Horizon: Zero Dawn - No, you're thinking of The Frozen Worlds.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Horizon: Zero Dawn - No, you're thinking of The Frozen Worlds.

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FAUXTON: Jun 2, 2005; spero che tu stia bene

Paul Zuvella posted:

About 3 hours in (just got to the Nora Village) and I spent a huge amount of time just tooling around in the world. I feel like so many parts of this game (Ubisoft design-esque, generic 'outcast accepted back in plot', post-post apocalypse setting, robot dinosaurs) that should, at face value, be terrible, but the sum of its parts has gotten me hooked.

I think it's just solid storytelling that makes those clunky elements fit together well. Like the outsider part, they keep alluding to a broader narrative around that and were pointing out early on that you had the option to try for proving as a brave because it wasn't your fault you were shunned. Robot dinos are seeming more like a case of tech gone wild and People hosed Up, etc.

Also if anyone chose to throw the rock back at the kid's head early on, let me know how it affects his interaction with you in the bunkhouse. I picked the drop the rock option and I'd like to know if throwing the rock at his head made him a little more considerate later on.

# ¿ Mar 1, 2017 16:34

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 14:30

FAUXTON: Jun 2, 2005; spero che tu stia bene

I just looked into the feminism aspect of the game's reception (because so far it's been noticeably short on spandex, skin, and stone jawed hero dudes) and holy moly I almost want to buy two copies out of spite. There are some incredibly terrible people incredibly angry about it.

As for the combat, I like the way it makes you have to actually hit the robots' headlights to score a headshot. Like if it was just "hit the head from any angle" it would be easy as hell but you basically need to call attention to yourself (throwing a rock/whistling at the robot cow/raptor for example) to get a good opportunity. You can use concentration to make use of passing glances but that directional dimension really adds some neat tension to fights.

FAUXTON fucked around with this message at 16:49 on Mar 1, 2017

# ¿ Mar 1, 2017 16:44

FAUXTON: Jun 2, 2005; spero che tu stia bene

Norns posted:

They are mad she's competent and clothed?

Eh there's a lot more to it, one of the larger emotional interests early on turned out to be a tailor because he wasn't cut out for fighting. Society is heavily matriarchal down to the religion, most of the assholes in the story are guys, but the main friction between Aloy and the Nora isn't "hurr you're a girl" but "hurr you're an outcast" and there's been absolutely zero cheesecake bullshit going on. Like you can even see where it WOULD come up but doesn't (e.g. the part after the ambush and you wake up in the mountain, you're definitely vulnerable but you still have a full set of clothes on instead of hobbling around in underwear, they don't conflate vulnerability with personal exposure)

Basically there's a lot of places where the story chooses not to use stylistic quasi-or-outwardly sexist crutches and is all the better for it. The outcast thing is the main example I can think of a few hours in, they could just drive that friction along gender lines but they don't and instead use it to drive the story real good in the first act.

# ¿ Mar 1, 2017 16:59

FAUXTON: Jun 2, 2005; spero che tu stia bene

MinibarMatchman posted:

the only people legit mad at playing a female protagonist in a game are brokenbrained nitwits. it's 2017 and it's so loving common how can you even get mad at it.

How cool is the weapon and tool diversity? does it just boil down to bows and spears, or do you get poo poo like grappling hooks, swords, shields, and jetpacks or whatever? I don't know much about the toolset or equipment in the game aside from those basic 2 weapons.

In a sentence, it isn't so much the fact that the protagonist is a lady, it's also that you don't see her bellybutton. POSSIBLY BECAUSE SHE'S A CLONE AND AIN'T GOT ONE? FIND OUT BEHIND DOOR #1

You have a spear that can be upgraded/rigged, same for weapons but they're in general primitive bow/slingshot/snare stuff. There's definitely at least one proper gun but I'm thinking guns are more short-term power multipliers than long term carry weapons.

If you liked the Tomb Raider remake's approach to weapon progression then you won't have any problem at all with this game's take on it.

# ¿ Mar 1, 2017 17:06

FAUXTON: Jun 2, 2005; spero che tu stia bene

Saint Freak posted:

The story of Aloy; an outcast who deforests and entire region in order to build the biggest backpack anyone had ever seen.

Far Cry doesn't have you throwing a rock at a kid either.

# ¿ Mar 1, 2017 17:21

FAUXTON: Jun 2, 2005; spero che tu stia bene

Nostalgia4Infinity posted:

They're out there.

Oddly enough taking a moment to hunt animals is oddly cathartic.

Considering they flee and have what seems to be a higher sensitivity to noticing you creeping over the nearby rock, it's like a side game all its own.

# ¿ Mar 1, 2017 17:38

FAUXTON: Jun 2, 2005; spero che tu stia bene

veni veni veni posted:

My buddy pointed out that the girl kind of looks like chucky and now I can't unsee it.

She kind of reminded me of that one northerner lady from GoT, but with a way younger face.

# ¿ Mar 1, 2017 18:10

FAUXTON: Jun 2, 2005; spero che tu stia bene

Emron posted:

I'd say this is way more similar to Rise of the Tomb Raider than Far Cry, if we're going to insist that games are the same because they're the same genre.

Yeah I'd put it somewhere along a mix of Tomb Raider, The Last of Us, and any number of survival games where you hunt animals for their useful parts to craft stuff. It's pretty impressive that they managed to do both stealth and loud combat without causing the usual issue of having the game slanted one way at the expense of the other. Yeah you can hide in grass and stealth kill stuff but when you get into a proper fight it isn't like the game is hobbling your ability to fight by trying to jam a stealth peg into a loud hole or vice versa where stealth comes like an afterthought to add a bunch of grueling play hours to the game (SUP FFXV). It's surprisingly well-balanced as far as the few hours I've played have gone.

Since I started off going with the "find extra resources" skill, it seems like I'm flush with crafting ingredients and always full on medical herbs but I'm also playing through on normal so I don't go through ammo and meds as fast.

# ¿ Mar 1, 2017 20:32

FAUXTON: Jun 2, 2005; spero che tu stia bene

Harrow posted:

I don't think I ever saw that original design. Any idea where I can find it?

I mean, not all the Nora are white. There are black and Asian Nora as well. None of the tribes in Horizon are divided along what we'd see in the real world as racial lines. As for them being the first to "hunt and raise their bows," I feel like that gets a little less weird if you consider that human history has basically restarted from scratch in Horizon, so the way things were in our world don't necessarily have any bearing on the people of Horizon's world as far as they're concerned.

I do agree that Aloy should've been a woman of color, though. I've already met a couple of black female NPCs and thought, "I'd rather play a character who looked like that." I guess Aloy's red hair is important (both as something it seems Guerrilla wanted her to have early on and as something enemies identify her by), but red hair crops up in non-white populations, too.

I swear there's a line in the dialogue identifying her as "the redhair" when she's finding out that Olin or his focus had been the one who spotted her and that she had been targeted to begin with so I'm assuming it's got some significance but there's absolutely no reason there couldn't have been a non-white main character beyond a check-signing suit likely saying they've pushed the envelope enough already. Which is a lovely reason, without qualification.

Good if not great game on all other accounts though, and what ground it does break is cool and good, but she could have been that other brave-in-the-making she meets at the bunkhouse and it would detract nothing beyond needing the dialogue to point out another identifying feature assuming they kept that character's hair. The fact that they're already operating within about as race-blind a society as you can get only means that you could swap her out and lose absolutely nothing. Hell they already tread ever so lightly on gender role/identity soil with that Teb guy turning out to be a clothesmaker. Dude's just like "yeah turns out I'm better with a needle and thread NBD" and there isn't anyone going "BUT THATS A WOMAN'S JOB NYAAAAA"

E: Dr. FAUXTON also finds the childhood sequence unsettling because of how Aloy runs. She's like "that kid is at least 6 and they're making her run like a toddler what the gently caress" so there's that.

FAUXTON fucked around with this message at 21:39 on Mar 1, 2017

# ¿ Mar 1, 2017 21:35

FAUXTON: Jun 2, 2005; spero che tu stia bene

Harrow posted:

I know, but what I'm trying to argue is that, in the context of the game, the way the Nora dress and the aesthetic of their dwellings is really the only way it could've been: it's all made of natural materials, because that's what they have, and looks how it does because that's how you'd have to make those structures, garments, and tools given those materials. They use leather, wood, and scavenged robot pieces, so it ends up coming across as a "green" Mad Max in a way more than a stand-in for any real culture.

I'm not disagreeing with you about Aloy's race, for what it's worth, just that I don't think the aesthetic the game is using for the Nora is necessarily appropriative.

Yeah, that's the line I'm referring to. Aloy's red hair is important, but the thing is, even in real life, non-white people are sometimes born with red hair, too. I don't think they made her white specifically because they wanted her to have red hair, though.

The survivor outfit is a little close to the line but it's not terribly egregious. Also :agreed:

on the red hair being not just for white people, it's just seeming like her luxurious mane is an identifying feature that can be swapped out in full if they wanted to just swap out the character resource packages instead of making a new model from scratch with red hair.

# ¿ Mar 1, 2017 21:45

FAUXTON: Jun 2, 2005; spero che tu stia bene

Sakurazuka posted:

Don't be an idiot like me and sell your lenses and hearts and stuff, you need them to trade for better quality items

Yeah I sold a few and then noticed they were also good for trading.

So now I just make an effort to kill more robosauruses.

# ¿ Mar 1, 2017 21:50

FAUXTON: Jun 2, 2005; spero che tu stia bene

I killed my first sawtooth by setting an electrical tripwire, then hitting it with a couple fire arrows, and then just beating the everliving poo poo out of it with my spear. It got up once so once I saw the little indicator getting low I set another tripwire and baited it into that and went right back to just beating the poo poo out of it. I think it landed one hit on me because I dodge-rolled into a rock instead of past it but it was easy enough. I was level 7 at the time though because I started hunting robosauruses for sport/profit.

# ¿ Mar 1, 2017 23:58

FAUXTON: Jun 2, 2005; spero che tu stia bene

Awesome! posted:

one of the first skills slows time when you aim after jumping or sliding. how do you slide?

The only time I've slid was on steep terrain. I haven't tried crouching while sprinting though.

# ¿ Mar 2, 2017 00:03

FAUXTON: Jun 2, 2005; spero che tu stia bene

The "climb here" cues are more subtle than, say, Uncharted 's neon yellow paint and tastefully placed snow but they're quite visible and for the most part still scraps of yellow rope.

# ¿ Mar 2, 2017 00:43

FAUXTON: Jun 2, 2005; spero che tu stia bene

veni veni veni posted:

You know you can craft health packs out of meat right?

Mods

# ¿ Mar 2, 2017 01:43

FAUXTON: Jun 2, 2005; spero che tu stia bene

ethanol posted:

Anybody in the cauldron on very hard? just where the gently caress am I supposed to shoot the big fire dino that is ten levels above me on this marked level 8 quest with NO EXIT
I tried all the big glowy bits. Got it down to maybe 75%

If the glowy bits look like big balloons just keep shooting the big one on its back, then go after the smaller one on its neck.

# ¿ Mar 2, 2017 05:53

FAUXTON: Jun 2, 2005; spero che tu stia bene

ethanol posted:

I've hit that fuckig thing like a doZen+ times

I though this way a friendly level 8 quest

Hit it another dozen times, you've got to blast the poo poo out of it.

# ¿ Mar 2, 2017 05:56

FAUXTON: Jun 2, 2005; spero che tu stia bene

Centzon Totochtin posted:

Ok so here's a weird question: I got the collector's edition from Amazon and all over the outside of the outermost box there's some speckling of dried white stuff (I'm not sure what it is, sort of seems like tiny bits of wet paper that dried? ). I can scrape it off but there's a fair amount of it (few enough that you can see it from more than a few feet away but enough that you notice it when you're handling the box). Has anyone else has this issue? The game is amazing so far but this just bothers me for some reason.

http://imgur.com/a/e3etQ

Presumably something sprayed/splashed on to it between the distributor and the Amazon warehouse it shipped from. Possibly while it was at the Amazon warehouse, they have strange logistics systems that organize the merch by weird criteria that make it more efficient so it is entirely likely it ended up stocked next to something completely different e.g. milk or spray paint etc.

# ¿ Mar 2, 2017 19:53

FAUXTON: Jun 2, 2005; spero che tu stia bene

With the sling you can lob rounds over the heads of targets and given how stuff like Striders will usually flee I bet the game lets you do stuff like set up tripwires and then cause a pack of striders to bolt right into it by lobbing a sling bomb so that it lands opposite the trap (e.g. causing the herd to stampede into the wire)

There's a definite hunting aspect of the gameplay that lets you approach enemies like big game rather than just generic enemies to be slain. It's really neat that you're not only allowed to but in some cases you seem to be expected to set a trap and prepare a proper ambush to cause a target to end up crippled and in terrain of your choosing. Technically you can just open fire and brute force your way through a fight with a bellowback or sawtooth but there's something rewarding in carefully arranging set pieces beforehand so that you don't have to spend a bunch of time plinking away in bullet time at weak spots while dodging fireballs and charges. Just trap them, get them on the ground, weaken them with their status vulnerability, then deliver the crits.

# ¿ Mar 2, 2017 20:11

FAUXTON: Jun 2, 2005; spero che tu stia bene

CharlestonJew posted:

its cum

Excuse me you mean ropecaster ammo

# ¿ Mar 2, 2017 20:18

FAUXTON: Jun 2, 2005; spero che tu stia bene

Ol Cactus Dick posted:

I walk everywhere in the game and I have stacks and stacks of resources. I sell stacks of things because I have like 8-10 stacks of Blaze and Sparkers.

I walk everywhere because it's a stupendously pretty game and riding a noble robosteed around seems like a waste.

E: Grand Theft Automaton

# ¿ Mar 2, 2017 20:23

FAUXTON: Jun 2, 2005; spero che tu stia bene

Using the tearblast arrows on the underside of a large enemy does hilarious and amazing things sometimes. Like you can knock a bellowback flat on their rear end, exposing the sixer of blaze cans where their junk would be.

# ¿ Mar 3, 2017 16:46

FAUXTON: Jun 2, 2005; spero che tu stia bene

Ol Cactus Dick posted:

https://twitter.com/CDPROJEKTRED/status/837316575925514241

Good god that's amazing

# ¿ Mar 3, 2017 16:57

FAUXTON: Jun 2, 2005; spero che tu stia bene

Ol Cactus Dick posted:

My kingdom for more echo thingys because tearblast arrows are the best.

Oh this reminds me.

Next time you sneak up on a herd of grazers, just get near one near the middle of the group, pop into concentration and machinegun a few fire arrows into those blaze cans on its rear end.

You see, the explosion will often set off the blaze cans on nearby grazers and within a few moments you've cleaned them all out.

# ¿ Mar 3, 2017 17:14

FAUXTON: Jun 2, 2005; spero che tu stia bene

Lakbay posted:

I was so excited to get a "Remarkable Treasure Box" but then I opened it and all it had was some ridge-wood and chillwater

I bet you made a remark after seeing that

# ¿ Mar 3, 2017 17:18

FAUXTON: Jun 2, 2005; spero che tu stia bene

veni veni veni posted:

For as amazing as the different times of day and weather effects look, I gotta say the transitions are pretty abrupt and awkward.

Yeah, I liked the part of the revenge quest line where the weather goes from sunny to monsoon in 10 seconds. Aloy's like "I was waiting for this storm" as though the sky wasn't clear less than one minute ago.

# ¿ Mar 3, 2017 20:04

FAUXTON: Jun 2, 2005; spero che tu stia bene

veni veni veni posted:

What is up with some camp fires being like 20 feet away from each other? lol

Sometimes you're like "gently caress it, set the tents up boys" at like 10AM.

# ¿ Mar 4, 2017 00:21

FAUXTON: Jun 2, 2005; spero che tu stia bene

I don't think I've bought any physical copies of any games since getting my PS4 but you can tell the poor thing is just working its little silicon heart out rendering this lush world.

On the other hand it adds a strange layer of ambiance to the wind noise due to the arrangement of my TV stand.

# ¿ Mar 4, 2017 01:42

FAUXTON: Jun 2, 2005; spero che tu stia bene

Tofu Injection posted:

This just happened to me too. I'm guessing bug.

Does it want you to get all the different suns?

# ¿ Mar 4, 2017 03:35

FAUXTON: Jun 2, 2005; spero che tu stia bene

Yeah I wasn't expecting that level of, uh, polish in the cauldron.

# ¿ Mar 4, 2017 05:10

FAUXTON: Jun 2, 2005; spero che tu stia bene

klen dool posted:

I haven't (and probably will not ever) play this game, despite it looking really awesome, because I will probably not own a ps4. But, I was wondering for those that HAVE played the game, are there like normal animals in this? Like biological meat and bones animals?

Because the clothing that the characters wear in this game look like animal skins but I haven't seen any animals in any gameplay footage....

Hell there are probably more boars than robots.

# ¿ Mar 4, 2017 09:17

FAUXTON: Jun 2, 2005; spero che tu stia bene

veni veni veni posted:

So this game is supposed to take place in Kansas right? I'm curious to see if they explain the wildly diverse biomes which appear almost as quickly as the weather changes. Don't get me wrong from a gameplay standpoint it's great and keeps things fresh but it;s kind of funny how you can go from the artic to the desert to tropical in like 5 minutes.

Kansas sure as poo poo ain't got the terrain.

# ¿ Mar 4, 2017 09:22

FAUXTON: Jun 2, 2005; spero che tu stia bene

precision posted:

"I thought it was the latrine."

I chuckled at that one

# ¿ Mar 4, 2017 19:14

FAUXTON: Jun 2, 2005; spero che tu stia bene

So you can tame a horse, call it to you, then beat it to death.

# ¿ Mar 4, 2017 22:47

FAUXTON: Jun 2, 2005; spero che tu stia bene

So can the "light melee to knock poo poo off machines" be used after a couple shock bombs to nut tap a bellowback into losing the plate covering the blaze canisters? Or is it a sort of "random in this area" thing where you're as likely to hit a tail plate?

I've usually done a running battle kind of thing where I'm hucking shots at the bags of fuel on its throat and rear end, but I decided to knock the big bastard over once and realized that the blaze cans are behind a plate and drop down after the plate comes off.

# ¿ Mar 5, 2017 06:14

FAUXTON: Jun 2, 2005; spero che tu stia bene

I used the sharpshooter bow to turn that poo poo into a ghost town, looped around through the cave in the back, killed the two guys there, and the blaze shed was within range shortly after coming out of that cave.

# ¿ Mar 5, 2017 06:45

FAUXTON: Jun 2, 2005; spero che tu stia bene

veni veni veni posted:

I love when you kill Ullia (just some bandit from a side quest) she gives you a last minute death monologue and says "tell them so my story lives on" and Aloy is just like "no sorry not gonna do that"

*you murder a corruptor and a few corrupt watchers in front of a fort*

"THE SUN SHINES UPON US THIS DAY"

"It wasn't the sun risking its rear end down here"

She takes no poo poo and it's great every time.

Also, how do you get screenshots off the PS4? Just flood your Facebook wall?

# ¿ Mar 5, 2017 08:59