They were rooted in last gen because the game IS last gen. It sucks because they originally intended it to be next gen but then went back on it instead to deliver mediocrity.

And yes, the changes in combat are pretty bad. Probably the worst downgrade if you ask me. Every battle felt like a chore.
 
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