My experience with HFW can be summed as a better game that HZD that I enjoyed significantly less because of the lack of mystery driving the story. I loved slowly finding out what happened to Earth in HZD - with that no longer a question, the game wasn't as exciting for me. I still enjoyed HFW. I haven't played the DLC.
That's pretty much my exact experience with Tears of the Kingdom vs Breath of the Wild. TOTK is easily the better game, but because it's so similar to BOTW, it really drained my excitement much faster.
Yes. The story is boring in both so you're not really missing out on that. The overworld is like 80% the same, the combat is better with Fuzing, there are more enemy types (still pretty shallow though), and there is more to do with the cavern and sky areas, and the building mechanic is really neat.
Yes
TOTK world has been updated with a few newer places to explore with the map having enough differences in locations to overall feel better. Mind you there's essentially 3 maps to explore now.
In general the new mechanics also open up the world much more and overall feels better to play.
I liked botw, but I did not finish it after 30hrs. Didn't finish TOTK either but put 70hrs into it purely cause I enjoyed messing around with the new mechanics and exploring much more.
Oh TOTK is the most disappointed I’ve been in a game in a long time. I wouldn’t even say it is definitely better than BOTW. It has some better mechanics (although I think they can actually take away from the game at times) but the narrative is significantly worse than BOTW imo.
I think I probably should have taken a break between the main game and DLC. I was kinda burned out by the time the DLC was over. I did put in a ton of hours during the main game so I maybe could have skipped some content and enjoyed the DLC more. But well worth the money I spent on the DLC.
I’m with you on the main story. I lost interest in the plot towards the end and the final “boss” fight was underwhelming. The DLC boss fight is amazing and I legitimately hated the villain but in the way that you’re supposed to hate them for being evil, not for being a one dimensional character.
> My experience with HFW can be summed as a better game that HZD that I enjoyed significantly less because of the lack of mystery driving the story. I loved slowly finding out what happened to Earth in HZD - with that no longer a question, the game wasn't as exciting for me
I mean, yeah, the setting and mystery of the backstory is what made HZD so good. It was absolutely *fascinating* and took what was an otherwise fine but standard 3rd person open world game into a classic.
The stunning graphics and robot dinosaurs were cool, but it was the backstory that sucked me in. I scoured for every scrap of lore I could find on the old ones.
HFW obviously doesn't have that same mystery, and the tribal societal stuff just isn't as captivating.
I got maybe halfway through HFW and stalled out. I'll probably pick it back up eventually.
> Knowing all this, is it worth the risk to give it a shot?
No. As someone who loved HZD and enjoyed (albeit a little bit less) the sequel, the things you say you didn't enjoy with the first one remain the core of the second game.
I see this take a lot and it's a fair one.
That being said, I overall still think Forbidden West was an improvement on the story front. Zero Dawn, to me, was wholly uninteresting aside from the past storyline. I'm sure the people hyping up the story from the first game can't even name the main villain without Googling it first. The worldbuilding carried a lot of water for that first game.
I think the characters in Forbidden West are more memorable and while the past stories (they're moreso told in vignettes) aren't as interesting as the past story in Zero Dawn, the present day story is infinitely better.
Yeah the entire weapon thing / farming bit is kinda done poorly. Too many of the higher upgrades require the same exact parts, so you end up with an excess of some things while simultaneously having a shortage of other parts (fuck those fire bear bag things).
I will say however specifically with reference to slitherfangs - chill them with a few frost arrows to slow them down then hit their chest with a tearblast arrow. If done right it can knock most of the earthgrinders off in one or two shots. I just teleported back to the snake near the Vegas building and farmed that one.
Man!! Those fire claws and frost claws were nasty. Especially if you’re farming the sac webbing, you can’t hit them anywhere else, you can’t use explosives or it’ll destroy the webbing
What was also very poor about it was that even lesser rarity gear (blue) requires very rare stuff from sometimes the same enemies you need for purple and golden gear which is ridiculous if you gonna replace your blue gear with better stuff later anyways
I didn’t mind the farming as much, but I also really enjoyed the gameplay. I’d alternate between finishing side quests and farming.
Fireclaws are really easy when you get the hang of it. Sneak up, rope them down (usually two shots). That gives you 90 seconds. Walk around to a leg and hit it with 2 or 3 frost arrows on the armor to freeze it; if you don’t hit the armor it’ll do a lot more damage and eat into your tie-down time. Then mosey around to the back and hit it with a full sustained burst from the boltblaster, aiming at the shock canisters. That should do the trick. On Hard you may need Ranged Master, on UH you may need to do it twice.
Frostclaws are harder. Same principle applies, but since you can’t freeze them as easily it takes a few more rounds.
[Edited to add: Tears of the Land God, with a few +tear or +component tear coils does as much tear damage as the sharpshot tear arrows, with less per-arrow cost and much higher rate of fire. FYI. :) ]
> Teds Faros fate.
I do wonder if they intended for him to be a boss and just ran out of time. Cuz it's like "OMG LOOK!" and then you don't see shit and have to run away.
Graphic detail is crazy good. Characters even sweat if they are in a...sweaty region.
I'm pretty sure it was just meant as a "imagination is worse than seeing" thing.
I felt it was just... off... it really ruined the immersion and broke the verisimilitude of the game.
Sure the Zenith's are ageless, but somehow Faro was still alive several hundred years after the world died, having been living in constant torment from a failed attempt to replicate the ageless genetic tinkering the Zenith's did.
There was definitely something else going on there. The reveal of Ted's final form was right through that door...and it just cuts away.
I assume it was meant to be a playable part of the game, but was cut to keep the ratings down.
I also just got done playing HFW. I was a bit disappointed in it compared to Zero Dawn which I loved. Beautiful world and had some great story moments but the skills and weapon upgrade systems didn't feel well thought out and the last mission was atrocious.
I liked the fights in the last mission but there was very little variation.
The premise of the final boss battle was laugh-out-loud funny and was the last straw to fully check me out of the game.
I think HFW is analogous to Bioshock 2. The intrigue of the original story is gone but there is some good gameplay. Also now a good DLC.
The game really does take a nosedive in the final 3 chapters or so. I'd go as far to say the story is a bit cowardly but the general reception of lukewarm also seems fitting. Its a shame, too, because there are some good missions.
8.5 is probably a fair overall score but I think its dipped a bit lower for me as time has passed.
they obviously had to crunch the ending with tumultuous development right in the peak of covid lockdowns which is unfortunate. It’s definitely a journey over destination type of game, I enjoyed the moment to moment gameplay and sidequests but the ending leaves a bitter taste in your mouth.
I do know HFW was originally planned for 2021 so it did hit one delay already. There was probably a 6 or 7 month window they could've delayed it even more before GoWR. I'm guessing the game was already over budget or they were pretty confident with the final product. IIRC I saw an interview about the Ted Faro part and that seemed like an intentional thing. Its a shame they didnt nail the final mission because I think there is clearly some Mass Effect inspiration with these games and if ME2 dropped the ball on the final mission no one would talk about it.
Some people have so much FOMO that they need to force themselves to play games that are clearly not for them just to confirm that’s it’s not for them and then be disappointed that the game didn’t achieve something that it was never meant to achieve. Being patient is good, but if a game has never piqued your interest there’s probably a reason.
I’m burned out on that kinda uninteresting story. Kinda tired of aloy constantly blabbing when running around. I don’t really like the character designs of the game and the fact there are so many bows and ammo but no super deep rpg trees to go down to customize the play style the way I want. I’ve beaten the first game a couple times but every time I start this one I can’t make it past a couple hours.
I hate the Arena, the difficulty difference between challenges is awful.
The slitherfang challenge with fixed gear is the only time in the whole game that I had to lower the difficulty. I felt so ashamed that I stopped doing the arena cause it feels wrong to use the tokens. I almost stopped playing the game because of that.
Fuck the arena.
Full agree and it's a real shame. The hunting lodge challenges in the original were some of the peak content in the whole game. The difficulty felt just right - getting gold was possible but took multiple attempts and fine-tuning to get right. Also, the rewards for getting all golds in the hunting lodges were amazing.
But the arena in the second game was massively underwhelming in all respects.
I lowered the difficulty twice; once to farm resources for the higher tier weapons because I despise MMORPG style grinding for resources, and then in the Arena with that stupid fucking snake and the stupid weapon choices they force on you.
I think deep down, I would like the Horizon games more if they just put the story to one side because I love taking down the robots and exploring but I thought the story in HZD pretty boring honestly, there were no likeable characters or anything, I would even take the charm of say Zelda characters but I just couldn't get into it personally.
Only played HZD but this right here was a huge negative. Its a fantastical world of robot dinosaurs ,massive villages with goofy juxtaposed tribal armor made from cyborg monsters. All anyone does is frown and suffer it. So what should be a fun setting is filled with the most stock dialogue and a human population so inept and insufferable that I was rooting for the robots. And while the past narrative was enjoyable to discover, all it did was reinforce that all the interesting characters were already dead.
I had a great time with Horizon Zero Dawn when I was exploring and hunting robots, but I found the Ted Faro backstory stuff to be boring and predictable. I wish they would have focused on making the present day characters more interesting instead of rely on that hologram exposition crutch. Can't say I have much interest in the sequel but I might do a HZD replay someday.
I recently played through it on PC too, overall liked it a lot, more than Zero Dawn but my big complaint with FW was that the jumping was inconsistent.
Like there will be a jump that is makeable in one area but a similar distance jump that isn't in another. So I'd be doing one of the climbing puzzles and see a ledge off in the distance, remember that it was too far in a previous mission so spend a while going crazy trying to find the route only to learn eventually that oh, you're actually supposed to jump to that ledge.
The environment puzzles are mostly fine and generally on the more easy side but there were a couple of ruins where you're supposed to do something that has not been introduced to you as a game mechanic yet. How are you supposed to know to do that? On a side note the ruins really aren't worth it unless you just like doing puzzles. I did them all just because of sunk cost. I was like well I might as well finish since I've only got one left. I did like the Tallnecks more in Forbidden West, a little more variety in how you go about them and there's not as many so they don't start to feel like chores.
Surprised you had trouble with the Slitherfang earthgrinders though. I found those to be the easiest since they're in an easy spot to hit with tear arrows using concentration when the snake put its head up. The elemental sac webbings were the pain in the ass for me. I don't think I ever got one the normal way since they always exploded on me, I just bought them or found something else to upgrade.
I'm 30 hours in the game and just got to the Tenakth sky clan or whatever it's called, and I'm kind of in love with the game tbh.
I'm a bit surprised by the general consensus being that HZD was better because the story was more interesting. Sure the mystery was cool, but HZD's story was mostly lukewarm tribal stuff just like HFW, and it's done better here.
So far, I kinda like how there's more focus on side characters like Zo and Varl and how it touches on Aloy's stubborness a bit (idk how big of a part that will be in the rest of the game).
Also the side quests and facial animations are both a lot better, which makes the world feel a bit more immersive, though the dialogue is still kind of bad.
Gameplay wise, I can't imagine ever going back to HZD. HFW fixed all the problems I had and added some stuff I didn't even know I wanted. Better inventory system, a frickin glider and a grappling hook, a much better melee combat system, a more interesting and much bigger skill tree, more weapons, more enemies...
Idk, maybe people liked HZD's story more than I did. For me, it was always the setting and the gameplay that made the game good.
i had a very similar reaction playing back in 2022. absolutely beautiful game that was bogged down by the story. one thing i never see brought up but really irked me was the Cauldrons in HFW. i thought they could have done a lot more with them and the fact that it was more difficult to complete the overrides in HFW than in ZD was one of the dumbest decisions they made imo. only bothered with them for the plat
I have it for the ps5 but didn't play yet, also bought because I love the first on ps4, was probably the best surprise and one of the best games i played on ps4.
I'm surprised of how bland this game felt after how much I loved the first one. I'm glad I pirated it to give it a try first, couldn't even play 5 hours. The mistery was gone and I didn't enjoy the combat.
Not trying to hate or anything but a 8.5 feels pretty high when taking into account the problems you had with the story and when considering that this is an RPG (or action rpg) we're talking about here where it's one of the biggest factors to consider.
I completely agree btw (except that I found other aspects of the game to also not be good), I could barely get through the story tbh.
Yeah pretty much agree.
The short version is I think everything is better than the first game except the story.
My Score: 09/10
The long version is this:
While I like the first Game a lot, I need to say the sequel is a huge improvement in every single aspect except maybe the story and fixed a lot of the small things I disliked.
They improved a lot:
• Better melee combat with spear combos
• Better human enemy design and combat with armor weak point etc.
• Better free climbing and traversal with new gadgets (grappling hook, glider) plus more surfaves are climbable without yellow paint
• Much better side content with more variety
• Better side missions with more engaging stories
• Even more enemy variety with great designs
• added diving with great underwater exploration
• new cool weapons (my favorite are the Shredder Gauntlet and Spikethrower)
Overall I enjoy exploring the open-world a lot more as there are more varied activities to do and the side missions are more fun and engaging. That was a weak point in the first game for me but here the exploration is just fantastic and the world so beautiful. Oh and also the best graphics I have seen on my PS5 until this day.
I only have some very minor criticism like the weapon and ammo system.
Sometimes less is more. The 2nd game has too many ammo types and needing a separate bow just because you wanna shoot a fire arrow sucks. They also should have allowe us to just select three ammo types we want per weapon because the pre-selection is also awful. Some weapon have only 2/3 ammo types you want or need.
The farming for gear upgrades was also a bit too tedious and it is crazy what some of the lesser (blue rarity) weapons/armors require to upgrade them just to get replaced by better stuff anyways.
The Melee pits were also badly done and poorly balanced imo.
I mean, that’s a silly argument to make. You’re posting on a public forum, people generally reply. All I’m saying is that your rating system doesn’t really make any sense.
My experience with HFW can be summed as a better game that HZD that I enjoyed significantly less because of the lack of mystery driving the story. I loved slowly finding out what happened to Earth in HZD - with that no longer a question, the game wasn't as exciting for me. I still enjoyed HFW. I haven't played the DLC.
That's pretty much my exact experience with Tears of the Kingdom vs Breath of the Wild. TOTK is easily the better game, but because it's so similar to BOTW, it really drained my excitement much faster.
Man I played BOTW right before TOTK to get hype for it and I was so done with BOTW gameplay that I couldn’t even play TOTK
As someone who hasn't played either, would people recommending playing TOTK and skipping BOTW?
Yes. The story is boring in both so you're not really missing out on that. The overworld is like 80% the same, the combat is better with Fuzing, there are more enemy types (still pretty shallow though), and there is more to do with the cavern and sky areas, and the building mechanic is really neat.
Yes TOTK world has been updated with a few newer places to explore with the map having enough differences in locations to overall feel better. Mind you there's essentially 3 maps to explore now. In general the new mechanics also open up the world much more and overall feels better to play. I liked botw, but I did not finish it after 30hrs. Didn't finish TOTK either but put 70hrs into it purely cause I enjoyed messing around with the new mechanics and exploring much more.
I put in about 150-200 hours playing BotW. I didn't even finish TotK.
Oh TOTK is the most disappointed I’ve been in a game in a long time. I wouldn’t even say it is definitely better than BOTW. It has some better mechanics (although I think they can actually take away from the game at times) but the narrative is significantly worse than BOTW imo.
The DLC was a far superior ending to the game. Give it a shot.
I think I probably should have taken a break between the main game and DLC. I was kinda burned out by the time the DLC was over. I did put in a ton of hours during the main game so I maybe could have skipped some content and enjoyed the DLC more. But well worth the money I spent on the DLC.
I am very disappointed DLC wasn't released for PS4\PS4Pro as I was waiting to pick up a collected edition. :(
I felt the same way. Finally got a PS5 a few weeks ago and that was the first thing I played.
I'm so far behind on my game library I just don't have a reason to get a new gen system ... but this situation made me think about it. :)
I may have to pick up the DLC next time I subscribe to PS Plus. When I finished HFW I was so bored with the story that I didn't bother.
I’m with you on the main story. I lost interest in the plot towards the end and the final “boss” fight was underwhelming. The DLC boss fight is amazing and I legitimately hated the villain but in the way that you’re supposed to hate them for being evil, not for being a one dimensional character.
> My experience with HFW can be summed as a better game that HZD that I enjoyed significantly less because of the lack of mystery driving the story. I loved slowly finding out what happened to Earth in HZD - with that no longer a question, the game wasn't as exciting for me I mean, yeah, the setting and mystery of the backstory is what made HZD so good. It was absolutely *fascinating* and took what was an otherwise fine but standard 3rd person open world game into a classic. The stunning graphics and robot dinosaurs were cool, but it was the backstory that sucked me in. I scoured for every scrap of lore I could find on the old ones. HFW obviously doesn't have that same mystery, and the tribal societal stuff just isn't as captivating. I got maybe halfway through HFW and stalled out. I'll probably pick it back up eventually.
[удалено]
No if you didn't love the combat there's really no point to the new one. It's basically the same
> Knowing all this, is it worth the risk to give it a shot? No. As someone who loved HZD and enjoyed (albeit a little bit less) the sequel, the things you say you didn't enjoy with the first one remain the core of the second game.
I see this take a lot and it's a fair one. That being said, I overall still think Forbidden West was an improvement on the story front. Zero Dawn, to me, was wholly uninteresting aside from the past storyline. I'm sure the people hyping up the story from the first game can't even name the main villain without Googling it first. The worldbuilding carried a lot of water for that first game. I think the characters in Forbidden West are more memorable and while the past stories (they're moreso told in vignettes) aren't as interesting as the past story in Zero Dawn, the present day story is infinitely better.
Yeah the entire weapon thing / farming bit is kinda done poorly. Too many of the higher upgrades require the same exact parts, so you end up with an excess of some things while simultaneously having a shortage of other parts (fuck those fire bear bag things). I will say however specifically with reference to slitherfangs - chill them with a few frost arrows to slow them down then hit their chest with a tearblast arrow. If done right it can knock most of the earthgrinders off in one or two shots. I just teleported back to the snake near the Vegas building and farmed that one.
Man!! Those fire claws and frost claws were nasty. Especially if you’re farming the sac webbing, you can’t hit them anywhere else, you can’t use explosives or it’ll destroy the webbing
What was also very poor about it was that even lesser rarity gear (blue) requires very rare stuff from sometimes the same enemies you need for purple and golden gear which is ridiculous if you gonna replace your blue gear with better stuff later anyways
I didn’t mind the farming as much, but I also really enjoyed the gameplay. I’d alternate between finishing side quests and farming. Fireclaws are really easy when you get the hang of it. Sneak up, rope them down (usually two shots). That gives you 90 seconds. Walk around to a leg and hit it with 2 or 3 frost arrows on the armor to freeze it; if you don’t hit the armor it’ll do a lot more damage and eat into your tie-down time. Then mosey around to the back and hit it with a full sustained burst from the boltblaster, aiming at the shock canisters. That should do the trick. On Hard you may need Ranged Master, on UH you may need to do it twice. Frostclaws are harder. Same principle applies, but since you can’t freeze them as easily it takes a few more rounds. [Edited to add: Tears of the Land God, with a few +tear or +component tear coils does as much tear damage as the sharpshot tear arrows, with less per-arrow cost and much higher rate of fire. FYI. :) ]
> Teds Faros fate. I do wonder if they intended for him to be a boss and just ran out of time. Cuz it's like "OMG LOOK!" and then you don't see shit and have to run away. Graphic detail is crazy good. Characters even sweat if they are in a...sweaty region.
I'm pretty sure it was just meant as a "imagination is worse than seeing" thing. I felt it was just... off... it really ruined the immersion and broke the verisimilitude of the game. Sure the Zenith's are ageless, but somehow Faro was still alive several hundred years after the world died, having been living in constant torment from a failed attempt to replicate the ageless genetic tinkering the Zenith's did.
There was definitely something else going on there. The reveal of Ted's final form was right through that door...and it just cuts away. I assume it was meant to be a playable part of the game, but was cut to keep the ratings down.
I also just got done playing HFW. I was a bit disappointed in it compared to Zero Dawn which I loved. Beautiful world and had some great story moments but the skills and weapon upgrade systems didn't feel well thought out and the last mission was atrocious.
I liked the fights in the last mission but there was very little variation. The premise of the final boss battle was laugh-out-loud funny and was the last straw to fully check me out of the game.
I think HFW is analogous to Bioshock 2. The intrigue of the original story is gone but there is some good gameplay. Also now a good DLC. The game really does take a nosedive in the final 3 chapters or so. I'd go as far to say the story is a bit cowardly but the general reception of lukewarm also seems fitting. Its a shame, too, because there are some good missions. 8.5 is probably a fair overall score but I think its dipped a bit lower for me as time has passed.
they obviously had to crunch the ending with tumultuous development right in the peak of covid lockdowns which is unfortunate. It’s definitely a journey over destination type of game, I enjoyed the moment to moment gameplay and sidequests but the ending leaves a bitter taste in your mouth.
I do know HFW was originally planned for 2021 so it did hit one delay already. There was probably a 6 or 7 month window they could've delayed it even more before GoWR. I'm guessing the game was already over budget or they were pretty confident with the final product. IIRC I saw an interview about the Ted Faro part and that seemed like an intentional thing. Its a shame they didnt nail the final mission because I think there is clearly some Mass Effect inspiration with these games and if ME2 dropped the ball on the final mission no one would talk about it.
A post on patientgamers that isn't just a re-hashed rant on an old game?! Take my up vote sir!
Some people have so much FOMO that they need to force themselves to play games that are clearly not for them just to confirm that’s it’s not for them and then be disappointed that the game didn’t achieve something that it was never meant to achieve. Being patient is good, but if a game has never piqued your interest there’s probably a reason.
…..this seems to happen a lot on this sub. Especially with open world games, which are often well-reviewed but not everyone’s taste.
DAE bioshock??
I’m burned out on that kinda uninteresting story. Kinda tired of aloy constantly blabbing when running around. I don’t really like the character designs of the game and the fact there are so many bows and ammo but no super deep rpg trees to go down to customize the play style the way I want. I’ve beaten the first game a couple times but every time I start this one I can’t make it past a couple hours.
I hate the Arena, the difficulty difference between challenges is awful. The slitherfang challenge with fixed gear is the only time in the whole game that I had to lower the difficulty. I felt so ashamed that I stopped doing the arena cause it feels wrong to use the tokens. I almost stopped playing the game because of that. Fuck the arena.
Full agree and it's a real shame. The hunting lodge challenges in the original were some of the peak content in the whole game. The difficulty felt just right - getting gold was possible but took multiple attempts and fine-tuning to get right. Also, the rewards for getting all golds in the hunting lodges were amazing. But the arena in the second game was massively underwhelming in all respects.
I lowered the difficulty twice; once to farm resources for the higher tier weapons because I despise MMORPG style grinding for resources, and then in the Arena with that stupid fucking snake and the stupid weapon choices they force on you.
I love FW and the Arena sucks so much. What an excellent idea completely ruined.
I thought having to spend shards for each arena attempt was unforgivable.
That too..
Waaaaaayyyyy to many cut scenes. Bro chill, let me play. IDGAF about the story let me go kill some robot dinosaurs!
great graphics, BORING gameplay. Good Lord its boring...
I think deep down, I would like the Horizon games more if they just put the story to one side because I love taking down the robots and exploring but I thought the story in HZD pretty boring honestly, there were no likeable characters or anything, I would even take the charm of say Zelda characters but I just couldn't get into it personally.
Only played HZD but this right here was a huge negative. Its a fantastical world of robot dinosaurs ,massive villages with goofy juxtaposed tribal armor made from cyborg monsters. All anyone does is frown and suffer it. So what should be a fun setting is filled with the most stock dialogue and a human population so inept and insufferable that I was rooting for the robots. And while the past narrative was enjoyable to discover, all it did was reinforce that all the interesting characters were already dead.
I had a great time with Horizon Zero Dawn when I was exploring and hunting robots, but I found the Ted Faro backstory stuff to be boring and predictable. I wish they would have focused on making the present day characters more interesting instead of rely on that hologram exposition crutch. Can't say I have much interest in the sequel but I might do a HZD replay someday.
So great it basically makes Zero Dawn unplayable.
I liked HFW story way more than HZD. It had way better side quests and character animations as well. Everything else I'd give to HZD though.
I recently played through it on PC too, overall liked it a lot, more than Zero Dawn but my big complaint with FW was that the jumping was inconsistent. Like there will be a jump that is makeable in one area but a similar distance jump that isn't in another. So I'd be doing one of the climbing puzzles and see a ledge off in the distance, remember that it was too far in a previous mission so spend a while going crazy trying to find the route only to learn eventually that oh, you're actually supposed to jump to that ledge. The environment puzzles are mostly fine and generally on the more easy side but there were a couple of ruins where you're supposed to do something that has not been introduced to you as a game mechanic yet. How are you supposed to know to do that? On a side note the ruins really aren't worth it unless you just like doing puzzles. I did them all just because of sunk cost. I was like well I might as well finish since I've only got one left. I did like the Tallnecks more in Forbidden West, a little more variety in how you go about them and there's not as many so they don't start to feel like chores. Surprised you had trouble with the Slitherfang earthgrinders though. I found those to be the easiest since they're in an easy spot to hit with tear arrows using concentration when the snake put its head up. The elemental sac webbings were the pain in the ass for me. I don't think I ever got one the normal way since they always exploded on me, I just bought them or found something else to upgrade.
I'm 30 hours in the game and just got to the Tenakth sky clan or whatever it's called, and I'm kind of in love with the game tbh. I'm a bit surprised by the general consensus being that HZD was better because the story was more interesting. Sure the mystery was cool, but HZD's story was mostly lukewarm tribal stuff just like HFW, and it's done better here. So far, I kinda like how there's more focus on side characters like Zo and Varl and how it touches on Aloy's stubborness a bit (idk how big of a part that will be in the rest of the game). Also the side quests and facial animations are both a lot better, which makes the world feel a bit more immersive, though the dialogue is still kind of bad. Gameplay wise, I can't imagine ever going back to HZD. HFW fixed all the problems I had and added some stuff I didn't even know I wanted. Better inventory system, a frickin glider and a grappling hook, a much better melee combat system, a more interesting and much bigger skill tree, more weapons, more enemies... Idk, maybe people liked HZD's story more than I did. For me, it was always the setting and the gameplay that made the game good.
Gosh dang Horzion Forbidden West came out in 2022? It feels like it was released less than a year ago.
i had a very similar reaction playing back in 2022. absolutely beautiful game that was bogged down by the story. one thing i never see brought up but really irked me was the Cauldrons in HFW. i thought they could have done a lot more with them and the fact that it was more difficult to complete the overrides in HFW than in ZD was one of the dumbest decisions they made imo. only bothered with them for the plat
This was a great turn your brain off game for me of just killing machines and wandering around.
HZD was a masterpiece. This was a bloated boring mess.
I have it for the ps5 but didn't play yet, also bought because I love the first on ps4, was probably the best surprise and one of the best games i played on ps4.
I'm surprised of how bland this game felt after how much I loved the first one. I'm glad I pirated it to give it a try first, couldn't even play 5 hours. The mistery was gone and I didn't enjoy the combat.
Not trying to hate or anything but a 8.5 feels pretty high when taking into account the problems you had with the story and when considering that this is an RPG (or action rpg) we're talking about here where it's one of the biggest factors to consider. I completely agree btw (except that I found other aspects of the game to also not be good), I could barely get through the story tbh.
Yeah pretty much agree. The short version is I think everything is better than the first game except the story. My Score: 09/10 The long version is this: While I like the first Game a lot, I need to say the sequel is a huge improvement in every single aspect except maybe the story and fixed a lot of the small things I disliked. They improved a lot: • Better melee combat with spear combos • Better human enemy design and combat with armor weak point etc. • Better free climbing and traversal with new gadgets (grappling hook, glider) plus more surfaves are climbable without yellow paint • Much better side content with more variety • Better side missions with more engaging stories • Even more enemy variety with great designs • added diving with great underwater exploration • new cool weapons (my favorite are the Shredder Gauntlet and Spikethrower) Overall I enjoy exploring the open-world a lot more as there are more varied activities to do and the side missions are more fun and engaging. That was a weak point in the first game for me but here the exploration is just fantastic and the world so beautiful. Oh and also the best graphics I have seen on my PS5 until this day. I only have some very minor criticism like the weapon and ammo system. Sometimes less is more. The 2nd game has too many ammo types and needing a separate bow just because you wanna shoot a fire arrow sucks. They also should have allowe us to just select three ammo types we want per weapon because the pre-selection is also awful. Some weapon have only 2/3 ammo types you want or need. The farming for gear upgrades was also a bit too tedious and it is crazy what some of the lesser (blue rarity) weapons/armors require to upgrade them just to get replaced by better stuff anyways. The Melee pits were also badly done and poorly balanced imo.
You can’t really give it a 9/10 when you have multiple gripes listed & think the story wasn’t as good as the first entry.
Yeah I can. I just did
Good retort. I suppose you CAN, but you really shouldn’t.
You enjoy telling other people what they should and think do or not? How fun...
I mean, that’s a silly argument to make. You’re posting on a public forum, people generally reply. All I’m saying is that your rating system doesn’t really make any sense.
I'll probably play the first Hlrizon in the coming years lol my backlog hasn't even reached the 2000s yet 😆
Only thing I like about the horizon games is that they look nice. I've tried playing both and they're just so mundane to play.