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What are your thoughts on the Horizon series?

I really thought the first one was a 10/10 game. Great story, interesting characters, well-told. Great world to explore. Amazing graphics. The combat was genuinely fun. I loved it. I thought it was a masterpiece and got shit on unnecessarily because of its proximity to BOTW.

The second game is a dud. It’s both more of the same and bloated. Really feels forced in a lot of ways. Aloy is a net negative in this game. The gameplay is more of the same. The only thing it really has going for it is graphics which IMO are the best out there. It’s a showcase game for the PS5 in a way that even Ragnarok isn’t.

With the VR game being the flagship, and the rumored MMO, and the rumored remake, I think Sony is trying to turn it into something it never was, which was a massive AAA franchise. To be fair, that was probably the plan all along, but HFW isn’t good enough to propel it.
Even the graphics hardly felt any better to me besides cutscenes.
 
Mediocre games with great world and graphics.
1st one was quite ok but dragged towards the ending. Story was intriguing.
2nd one botched the story totally... and made gameplay way more annoying and a 2nd job. Constant pick up and leveling of everything in your inventory. And on top of that - everyone is always talking... they never shut up. Exposition standing in 1 place 50% of the game.

SO yeah... I like both games well enough. First one is 8 and 2nd one is 7... maybe
I would say the first one is an 8 and the second is a 6 personally.
 

Gudji

Member
Even the graphics hardly felt any better to me besides cutscenes.
Season 1 Lol GIF by NBC
 

SSfox

Member
HZ1 was good and nice surprise.

HZ2 is less good, and more (bad) Ubisoft style

Not a franchise i really care much about tbh, even HZ1 despite being good was one of my least favorite Sony game. And the fact it was the first exclusive game ported to PC was just the icing in the cake to not care anymore about this franchise.
 
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GymWolf

Member
First one was my game of the past generation, the sequel left me kinda cold and unhappy even if 90% of the game is superior to the first one.

Combat (against dinobots), some of the best enemies ever made in a videogame, graphic, some of the lore and the (old days) story are the best part of the brand.
 

MastAndo

Gold Member
Couldn't finish the first one, had little interest in the second. I can't quite put my finger on it, but there's something about the series that doesn't grab me.
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
I didn't like them at all, they have the budge and the tech and it was new IP and they absolutely did NOTHING with open world design.

I also didn’t care for the story and find Aloy one of most dry female lead I have seen video games and it doesn’t help other side characters are dumb as fuck in order maker look smart and competent.
 

ACESHIGH

Banned
Too early to call it a series with only 2 games were released. I played zero dawn on PC and found it good, interesting story that kept you going.

But a bit overrated. Felt like a bog standard ubisoftian AAA game, and the graphics were great but not vastly above the rest of the industry as it's implied with these kind of games most of the time. Still have to play the frozen wilds expansion.

Let's see if forbidden west improves on zero down weaknesses once released on PC.
 
I didn't like them at all, they have the budge and the tech and it was new IP and they absolutely did NOTHING with open world design.

I also didn’t care for the story and find Aloy one of most dry female lead I have seen video games and it doesn’t help other side characters are dumb as fuck in order maker look smart and competent.
I like that Sylens is the one exception where instead he is the one that makes her look dumb as fuck lol.
 

H4ze

Member
Came in expecting a Forza thread, disappointing :( never really played the Horizon games, not my cup of tea.
 

ungalo

Member
Besides design choices, the game's universe never clicked with me, from the start i found it pretty ridiculous. Some prehistoric cavewoman fighting robot dinosaurs. If it was a japanese game that doesn't take itself too seriously i could go with it but that's not the case.
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
I like that Sylens is the one exception where instead he is the one that makes her look dumb as fuck lol.
Oh yes when she asked who he is, he went on and on about why its dumb to ask who he was instead of….. you know just tell her and would have stopped waste both of their time.

because-we-smart-sarcastic.gif
 
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Boss Man

Member
Playing through FW now and liking it, but I think it may be because I waited a while to let ZD memories fade a bit.

So far, I think they had the beginnings of something great with ZD but didn’t take it much further with FW. I can’t say exactly what is “missing” right now, maybe some other layer of gameplay like collecting machines and/or building a player village? The core gameplay loop is good but feels repetitive maybe? It’s like there’s not enough to look forward to or work towards.

I think this is why a lot of people complained that machine overriding was underpowered. Gaining the ability to override the different machines took some effort and it felt like it could have offered a new layer of gameplay but just wasn’t really worth it (in ZD at least, idk about FW).

I definitely want more Horizon, but yeah I think it needs some more variety or something.
 
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For me the story and gameplay of the first one were really great!, the second one... not so much, maybe it was that it was too much of the same or I don't know. Things I didnt like, is that it felt it had many more things (upgrades, weapons, etc) but none of them felt introduced properly or useful during the game. The story in the second... I don't know, all of this like "AIs have feelings and act like humans" trope, doesn't click with me.
 
The second game was such a let down that I won't be buying the 3rd at launch. I'll wait till all 3 games are available in a package on PC some time in 2030.
 

64bitmodels

Reverse groomer.
never played it but doesnt seem that much more interesting than your average assassins creed and no one talks about those games
 
tldr: loved zero dawn. despised forbidden west...

aloy needs to go. the whole 'planet of the valley girl fashionistas' thing needs a major tone down. the combat / exploration mechanics need to return to what they were. a new adventure, on the fringes of the world somewhere, maybe featuring sylens (& restoring him to awesomeness), is in order...

oh, yeah (ending spoiler):

the whole 'attack of the elderly expats from sirius' thing?

burn it with fire...
 
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hinch7

Member
Dull series. Would rather have GG have another stab at another Killzone. Better yet, a new IP which isn't an open world cookie clutter game.

If they were to do a colab with Bungie, that would be something to behold.
 
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Bragr

Banned
They really dropped the ball in the second half of Forbidden West. When they opened the doors and you can access the entire world, the story fell apart, the side-missions multiplied and become too much and the main campaign become a giant fetch quest.

It's a case of overdoing it, I would rather take 1 interesting and meaningful side story over 30 mediocre ones. The traveling (flying/riding) was too slow, and the tribes and their cities were uninteresting, not to mention they didn't follow basic logic, why would they wear metal on their bodies in extreme cold or harsh heat? why were all of them clean looking? why wasn't there more life (everyone was just standing around)? it wasn't believable, it doesn't make you wonder or make you wanna get to know them. They felt like video game characters in a hub.

It started to feel like Assassins Creed Valhalla towards the end, where you are just mindlessly droning through to finish it. And that ending was absolutely absurd and ruined the entire story.

It's a shame because I really liked the first 10-ish hours.
 
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tldr: loved zero dawn. despised forbidden west...

aloy needs to go. the whole 'planet of the valley girl fashionistas' thing needs a major tone down. the combat / exploration mechanics need to return to what they were. a new adventure, on the fringes of the world somewhere, maybe featuring sylens (& restoring him to awesomeness), is in order...

oh, yeah (ending spoiler):

the whole 'attack of the elderly expats from sirius' thing?

burn it with fire...
Sylens stopped being awesome?

I mostly agree though, i'm tired of Aloy and the combat in FW was a huge step down.
 
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rolandss

Member
Ive tried to like it but can’t get into it. Something about the characters, voice acting, visual style, it’s like a lame Disney/Marvel adventure film.
 

Putonahappyface

Gold Member
I ultimately loved Horizon Forbidden West and considering it's cross gen I was mightily impressed with the visuals. The only thing that turned me off in the end was the amount of bloat to consume which burnt me out. I've seven trophies left to platinum the game, so I'll return to the game eventually.
 
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Great world, great concept, great combat. Held back by overly done game design philosophy. I'm just tired of the ubisoft style game design....I skipped FW because I just can't anymore. Open world games with that design philosophy just isn't for me regardless of how good the story is. I'll just watch recaps cause playing is a slog.
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.
 

NeonGhost

uses 'M$' - What year is it? Not 2002.
I think they are good games but my god was Aloy such a cunt during the last game
 

R6Rider

Gold Member
Thought the first one was just okay. Not enough interest int eh second one to play it until it's super cheap or probably free at some point.

Very interested in Call of the Mountain because of VR, not because it's a Horizon game.

I do love the dino robot designs though.
 
I thought the story in HFW was just as good if not better than the original

Games are great but HZ3 needs to be more focused.

Too much ubibloat stuff that’s not fun

Need to learn from ER/BOTW/GoW on how to do side content
 
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.
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
 
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