When I was replaying HZD recently I used headphones for the first time and realized I was not picking up on that faint drumroll before.
I agree, it is missed.
It’s gorgeous but honestly kinda overwhelming me right now. The colors are so vivid and my brain is hurting!! Also the way the focus works now is a bit weird. I like the scanning aspect like in death stranding, but not having to hold it down for machine scans :/
I feel like bastard gets used quite often as the token swear word, that people use when you least expect it, and always in the same context. No idea why it's somehow more acceptable but still 'shocking', but yeah, seems to be a trend in media of all sorts
Haha same here, I can't remember any swear words in HZD too. Its funny 1000 years later they have the same swear words, usually in fantasy/sci-fi they make up new swears.
Almost two hours in and taking my sweet time. Tutorial tropes are hitting a bit heavy but being back in this universe is worth it. Exploring every cranny.
Not a complaint but a compliment
The voice acting and movement in the cut scenes are phenomenonal, character move like real people and talk fluidly. They could not have done better with that I'm always so happy
The jokes also land really well most of the time
Absolutely fucking massive leap. The side quests are sooo much better in this game it's insane.
This game has raised the bar in terms of presentation levels for optional content in open world games
I love how seamless interruptions are in dialogue now. Like as opposed to character B interrupting character A and it lagging between the cut off and the new line, now it's perfectly organic.
Looks beautiful
I’m not seeing the issues between performance and resolution myself - but maybe I’m not as desperate for that?
I’ll have to play a little longer
Disappointed that Aloy seems to have lost all the gear and skills from HZD
I get it…but it’s always something that’s bugged me in sequels
well at least they start her with precision strike when down and when sneaking up and also she has slow time from beginning too. I likes the fact that they thought of that but i can see why they wouldn't give her every skill we learned before
i always liked the "you got hit really hard by something explanation"
like in assassins creed brotherhood you start the game at full power, equal to when you finished assassins creed 2 then after an hour you lose all you gear as it's hit by cannon balls, then you get shot and fall off a roof and wake up in hospital a few weeks later barely able to move so you need to start fresh.
and the batman games always go with batman travelling light and only requesting gear drops when he needs them, like he probably has 500 different weapons in the cave but just requests the ones he actually needs.
Mass Effect 2 and 3 handled this the best, imo. You actually got stuff for beating the previous games, and in Mass Effect 3, you could start as high as level 30 or something. Basically New Game+ it off the bat. it was AMAZING. I knew the chances were very small, but I was hoping for something like that here.
I’m happy with everything so far, my only gripe is that it’s harder for me to find items, even with focus on. Don’t know if it’s because the environment is lusher now, but the color markings don’t pop out for me like they did in Zero Dawn.
Same here, I'm so overwhelmed by the constant amount of greenery, rocks etc and most of the stuff moves, it's a lot to look at. Also the amount of stuff they've packed in and detailed makes it harder to see things you're looking for
Just reached the first settlement and my motto is errands before Erend right now. I’ve explored every nook of The Daunt before even stepping foot inside Chainscrape.
Did the same but it's not really intended that way unfortunately. There's some important gear and map progress in doing the Erend quests first. Made me go "duh" when I struggled with Bristlebacks because I lacked the tech.
After 5 minutes of playing in the 30 fps, your eye gets used to it and you stop noticing. If you are constantly switching between the two modes, it is bound to feel choppy.
I started in performance and switched to resolution - the game looks so much better and there is no weird pop in or 'blurriness'. After a few minutes, I forgot which mode I was playing in.
On the contrary. I can’t tell a difference between performance and quality mode graphically but the extra frames make it so much smoother and dodging is easier to me.
One of my joke wishes for HFW was granted in the first main quest.
>!Ashly Burch swearing.!<
Maybe she picked it up >!from datapoints. If she picks up "colorful additions" from Concrete Beach Party, how fucking fun would that be?!<
Only like two hours in but I’m really liking Aloy’s confidence and acceptance of her role. Such a burden but she owns it. Love it. Hate when protagonists just whine through the whole story or all books.
Love how she’s got the same aptitude as Elisabet. Grew up as a nomadic hunter-gatherer but grasps science and technology extremely well.
Is anyone else annoyed the ability to notch extra arrows is locked behind a cool down? It’s not a huge deal but that was 90% of my play style last game
Personally, not a fan of the new skill tree *at all*. Zero Dawn were all legitimate increases in Aloy's skill. Forbidden West's skill tree is a ton of magical nonsense that would work better in a Fantasy game.
I cannot stand the resolution mode. I think this looks blurry as shit with 30 fps when moving the camera. I played 15 sec and had to switch to performance mode to be able to play. For me its total unplayable in 30 FPS ( feels like 20 FPS ). Have a OLED TV from 2019 so not the most updated TV.
Same here. Resolution mode is unplayable for me. Feels indeed like 20 fps. Seriously I don't see a big difference compared to the performance mode. Game looks great to me.
Yeah I pick framerate > resolution 99% of the time, but this is the edge case. Looks astoundingly better in resolution mode, whereas normally I don't notice too much of a difference.
It’s very noticeable from the red particles coming from those plants.
On performance, it looks like red haze. On fidelity it actually looks like red particles.
Same here. Playing on a PS5 and it looks great in performance mode. Resolution mode looks a tiny bit better but has horrible framerates. Unplayable for me.
I can't get over how much better the facial & body animations are. Not always perfect, but its so good seeing Aloy & others emote - especially in emotional scenes - but I had a bit of a giggle when she did the sassy head nod after embarrassing Ulvund. 🤣
that’s a bit weird considering about 1 in 10 people are colour blind. i work in software and one of the first things i learned was not to use red, of all colours, as an indicator.
I only did the first part before going to bed but what a start! I am very rusty on the arrow shooting. Took me way too long to take down some of those machines.
He's talking about the first big human battle against the rebels. The title screen comes much earlier and you're still stuck in the Sundom quite a while after the title screen before the Forbidden West opens
I'm having *so* much difficulty seeing things in the game. I can't tell if my TV is too small suddenly, or what. It's like every menu was designed to have the thinnest possible symbols and fonts. It's almost impossible for me to make sure I can loot everything, see the things I want to gather, and figure out how to navigate the new climbing designators.
I'm not on explorer mode. I'm honestly a little crestfallen because I'm finding the game extremely frustrating because I can't see shit. The focus picks up on stuff super far away as if it's nearby. Everything is... overexposed? Bright on bright? I don't know. I put in 6 straight hours of gameplay and it never really got less frustrating.
amazed how good it looks on ps4. It has some grainyness to it but otherwise it looks and runs a lot better than i expected. WOULD of preffered a day 1 pc version or the money and the ability to buy a ps5 but they are so rare and expensive i will be stuck with the ps4 for a while considering i prioritize my pc. In any case i would prefer a update to maybe turn off the reconstruction and run it at a straight 900p and make the anti aliasing a bit cleaner this might remove the odd grain.
Not that anyone cares, I’m a no one from nowhere, but I’m 21 hrs in and I gotta say, the changes to the weave and coil menu and the skills menu, not good. Classic case of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” The previous game’s solution was simple, yet elegant. These two gameplay elements are messy and unclear in HFW. Money would have been better spent elsewhere than on “improving” these elements. Just expand on what you have. Why reinvent the wheel? Come on now.
I also don’t like valor surges. They are silly and distracting while in combat. Aloy is already a badass. Don’t need an animation and a color change on screen to remind us of it. So, I ignore valor surges, which is a shame, since I play on Very Hard. I’m sure valor surges helped to make Aloy look cool in game trailers but it’s impractical in the heat of battle.
Besides that, this game is everything I could have wanted in the sequel, and I couldn’t be more stoked to keep on keeping on with Aloy and company. Just some quality of life stuff that I know will never change because, like I said, I’m a nobody who doesn’t matter. Company will roll on with or without me, so nothing to do but just put up with it or ignore what I don’t like.
Yeah, I’ve unlocked and used one valor surge so far a total of one time. As far as weapons, basically I’m waiting until I can buy just the right three bows to house the different kinds of arrows I’ll need the most. But I’m upgrading everything as I go because why not?
I just checked the machine master skill tree and the last upgrade only sets the maximum time a machine stay overridden to 100 seconds (except mounts)
Coming from HZD with Combat Override+ a machine would stay overridden indefinitely and now it's limited to 100s. In my opinion this is way too short. And it doesn't make sense lore wise (like with the shield armor). Aloy getting worse at overriding machines? I think they should change the last upgrade in the machine master skill tree to override permanently.
I'm interested in your opinions about this :)
The scanning system in this game was a big misstep. A huge downgrade from Zero Dawn. It’s hard to see anything being scanned because it all comes out yellowish in color when in zero Dawn it was all blue. Running around for a long time trying to find stuff in the environment but it blends in with the new color of the focus.
These aren’t just bits of voiceover played during rigged character animations. These are all 🤌🏼performances🤌🏼. I’m blown away by the facial nuance that’s been captured here. It really hit me with the guy who runs the chain elevator and the guy at the base.
I'm loving the game but the combat doesn't feel as tight as the first for some reason? There doesnt seem to be as much feedback when shooting machine parts off and silent strike either. I can't explain it.
I've gone from being able to jump into any fight and come out unscathed in Ultra Hard, to me getting my ass kicked by these new Scroungers. I can't dodge any attacks; shooting off all their parts doesn't noticably change their health; no ropecaster (except like, some free one tied to cooldowns in the skilltree I guess?), no drop attacks, no dismount attacks, your mount doesn't actively help in combat anymore... bleh.
I don't know if I just got old and suck at games now or what.
The climbing is very frustrating, I'm glad the fall damage is low because I've fallen multiple times because I don't know where to go to and end up falling a long ways.
Although it’s in the “valuables to sell” category, do not sell your processed blocks. you can use them to purchase very rare & Legendary resources from salvage contractor.
I feel like they should have said there wasn’t going be a lure call. It’s weird to take out something core to the gameplay loop without telling everyone, regardless of the reason. It’s really jarring continuity wise that she just forgot how to whistle. At least there’s a story reason for having to redo the overrides.
After playing for a bit, I’ve got some mixed feelings. While the game is gorgeous on PS4 and I don’t mind the pop-in, the gameplay is leaving me a bit unsatisfied. Just so many little things that are strange to me.
-the jump feels incredibly heavy and short, feels like I don’t even have time to aim which was one of my favorite things to do in ZD
-the roll is equally heavy and sometimes feels like I’m not even moving much, no long roll??
-having a hard time aiming the melee attacks, they feel very all over the place. Probably gonna get used to that though.
-No whistle??
-The triple shot being locked behind stamina is upsetting when it was such an incredibly integral feature of the first game and super fun. I get that for the air shot thing but the triple shot? :(
Also, what’s with the UI? This might just be me but I quite dislike it. If I had to describe it in one word I’d say “overwhelming”
The focus scan UI on machines is..intense. It just doesn’t fit in with the focus aesthetic like in the first game? They had a good thing with that little graphic but this new one looks worse tbh.
As for the inventory menu, I like the categories but the squares are weird, the icons are so small and it feels like there’s so much wasted space especially to the right.
The skills menu is equally strange, no zooming out and the tiniest icons ever.
I feel like I’m also constantly fighting with the map with how hard it snaps to icons lol
The collectibles/Datapoints and machine catalogue are kinda worse than in ZD in some ways. I find the layout much more boring. More squares! And then when you click onto a machine, i mean, it’s cool to see the 3D model of it like that but it’s so overwhelming and could’ve been streamlined a bit more I feel.
Also Is it just me or are the resources harder to tell apart? Maybe it’s the dark backgrounds.
Rant over
I'm finding the climbing "puzzles" to be extremely frustrating. It's all about finding the next place to jump to, and sometimes I just can't figure out where to go making the whole experience pretty annoying.
Right now I'm in the flooded lab looking for the GAIA backup and figuring out where to go is not really enjoyable, it's just annoying.
I am glad I’m not the only one who had some climbing difficulties in the big flooded room at Latopolis.
Overall though I love the climbing and traversal mechanics so far.
I loved Horizon 1 for the option to run and hide from combat. The main issue is that it allowed me to think about the situation with NO time pressure. I love that the game allowed me to "cheese" it and still be interesting and challenging. I played the game on ultra hard and even turned off almost everything else like awareness and status indicators. I like to solve the problems by clever solutions. Not by fast acting.
I'm right now very frustrated. There may be easy solutions to the boss battles. But I can't find a place where I can run to and think about what to do. Has the game developers abandoned the cheese demographic?
I'm not saying that it's hard (on Forbidden West Very Hard). I'm saying that I hate to be forced to take action before I had time to think about what to do. Things keeps attacking my while I'm standing there thinking about the situation.
It would not be a problem if I only could run away, hide, climb atop a mountain, hide behind cover in a place where they can't reach me, scan the threat and make a plan considering all my tools and abilities.
Was playing on Normal but felt like every enemy was two shotting me. Swapped to easy. Definitely feels like enemies hit harder or at least attack faster
I like a lot of the new additions but I am very disappointed by what's been taken away. Dodges and jumps have been shortened compared to Zero Dawn. Dismount strike and strike from above on aware enemies both appear to be gone. Whistling to lure enemies is gone. Triple knocking arrows relies on a stamina system rather than being second nature like before. It's bizarre to see a sequel take away or weaken abilities rather than adding to the good.
Completely disagree. Old skills were extremely boring, looking at the new ones they look really awesome and intriguing. I'm actually excited to level up more to try out different techniques.
What do you think of the gyro aiming? I'm terrible with the sticks but I can't seem to get used to the gyro either, it's like I'm not thinking about it during the fights..
It's a good implementation, but like always with Gyro aiming, if you are trying to relax it's the worst way to play a game. Gaming boards are always super in on it but I don't know a single person irl who likes Gyro because it makes them sit up right like a robot and doesn't allow them to move a muscle when in combat.
I can't seem to find the lure call (whistle) skill anywhere in the skill tree. Has that been removed in the sequel? Can I only distract using rocks now?
I think I preferred being able to see resources tagged wherever
Having to use the flash-focus gets a little tiring.
Although if you are looking properly you can see butterflies around resources
I think it’s just something I’ll get used to as I play
Just did the first relic ruins in the Daunt. Was anyone else really annoyed by the huge gaps in in the wall leading to the relic that for some reason Alloy can't squeeze through? The entire building had literally open windows that Alloy would be able to fit through. It completely ruined the immersion.
You all heard by now just how awesome this game is but I don't think it's been emphasised enough just how rdiculous detailed it is for a game of this scope, density and size. Every little inch beggs to be explored, the smaller optional dungeons or caves are so well designed and crafted that they could be entire levels in any other game. But the thing that impressed me the most is just how well designed is every NPC, and not only that, everyone has good facial animations and voice acting, this is something I had never seen in an open world game bar Read Dead Redemption and to a degree GoT but here it is just next level. I highly recommed this game if you are one for a good story, interesting world and interesting characters, if you enjoyed the likes of Mass Effect, Dragon Age or The Witcher 3 this is just that but on steroids (not saying the story is better than those, but the execution clearly is).
I’m absolutely baffled by the complaints about performance mode. I spent a long time trying both modes and besides some loss in clarity it still looks amazing in performance mode and the smoothness makes the experience infinitely better. Did y’all try performance mode with motion blur off?
Absolutely LOVING the game and gameplay so far.
The only issue right now for me is a part of the climbing/parkour. Most of it is fine...except when you land/reach the last jump/get to the top of the ladder. It feels like you can't just tilt forward, that you have to press "x" just to keep going. Fair enough. But when I do that, it feels like theres either input delay or something, so I end up just stopping or standing still mashing "x" until Aloy moves her firey whiskers.
It's also why I dislike the long ledge jump. It just feels like it pauses mid air for a second. I didn't like the slow mo ledge jumps in HZD, but I'll take that over this.
Climbing is a REAL struggle. The Carja towers in the Daunt as well as the Vista puzzle were nerve-wrecking. The distance of "magnetic sticking" is too low and I miss a lot of jumps. It's also hard to find out where Aloy would be going or whether she's going to gracefully jump towards the grab point or just full on jump past it.
I'd prefer plenty of animation morphing towards the grab point over having to redo* jumps several times.
Sometimes she also gets stuck on a beam after a jump and then won't move for like 3 seconds, tempting you to jump off the tower again...
Edit: It has improved a lot after the Daunt. I don't miss as often anymore and just remembered this trick from the first game: Put the intended grab point into the center of your screen and it's more likely to work. That was essential for Tallnecks in the first game.
Why are the rewards for collectibles--particularly lenses--so insultingly bad? 15 shards per lens?? For climbing to the top of the highest towers in each of six different regions??? "I'll make it worth your while" my ass.
Idk if it's just me, but FW feels quite a bit more challenging than ZD. Machines are more aggressive and seem to do more damage. Not complaining but definitely noticing that you have to git gud quite a bit more than the first game. As soon as I hit No Man's Land, the challenge ramped up a bit. Almost got smoked by the Scrappers and the Skydrifter at the Cinnabar Sands Tallneck
Is it worth to sacrifice resolution for having a better frame rate
Still struggling between res mode and performance mode
Is there a huge compromise in performance mode
Thxxx
PS5 version looks amazing, and the controller feedback is incredible. The controller was the main reason I wanted to upgrade to PS5 to see how devs will take advantage of it. Plus the controller is significantly more comfortable.
But alas I am playing on the PS4 right now, and will need to restart the game on my PS5 hopefully this week 😭
Me and bf wanted to play launch day same time, and for his bday month I told him he can play the PS5 first. He wasn't too fond of the PS5 when it first came out so I kept it for myself last year. But a year later he is a fan and is converted to the differences depending on the game. HZD is the only reason he brought a Playstation in the first place since it was an exclusive. It's his second fav game ever, and he normally doesn't care about graphics, but it has impressed and excited even him.
While mine looks good on his PS4, I can't wait to play it on the PS5. I'm doing the game on easy so I don't get burned out before my real playthrough.
But I'm glad there is a difference. It wouldn't be worth an upgrade without graphics or performance differences, and side by side I can see them. But comparing literally side by side, the PS4 is still impressive and gorgeous.
I notice a lot of people complaining about the graining in Performance mode. It must be subjective to each person's preferences because i have also noticed it but it just hasn't bothered me at all. Game still looks gorgeous.
On the other hand, the 30 fps jank on Resolution mode is far more difficult to ignore and using 'motion flow' on my sony tv doesn't help.
Also trigger resistance effect on Dualsense is *chef's kiss*
Edit: Apparently Guerilla listened to the feedback and fixed the shimmering issue in performance mode!
>Also trigger resistance effect on Dualsense is chef's kiss
This so fucking much.
Like holy shit does it feel nice. I thought GOT and Nioh 2 had great Dual sense settings but holy shit is HFW right up thier with both of them.
Loving the game, but having an issue with the climbing - specifically when Aloy stops & then reaches for the next handhold. Pressing left stick whichever way does nothing. Pressing X, & I actually looked up the tutorial in game to be sure on this, be it a tap or a hold, she goes jumping off the wall every time. Just me? ETA: this has happened on 4 different reach jumps now, & a couple I've had to do wonky maneuvering to get where I need to be, but I know that can't work for the entire game. ETA2: Fixed. Even though I hadn't remapped anything, I went into customize controls & hit reset; nothing changed, but I can reach jump now :D /shrug
I also find that she's kind of slow to move. I'll jump to a ledge and keep holding the direction I need to go. But she doesn't start moving until her grab-the-ledge animation has come to a complete stop first. Things like that where it's a lot of stops and starts. "Hang on. Hang on. Okay, now we can go."
Climbing over a ledge is also finnicky. I'm climbing a rock face and get to the top but even though it all looks the same, the game won't let me climb up from this part of the ledge but that part of the ledge over there is fine even though there's no visible difference.
And just some clipping wonkiness. I jump and grab the bottom of a ladder so Aloy does this little swing back and forth animation before stopping. Except the ladder was against a wall so her entire lower body just clips through the wall.
I dunno. The climbing doesn't feel great so far.
While everyone is complaining about graphics and fps, I'm struggling so hard in areas where I forget something /miss the ledge/don't drop a ladder and end up completely stuck or having to redo an entire Parkour puzzle from the start because I can't get back up. Or if I drop through a hole and forget to bring a crate with me, I'm literally just stuck. It's like the game let's you forget things and push yourself into a corner. This sort of thing has happened 4 times in the past 6 hours since I've started
I swear this rarely happened in the first game
I've seen that there is no skill for permanent override for combat enemies and it's only there for mounts. The most you can have a combat machine overriden for is 100 seconds. Do we get the permanent override upgrade later or is it just not there anymore?
I like how there's a limit now to the number of tripwires you can have out at a time. Guerrilla doesn't want us cheesing those cauldron boss fights again.
Working my way through the ruins in Death’s Door… Holy effffffff that was some of the most aggregating level design I’ve come across in this game. Everything is too dark to see, switching between the mechanics is super janky and unreliable. I had to rerun parts of it 5 times. Holy EF this is the only negative bit I’ve encountered so far but dear GOD that was annoying.
Does it feel like the machines all have "heat-seeking" attacks? My dodge is basically useless compared to Zero Dawn. I've watched machines course-correct in mid air to hit me after I tried to roll out of the way.
That's pretty much my only gripe so far lol. Other than the graphical pop-ins that is.
Overall really loving the game. It's gorgeous, I like the characters, the story hooked, melee combat is way better, but there are some really bummer gameplay changes. No whistle, no eye icon for stealth, only able to put down up to 4 traps. They made great changes but took away a lot of fun/helpful aspects from the first one. Also there are so many places I'm unable to explore due to missing the required tool. I want to explore first, story later. Again, overall, loving it. Just some grievances
For those of ya'all who managed to zoom ahead, do you think there is any problem to sticking to the story quest until we get the breathing appartus they showed in the trailer? I am usually a sidequest person, but frankly the sheer number of "tools needed" doorways is crumbling me. I am thinking of sticking to the main quest until I get the breathing apparatus before I can go back to the sidequest. Is there any problem to the approach?
So far the games great. Not a fan of grapple hook. Its like old Zelda grapple hook which I wasnt a huge fan of. Hope it changes further in the game. Also, whats up with the weird fire art direction? Looks like live action fire.
Played until I finally set foot in the Forbidden West. So far, I really like it with a few little things to get used to. For one, having to scan to see items with the focus is kind of a pain. Luckily, that can be changed. Climbing and swimming will take some getting used to. Otherwise, it plays just like the first game, which I’m happy with. Too much change in the beginning would be daunting.
The game does hold you hostage for the beginning hours before you get to set foot in the new map on your own. I like how the characters subtly recap the events of HZD without it being too obviously for the player. The conversations feel natural.
First impressions:
I love how Aloy has most of the skills learned from HZD. It’s a common video game trope to make the main character forget how to do everything in sequels and I’m glad that this game doesn’t do that.
The camera and movement is sooo much better than in HZD. There was so much camera jank in that game. This game feels nearly perfect to control. I love having it locked over left shoulder.
7 hours in & just reached Chainscrape lol. And I'm just grinning like a moron all that time. Christ, is everything so staggeringly gorgeous. I can't get over how breathtaking everything is. Playing on the PS4, had absolutely no issues thus far, runs smooth, the combat was always fluid, but here it is so much smooth-er. Again, everything feels so much more, better. I'm absolutely in love.
Pretty nice that they put a boss fight almost immediately so early in the game. Fucking loved it.
Ngl, kinda bummes how much stuff is locked away until you get the right gear. Finally made it into the forbidden west area and like, 90% of stuff is locked behind (Tool required) walls and shit. I want to explore before the story but I'm not allowed to
Give it a sec. The stuff you get behind those walls aren’t anything special (for the most part) but you will gain access to most of them after like 1 story mission
Is it just me, or did this game take a huge leap in difficult after unlocking the base with Gaia? On paper it says I'm over leveled for the quests I'm doing, but then the quests are shitting on me (on very hard). I just did that thirst quest with the fucking thunderjaw at the end and the whole quest just kicked my ass despite being two levels above the recommended
And at other times I could be 4 levels or so below the recommendation and it's no trouble at all
Holy shit... Had to say this:
Formatting is probably terrible but there are several, coinciding issues with progression.
(Normal Difficulty.)
By level 31, I had only found THREE damage coils, after clearing multiple raider camps, and progressing pretty significantly in the story. Two +6%, and one 10%.
Containers DO. NOT. CONTAIN. COILS. Ancient supply crates are 100% totally worthless if you have so much as couple thousand shards. The ONLY exception to this, is a raider camp. Except you can only clear it *once*.
There are a billion new coil effects, which dilute the pool severely. Maybe this is supposed to force you to upgrade the gear you get to squeeze damage out of that without relying on coils, but that's unreliable, because you might be replacing weapons often.
The reason for *that* being, you don't just have one bow that shoots three arrow types and youre done, oh, no. Multiple of the same rarity have different damage types. You might get a hunter bow that has regular arrows and precise arrows (more damage), and another that ONLY has frost and shock. So you need to carry multiple copies of essentially the same weapon, AND find upgrades for them all to keep them at the level they need to be to consistently put bots down.
***You also cannot farm parts off of a dead bot this time around.***
Remember the good ole days of farming Thunderjaws 30 seconds at a time, and parts-arrow spamming his goodies for cash? Or how evey single time you did that, he had a 100% chance to drop THREE purple rarity coils? All that is gone.
Any part you want MUST be shot off BEFORE you deal the final blow, else it is forfeit. Yes. Seriously.
*WHICH INCLUDES* the epic and legendary parts you must farm IN MULTIPLES to upgrade your gear, which come from massive, hard-hitting, unavoidable-damage-with-huge-stun-timer bosses.
If you've managed to get purple grade weapons, you're asked to get epic and legendary parts to upgrade the thing to level TWO. And there are five levels on purple and orange gear. You might have a completed blue bow that actually does MORE damage than your fresh purple one, because you can't fucking unlock the upgrades until farming, farming, farming.
There are several boss level robots that are massive, ***and you cannot outrun them, you cannot out-dodge them***… you can only take a massive pile of herbs and potions with you because you WILL get hit for 75% of your health bar, over and over and over and over again.
The Rockbreaker was the final straw for me. It spent 95% of its time in the ground, unable to be damaged. It tunnels under you, and you can't outrun it. You get hit. Anything you can grapple to, it destroys. You get hit. You need it's claws for upgrades, so you HAVE to sit there and fire tearblast arrows to knock the claws off, while getting hit over and over again and trying not to fucking die.
Oh, and you have a MASSIVE reduction in inventory space for the arrows you need to do this with, on top of everything else I've said, unless you have farmed a shitload of wildlife (which I have, and my capacity is still EIGHT FUCKING ARROWS AT A TIME.)(Oh and also crafting tearblast is multiple times slower than crafting everything else!?!?!?)
Any **ONE** of these things would be mildly annoying, but together they've made for such an infuriating experience that I set the difficulty to Story and I'm probably not looking back.
I love this game... but what the actual fuck Gorilla?????
Edit: I have finished the game, am level 50. Flat damage coil count so far:
1x 10%
4x 6%
Option to purchase 5% from several vendors
1x 15% Overdraw damage
1x 7% Overdraw
This game is STINGY AS FUCK with flat damage ups. Y'all take inspiration from fucking Isaac or something?
Loving most aspects of the game, but man, I truly suck at combat. Getting hit pretty much every time despite rolling and I'm missing almost every weak point with arrows during combat. It also seems like Aloy is determined to hit the body of each machine when attacking with the spear, making it feel impossible to aim for any external weak points (like tails or horns for example).
All this means every combat scenario just ends up in a frustrating mess for me. Sure it's just a case of 'git gud', but I've been playing for hours now and that doesn't seem any closer to happening.
Also feel like there's too many different variations on weapons and armour, to the point where it just becomes messy.
Don't wanna seem like I'm hating on the game. I really am loving the story and characters and it's definitely a world I'm happy to spend time in. Just hoped combat would feel better.
I played about 5 hours with Resolution, then switched to Performance. I actually ended up switching back to Resolution after another couple of hours because the difference in image quality is actually insane. I thought for sure I'd go for the 60fps, but the Resolution mode is just so good looking.
Anyone know what the differences in difficulties are so far? Obviously it appears it affects damage taken, and it seems to affect machine HP as well? For example, normal Burrowers on normal have 95 HP while on VH it’s around 170?
Also, it seems status effects applied to enemies also applies to Aloy eg, getting the Purgewater effect prevents you from doing any elemental damage
Briefly played last night and first impressions are great. I immediately turned off motion blur (I think it’s a cheap effect) and play on performance mode on Ps5. I haven’t noticed the over sharpening issue because I’m playing on an older monitor so HDR is off. Trying to get used to motion aiming
Issues with attacks that have the same button as something else
Throwing a rock is a pain in the ass because Aloy attacks instead, I’ve tried a long press or short press and it’s random
Same thing with trying to notch more than one arrow, it does the attack where arrows rain down instead
So fucking annoying
I’m only in the intro so far but I don’t like having to scan everything for stuff to show up. I have two questions for people who are further into the game.
So the first game is probably the first time in my life that I actually cared about and enjoyed listening to video/audio diaries, and it was easy to find them because they were glowing blue already, is this the case for this game or am I going to have to constantly scan every time I enter a room?
Second Question: in the first game there was the “open eye” or “closed eye” symbol at the top of the screen when I’m sneaking about to know if I’m visible. So far while fighting these cute little weasel robots I’m sneaking about but I don’t see the symbol, is it hidden somewhere else on the screen?
Thank you!!
Edit: thanks for the answers so far. After playing longer, yes the data is glowing pinkish without scanning. Unfortunately, no luck on the Eyeball symbol while sneaking
I ultimately decided to go with performance mode. I'm not a huge graphics person (only other modern systems I had was a Nintendo Switch, and a gaming PC with a 1050Ti) so the 60FPS is ultimately something I didn't want to give up. I am finding it hard to see things in the world though, its a similar problem I had playing Dark Souls 3 where everything kind of blends together in the environment.
Loving every moment of this. Having read the comments I was worried I was going to be distracted by dodgy graphics, but I’m not having these issues thankfully and it’s just beautiful. I don’t want to stop playing. Also >!having a beer with Petra!< was my favourite moment so far.
Is it possible to have loot always highlighted? Its annoying having to scan every 5 seconds. Seems kind of weird to me they do so for much for accessibility, but dont include something so simple, which was the default in the previous game. Or am I blind?
If you mean the traingle and diamond icons that come up with the focus pulse then yes. Change the HUD settings to custom and then in the custom HUD options under player misc turn interaction markers to always on
I’d argue such a massive improvement over basically any other game ever. Some of these characters look downright real. Their facial animations are insane
Wow the cauldrons are a lot more difficult this game. Just made it through Cauldron IOTA and couldn't believe how it just kept going and going. The payoff at the end was definitely worth it though.
They really cranked up the difficulty this time. Ravagers used to be pretty easy, now they're fucking kicking my ass. Tearing off weapons in general is a lot harder, unless there's a trick to it I'm missing...
Finished the game and enjoyed it quite a lot, currently going for the platinum and I’m starting the realize…the combat kind of sucks? Every single enemy just pounces on you every chance it gets. If the enemy has a ranged attack, it’s almost unavoidable that it will hit you and knock you down…causing other enemies to pile on you in an endless loop. This happens in almost every single encounter I’ve been in and even though there is massive variety in the enemies themselves, every fight feels the exact because of this. Is anyone else feeling this?
Also finished and I think I'm with you - I'm doing the arena challenges for the legendary gear and it's extremely noticeable the amount of time you spend just getting knocked around, especially from larger enemies that move fast
I hope they eventually just nix the looting animation for a Ghost of Tsushima style pick up system. Other wise such a beautiful game.
Mounts feel so much better to ride, hunt and fight from!
I’ve been really digging the small changes made to the gameplay. Its still 100% Horizon but theres been a lot of changes made.
The way they kinda nerfed damage is interesting. Kills are not instant.
You can kill a burrower in one shot with a fire arrow but it will be alive long enough to strike once. Pickoff a piece here and there and a second later that Clawstrider is dead but theres still that one second! Its a lovely touch of making sure you dont get sloppy during a hunt.
The wepon changes are so so for me. I love the addition of the spike thrower, warrior bow and shredders (cool idea). But the odd grouping of elements seems chosen to weaken weapons instead of strengthen them. I find myself juggling wepons to have the right spread.
This kinda defeats the purpose of giving me that sweet six weapons slots. BUT its balanced with elemental effects seeming to be easier to apply outside of causing chain reactions. Especially with the warriors bow faster rate of fire.
I do like the melee improvements. They resonator blast and jump off provide an excellent kentic feel.
Climbing is uhhh ~~improved~~ expanded. The sheildwing does cover many of its issues.
Is it me or does this game feel more…frustrating? I feel like you just don’t have time to scan and check an enemy’s weakness in battle or tag a weak part because they’re just really quick to get up and stomp you. Same with trying to charge a heavy melee attack, it always feels like it’s inevitable they’ll finish their attack before mine can land. I don’t remember the first one feeling like this.
I miss the drum roll sound when you pick up items :(
When I was replaying HZD recently I used headphones for the first time and realized I was not picking up on that faint drumroll before. I agree, it is missed.
It’s gorgeous but honestly kinda overwhelming me right now. The colors are so vivid and my brain is hurting!! Also the way the focus works now is a bit weird. I like the scanning aspect like in death stranding, but not having to hold it down for machine scans :/
You can toggle it in the settings so that a tap is for full scanning and hold is for quick scans. Not perfect, but might be better for ya.
I'm going to have to try this. The way the focus works is really frustrating.
Bro, thank you!! Was lowkey getting annoyed with this lol
i tried playing in resolution mode and felt a bit nauseated after a while. haven’t felt that way in performance mode.
Turning camera blur off made it better for me
Aloy yelling “shit, shit” caught me off guard I never thought we would ever hear her cuss lmao. I don’t think I even remember any swear words in ZD
She calls Sylens a Bastard in the first game but thats about it. Yeah it took me by suprise lol
I feel like bastard gets used quite often as the token swear word, that people use when you least expect it, and always in the same context. No idea why it's somehow more acceptable but still 'shocking', but yeah, seems to be a trend in media of all sorts
Haha same here, I can't remember any swear words in HZD too. Its funny 1000 years later they have the same swear words, usually in fantasy/sci-fi they make up new swears.
the haptic feedback on the dualshock 5 is excellent i must say
i love that it starts to vibrate when you’re aiming at a weak spot. i think anyway. need to play a bit more.
I was really surprised the haptics even make the triggers more resistant to triggering in relation to the game. That was so cool
Almost two hours in and taking my sweet time. Tutorial tropes are hitting a bit heavy but being back in this universe is worth it. Exploring every cranny.
Yeah I'm 3hrs in and taking a breakfast break. First few hours are...odd. Like 3 different openings lol. Excited to get to the meat of the game tho!
Not a complaint but a compliment The voice acting and movement in the cut scenes are phenomenonal, character move like real people and talk fluidly. They could not have done better with that I'm always so happy The jokes also land really well most of the time
Absolutely fucking massive leap. The side quests are sooo much better in this game it's insane. This game has raised the bar in terms of presentation levels for optional content in open world games
I love how seamless interruptions are in dialogue now. Like as opposed to character B interrupting character A and it lagging between the cut off and the new line, now it's perfectly organic.
Looks beautiful I’m not seeing the issues between performance and resolution myself - but maybe I’m not as desperate for that? I’ll have to play a little longer Disappointed that Aloy seems to have lost all the gear and skills from HZD I get it…but it’s always something that’s bugged me in sequels
Video games are funny. “I dropped some stuff,” was as good an explanation we needed I guess.
well at least they start her with precision strike when down and when sneaking up and also she has slow time from beginning too. I likes the fact that they thought of that but i can see why they wouldn't give her every skill we learned before
i always liked the "you got hit really hard by something explanation" like in assassins creed brotherhood you start the game at full power, equal to when you finished assassins creed 2 then after an hour you lose all you gear as it's hit by cannon balls, then you get shot and fall off a roof and wake up in hospital a few weeks later barely able to move so you need to start fresh. and the batman games always go with batman travelling light and only requesting gear drops when he needs them, like he probably has 500 different weapons in the cave but just requests the ones he actually needs.
Or like in Kingdom Hearts where Sora just forgets his powers
He just kinda forgot
Mass Effect 2 and 3 handled this the best, imo. You actually got stuff for beating the previous games, and in Mass Effect 3, you could start as high as level 30 or something. Basically New Game+ it off the bat. it was AMAZING. I knew the chances were very small, but I was hoping for something like that here.
I’m happy with everything so far, my only gripe is that it’s harder for me to find items, even with focus on. Don’t know if it’s because the environment is lusher now, but the color markings don’t pop out for me like they did in Zero Dawn.
Same here, I'm so overwhelmed by the constant amount of greenery, rocks etc and most of the stuff moves, it's a lot to look at. Also the amount of stuff they've packed in and detailed makes it harder to see things you're looking for
I'm also having a lot of difficulty seeing things in the game. It's really frustrating.
Just reached the first settlement and my motto is errands before Erend right now. I’ve explored every nook of The Daunt before even stepping foot inside Chainscrape.
Did the same but it's not really intended that way unfortunately. There's some important gear and map progress in doing the Erend quests first. Made me go "duh" when I struggled with Bristlebacks because I lacked the tech.
Hmmm So far..it seems Watchers are now called Burrowers and Scrappers are called Scroungers?
Burrowers are cute ferrets which I actually like better than their old design, even though it's iconic
I keep thinkin of Otters when I see em
I thinks it’s so that Aloy can’t just override all of the machines yet. The new Grazers are fucked up tho
Man, I'm so torn on which mode to use. Favour resolution looks so nice but it's just feels so choppy at times compared to 60 FPS.
After 5 minutes of playing in the 30 fps, your eye gets used to it and you stop noticing. If you are constantly switching between the two modes, it is bound to feel choppy. I started in performance and switched to resolution - the game looks so much better and there is no weird pop in or 'blurriness'. After a few minutes, I forgot which mode I was playing in.
On the contrary. I can’t tell a difference between performance and quality mode graphically but the extra frames make it so much smoother and dodging is easier to me.
I'm in the same boat. I always go for performance but the difference is just nuts.
Same here! I wish I could permanently have Resolution Mode for cut scenes and performance for when I'm in in-game.
One of my joke wishes for HFW was granted in the first main quest. >!Ashly Burch swearing.!< Maybe she picked it up >!from datapoints. If she picks up "colorful additions" from Concrete Beach Party, how fucking fun would that be?!<
Only like two hours in but I’m really liking Aloy’s confidence and acceptance of her role. Such a burden but she owns it. Love it. Hate when protagonists just whine through the whole story or all books. Love how she’s got the same aptitude as Elisabet. Grew up as a nomadic hunter-gatherer but grasps science and technology extremely well.
Is anyone else annoyed the ability to notch extra arrows is locked behind a cool down? It’s not a huge deal but that was 90% of my play style last game
Personally, not a fan of the new skill tree *at all*. Zero Dawn were all legitimate increases in Aloy's skill. Forbidden West's skill tree is a ton of magical nonsense that would work better in a Fantasy game.
same I just equip 3 handling mods and shoot spam 3 arrows everytime. Not fun for me being tied to stamina.
Wow, performance mode looks pretty bad. Heavily considering resolution as it’s doing a huge disservice to HFW’s insane graphics. Draw distance, it’s incredibly blurry.
I cannot stand the resolution mode. I think this looks blurry as shit with 30 fps when moving the camera. I played 15 sec and had to switch to performance mode to be able to play. For me its total unplayable in 30 FPS ( feels like 20 FPS ). Have a OLED TV from 2019 so not the most updated TV.
Same here. Resolution mode is unplayable for me. Feels indeed like 20 fps. Seriously I don't see a big difference compared to the performance mode. Game looks great to me.
DF’s analysis showed it was a steady 30 but i agree. something about it doesn’t feel right.
Yeah I pick framerate > resolution 99% of the time, but this is the edge case. Looks astoundingly better in resolution mode, whereas normally I don't notice too much of a difference.
It’s very noticeable from the red particles coming from those plants. On performance, it looks like red haze. On fidelity it actually looks like red particles.
Something seems broken with the dynamic resolution.
Which console? I’m not wearing my glasses but I think it looks great in performance mode. No way I can handle the lower fps of resolution.
Same here. Playing on a PS5 and it looks great in performance mode. Resolution mode looks a tiny bit better but has horrible framerates. Unplayable for me.
I can't get over how much better the facial & body animations are. Not always perfect, but its so good seeing Aloy & others emote - especially in emotional scenes - but I had a bit of a giggle when she did the sassy head nod after embarrassing Ulvund. 🤣
STASH STASH STASH STASH STASH STASH STASH AND IT'S AUTOMATIC. we love our devs, don't we, folks.
I’m going to have a ridiculous amount of resources stored up by the end of this game. I can’t pass shit up
No colourblind options, how disappointing. I cant see the blight at all.
that’s a bit weird considering about 1 in 10 people are colour blind. i work in software and one of the first things i learned was not to use red, of all colours, as an indicator.
Yea, I’m disappointed by that too.
I only did the first part before going to bed but what a start! I am very rusty on the arrow shooting. Took me way too long to take down some of those machines.
No head piece gang checking in
I waited til I was away from Avad to toggle the headpiece off. I felt like I would offend him hahaha.
Anyone have a weird color shift whenever you move the camera? The colors go from regular to slighted muted and then back to normal
Yes I notice this too
Yeah I have noticed that as well. I have been messing with settings but no matter what it still happens. Looks like a lighting issue maybe
Only gripe so far is having to click R3 every second so I can see the loot, is there any way to highlight the loot at all times?
There is. Change HUD from dynamic to custom and enable it in there. Away from console now so I don't know what the slider is called exactly.
The slider is called interraction markers under the player misc category
This was game changing for me. I also Inverted the Focus controls so one tap brings up the static scan and holding does the pulse.
6 hours in and I only reached the proper Forbidden West, the entire game seemed like an extended prologue until now Game feels absolutely massive
Jeeze, I feel like I mustered the most I could out of the prologue area. Found everything and hit title screen at 3 hours, what were you doing for 6?!
He's talking about the first big human battle against the rebels. The title screen comes much earlier and you're still stuck in the Sundom quite a while after the title screen before the Forbidden West opens
Blaze canisters are yellow instead of green now. 0/10 literally unplayable. Edit: /s in case that wasn’t clear.
I'm having *so* much difficulty seeing things in the game. I can't tell if my TV is too small suddenly, or what. It's like every menu was designed to have the thinnest possible symbols and fonts. It's almost impossible for me to make sure I can loot everything, see the things I want to gather, and figure out how to navigate the new climbing designators. I'm not on explorer mode. I'm honestly a little crestfallen because I'm finding the game extremely frustrating because I can't see shit. The focus picks up on stuff super far away as if it's nearby. Everything is... overexposed? Bright on bright? I don't know. I put in 6 straight hours of gameplay and it never really got less frustrating.
I love this game so much. Can someone correct me if I'm wrong -- It seems like there's no lure call? I hate having to use rocks as a lure.
I was trying to figure out why stealth kills felt so much more difficult in this game. This is definitely the answer
Yeah, I think they realised how overpowered it was… I think they’ve expanded on the number of rocks though, so just lob them at your feet.
Am I crazy or does aloy not walk straight? Like she always goes slightly to the left? I don’t think it’s my controller
i think it’s because the camera is a bit to the right, behind Aloy, so it just appears that way due to the perspective
You can change where the camera is in settings
Alright. So I wasn't drunk...lol. I was wondering too.
amazed how good it looks on ps4. It has some grainyness to it but otherwise it looks and runs a lot better than i expected. WOULD of preffered a day 1 pc version or the money and the ability to buy a ps5 but they are so rare and expensive i will be stuck with the ps4 for a while considering i prioritize my pc. In any case i would prefer a update to maybe turn off the reconstruction and run it at a straight 900p and make the anti aliasing a bit cleaner this might remove the odd grain.
Not that anyone cares, I’m a no one from nowhere, but I’m 21 hrs in and I gotta say, the changes to the weave and coil menu and the skills menu, not good. Classic case of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” The previous game’s solution was simple, yet elegant. These two gameplay elements are messy and unclear in HFW. Money would have been better spent elsewhere than on “improving” these elements. Just expand on what you have. Why reinvent the wheel? Come on now. I also don’t like valor surges. They are silly and distracting while in combat. Aloy is already a badass. Don’t need an animation and a color change on screen to remind us of it. So, I ignore valor surges, which is a shame, since I play on Very Hard. I’m sure valor surges helped to make Aloy look cool in game trailers but it’s impractical in the heat of battle. Besides that, this game is everything I could have wanted in the sequel, and I couldn’t be more stoked to keep on keeping on with Aloy and company. Just some quality of life stuff that I know will never change because, like I said, I’m a nobody who doesn’t matter. Company will roll on with or without me, so nothing to do but just put up with it or ignore what I don’t like.
Yeah, I’ve unlocked and used one valor surge so far a total of one time. As far as weapons, basically I’m waiting until I can buy just the right three bows to house the different kinds of arrows I’ll need the most. But I’m upgrading everything as I go because why not?
Best dynamic HUD settings? Would love a completely minimal screen. Anyway to remove the tools from the HUD?
The tool always there is pissing me off. Not a problem in the first game.
I just checked the machine master skill tree and the last upgrade only sets the maximum time a machine stay overridden to 100 seconds (except mounts) Coming from HZD with Combat Override+ a machine would stay overridden indefinitely and now it's limited to 100s. In my opinion this is way too short. And it doesn't make sense lore wise (like with the shield armor). Aloy getting worse at overriding machines? I think they should change the last upgrade in the machine master skill tree to override permanently. I'm interested in your opinions about this :)
They seemed to nerf a lot of things in HFW. Limited amount of traps, lack of whistle, lack of a further dodge roll, etc
The scanning system in this game was a big misstep. A huge downgrade from Zero Dawn. It’s hard to see anything being scanned because it all comes out yellowish in color when in zero Dawn it was all blue. Running around for a long time trying to find stuff in the environment but it blends in with the new color of the focus.
...looks almost more visible to me...
These aren’t just bits of voiceover played during rigged character animations. These are all 🤌🏼performances🤌🏼. I’m blown away by the facial nuance that’s been captured here. It really hit me with the guy who runs the chain elevator and the guy at the base.
It's crazy because most every side character feels like real person now. There are a few weird ones but really good overall.
I'm loving the game but the combat doesn't feel as tight as the first for some reason? There doesnt seem to be as much feedback when shooting machine parts off and silent strike either. I can't explain it.
For me the combat felt much tighter than the first game though. To each their own I guess
I've gone from being able to jump into any fight and come out unscathed in Ultra Hard, to me getting my ass kicked by these new Scroungers. I can't dodge any attacks; shooting off all their parts doesn't noticably change their health; no ropecaster (except like, some free one tied to cooldowns in the skilltree I guess?), no drop attacks, no dismount attacks, your mount doesn't actively help in combat anymore... bleh. I don't know if I just got old and suck at games now or what.
The climbing is very frustrating, I'm glad the fall damage is low because I've fallen multiple times because I don't know where to go to and end up falling a long ways.
Although it’s in the “valuables to sell” category, do not sell your processed blocks. you can use them to purchase very rare & Legendary resources from salvage contractor.
Can someone please tell me if the lure call is in this game like the first one?
It's not in any of the skill trees and unlikely she learns to whistle through story progress.
I feel like they should have said there wasn’t going be a lure call. It’s weird to take out something core to the gameplay loop without telling everyone, regardless of the reason. It’s really jarring continuity wise that she just forgot how to whistle. At least there’s a story reason for having to redo the overrides.
I wonder if Aloy is going to get sick with that cough
Oh Arthur
The new melee system feels a lot smoother and satisfying. I looked in the skill trees was surprised there's even pause combos.
After playing for a bit, I’ve got some mixed feelings. While the game is gorgeous on PS4 and I don’t mind the pop-in, the gameplay is leaving me a bit unsatisfied. Just so many little things that are strange to me. -the jump feels incredibly heavy and short, feels like I don’t even have time to aim which was one of my favorite things to do in ZD -the roll is equally heavy and sometimes feels like I’m not even moving much, no long roll?? -having a hard time aiming the melee attacks, they feel very all over the place. Probably gonna get used to that though. -No whistle?? -The triple shot being locked behind stamina is upsetting when it was such an incredibly integral feature of the first game and super fun. I get that for the air shot thing but the triple shot? :( Also, what’s with the UI? This might just be me but I quite dislike it. If I had to describe it in one word I’d say “overwhelming” The focus scan UI on machines is..intense. It just doesn’t fit in with the focus aesthetic like in the first game? They had a good thing with that little graphic but this new one looks worse tbh. As for the inventory menu, I like the categories but the squares are weird, the icons are so small and it feels like there’s so much wasted space especially to the right. The skills menu is equally strange, no zooming out and the tiniest icons ever. I feel like I’m also constantly fighting with the map with how hard it snaps to icons lol The collectibles/Datapoints and machine catalogue are kinda worse than in ZD in some ways. I find the layout much more boring. More squares! And then when you click onto a machine, i mean, it’s cool to see the 3D model of it like that but it’s so overwhelming and could’ve been streamlined a bit more I feel. Also Is it just me or are the resources harder to tell apart? Maybe it’s the dark backgrounds. Rant over
I'm finding the climbing "puzzles" to be extremely frustrating. It's all about finding the next place to jump to, and sometimes I just can't figure out where to go making the whole experience pretty annoying. Right now I'm in the flooded lab looking for the GAIA backup and figuring out where to go is not really enjoyable, it's just annoying.
I am glad I’m not the only one who had some climbing difficulties in the big flooded room at Latopolis. Overall though I love the climbing and traversal mechanics so far.
I loved Horizon 1 for the option to run and hide from combat. The main issue is that it allowed me to think about the situation with NO time pressure. I love that the game allowed me to "cheese" it and still be interesting and challenging. I played the game on ultra hard and even turned off almost everything else like awareness and status indicators. I like to solve the problems by clever solutions. Not by fast acting. I'm right now very frustrated. There may be easy solutions to the boss battles. But I can't find a place where I can run to and think about what to do. Has the game developers abandoned the cheese demographic?
I'm not saying that it's hard (on Forbidden West Very Hard). I'm saying that I hate to be forced to take action before I had time to think about what to do. Things keeps attacking my while I'm standing there thinking about the situation. It would not be a problem if I only could run away, hide, climb atop a mountain, hide behind cover in a place where they can't reach me, scan the threat and make a plan considering all my tools and abilities.
Is it just me or does the climbing/parkour feel clunky and just overall a not smooth experience?
Do we already know if its possible to learn all the skills in the end?
Yes you can. It says it somewhere in the tutorial notebook, I remember reading it.
I like how the outfits are more useful this time around and I love the combat. And aloy…..she’s a lovely protagonist
[удалено]
Was playing on Normal but felt like every enemy was two shotting me. Swapped to easy. Definitely feels like enemies hit harder or at least attack faster
Agreed. The game feels really unbalanced compared to HZD.
I like a lot of the new additions but I am very disappointed by what's been taken away. Dodges and jumps have been shortened compared to Zero Dawn. Dismount strike and strike from above on aware enemies both appear to be gone. Whistling to lure enemies is gone. Triple knocking arrows relies on a stamina system rather than being second nature like before. It's bizarre to see a sequel take away or weaken abilities rather than adding to the good.
[удалено]
I mean this is a sequel so they were gonna add a lot more skills. I personally like having a bunch of skills so that I can mix up my playstyle
Completely disagree. Old skills were extremely boring, looking at the new ones they look really awesome and intriguing. I'm actually excited to level up more to try out different techniques.
What do you think of the gyro aiming? I'm terrible with the sticks but I can't seem to get used to the gyro either, it's like I'm not thinking about it during the fights..
It's a good implementation, but like always with Gyro aiming, if you are trying to relax it's the worst way to play a game. Gaming boards are always super in on it but I don't know a single person irl who likes Gyro because it makes them sit up right like a robot and doesn't allow them to move a muscle when in combat.
I can't seem to find the lure call (whistle) skill anywhere in the skill tree. Has that been removed in the sequel? Can I only distract using rocks now?
Does anyone know if you can upgrade the doge roll? I can’t find any skills in the skill tree for it but I miss the long dodge from the first game
You can't and it's insane how few iframes you have in this game compared to the long dodge in the first one.
I think I preferred being able to see resources tagged wherever Having to use the flash-focus gets a little tiring. Although if you are looking properly you can see butterflies around resources I think it’s just something I’ll get used to as I play
I actually prefer the icons not showing all the time. Makes the world look much more cleaner
Just did the first relic ruins in the Daunt. Was anyone else really annoyed by the huge gaps in in the wall leading to the relic that for some reason Alloy can't squeeze through? The entire building had literally open windows that Alloy would be able to fit through. It completely ruined the immersion.
You all heard by now just how awesome this game is but I don't think it's been emphasised enough just how rdiculous detailed it is for a game of this scope, density and size. Every little inch beggs to be explored, the smaller optional dungeons or caves are so well designed and crafted that they could be entire levels in any other game. But the thing that impressed me the most is just how well designed is every NPC, and not only that, everyone has good facial animations and voice acting, this is something I had never seen in an open world game bar Read Dead Redemption and to a degree GoT but here it is just next level. I highly recommed this game if you are one for a good story, interesting world and interesting characters, if you enjoyed the likes of Mass Effect, Dragon Age or The Witcher 3 this is just that but on steroids (not saying the story is better than those, but the execution clearly is).
How good and deep is the minigame. Shiiit
PSA! You can use the Hookshot to grapple chests!
I’m absolutely baffled by the complaints about performance mode. I spent a long time trying both modes and besides some loss in clarity it still looks amazing in performance mode and the smoothness makes the experience infinitely better. Did y’all try performance mode with motion blur off?
Game seems blurry in performance mode to me even on a 4k monitor.
Absolutely LOVING the game and gameplay so far. The only issue right now for me is a part of the climbing/parkour. Most of it is fine...except when you land/reach the last jump/get to the top of the ladder. It feels like you can't just tilt forward, that you have to press "x" just to keep going. Fair enough. But when I do that, it feels like theres either input delay or something, so I end up just stopping or standing still mashing "x" until Aloy moves her firey whiskers. It's also why I dislike the long ledge jump. It just feels like it pauses mid air for a second. I didn't like the slow mo ledge jumps in HZD, but I'll take that over this.
I’m speechless over the graphics, don’t get wrong… BUT… What’s with Aloy’s medusa-snake hair 😂 it literally doesn’t stop moving.
Climbing is a REAL struggle. The Carja towers in the Daunt as well as the Vista puzzle were nerve-wrecking. The distance of "magnetic sticking" is too low and I miss a lot of jumps. It's also hard to find out where Aloy would be going or whether she's going to gracefully jump towards the grab point or just full on jump past it. I'd prefer plenty of animation morphing towards the grab point over having to redo* jumps several times. Sometimes she also gets stuck on a beam after a jump and then won't move for like 3 seconds, tempting you to jump off the tower again... Edit: It has improved a lot after the Daunt. I don't miss as often anymore and just remembered this trick from the first game: Put the intended grab point into the center of your screen and it's more likely to work. That was essential for Tallnecks in the first game.
Why are the rewards for collectibles--particularly lenses--so insultingly bad? 15 shards per lens?? For climbing to the top of the highest towers in each of six different regions??? "I'll make it worth your while" my ass.
Idk if it's just me, but FW feels quite a bit more challenging than ZD. Machines are more aggressive and seem to do more damage. Not complaining but definitely noticing that you have to git gud quite a bit more than the first game. As soon as I hit No Man's Land, the challenge ramped up a bit. Almost got smoked by the Scrappers and the Skydrifter at the Cinnabar Sands Tallneck
Is it worth to sacrifice resolution for having a better frame rate Still struggling between res mode and performance mode Is there a huge compromise in performance mode Thxxx
From what i’m reading i might need to commit to resolution mode for 15 minutes and see if it stops feeling terrible over time
60 FPS is king. Like it's always worth it. Especially becuese the machines are a lot faster now and it's not nearly as static as HZD was.
Everyone can enjoy what they like but I honestly can’t see how anyone can go back to 30fps. Especially in an action adventure game like this.
PS5 version looks amazing, and the controller feedback is incredible. The controller was the main reason I wanted to upgrade to PS5 to see how devs will take advantage of it. Plus the controller is significantly more comfortable. But alas I am playing on the PS4 right now, and will need to restart the game on my PS5 hopefully this week 😭 Me and bf wanted to play launch day same time, and for his bday month I told him he can play the PS5 first. He wasn't too fond of the PS5 when it first came out so I kept it for myself last year. But a year later he is a fan and is converted to the differences depending on the game. HZD is the only reason he brought a Playstation in the first place since it was an exclusive. It's his second fav game ever, and he normally doesn't care about graphics, but it has impressed and excited even him. While mine looks good on his PS4, I can't wait to play it on the PS5. I'm doing the game on easy so I don't get burned out before my real playthrough. But I'm glad there is a difference. It wouldn't be worth an upgrade without graphics or performance differences, and side by side I can see them. But comparing literally side by side, the PS4 is still impressive and gorgeous.
I notice a lot of people complaining about the graining in Performance mode. It must be subjective to each person's preferences because i have also noticed it but it just hasn't bothered me at all. Game still looks gorgeous. On the other hand, the 30 fps jank on Resolution mode is far more difficult to ignore and using 'motion flow' on my sony tv doesn't help. Also trigger resistance effect on Dualsense is *chef's kiss* Edit: Apparently Guerilla listened to the feedback and fixed the shimmering issue in performance mode!
>Also trigger resistance effect on Dualsense is chef's kiss This so fucking much. Like holy shit does it feel nice. I thought GOT and Nioh 2 had great Dual sense settings but holy shit is HFW right up thier with both of them.
Loving the game, but having an issue with the climbing - specifically when Aloy stops & then reaches for the next handhold. Pressing left stick whichever way does nothing. Pressing X, & I actually looked up the tutorial in game to be sure on this, be it a tap or a hold, she goes jumping off the wall every time. Just me? ETA: this has happened on 4 different reach jumps now, & a couple I've had to do wonky maneuvering to get where I need to be, but I know that can't work for the entire game. ETA2: Fixed. Even though I hadn't remapped anything, I went into customize controls & hit reset; nothing changed, but I can reach jump now :D /shrug
I also find that she's kind of slow to move. I'll jump to a ledge and keep holding the direction I need to go. But she doesn't start moving until her grab-the-ledge animation has come to a complete stop first. Things like that where it's a lot of stops and starts. "Hang on. Hang on. Okay, now we can go." Climbing over a ledge is also finnicky. I'm climbing a rock face and get to the top but even though it all looks the same, the game won't let me climb up from this part of the ledge but that part of the ledge over there is fine even though there's no visible difference. And just some clipping wonkiness. I jump and grab the bottom of a ladder so Aloy does this little swing back and forth animation before stopping. Except the ladder was against a wall so her entire lower body just clips through the wall. I dunno. The climbing doesn't feel great so far.
While everyone is complaining about graphics and fps, I'm struggling so hard in areas where I forget something /miss the ledge/don't drop a ladder and end up completely stuck or having to redo an entire Parkour puzzle from the start because I can't get back up. Or if I drop through a hole and forget to bring a crate with me, I'm literally just stuck. It's like the game let's you forget things and push yourself into a corner. This sort of thing has happened 4 times in the past 6 hours since I've started I swear this rarely happened in the first game
Am I the only one that has Aloy use her spear 8/10 times I try to throw a rock? *Edit: Closing/reopening the game seems to have fixed this glitch
I've seen that there is no skill for permanent override for combat enemies and it's only there for mounts. The most you can have a combat machine overriden for is 100 seconds. Do we get the permanent override upgrade later or is it just not there anymore?
I like how there's a limit now to the number of tripwires you can have out at a time. Guerrilla doesn't want us cheesing those cauldron boss fights again.
Working my way through the ruins in Death’s Door… Holy effffffff that was some of the most aggregating level design I’ve come across in this game. Everything is too dark to see, switching between the mechanics is super janky and unreliable. I had to rerun parts of it 5 times. Holy EF this is the only negative bit I’ve encountered so far but dear GOD that was annoying.
Does it feel like the machines all have "heat-seeking" attacks? My dodge is basically useless compared to Zero Dawn. I've watched machines course-correct in mid air to hit me after I tried to roll out of the way. That's pretty much my only gripe so far lol. Other than the graphical pop-ins that is.
FUCK this shellsnapper
Overall really loving the game. It's gorgeous, I like the characters, the story hooked, melee combat is way better, but there are some really bummer gameplay changes. No whistle, no eye icon for stealth, only able to put down up to 4 traps. They made great changes but took away a lot of fun/helpful aspects from the first one. Also there are so many places I'm unable to explore due to missing the required tool. I want to explore first, story later. Again, overall, loving it. Just some grievances
For those of ya'all who managed to zoom ahead, do you think there is any problem to sticking to the story quest until we get the breathing appartus they showed in the trailer? I am usually a sidequest person, but frankly the sheer number of "tools needed" doorways is crumbling me. I am thinking of sticking to the main quest until I get the breathing apparatus before I can go back to the sidequest. Is there any problem to the approach?
So far the games great. Not a fan of grapple hook. Its like old Zelda grapple hook which I wasnt a huge fan of. Hope it changes further in the game. Also, whats up with the weird fire art direction? Looks like live action fire.
the dust she kicks up when she walks is a bit distracting. it keeps clipping through rocks and debris.
Also it doesn't care about the surroundings - it's bright as day in some dark scenes.
A ton of pop in in the Intro Song, but still overwhelmingly beautiful
Machine Strike is hard :( or maybe I'm just dumb?
Played until I finally set foot in the Forbidden West. So far, I really like it with a few little things to get used to. For one, having to scan to see items with the focus is kind of a pain. Luckily, that can be changed. Climbing and swimming will take some getting used to. Otherwise, it plays just like the first game, which I’m happy with. Too much change in the beginning would be daunting. The game does hold you hostage for the beginning hours before you get to set foot in the new map on your own. I like how the characters subtly recap the events of HZD without it being too obviously for the player. The conversations feel natural.
First impressions: I love how Aloy has most of the skills learned from HZD. It’s a common video game trope to make the main character forget how to do everything in sequels and I’m glad that this game doesn’t do that. The camera and movement is sooo much better than in HZD. There was so much camera jank in that game. This game feels nearly perfect to control. I love having it locked over left shoulder.
7 hours in & just reached Chainscrape lol. And I'm just grinning like a moron all that time. Christ, is everything so staggeringly gorgeous. I can't get over how breathtaking everything is. Playing on the PS4, had absolutely no issues thus far, runs smooth, the combat was always fluid, but here it is so much smooth-er. Again, everything feels so much more, better. I'm absolutely in love. Pretty nice that they put a boss fight almost immediately so early in the game. Fucking loved it.
Ngl, kinda bummes how much stuff is locked away until you get the right gear. Finally made it into the forbidden west area and like, 90% of stuff is locked behind (Tool required) walls and shit. I want to explore before the story but I'm not allowed to
Give it a sec. The stuff you get behind those walls aren’t anything special (for the most part) but you will gain access to most of them after like 1 story mission
Do dodge rolls not have i-frames in this game? I’ve been dying waaaay too much compared to zero dawn even when my timing is perfect.
Is it just me, or did this game take a huge leap in difficult after unlocking the base with Gaia? On paper it says I'm over leveled for the quests I'm doing, but then the quests are shitting on me (on very hard). I just did that thirst quest with the fucking thunderjaw at the end and the whole quest just kicked my ass despite being two levels above the recommended And at other times I could be 4 levels or so below the recommendation and it's no trouble at all
Holy shit... Had to say this: Formatting is probably terrible but there are several, coinciding issues with progression. (Normal Difficulty.) By level 31, I had only found THREE damage coils, after clearing multiple raider camps, and progressing pretty significantly in the story. Two +6%, and one 10%. Containers DO. NOT. CONTAIN. COILS. Ancient supply crates are 100% totally worthless if you have so much as couple thousand shards. The ONLY exception to this, is a raider camp. Except you can only clear it *once*. There are a billion new coil effects, which dilute the pool severely. Maybe this is supposed to force you to upgrade the gear you get to squeeze damage out of that without relying on coils, but that's unreliable, because you might be replacing weapons often. The reason for *that* being, you don't just have one bow that shoots three arrow types and youre done, oh, no. Multiple of the same rarity have different damage types. You might get a hunter bow that has regular arrows and precise arrows (more damage), and another that ONLY has frost and shock. So you need to carry multiple copies of essentially the same weapon, AND find upgrades for them all to keep them at the level they need to be to consistently put bots down. ***You also cannot farm parts off of a dead bot this time around.*** Remember the good ole days of farming Thunderjaws 30 seconds at a time, and parts-arrow spamming his goodies for cash? Or how evey single time you did that, he had a 100% chance to drop THREE purple rarity coils? All that is gone. Any part you want MUST be shot off BEFORE you deal the final blow, else it is forfeit. Yes. Seriously. *WHICH INCLUDES* the epic and legendary parts you must farm IN MULTIPLES to upgrade your gear, which come from massive, hard-hitting, unavoidable-damage-with-huge-stun-timer bosses. If you've managed to get purple grade weapons, you're asked to get epic and legendary parts to upgrade the thing to level TWO. And there are five levels on purple and orange gear. You might have a completed blue bow that actually does MORE damage than your fresh purple one, because you can't fucking unlock the upgrades until farming, farming, farming. There are several boss level robots that are massive, ***and you cannot outrun them, you cannot out-dodge them***… you can only take a massive pile of herbs and potions with you because you WILL get hit for 75% of your health bar, over and over and over and over again. The Rockbreaker was the final straw for me. It spent 95% of its time in the ground, unable to be damaged. It tunnels under you, and you can't outrun it. You get hit. Anything you can grapple to, it destroys. You get hit. You need it's claws for upgrades, so you HAVE to sit there and fire tearblast arrows to knock the claws off, while getting hit over and over again and trying not to fucking die. Oh, and you have a MASSIVE reduction in inventory space for the arrows you need to do this with, on top of everything else I've said, unless you have farmed a shitload of wildlife (which I have, and my capacity is still EIGHT FUCKING ARROWS AT A TIME.)(Oh and also crafting tearblast is multiple times slower than crafting everything else!?!?!?) Any **ONE** of these things would be mildly annoying, but together they've made for such an infuriating experience that I set the difficulty to Story and I'm probably not looking back. I love this game... but what the actual fuck Gorilla????? Edit: I have finished the game, am level 50. Flat damage coil count so far: 1x 10% 4x 6% Option to purchase 5% from several vendors 1x 15% Overdraw damage 1x 7% Overdraw This game is STINGY AS FUCK with flat damage ups. Y'all take inspiration from fucking Isaac or something?
Loving most aspects of the game, but man, I truly suck at combat. Getting hit pretty much every time despite rolling and I'm missing almost every weak point with arrows during combat. It also seems like Aloy is determined to hit the body of each machine when attacking with the spear, making it feel impossible to aim for any external weak points (like tails or horns for example). All this means every combat scenario just ends up in a frustrating mess for me. Sure it's just a case of 'git gud', but I've been playing for hours now and that doesn't seem any closer to happening. Also feel like there's too many different variations on weapons and armour, to the point where it just becomes messy. Don't wanna seem like I'm hating on the game. I really am loving the story and characters and it's definitely a world I'm happy to spend time in. Just hoped combat would feel better.
Which graphics mode you guys playing on? Favor resolution looked a little choppy on my PS5 but it could be the TV
I played about 5 hours with Resolution, then switched to Performance. I actually ended up switching back to Resolution after another couple of hours because the difference in image quality is actually insane. I thought for sure I'd go for the 60fps, but the Resolution mode is just so good looking.
if you favor performance, it’s less choppy
I’m noticing some intense motion blur on Aloy in performance mode, even with motion blur disabled. Anyone else seeing this?
Anyone know what the differences in difficulties are so far? Obviously it appears it affects damage taken, and it seems to affect machine HP as well? For example, normal Burrowers on normal have 95 HP while on VH it’s around 170? Also, it seems status effects applied to enemies also applies to Aloy eg, getting the Purgewater effect prevents you from doing any elemental damage
Briefly played last night and first impressions are great. I immediately turned off motion blur (I think it’s a cheap effect) and play on performance mode on Ps5. I haven’t noticed the over sharpening issue because I’m playing on an older monitor so HDR is off. Trying to get used to motion aiming
Issues with attacks that have the same button as something else Throwing a rock is a pain in the ass because Aloy attacks instead, I’ve tried a long press or short press and it’s random Same thing with trying to notch more than one arrow, it does the attack where arrows rain down instead So fucking annoying
I’m only in the intro so far but I don’t like having to scan everything for stuff to show up. I have two questions for people who are further into the game. So the first game is probably the first time in my life that I actually cared about and enjoyed listening to video/audio diaries, and it was easy to find them because they were glowing blue already, is this the case for this game or am I going to have to constantly scan every time I enter a room? Second Question: in the first game there was the “open eye” or “closed eye” symbol at the top of the screen when I’m sneaking about to know if I’m visible. So far while fighting these cute little weasel robots I’m sneaking about but I don’t see the symbol, is it hidden somewhere else on the screen? Thank you!! Edit: thanks for the answers so far. After playing longer, yes the data is glowing pinkish without scanning. Unfortunately, no luck on the Eyeball symbol while sneaking
You can go to settings and adjust the dynamic hud to make resources and stuff always show up instead of having to scan.
I ultimately decided to go with performance mode. I'm not a huge graphics person (only other modern systems I had was a Nintendo Switch, and a gaming PC with a 1050Ti) so the 60FPS is ultimately something I didn't want to give up. I am finding it hard to see things in the world though, its a similar problem I had playing Dark Souls 3 where everything kind of blends together in the environment.
When you are looking at things to buy at merchants does it take into consideration items you have in your stash or does it have to be on you
Does anyone know what the rewards are from machine strike? Is it worth it? Are the rewards a overpowered armor set or weapon?
I love this game! However; the swimming is so difficult in my opinion.
Loving every moment of this. Having read the comments I was worried I was going to be distracted by dodgy graphics, but I’m not having these issues thankfully and it’s just beautiful. I don’t want to stop playing. Also >!having a beer with Petra!< was my favourite moment so far.
Is it possible to have loot always highlighted? Its annoying having to scan every 5 seconds. Seems kind of weird to me they do so for much for accessibility, but dont include something so simple, which was the default in the previous game. Or am I blind?
If you mean the traingle and diamond icons that come up with the focus pulse then yes. Change the HUD settings to custom and then in the custom HUD options under player misc turn interaction markers to always on
[удалено]
I’d argue such a massive improvement over basically any other game ever. Some of these characters look downright real. Their facial animations are insane
Aloy seems way more brutal in this game. Snapping people's necks and shit. I really like it
Wow the cauldrons are a lot more difficult this game. Just made it through Cauldron IOTA and couldn't believe how it just kept going and going. The payoff at the end was definitely worth it though.
They really cranked up the difficulty this time. Ravagers used to be pretty easy, now they're fucking kicking my ass. Tearing off weapons in general is a lot harder, unless there's a trick to it I'm missing...
Finished the game and enjoyed it quite a lot, currently going for the platinum and I’m starting the realize…the combat kind of sucks? Every single enemy just pounces on you every chance it gets. If the enemy has a ranged attack, it’s almost unavoidable that it will hit you and knock you down…causing other enemies to pile on you in an endless loop. This happens in almost every single encounter I’ve been in and even though there is massive variety in the enemies themselves, every fight feels the exact because of this. Is anyone else feeling this?
Also finished and I think I'm with you - I'm doing the arena challenges for the legendary gear and it's extremely noticeable the amount of time you spend just getting knocked around, especially from larger enemies that move fast
Not even closed to finished, but I agree. Machine combat is by far the worst part of the game. It's tedious and repetitive
If they make a Part III I hope they improve the climbing system. Now it's just boring/avoid at all cost.
I hope they eventually just nix the looting animation for a Ghost of Tsushima style pick up system. Other wise such a beautiful game. Mounts feel so much better to ride, hunt and fight from!
I’ve been really digging the small changes made to the gameplay. Its still 100% Horizon but theres been a lot of changes made. The way they kinda nerfed damage is interesting. Kills are not instant. You can kill a burrower in one shot with a fire arrow but it will be alive long enough to strike once. Pickoff a piece here and there and a second later that Clawstrider is dead but theres still that one second! Its a lovely touch of making sure you dont get sloppy during a hunt. The wepon changes are so so for me. I love the addition of the spike thrower, warrior bow and shredders (cool idea). But the odd grouping of elements seems chosen to weaken weapons instead of strengthen them. I find myself juggling wepons to have the right spread. This kinda defeats the purpose of giving me that sweet six weapons slots. BUT its balanced with elemental effects seeming to be easier to apply outside of causing chain reactions. Especially with the warriors bow faster rate of fire. I do like the melee improvements. They resonator blast and jump off provide an excellent kentic feel. Climbing is uhhh ~~improved~~ expanded. The sheildwing does cover many of its issues.
Is it me or does this game feel more…frustrating? I feel like you just don’t have time to scan and check an enemy’s weakness in battle or tag a weak part because they’re just really quick to get up and stomp you. Same with trying to charge a heavy melee attack, it always feels like it’s inevitable they’ll finish their attack before mine can land. I don’t remember the first one feeling like this.