- NumptyScrub
- Aug 22, 2004
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damn it I think the mirrors broken >˙.(
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Horizon Zero Dawn is one of my favorite games ever even though it doesn't do a lot of things that my other favorite games did.
The main plot is almost totally linear and has one ending. The open world isn't particularly large in size or dense in side-quests. There aren't really significantly different builds because you will be able to level up such a large % of the skills no matter what. Even if you're a completionist it's not THAT big of a game.
On further review, these are less "mistakes" and more "decisions made for valid reasons." They didn't want to make Fallout New Vegas or Witcher 3, they were shooting for something else.
I like complex webs of choice and consequences in games as much as anybody, but there's a lot to be said for having a specific story centered on a specific character you want to tell, and really nailing that loving story properly, and HZD skews hard towards the latter side of things. Aloy is Aloy, you get to influence how she acts some but it's different shades of the same character on the same journey, and that specificity is part of what keeps the story in sharp focus. Everything isn't written to allow a blank slate with a wild range of abilities and morals to slot into the plot without breaking things.
Most open world games are aggressively disinterested in their own plot and are about being playgrounds to dick around in while you ignore it. HZD has some of that, but most of the side content is really about active worldbuilding as much as it is about MOAR CONTENT, which makes sense because the central question of the game is how the gently caress the world got so bugfuck crazy that the humans are living in primitive tribes hunting loving robot dinosaurs (not a spoiler, it's literally the box art.)
The other thing I'd add here is that the combat that takes up so much of time in these action RPGs is just wildly better in Horizon Zero Dawn than it is in e.g. Witcher 3. It's just drastically more interesting and exciting to fight one of a wide variety of distinct robot dinosaurs with different attacks, movement profiles and weak points than it is to do whatever it was I spent hundreds of hours doing in all those Witcher 3 and Fallout New Vegas fights.
gently caress Ted Faro
I actually really appreciate that about HZD, my statement above has been echoed by (and I copied directly from) most people who have played and finished the game. There's a consistency there that I like to think is indicative of them nailing the story they wanted to tell, in an engaging way, although that may just be personal bias.
But gently caress Ted Faro
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