Horizon Zero Dawn

[+chicgamer]

I Bought the Complete edition 6 months ago, but just started to play this like 2 weeks ago. I'm now at about level 17 and just left the Nora sacred land, so I doubt I'm a third of the way through the total game yet. There are some slight story spoilers above so I quit reading the comments and posts! I want the story to be revealed to me slowly and by playing the game.

 

I'm not used to the scope of a game like this! A vast wilderness where you can go anywhere, nd I like the hunting and stealth/ planning aspect of the battles. Its a fascinating story so far. Aloy is a very likeable character, I rewatched the origins video and it made me empathize with her and her adoptive father so much. I love the aspect of hunting boars, turkeys, foxes and using their meat , pelts, and the bones for survival.

 

I just cannot believe the size and scope of this world. This is how I felt playing the first Tomb Raider game on Saturn back in 1996. I did hit one bug where after a battle with a corruptor and its fellow machines, something didnt trigger and the border gate was closed! Oh noes! But I backtracked, then came back and thankfully the cutscene triggered and all is well.

 

That's unfortunate about that bug. Fortunately, it wasn't game breaking.

 

I need to get back to this game. I completed the game before I bought the complete edition, so now I have to play through the Frozen Wilds.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

 

That's unfortunate about that bug. Fortunately, it wasn't game breaking.

 

I need to get back to this game. I completed the game before I bought the complete edition, so now I have to play through the Frozen Wilds.

 

I'm not sure if Cafeman is talking about the same thing or not, but there is a village where you first encounter a corruptor and have to take it out. That battle takes place within the village itself. However, if you leave the village and then go elsewhere or use a camp travel and come back. Then you will find that the village's main gate is closed...and...it pretty much will forever be until near the end of the game. This is a known documented issue and while it isn't game breaking since there isn't much you need from this village again, it does mean that if you didn't get a certain resource from the cave just north of this village, that you can't again until towards the end of the game when at which point you don't need it as much as you could have before!

 

There are videos of people who have found ways to use the terrain and glitch themselves back into the village but I was never able to get that to work so I had to wait until near the end of the game to get back in again.

 

That is the only time I can think of a bug in the game script while I played it and as I stated, I put a lot of hours into this game! It is an amazing experience to play through.

[+Cafeman]

I was referring to the second corrupter I encountered actually. It is north west at the end of the Nora tribes and beginning of the Carja. However, now that you mention it, that other bug happened to me too. I couldnt remember what I did but exploring around that gate would not open for me so I gave up and went somewhere else. I dont know if I got whatever resource from the cave you referred to , or not!

[+Cafeman]

Still, no big deal to me. The game is fantastic. I tried to take down one of the TRex machines by myself for an hour, but nope! I must not have powerful enough weapons quite yet. And the alligator Dinos are initially pretty tough too.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

Still, no big deal to me. The game is fantastic. I tried to take down one of the TRex machines by myself for an hour, but nope! I must not have powerful enough weapons quite yet. And the alligator Dinos are initially pretty tough too.

To take down the 'Gator Bots' as I called them..just get up somewhere high and volley blaze arrows at their heads. Do it right and you will set their canisters on fire and when they blow...oh yeah....

[Gentlegamer]

Have to use the tow cables on the big robots, get them immobilized, then use freeze attacks to make them brittle, then unload the big guns/explosives.

[+Cafeman]

I still have not beaten the main game, but I'm getting  closer. Still have several side quests I'd like to complete too.  I just finished The Mountain that Fell. There was a nasty surprise I encountered on my way there,

 

a Stormbird! Man I fear those things! But it only took me about 5 retries and I killed it.  The first Stormbird I had encountered was a much tougher battle than this one, so I must be a more cunning fighter now, and perhaps better stocked up with armaments and outfits!

. 

 

It is so obvious that Sylens is the actor who played Broyles on Fringe.

[+Cafeman]

Beat the main final mission. Good stuff, and end battle not as difficult as I'd feared it would be.  I already started exploring The Cut and the Frozen Wilds, will return to that now. TFW seems lengthy for DLC!  I love that there is new currency and new machines. I was incredibly intimidated by the first Frozen Claw encounter! (Giant Bear machine)

[+-^CrossBow^-]

On 7/22/2019 at 12:34 PM, Cafeman said:

Beat the main final mission. Good stuff, and end battle not as difficult as I'd feared it would be.  I already started exploring The Cut and the Frozen Wilds, will return to that now. TFW seems lengthy for DLC!  I love that there is new currency and new machines. I was incredibly intimidated by the first Frozen Claw encounter! (Giant Bear machine)

Just wait until you find yourself having to battle more of them...and corrupted versions of them too!!! 

 

For me the last battle of the main game was crazy easy because I completed TFW first before finishing the main game. To me it still flows well doing this because fairly early in the game just as you first leave the Nora lands, you are asked to talk to someone in the Cut. So really at that point they almost expect you to get started on that portion of the game at just about anytime. Again, I'm glad I did because I ended up with much better weapons and armor to tackle the last few remaining missions of the main storyline.

 

I was able to get everything done minus the sun trials. Just not a huge fan of timed stuff like that and much prefer to plan and experiment with the machine enemies. 

[+Cafeman]

Daemon s corrupted FireClaws, with a Tower nearby, was tough!  But I think I had more fails and retries with the prior battle against the daemon corrupted Thunderjaw! He kept blasting me with fire and the tail whipping the life out of poor Aloy. Finally I wised up, set every blast and fire trap cable and every bomb I had , all over the place, and I kept f freezing him the hitting with strong arrows until finally it went down. 

 

So much content even after beating both final-ish missions ...  Now I'm hunting bluegleam and the animals needed to improve my Icerail ammo capacity.  Then I will hunt down the final couple FireClaws in the land of Ban-Ur.  

 

One hilarious thing ..

 

I've been buying treasure boxes from Banuk traders ... one Box had wire and a smaller treasure box. Opened it, and another smaller treasure box .... repeat over and over until tiny tiny treasure box, ha ha.  Something similar but different happened with anoth trader too.

[TDIRunner]

On 7/23/2019 at 4:07 PM, -^Cro§Bow^- said:

 

I was able to get everything done minus the sun trials. Just not a huge fan of timed stuff like that and much prefer to plan and experiment with the machine enemies. 

Funny you say that.  The sun trials were also my least favorite part because I hate timed stuff.  I did manage to complete them all because I wanted to get the platinum trophy (first platinum trophy I've ever attained).  My least favorite was probably the stealth trial.  Not because I hate stealth, but because I hate trying to be stealthy, while also trying to hurry. ?

[+Cafeman]

I think I borked my save file. I finished nearly everything and was exploring, looking for campfires and areas I hadn't activated. It was all pretty much explored. Then I tried out New Game +.   I think it saved over top my Continue save file from the original game. Not sure if I'm just confused or correct, but it's time to move on to another game anyway. 

[Gentlegamer]

15 hours ago, Cafeman said:

I think I borked my save file. I finished nearly everything and was exploring, looking for campfires and areas I hadn't activated. It was all pretty much explored. Then I tried out New Game +.   I think it saved over top my Continue save file from the original game. Not sure if I'm just confused or correct, but it's time to move on to another game anyway. 

Did you start NG+ with the same gear and experience from NG?

[+Cafeman]

On 8/8/2019 at 11:05 AM, Gentlegamer said:

Did you start NG+ with the same gear and experience from NG?

Yes. And I found my main game save files in the history.  NG+ , back at the start but powered up, seems boring.  Last night I played more on the main game and still a couple of new side missions appeared, such as finding a tough woman's husband and taking out Tramplers to save his valuable  bottles of hooch.

[Gentlegamer]

Yes, that what NG+ means, you take your existing character into an advanced NG cycle from the beginning, everything resets.

[adamchevy]

I recently upgraded to the PS4 PRO to play Mass Effect Andromeda...but this is going to be a must own as well!

 

I just upgraded to a PS4 PRO to play the FF7 remake. It looks great! I enjoyed watching your pickups video today with Reggie. Those were some great pickups!

[+wongojack]

I just finished playing the main story in HZD last night.  I can see the flaws in this game - that it borrows from other games and the facial animations are bad - but I absolutely loved it.  It has been a while since a "modern" game clicked with me quite like this.  I've kinda forced myself to play some others (I won't mention them because you probably love them all), but this one seemed to scratch the right itch of story, explore, combat, create, etc.  It also looks amazing of course.

 

The first thing that was a surprise for me was how story-driven the beginning of the game was.  I've never played Far Cry, but the comparisons were easy to find to that series, and I don't think of it as a game people run to for story.  I am a fan of a strong narrative in my games.  At this point, I think of a big budget game as incomplete if it can't tell me a compelling story with memorable characters.  I like to know what I am trying to accomplish as a participant in a well-crafted narrative, and this element of gaming has been on the decline, soooo I was surprised that HZD embraced this right off the top.  

 

The game definitely borrows from other series, but I'm not sure that is really a problem here.  While I haven't played Far Cry, I have played multiple Assassin's Creed games, Batman Arkham XYZ, Bethesda, Breath of the Wild, Bioware, Rockstar, and (what is probably the closest for me to HZD) the Tomb Raider series that started in 2013.  I suppose a big missing game for me is The Witcher 3, but I have watched my wife play that, so I'm exposed.  Most people who complain about the fact that the game is borrowing from others seem to think that it is simply worse than those games.  Maybe that is true but playing HZD is definitely NOT an "average" experience.  It is an exceptional experience.  So even if the bow and arrow game play isn't as good, or the climbing is worse, the game still manages to deliver on everything and put it together in a way that I'm not sure any of those others have done.

 

If you can't tell, I REALLY liked HZD, but there are always things to pick at.  While I enjoyed the main story, it really felt like it developed heavily only at the beginning and near the end of the game.  That probably comes down to my personal choices about where to go and what to spend time doing, but I enjoyed the first 8 hours or so of very story heavy (almost tutorial) content.  Then I got sucked in to improving my gear and practicing hunting while slowly pushing out into new areas of the map.  It took me a while to even get to Meridian as I was experimenting with new abilities, opening hidden vantages and "unfogging" parts of the world.

 

This is getting long, I may add more later . . .

[+SpiceWare]

I skipped the PS4, lost interest in modern consoles for a while to the extent that my PS3 had become relegated to just playing blu-rays. I became interested in the PS5 when I saw Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart in 2021.  Was finally able to get a PS5 last month (wasn't going to pay eBay scalper prices).

 

After being diverted by Astro's Playroom, Stray (found it in PP(Playstation Plus)), and PS4 Spryo Reignited^*, I played thru PS4 Ratchet & Clank (2016, forgot this had been made until I spotted it in PP) and finished Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart yesterday. Even made it thru Challenge Mode for both R&C games.

 

Last night I checked out the PP games to figure out what to play next and saw Horizon Forbidden West had just been added.  Read up on it and saw that Horizon Zero Dawn was also in PP, so decided to play it first. I made it far enough along that Aloy's now grown up, and her voice rang a bell.  Turned out to be Ashly Burch, one of the main characters in the Mythic Quest series on Apple TV (awesome show, check it out if you haven't).

 

Anyway I'm enjoying the game so far.

 

^* I replay the original Spryo trilogy every 2-3 years. My prior play-through in 2021 was via Duckstation rendered at nearly 4K (using rips of my original discs). It's amazing how much detail was hidden away in the textures of PS1 games, Spryo looks phenomenal on my 75" 4K TV (click image, then click again for full detail).  The reimagining in Reignited was neat to experience, but I'll most likely return to Duckstation for my next replay.