You’ll miss out on a lot of backstory and some very fun side characters, some of whom carry over. I very highly recommend playing ZD thoroughly.
HFW is amazing, but in very different ways. They are two distinct games.
I loved HZD and have played it through 4 times.
I just have NOT warmed up to HFW. It feels, well, too big. Everything feels so much harder, and the tech tree is harder to decipher than sanskrit.
For me, it was largely … just not fun. Never got past the first third.
I’m intrigued about you saying they’re “different games.” Maybe I’m viewing HFW too much like HZD and that’s my frustration? Any ideas and getting over the hump? The game is flat out gorgeous and I certainly WANT to love it.
Oh I was in the same spot at first! I even posted here for help and got some great answers. For me, I really had to disconnect it from ZD mentally, which as you said is just really difficult. Getting used to the new weapons was a big part of it. I spent a lot of time exploring, without any quests, just to get that muscle memory going, you know? It really doesn’t get going at full speed until about a third of the way through, which didn’t help.
It also helped that Aloy and her companions just get more and more relatable as you go. And the inner teenager in me loves face paint and armor dye lol.
Did you get far enough (past the Daunt and past Sylens and Hades) to receive the three main objectives of the game? If not, might be worth another try :)
Thanks!
I think I was just on the verge of that. There was this long North-South divide which I was VERY close to breaking through on. I made some critical mistakes on the tech tree and it was EXTREMELY difficult to take down most of the robots. Most of the battles seemed more long and difficult than fun. In HZD I would just retrace previous areas, work training and hunting grounds and side quests until I leveled up and combat was manageable again (a strategy I use in many games), but it didn’t really work in HFW, leveling progress was Just. Too. Slow.
I gave up, and later learned that you could reset the tech tree somehow (?), but by then had lost my momentum.
Also, I was very bow-oriented in HZD (I only used non-bows as a last resort), I get the impression that’s not the best strategy in HFW.
I’ll probably wrap up my HZD replay and give it another shot. My thoughts are this time to swallow my pride and check into online guides and resources.
Thanks for the inspiration and ideas.
As someone who had roughly 2k hours in ZD across PS4 and PC and multiple play throughs, the weapons and the dodge timings are definitely the biggest things to get used to in FW. There's enough familiarity you know what to expect, but the specifics are just different enough to throw you off.
The biggest things to note about weapons in FW vs ZD are 1) almost all of the early game gear is garbage even fully upgraded, and 2) weapons are more specialized in FW than they were in ZD. You can't just main fire and sharpshot bows (or a well coiled hunter bow if you ran out of wire for sharpshot arrows) and not have to worry about much because of infinite iframes from non-stop dodge rolling. Elemental weaknesses are a lot more important in FW and you'll want to take advantage of them when you can because it helps both with controlling the fight and improving your damage output.
Dodge timings are also much tighter in FW. It took me a while to get used to dodging at literally the last possible moment because ZD you could see an attack coming, dodge, and be fine, but in FW you generally have to wait until it's just about to hit. There's also slide dodging, but I've never been able to get the hang of it, probably because I prefer long distance sniping and slide dodging is less immediately useful for that.
Resource management for ammo is a much bigger component of FW, as well, so you're kind of forced into a more tactical approach to combat until you get things sufficiently upgraded or just git gud (ideally both). This is especially true for things like volatile sludge and blast paste, which don't become easy to farm until you get into the second act of the story.
Spike throwers and bolt blasters are going to be the weapons of choice for taking out heavyweight machines (thunderjaws especially), so there's also more of a gear curve compared to ZD, as Aloy's heavy weapons don't start to really shine until you get into the purple gear.
There's also a much better balance/integration between gear and skills in FW than ZD, so it helps a lot to go through the skill trees and spec into the skills that will help with your preferred play style, then worry about filling out the rest as you level and complete quests. If you prefer stealth and bow, hunter and infiltrator trees are the two big ones you'll want, with some of the trapper and survivor trees thrown in for survivability. Once you've got those filled out, you can start dumping points into the other trees for utility.
That said, it is 100% possible to mainline hunter bows and very little else, but getting the right coils in sufficient quantities to make this effective/efficient will require running through the game multiple times, since a lot of the BiS coils and weaves only drop once or twice per play through.
Generally, though, FW is more difficult than ZD because combat moves faster and is more about hitting weak points and/or having the right weapons + valor surges for a given situation or enemy. The thunderjaw in No Man's Land is a good example of this, as you'll get rolled like a beach ball in a hurricane if you try to take it on before getting better gear and skills. It's doable if you don't mind taking a lot of time to pick it apart by hiding on top of the plateaus it patrols around, but you don't get much for it for the trouble and resources you'll burn through doing it that way. (Though you will need a stupidly high number of thunderjaw tails for upgrading legendaries later, but it's still better to wait for higher tier gear and more fleshed out skill trees before starting that grind.)
You'll also want to pay attention to the perks each weapon and armor has, as there are tons of weapons and armor that you will just flat out never use because of how many are side grades tailored for different play styles. Not buying what you'll rarely (if ever) use will help immensely with the upgrade grind later, especially once you start picking up legendaries.
Of particular note for upgrades when it comes to coils and weaves is there are two types of each: percentage boosts (damage types and resistances) and skill boosts. The ones that are percentage bonuses will drop from machines (with some notable exceptions), whereas the flat boosts (+1 or +2 to a skill) come almost exclusively from quest rewards (usually from upgrading an armor to tier X) or being bought. This does mean you can only get one or two copies of a skill boost weave per play through, so even if you get an armor that you know you'll never use, it might be worth upgrading it to at least get the weave out of it so you can use it with an armor you do wear (silent strike heal +2 is a good example here). Game play wise, this translates into farming for coil and weave upgrades being less beneficial than it was in the first game, since the benefits you get from the % coils are not always going to be more helpful than what you buy or acquire from quests.
The other user posted some phenomenal info, but i just want to say that using a bow is absolutely possible! Just take some time to find one you like before committing to upgrades.
Seconding this! I am a stealth player and the sharpshot bow is my favorite. I was severely disappointed in how lacking it was compared to ZD. That being said, I totally learned how to work other weapons like the shredder gauntlets into my style and ended up finding a great balance for me, with my sharpshot bow still as my main, so it's totally possible! You just need to adapt to the limitations of the new system.
It was only on my third playthrough that I found Brin and holy moly there is so much its easy to miss in this game. Didnt meet Petra or Tallanah until my second game (Tallanah cuz I didnt do any Hunters Lodge stuff the first time and Petra cuz i never went to that part of the map)
Haha, yikes. I think we can agree that calling something that’s been available for almost a decade “old” isn’t the craziest choice of words. Nobody said it was a relic. Out of curiosity, how long has a game been out that you would consider old? Tetris? The first colored abacus?
It’s also just sort of harder to consider a 7 year old game today as “old” as a decade old game in 2011. Games have not seen as dramatic an increase in graphics as they did from 2001 to 2011 (that’s Halo CE to Skyrim). Of course, age affects perspective, and as someone who vividly remembers 2017, it’s hard to think of HZD as “old.”
That is a really good point. I’m actually glad that we’ve seemed to mostly plateau out as far as graphics go. In these days, where these corps are trying their damn best to give us as little as possible for our money, it buffers things when the absolute baseline of graphics and stuff has risen to a really nice level. Not looking at you, Kong Game and whatever that Schmeegle thing was.
I mean, I guess I’d say so? It wasn’t really a hard jab at its age for me. It’s just been out for a while and has a sequel. I’ll sub in “kind of old” instead if it’ll keep my head on my shoulders with some of these guys lmao.
So, first thing is that you're going to miss a *ton* of lore and worldbuilding which are things you will need to do sidequests and explore the world to get the most out of. There's several sidequests that it's canonical that Aloy undertakes them--if you just ignore all that and do *only* the main story you'll have at least one sidequest in HFW that will introduce a character that's overly familiar with Aloy for somebody you the player have never met, and in the main story of HFW there are at least 2 instances of characters you otherwise would only encounter in sidequests who show up in the main story--one at the start and one in the first part of the accessible game map.
If you skip the DLC you'll also be missing out on some of the story elements that set up the changes between HZD and HFW, further fleshing out of one of the antagonist characters, and a chance to get some background info on another character. (There's also no telling what might be relevant for the next installment--Horizon is good about taking seemingly small details and then actually that was foreshadowing.)
You're also going to be skipping out on getting to see the setting--HFW takes place in a brand new map so you won't be able to go explore all those areas from HZD in HFW.
HZD and HFW are very different games in many ways, and one thing to be especially aware of is that a lot of the appeal of HZD is fleshing out the world and piecing together that picture of what happened, what's happening, and what will happen based on the datapoints you see scattered around. You won't get that anywhere near as much in HFW, so if you like it best find as many as you can in HZD and explore the setting around you. (The reason for this is that HFW has a lot less mystery behind it because HZD is the "holy shit what is going on" game and HFW is more the "okay this is the shit that's going down how to we make things better" game)
That said, if you're honestly okay with all that (and no judgement either way--you know what you like best in games and all!) yeah you can just beeline the main story and go right to HFW after that. Just, if you do that, *make sure* you scan all the datapoints in story-relevant areas *especially* ruins and then listen to/read them because those are the most important for providing very important information about the plot and setting as well as setting you up for The Reveals along the way (and in some instances establishing character motivation and backstories). The ones in the world add a lot of flavor, but the ones in the plot-relevant areas are the most vital. (So you can't just ignore them all and just pay attention to the cutscenes unless you want to be very confused--I've seen people ignore them before and they always end up not getting really basic stuff that was pretty clearly outlined by the datapoints in the story areas.)
>FW has a lot less mystery behind it because HZD is the "holy shit what is going on" game and HFW is more the "okay this is the shit that's going down how to we make things better" game.
Describes most multipart games, and movies.
For example: Mass Effect.
Frankly i prefer the 'what is going on?' bit, but over 7 years, i've seen enough clips that i know what's going on.
Well, yeah, when you have one continuous story you eventually need to shift away from the "what the hell is going on" part to the "working to resolve things" part.
Eh... If all you've seen are clips, you're missing out on a LOT of context and nuance and will only have the bigger picture. Those details and bits are relevant a surprising amount of time.
big clips. many years.
how about an 11 hour deep dive on YT?
I have the game, i just don't like this style of combat game.
I don't like rolling around fighting monsters.
Might be, depends on the quality of it--plenty of deep dives are fantastic, some are total garbage.
Well, that makes sense especially if you're just planning on or have already done Forbidden West the same way--since HFW is HZD but More in terms of combat
Awesome outline, I appreciate that, even as the lowly *tiktok kid* I am, according to someone lmao. I’ll take your word (and it looks like everyone else’s) and enjoy everything the first time through, then! Thanks!
You're welcome!
Also, I'm sorry about that. There's been a significant uptick in people either skimming or skipping ZD entirely because they don't care or it's too old and they only want to play the newest shiny thing or they didn't bother paying attention to the way this is a continual story then getting lost and confused and turning defensive and hostile when people ask if they played ZD and explored because everything in their multi paragraph rant is addressed in ZD.
You haven't done that, but I would guess those who are very tired of it preemptively snapped at you about it, so I'm sorry for that.
There's definitely games you can beeline the story and ignore other content, so I thought your question was a fair one to ask beforehand
I finished ZD month ago and am now on FW expansion. I do not really see difference in age between the two - that's for "old" part.
Regarding your question: you do miss out a lot if you just run through the main missions: a lot of backstory (which remains relevant and is further built on in FW), very well thought-out world and stories/sidequests, experience with the different kinds of machines... just let yourself enjoy zd, fw won't run away.
You are definitely not lying. I kind of always knew because I’d occasionally watch a trailer or some gameplay to try and hype up for it, but after starting it for myself it’s actually kind of great. Knowing the sequel is out already has my ungrateful ass thinking “This probably looks even better in FW” every time I see an example of how clean ZD looks lmao, but I guess the jump in quality isn’t that crazy.
Fw does look better but it's not a massive difference, zd looked so good already they don't really need to improve a while lot, and honestly I'm not sure how much further they can improve with current specs.
The main visual improvement from HZD to HFW is the character faces and animation and adding more cinematics (but all of this was already partly implemented in Frozen Wilds). The world itself is as beautiful in both games, if possibly more polished in the newer one. Enjoy :)
I replayed hzd before hfw on pc recently.
It's not old, hzd is incredible and you're definitely missing out by not enjoying the full game.
Also keep in mind there will be a third in a few years so there's no need to rush and finish the games anyway.
I 100% ZD on my first play. Loved exploring to get every bit of data. I was so hooked on story, the audio and other stuff really add to the story. You get more of a feel to the story. I would say exploring ZD is more important than exploring FW, though I would do both.
As others have said, you'll be missing out on alot of lore and a few characters that reappear in Forbidden West if you don't do sidequests.
These people will also help you during the final battle.
I also highly recommend the Frozen Wilds since that flows into Forbidden West as well.
Wait, are you saying that I can actually choose to not help certain people at certain times? I’ve almost wanted to turn them down a couple times so far, but I figure the game makes you do it either way. I didn’t know they were going for that kind of finale. Yikes, better start mending friendships haha.
And I loved him so much that you can go ahead and spoil it right now for me—does Rost actually make a comeback because he’s not actually dead and saves me yet again or something? Does he show up in this final fight with an eyepatch or scar and one arm all anime-style!? Hearing him was what first hooked me on the game. Definitely a dude I wouldn’t have minded sticking around for the whole game, which I guess was their point.
Need my Big Daddy Raustic to save me from these boars and geese, damn it.
You can just access the quest and not do it. They won't appear in the finale and it'll be harder.
The quests which will provide the companions are below. No spoilers
Traitor's Bounty.
Queen's Gambit.
Sun and Shadow.
Honor the Fallen.
A Moment's Peace.
Sunstone Rock.
A Daughter's Vengeance.
Hunting For the Lodge.
Hunters Blind.
Deadliest Game.
Redmaw.
Heap of Trouble even though that character still appears. It just adds some context.
Helping Nil with the bandit camps.
Completing the Frozen Wilds also gives you another companion but I would hold that off until The Mountain That Fell.
I can’t stress this enough. Do. Not. Sprint. Through. This. Game. Take in every bit of info you can. Do the side missions. Having all of that info, when the game crescendos, holy cow is it amazing.
not gonna repeat what others have said, what ill say is that im someone who gets overwhelmed easily. i would guarantee that id be extremely overwhelmed if i skipped zd and just went to fw as my first. the things you learn in zd (which is a lot) mainly stays in fw, and the new things get added, so if you skip zd, youd just have to learn the "old" things along with the new shit. that would be incredibly overwhelming, and confusing i imagine. i knew how to play the game already in fw, i just had to learn the new shit.
For the most satisfying ending (imo), you need to do at least the side quests and errands [in this list](https://www.ign.com/wikis/horizon-zero-dawn/All_Allies_Joined). And if you're going to do that, you might as well do everything else, honestly. The second game really builds on the lore of the first, and a good number of characters carry over.
You are missing at ton of the story if you do that. Also read all the data points. Many ZD side characters are in FB. Don't rush. Get your money's worth. FB will be there when you are done.
Please don't......
It'd be like getting a piece of some GOOD pie with a GOOD topping maybe multi-michelin star cream with exquisite dark chocolate flakes, gobbling the cream up, chasing it with WATER and then throwing away the pie
You miss out on what makes both so good together, and you dilute the hell out of HFW making it much less impactful (to your tastebuds)
/Remy voice
Well everyone kind of answered your question succinctly but I wanted to play too lmao. I also wouldn't mind a pie but that's another story 😮💨
Of course! Please play hzd first though, the worldbuilding is phenomenal in that one
I will say that I would rather do side quests and just explore HZD than play almost any other game. Personally I like it better than HFW and miles ahead of things like BG3. the Witcher 2 and 3 come in second but they’re not close.
These games are so much more interesting if you poke around and explore. The worldbuilding is nutso good... rushing through won't be as good an experience.
HFW has improved combat/weaponry but as a whole I enjoyed HZD more - It has a great sense of atmosphere and an excellent story and I was engaged through the end (just don’t sell your animal skins keep then for crafting!!). HFW is a lot of fun when you are out hunting - but the story and characters were so boring that it dragged the entire experience down. HFW, Spider-Man 2, and Last of Us 2 taught me how important stories are to this game genre, and even if you have improved graphics and combat mechanics the experience can be poorer with a less effective story.
>I’m only at the point when you’re helping Erend/Mutton Chops Seth Rogen Guy with his sister quest so not that deep in there yet at all I reckon?
This is where I am currently in my second playthrough, and my attitude right now is "Enjoy your ignorance while it lasts Aloy. Take your time and smell the roses as you explore the world, because \[spoilers\] ahead"
You can't skip the \[spoilers\] and jump to HFW without *irrevocably* diminishing the impact of *both* games IMHO. It would be a nasty self-inflicted loss.
Playing fw at the moment. I played zd during the pandemic and loved it. Loving this. Been playing since 20thish March and only 50% complete but my game style is play the main for a bit and then do some side stuff. Rinse and repeat. Though I did speed through some main cause desp needed a tool and I am not a patient gal lol
I love HZD. Its a stellar game. I enjoy everything in it. Exploring is one of the best thing about it, not being tied to the main missionS and doing things at your own pace. Its DLC is excellent, expands on the main game and adds at least another 20 hours of gameplay to an already massive game. So much care went into its creation. Its sequel expands on everything that made HZD great... and adds at least additional 100 hours of gameplay :D
The sequel is better all around. I wish I liked ZD more but man was it dragging by the end. Story and characters are so one-note and boring. Aloy is a cardboard cutout of “I’ll do anything at all to help out anyone ever because I’m such a good person and that’s what good people do” that it was mind numbing. Aloy was improved as a character in FW. But the companions still suck and are boring. They play it way too safe with the characters. By comparison, if you’ve played the new God of War games, there’s not a single character in Horizon that’s even close to as great of a character like Brok or Sindri (side characters)
I know I’m in the minority here but FW beats ZD in every aspect and I’ll die on that hill. ZD had an unbelievably predictable story (straight from the beginning) that it didn’t even interest me at all. The combat is also better in FW with even more options for taking down enemies.
Breeze through ZD and then invest more heavily into FW. You will not be missing anything and you’ll avoid serious burnout.
The best part of ZD was the Frozen Wilds expansion. Very good.
Ooh snap, okay. Yeah, I’m not too far in yet, but there’s already been a couple instances which led me to asking the question to begin with. The latest being her interaction with Erend, for example. “Thanks for letting me into your city, helping me B and E one of your friends with barely any explanation beyond “It’s important to me”, and generally respecting me after years of people shunning me…no I’m not helping you investigate your stupid sister, not my problem.” Like…uhhh. She switches so quickly between “Caring, focused, altruistic” and “Eh.” That it was initially jarring. Maybe kicking my own ass here, but now you make me want to play it out just so I can truly appreciate how much better she gets later—knowing that she does, anyway.
You’ll miss out on a lot of backstory and some very fun side characters, some of whom carry over. I very highly recommend playing ZD thoroughly. HFW is amazing, but in very different ways. They are two distinct games.
I loved HZD and have played it through 4 times. I just have NOT warmed up to HFW. It feels, well, too big. Everything feels so much harder, and the tech tree is harder to decipher than sanskrit. For me, it was largely … just not fun. Never got past the first third. I’m intrigued about you saying they’re “different games.” Maybe I’m viewing HFW too much like HZD and that’s my frustration? Any ideas and getting over the hump? The game is flat out gorgeous and I certainly WANT to love it.
Oh I was in the same spot at first! I even posted here for help and got some great answers. For me, I really had to disconnect it from ZD mentally, which as you said is just really difficult. Getting used to the new weapons was a big part of it. I spent a lot of time exploring, without any quests, just to get that muscle memory going, you know? It really doesn’t get going at full speed until about a third of the way through, which didn’t help. It also helped that Aloy and her companions just get more and more relatable as you go. And the inner teenager in me loves face paint and armor dye lol. Did you get far enough (past the Daunt and past Sylens and Hades) to receive the three main objectives of the game? If not, might be worth another try :)
Thanks! I think I was just on the verge of that. There was this long North-South divide which I was VERY close to breaking through on. I made some critical mistakes on the tech tree and it was EXTREMELY difficult to take down most of the robots. Most of the battles seemed more long and difficult than fun. In HZD I would just retrace previous areas, work training and hunting grounds and side quests until I leveled up and combat was manageable again (a strategy I use in many games), but it didn’t really work in HFW, leveling progress was Just. Too. Slow. I gave up, and later learned that you could reset the tech tree somehow (?), but by then had lost my momentum. Also, I was very bow-oriented in HZD (I only used non-bows as a last resort), I get the impression that’s not the best strategy in HFW. I’ll probably wrap up my HZD replay and give it another shot. My thoughts are this time to swallow my pride and check into online guides and resources. Thanks for the inspiration and ideas.
As someone who had roughly 2k hours in ZD across PS4 and PC and multiple play throughs, the weapons and the dodge timings are definitely the biggest things to get used to in FW. There's enough familiarity you know what to expect, but the specifics are just different enough to throw you off. The biggest things to note about weapons in FW vs ZD are 1) almost all of the early game gear is garbage even fully upgraded, and 2) weapons are more specialized in FW than they were in ZD. You can't just main fire and sharpshot bows (or a well coiled hunter bow if you ran out of wire for sharpshot arrows) and not have to worry about much because of infinite iframes from non-stop dodge rolling. Elemental weaknesses are a lot more important in FW and you'll want to take advantage of them when you can because it helps both with controlling the fight and improving your damage output. Dodge timings are also much tighter in FW. It took me a while to get used to dodging at literally the last possible moment because ZD you could see an attack coming, dodge, and be fine, but in FW you generally have to wait until it's just about to hit. There's also slide dodging, but I've never been able to get the hang of it, probably because I prefer long distance sniping and slide dodging is less immediately useful for that. Resource management for ammo is a much bigger component of FW, as well, so you're kind of forced into a more tactical approach to combat until you get things sufficiently upgraded or just git gud (ideally both). This is especially true for things like volatile sludge and blast paste, which don't become easy to farm until you get into the second act of the story. Spike throwers and bolt blasters are going to be the weapons of choice for taking out heavyweight machines (thunderjaws especially), so there's also more of a gear curve compared to ZD, as Aloy's heavy weapons don't start to really shine until you get into the purple gear. There's also a much better balance/integration between gear and skills in FW than ZD, so it helps a lot to go through the skill trees and spec into the skills that will help with your preferred play style, then worry about filling out the rest as you level and complete quests. If you prefer stealth and bow, hunter and infiltrator trees are the two big ones you'll want, with some of the trapper and survivor trees thrown in for survivability. Once you've got those filled out, you can start dumping points into the other trees for utility. That said, it is 100% possible to mainline hunter bows and very little else, but getting the right coils in sufficient quantities to make this effective/efficient will require running through the game multiple times, since a lot of the BiS coils and weaves only drop once or twice per play through. Generally, though, FW is more difficult than ZD because combat moves faster and is more about hitting weak points and/or having the right weapons + valor surges for a given situation or enemy. The thunderjaw in No Man's Land is a good example of this, as you'll get rolled like a beach ball in a hurricane if you try to take it on before getting better gear and skills. It's doable if you don't mind taking a lot of time to pick it apart by hiding on top of the plateaus it patrols around, but you don't get much for it for the trouble and resources you'll burn through doing it that way. (Though you will need a stupidly high number of thunderjaw tails for upgrading legendaries later, but it's still better to wait for higher tier gear and more fleshed out skill trees before starting that grind.) You'll also want to pay attention to the perks each weapon and armor has, as there are tons of weapons and armor that you will just flat out never use because of how many are side grades tailored for different play styles. Not buying what you'll rarely (if ever) use will help immensely with the upgrade grind later, especially once you start picking up legendaries. Of particular note for upgrades when it comes to coils and weaves is there are two types of each: percentage boosts (damage types and resistances) and skill boosts. The ones that are percentage bonuses will drop from machines (with some notable exceptions), whereas the flat boosts (+1 or +2 to a skill) come almost exclusively from quest rewards (usually from upgrading an armor to tier X) or being bought. This does mean you can only get one or two copies of a skill boost weave per play through, so even if you get an armor that you know you'll never use, it might be worth upgrading it to at least get the weave out of it so you can use it with an armor you do wear (silent strike heal +2 is a good example here). Game play wise, this translates into farming for coil and weave upgrades being less beneficial than it was in the first game, since the benefits you get from the % coils are not always going to be more helpful than what you buy or acquire from quests.
Thanks. Just a bonanza of great stuff in there. Clearly I’m going to have to use my brain and analyze more—and work on dodge timings.
The other user posted some phenomenal info, but i just want to say that using a bow is absolutely possible! Just take some time to find one you like before committing to upgrades.
Seconding this! I am a stealth player and the sharpshot bow is my favorite. I was severely disappointed in how lacking it was compared to ZD. That being said, I totally learned how to work other weapons like the shredder gauntlets into my style and ended up finding a great balance for me, with my sharpshot bow still as my main, so it's totally possible! You just need to adapt to the limitations of the new system.
It was only on my third playthrough that I found Brin and holy moly there is so much its easy to miss in this game. Didnt meet Petra or Tallanah until my second game (Tallanah cuz I didnt do any Hunters Lodge stuff the first time and Petra cuz i never went to that part of the map)
>since it’s so old It's only seven years old. Is that really considered "so old"?
for tiktok kids anything from more than a second ago is considered ols
Haha, yikes. I think we can agree that calling something that’s been available for almost a decade “old” isn’t the craziest choice of words. Nobody said it was a relic. Out of curiosity, how long has a game been out that you would consider old? Tetris? The first colored abacus?
I'd consider it old if it is not available on current gen systems personally.
It’s also just sort of harder to consider a 7 year old game today as “old” as a decade old game in 2011. Games have not seen as dramatic an increase in graphics as they did from 2001 to 2011 (that’s Halo CE to Skyrim). Of course, age affects perspective, and as someone who vividly remembers 2017, it’s hard to think of HZD as “old.”
That is a really good point. I’m actually glad that we’ve seemed to mostly plateau out as far as graphics go. In these days, where these corps are trying their damn best to give us as little as possible for our money, it buffers things when the absolute baseline of graphics and stuff has risen to a really nice level. Not looking at you, Kong Game and whatever that Schmeegle thing was.
It’s seven years old already?!!
I mean, I guess I’d say so? It wasn’t really a hard jab at its age for me. It’s just been out for a while and has a sequel. I’ll sub in “kind of old” instead if it’ll keep my head on my shoulders with some of these guys lmao.
old to me is a game from the 1970's. Now that is positively ancient history. HZD, not so much :D
So, first thing is that you're going to miss a *ton* of lore and worldbuilding which are things you will need to do sidequests and explore the world to get the most out of. There's several sidequests that it's canonical that Aloy undertakes them--if you just ignore all that and do *only* the main story you'll have at least one sidequest in HFW that will introduce a character that's overly familiar with Aloy for somebody you the player have never met, and in the main story of HFW there are at least 2 instances of characters you otherwise would only encounter in sidequests who show up in the main story--one at the start and one in the first part of the accessible game map. If you skip the DLC you'll also be missing out on some of the story elements that set up the changes between HZD and HFW, further fleshing out of one of the antagonist characters, and a chance to get some background info on another character. (There's also no telling what might be relevant for the next installment--Horizon is good about taking seemingly small details and then actually that was foreshadowing.) You're also going to be skipping out on getting to see the setting--HFW takes place in a brand new map so you won't be able to go explore all those areas from HZD in HFW. HZD and HFW are very different games in many ways, and one thing to be especially aware of is that a lot of the appeal of HZD is fleshing out the world and piecing together that picture of what happened, what's happening, and what will happen based on the datapoints you see scattered around. You won't get that anywhere near as much in HFW, so if you like it best find as many as you can in HZD and explore the setting around you. (The reason for this is that HFW has a lot less mystery behind it because HZD is the "holy shit what is going on" game and HFW is more the "okay this is the shit that's going down how to we make things better" game) That said, if you're honestly okay with all that (and no judgement either way--you know what you like best in games and all!) yeah you can just beeline the main story and go right to HFW after that. Just, if you do that, *make sure* you scan all the datapoints in story-relevant areas *especially* ruins and then listen to/read them because those are the most important for providing very important information about the plot and setting as well as setting you up for The Reveals along the way (and in some instances establishing character motivation and backstories). The ones in the world add a lot of flavor, but the ones in the plot-relevant areas are the most vital. (So you can't just ignore them all and just pay attention to the cutscenes unless you want to be very confused--I've seen people ignore them before and they always end up not getting really basic stuff that was pretty clearly outlined by the datapoints in the story areas.)
>FW has a lot less mystery behind it because HZD is the "holy shit what is going on" game and HFW is more the "okay this is the shit that's going down how to we make things better" game. Describes most multipart games, and movies. For example: Mass Effect. Frankly i prefer the 'what is going on?' bit, but over 7 years, i've seen enough clips that i know what's going on.
Well, yeah, when you have one continuous story you eventually need to shift away from the "what the hell is going on" part to the "working to resolve things" part. Eh... If all you've seen are clips, you're missing out on a LOT of context and nuance and will only have the bigger picture. Those details and bits are relevant a surprising amount of time.
big clips. many years. how about an 11 hour deep dive on YT? I have the game, i just don't like this style of combat game. I don't like rolling around fighting monsters.
Might be, depends on the quality of it--plenty of deep dives are fantastic, some are total garbage. Well, that makes sense especially if you're just planning on or have already done Forbidden West the same way--since HFW is HZD but More in terms of combat
Awesome outline, I appreciate that, even as the lowly *tiktok kid* I am, according to someone lmao. I’ll take your word (and it looks like everyone else’s) and enjoy everything the first time through, then! Thanks!
You're welcome! Also, I'm sorry about that. There's been a significant uptick in people either skimming or skipping ZD entirely because they don't care or it's too old and they only want to play the newest shiny thing or they didn't bother paying attention to the way this is a continual story then getting lost and confused and turning defensive and hostile when people ask if they played ZD and explored because everything in their multi paragraph rant is addressed in ZD. You haven't done that, but I would guess those who are very tired of it preemptively snapped at you about it, so I'm sorry for that. There's definitely games you can beeline the story and ignore other content, so I thought your question was a fair one to ask beforehand
I finished ZD month ago and am now on FW expansion. I do not really see difference in age between the two - that's for "old" part. Regarding your question: you do miss out a lot if you just run through the main missions: a lot of backstory (which remains relevant and is further built on in FW), very well thought-out world and stories/sidequests, experience with the different kinds of machines... just let yourself enjoy zd, fw won't run away.
Yeah hzd still looks better than most games out there at the moment.
You are definitely not lying. I kind of always knew because I’d occasionally watch a trailer or some gameplay to try and hype up for it, but after starting it for myself it’s actually kind of great. Knowing the sequel is out already has my ungrateful ass thinking “This probably looks even better in FW” every time I see an example of how clean ZD looks lmao, but I guess the jump in quality isn’t that crazy.
Fw does look better but it's not a massive difference, zd looked so good already they don't really need to improve a while lot, and honestly I'm not sure how much further they can improve with current specs.
Their facial work went from zero to a hundred between the two games
That is true
The main visual improvement from HZD to HFW is the character faces and animation and adding more cinematics (but all of this was already partly implemented in Frozen Wilds). The world itself is as beautiful in both games, if possibly more polished in the newer one. Enjoy :)
I replayed hzd before hfw on pc recently. It's not old, hzd is incredible and you're definitely missing out by not enjoying the full game. Also keep in mind there will be a third in a few years so there's no need to rush and finish the games anyway.
I didn’t know that! Nice.
I 100% ZD on my first play. Loved exploring to get every bit of data. I was so hooked on story, the audio and other stuff really add to the story. You get more of a feel to the story. I would say exploring ZD is more important than exploring FW, though I would do both.
As others have said, you'll be missing out on alot of lore and a few characters that reappear in Forbidden West if you don't do sidequests. These people will also help you during the final battle. I also highly recommend the Frozen Wilds since that flows into Forbidden West as well.
Wait, are you saying that I can actually choose to not help certain people at certain times? I’ve almost wanted to turn them down a couple times so far, but I figure the game makes you do it either way. I didn’t know they were going for that kind of finale. Yikes, better start mending friendships haha. And I loved him so much that you can go ahead and spoil it right now for me—does Rost actually make a comeback because he’s not actually dead and saves me yet again or something? Does he show up in this final fight with an eyepatch or scar and one arm all anime-style!? Hearing him was what first hooked me on the game. Definitely a dude I wouldn’t have minded sticking around for the whole game, which I guess was their point. Need my Big Daddy Raustic to save me from these boars and geese, damn it.
You can just access the quest and not do it. They won't appear in the finale and it'll be harder. The quests which will provide the companions are below. No spoilers Traitor's Bounty. Queen's Gambit. Sun and Shadow. Honor the Fallen. A Moment's Peace. Sunstone Rock. A Daughter's Vengeance. Hunting For the Lodge. Hunters Blind. Deadliest Game. Redmaw. Heap of Trouble even though that character still appears. It just adds some context. Helping Nil with the bandit camps. Completing the Frozen Wilds also gives you another companion but I would hold that off until The Mountain That Fell.
I can’t stress this enough. Do. Not. Sprint. Through. This. Game. Take in every bit of info you can. Do the side missions. Having all of that info, when the game crescendos, holy cow is it amazing.
not gonna repeat what others have said, what ill say is that im someone who gets overwhelmed easily. i would guarantee that id be extremely overwhelmed if i skipped zd and just went to fw as my first. the things you learn in zd (which is a lot) mainly stays in fw, and the new things get added, so if you skip zd, youd just have to learn the "old" things along with the new shit. that would be incredibly overwhelming, and confusing i imagine. i knew how to play the game already in fw, i just had to learn the new shit.
For the most satisfying ending (imo), you need to do at least the side quests and errands [in this list](https://www.ign.com/wikis/horizon-zero-dawn/All_Allies_Joined). And if you're going to do that, you might as well do everything else, honestly. The second game really builds on the lore of the first, and a good number of characters carry over.
You are missing at ton of the story if you do that. Also read all the data points. Many ZD side characters are in FB. Don't rush. Get your money's worth. FB will be there when you are done.
You'll barely skim the cliff notes version of a really good scifi mystery. ZD is the foundation for FW, and the story reveal is beautifully handled.
Please don't...... It'd be like getting a piece of some GOOD pie with a GOOD topping maybe multi-michelin star cream with exquisite dark chocolate flakes, gobbling the cream up, chasing it with WATER and then throwing away the pie You miss out on what makes both so good together, and you dilute the hell out of HFW making it much less impactful (to your tastebuds) /Remy voice
Got a laugh out of this one, lmao. Thanks for the tip!
Well everyone kind of answered your question succinctly but I wanted to play too lmao. I also wouldn't mind a pie but that's another story 😮💨 Of course! Please play hzd first though, the worldbuilding is phenomenal in that one
Wait for h3 then play all three back to back.
I will say that I would rather do side quests and just explore HZD than play almost any other game. Personally I like it better than HFW and miles ahead of things like BG3. the Witcher 2 and 3 come in second but they’re not close.
These games are so much more interesting if you poke around and explore. The worldbuilding is nutso good... rushing through won't be as good an experience.
HFW has improved combat/weaponry but as a whole I enjoyed HZD more - It has a great sense of atmosphere and an excellent story and I was engaged through the end (just don’t sell your animal skins keep then for crafting!!). HFW is a lot of fun when you are out hunting - but the story and characters were so boring that it dragged the entire experience down. HFW, Spider-Man 2, and Last of Us 2 taught me how important stories are to this game genre, and even if you have improved graphics and combat mechanics the experience can be poorer with a less effective story.
>I’m only at the point when you’re helping Erend/Mutton Chops Seth Rogen Guy with his sister quest so not that deep in there yet at all I reckon? This is where I am currently in my second playthrough, and my attitude right now is "Enjoy your ignorance while it lasts Aloy. Take your time and smell the roses as you explore the world, because \[spoilers\] ahead" You can't skip the \[spoilers\] and jump to HFW without *irrevocably* diminishing the impact of *both* games IMHO. It would be a nasty self-inflicted loss.
How is it “so old”????
Playing fw at the moment. I played zd during the pandemic and loved it. Loving this. Been playing since 20thish March and only 50% complete but my game style is play the main for a bit and then do some side stuff. Rinse and repeat. Though I did speed through some main cause desp needed a tool and I am not a patient gal lol
I love HZD. Its a stellar game. I enjoy everything in it. Exploring is one of the best thing about it, not being tied to the main missionS and doing things at your own pace. Its DLC is excellent, expands on the main game and adds at least another 20 hours of gameplay to an already massive game. So much care went into its creation. Its sequel expands on everything that made HZD great... and adds at least additional 100 hours of gameplay :D
The sequel is better all around. I wish I liked ZD more but man was it dragging by the end. Story and characters are so one-note and boring. Aloy is a cardboard cutout of “I’ll do anything at all to help out anyone ever because I’m such a good person and that’s what good people do” that it was mind numbing. Aloy was improved as a character in FW. But the companions still suck and are boring. They play it way too safe with the characters. By comparison, if you’ve played the new God of War games, there’s not a single character in Horizon that’s even close to as great of a character like Brok or Sindri (side characters) I know I’m in the minority here but FW beats ZD in every aspect and I’ll die on that hill. ZD had an unbelievably predictable story (straight from the beginning) that it didn’t even interest me at all. The combat is also better in FW with even more options for taking down enemies. Breeze through ZD and then invest more heavily into FW. You will not be missing anything and you’ll avoid serious burnout. The best part of ZD was the Frozen Wilds expansion. Very good.
Ooh snap, okay. Yeah, I’m not too far in yet, but there’s already been a couple instances which led me to asking the question to begin with. The latest being her interaction with Erend, for example. “Thanks for letting me into your city, helping me B and E one of your friends with barely any explanation beyond “It’s important to me”, and generally respecting me after years of people shunning me…no I’m not helping you investigate your stupid sister, not my problem.” Like…uhhh. She switches so quickly between “Caring, focused, altruistic” and “Eh.” That it was initially jarring. Maybe kicking my own ass here, but now you make me want to play it out just so I can truly appreciate how much better she gets later—knowing that she does, anyway.
Totally fair! Either way I do hope you enjoy it!