The Witcher 3 got the same complaints. It's not at all surprising, and so did Breath of the Wild. I've definitely noticed that this forum has more hot takes than I ever saw on GAF though. It's kinda awkward tbh.
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LTTP: Horizon: Zero Dawn is just boring and repetitive
- Thread starter Rodjer
- Start date
the bloodborne topic was an intentional troll thread... i dont know why insert this beside legit posts.
Pretty confident Horizon doesn't not have projectile drop off, the only physics there is that it's a projectile and as such the hit isn't instant. Unlike something like BoTW if you shoot an arrow in Horizon it just goes straight, even if you shoot it upwards at the sky it'll never come back down but it will in Zelda where the arrows have actual drop off.
Name the games that have better bow mechanics, where you can ride mounts while shooting said bow, or slide underneath big beasts like a fucking boss while shooting arrows at said big beasts, all at the same speed and flow of HZD.
If you play to a games' strengths (like complaining about melee combat when the game throws at you 20 ranged weapons and only 1 melee weapon), you will, perhaps, form a different opinion.
Boring, however, is not an objective opinion.
Try giving it more time because it will get better, by "better" I mean especially the battle system! When you face more dangerous/stronger robots you will start to appreciate the battle system even more
Otherwise it's not for you I guess, personally I think it was one of the best open world games in the recent years! Especially the battle system! Most of the games in the Action RPG-open world genre tend to have less polished battle system compared to linear games, but Horizon managed to have a great battle system that matched or surpassed a lot of more linear Action RPG games!
Otherwise it's not for you I guess, personally I think it was one of the best open world games in the recent years! Especially the battle system! Most of the games in the Action RPG-open world genre tend to have less polished battle system compared to linear games, but Horizon managed to have a great battle system that matched or surpassed a lot of more linear Action RPG games!
Lol I knew how to dodge, but that didn't help make the gameplay loop any more enjoyable. Maybe I was overly aggressive, so I dodged less to do more damage to get fights over with, but bottom line is that the fights took too long, were too resource intensive, and didn't offer the requisite satisfaction taking down a giant robot dinosaur should provide.
Too bad, OP. For me it was the best game of 2017 next to Zelda and the best Playstation game since The Last of Us. I platinum'd that game and did everything in the DLC as well. On the other hand I mostly hated Neir Automata, a game half of Era cant stop singing praises about. Different games for different tastes.
Well there is the obvious issue of not knowing if you'll like it or not. Lucky enough for me I don't own the PS4 or the games so I'm free to give things a go and bail as I please. On PC refunds a so easy that I can also do this easily. I certainly sympathise with those buying digitally on some platforms and then stuck, but people need to pay attention to ecosystems like this and maybe do some research.
Also hype culture is pathetic and stirs up this endless cycle of buying things without knowing enough or trying games first. I've never had this issue thankfully, probably because gaming simply isn't a hobby I take in the same way or get so wrapped up in
It doesn't need to be revolutionary to be a damn good game though, and people acting as though that's a fair criticism are not arguing in good faith.
OP needs to be more creative and not waste time on side quests. Horizon has many systems at work. Overriding big machines and planning out/executing trap strategies resulted in intense, memorable battles that kept me on my feet.
Funny though when it comes to criticisms of this game being run of the mill and boring, these encounters are hardly mentioned. The focus is always on the stuff that wasn't special as if there's nothing else to do. There are not many open world games that are dynamic as the intense battles in Horizon where you're literally running for your life and setting up attack strats on the move as shit around you is mowed down. I remember fighting either a Thunder Jaw or RockBreaker (don't remember if this is what it was actually called) and they took out the huge rock I was taking cover behind. Just blown apart completely.
There are just straight up really fun battles to engage in due to the different behaviors from the machine type enemies, which make up the majority of the fighting you do in the game.
Yet the focus is always on the human combat in these kinds of threads. Acting like the game forces you to encounter them for the majority is disingenuous. Kind of reminds of how the OP in the Uncharted 4 thread that was locked said that you spent 95% of the game traversing and climbing walls.
Just look at Sunhi's fucking legendary gifs of the game. Tell me that shit isn't hype.
Funny though when it comes to criticisms of this game being run of the mill and boring, these encounters are hardly mentioned. The focus is always on the stuff that wasn't special as if there's nothing else to do. There are not many open world games that are dynamic as the intense battles in Horizon where you're literally running for your life and setting up attack strats on the move as shit around you is mowed down. I remember fighting either a Thunder Jaw or RockBreaker (don't remember if this is what it was actually called) and they took out the huge rock I was taking cover behind. Just blown apart completely.
There are just straight up really fun battles to engage in due to the different behaviors from the machine type enemies, which make up the majority of the fighting you do in the game.
Yet the focus is always on the human combat in these kinds of threads. Acting like the game forces you to encounter them for the majority is disingenuous. Kind of reminds of how the OP in the Uncharted 4 thread that was locked said that you spent 95% of the game traversing and climbing walls.
Just look at Sunhi's fucking legendary gifs of the game. Tell me that shit isn't hype.
User warned: Thread-whining, dismissing a fellow user's contribution due to their interests.
Without fail, whenever there's a gratuitous attack on popular PS4 games and you hit "find content by member" in the profile, it's pages and pages of posts in Switch threads. I just don't get the need to attack other popular games, I thought W3 fans were intense in the 1-2 years after it released, but it's nothing compared to Switch fans.
Where was there a gratuitous attack here? Op made a thread, asked about what they can do to increase their enjoyment of a game they purchased. What about that was a gratuitous attack to you?
You act as though fanboyism only goes one way, it goes all ways. There's bad fanboys everywhere on Era, it's not just limited to Nintendo. This thread did not have any fanboyism going, it was a pretty civil and moderate discussion about the game's merits and demerits. What was the need to drag Nintendo or its fans into this? Why the insecurity?
I'm not arguing it's a bad game! I'm just saying it's not refreshing because it's all been done before. I enjoyed it and would love a sequel but I also recognize that it's not like it's bringing anything really unique to the table. For me the story is presents is much more interesting than the game play. I thought they did a great job world-building. Of course I'm not sure what other unique game play features they could bring to the table and that to me is a bigger issue with all these 3rd person narrative driven action games. They all get kinda samey at some point. The ones with the good stories though (like HZD or UC4) keep me engaged enough where I don't really mind the repetitive game play.
I try not to talk about this game, as I recognize so many people love it, but it just didn't click with me.
Did not enjoy the majority of my time with it. Maybe I'm biased by the other experiences in 2017 and I would have appreciated it more in another year. I also lack creativity and repeated the same thing on each enemy. Pretty sure I was on hard as well, maybe it's more fun on medium.
Did not enjoy the majority of my time with it. Maybe I'm biased by the other experiences in 2017 and I would have appreciated it more in another year. I also lack creativity and repeated the same thing on each enemy. Pretty sure I was on hard as well, maybe it's more fun on medium.
I think you're not really playing it right. What exactly do you mean by 'collect things'? Do the main story and side quests if anything, but if you want outfits and weapons, look at the materials needed and attack those machines and collect those parts. You should maybe try switching the weapons to encourage new strategies to the gameplay.
Sounds like the game just isn't for you, if you put in 10 hours I believe that is sufficient enough time to actually gauge how you feel about it. I absolutely loved it, but I can see why you wouldn't. I would move onto something else if I were you.
I didn't find a lot of the quests themselves particularly fascinating or compelling but I absolutely LOVED the combat when playing purely stealth or as stealthy as possible. The AI really lent itself well to the whole cat and mouse form of combat.
I agree that the world was relatively void of points of interest the way Witcher and Bethesda RPG's are built but the emptiness felt kind of appropriate given the context of the story.
I probably spent as much time in photo mode as I did in the actual game proper (took about 300 screenshots). The attention to detail in literally every square inch of the game all the way down to the unnamed NPC's is staggering.
I agree that the world was relatively void of points of interest the way Witcher and Bethesda RPG's are built but the emptiness felt kind of appropriate given the context of the story.
I probably spent as much time in photo mode as I did in the actual game proper (took about 300 screenshots). The attention to detail in literally every square inch of the game all the way down to the unnamed NPC's is staggering.
We couldnt get a Horizon thread here or at the old place without BotW fanboys shitting all over the game. Horizon did something that somehow drives Nintendo fanboys crazy and not in a good way.
Game isn't for everyone I guess. My issue is with fighting the humans, but fighting the robots honestly never gets old.
For an open world checklistathon game (that's what it is, let's be real) it has good enough combat mechanics to keep me coming back and slowly checking things off the list. Also the HDR looks so good which is another reason I keep coming back.
It lacked something for me, not sure what. Felt reserved for a game with robot beasts/dinosaurs and the bow felt weak to shoot. It's missing some kind of edge with the combat and robots. Tighter encounter designs, or even more enemy variety, or very lethal areas.
I think to how Dragon's Dogma made its open areas work and maybe it all comes down pockets of engaging encounters and really tight controls. Taking down a golem, or chimera, or dragon in DD felt more thrilling and grandiose than taking down Horizon's larger beasts. Guerrilla should look there for inspiration, especially for how to make a bow feel satisfying. The rest of Horizon works fine, it just needs an extra edge in the open world.
I think to how Dragon's Dogma made its open areas work and maybe it all comes down pockets of engaging encounters and really tight controls. Taking down a golem, or chimera, or dragon in DD felt more thrilling and grandiose than taking down Horizon's larger beasts. Guerrilla should look there for inspiration, especially for how to make a bow feel satisfying. The rest of Horizon works fine, it just needs an extra edge in the open world.
Same boat, OP. I bought it TWICE and really wanted to like it, but I thought it was mostly boring.
I do want to give it another shot, eventually, but for now I don't really feel the inclination.
boring and repetitive?
nah boi. It's sometimes repetitive and sometimes boring. When you are in a big city like Mereen (?) Meridian it can be mind numbing boring strolling in dumb town size xxl. Hunting into objectives, it can be repetitive when your cocky self in combat goes awry wrong and you have to rise&repeat the fetching for salvage/gathering to become prepared again. The game tries to hard to add tacked on RPG/Survival features.
It's still a pretty decent game with great production values. Never expected the facial animation to be this decent on most NPCs after the initial reveal f*** up, and how good the models are through all the game. Long gone are the games where main chars and secondary characters had a generation apart between themselves.
nah boi. It's sometimes repetitive and sometimes boring. When you are in a big city like Mereen (?) Meridian it can be mind numbing boring strolling in dumb town size xxl. Hunting into objectives, it can be repetitive when your cocky self in combat goes awry wrong and you have to rise&repeat the fetching for salvage/gathering to become prepared again. The game tries to hard to add tacked on RPG/Survival features.
It's still a pretty decent game with great production values. Never expected the facial animation to be this decent on most NPCs after the initial reveal f*** up, and how good the models are through all the game. Long gone are the games where main chars and secondary characters had a generation apart between themselves.
If you ever have to really go out of your way to try and enjoy something, it's not going to be for you 9 times out of 10. I really didn't like this game either, my biggest regret was playing this after BOTW, I think I would have been hooked on Horizon had it played it before
It's because he has a clear bias.
The "seal of quality" post confirms that much.
Sad because OP's post was pretty thoughtful.
The game suffers of being open world and having these lite-rpg elements and fetch quests. You loot tons of pointless crap every 2 minutes and your inventory gets filled in no time.
It's a shame, because i loved the combat. Later in the game there are some great enemy encounters.
My wishlist for the sequel:
- smaller world, make at least some of the npc's useful, instead of being like statues
- get rid of the fetch quests and add more story missions
- better traversal
- less loot
anyways, that's me going back to Yakuza series after finished with Horizon. That's refreshing man, so glad there are still devs making games like these.
It's a shame, because i loved the combat. Later in the game there are some great enemy encounters.
My wishlist for the sequel:
- smaller world, make at least some of the npc's useful, instead of being like statues
- get rid of the fetch quests and add more story missions
- better traversal
- less loot
anyways, that's me going back to Yakuza series after finished with Horizon. That's refreshing man, so glad there are still devs making games like these.
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Just because a few people don't like a game doesn't mean it's not GOTY material for others. People like different things... that's life and it got great reviews because those people enjoyed it quite a bit. I don't know why some people think they're above others when it comes to an opinion. I didn't like BOTW... put 25 hours in and couldn't continue... I don't know why but I'm definitely not saying it's overrated. It's just not for me.
It's alright OP, I couldn't really get into it either. I was really enjoying it early on until the first big story swing and then it just kinda started losing my interest. I blame the human combat sections, but I dunno. I want to go back to it sometime because I'm super curious about the story, and the world itself but I wasn't going to force myself to play it. Sometimes even the most critically acclaimed things just aren't for you. That doesn't mean the game is bad, or that you're bad...sometimes things just don't catch on with you.
Seems like you're just burnt out. You can reduce any game to a monotonous sounding loop of tasks you're constantly doing. Which of the 20+ games did you like the best?
Some people are disappointed by the big popular games and want to discuss their thoughts on it as much as the people who just endlessly gush? I don't see what the problem is.
For the record, I find Horizon incredibly boring, Breath of the Wild deeply flawed, and The Witcher 3 is one of my favorite games ever.
I'm playing it on hard and try not to get too OP. I ditched "bullet-time" for a while, haven't increased stealth instant kill damage and melee damage upgrades but focus on resources, dismantling of traps and - what I found VERY important to aim for early - possibility to reuse modifications.
You've got to be careful with these upgrade-trees since so much happens with each upgrade.
For example: Open World games can be totally destroyed when you get that hookshot which lets you fly through the whole game (Dying Light)
But thanks eveyobe! I'm gonna stop OCD'ing all sidequests and start focus ing on story missions (I already maxed some item pouches so bring it on!)
"Well done OP! You've got a bright angry Sun!"
[SMB3 Sun]
You've got to be careful with these upgrade-trees since so much happens with each upgrade.
For example: Open World games can be totally destroyed when you get that hookshot which lets you fly through the whole game (Dying Light)
But thanks eveyobe! I'm gonna stop OCD'ing all sidequests and start focus ing on story missions (I already maxed some item pouches so bring it on!)
"Well done OP! You've got a bright angry Sun!"
[SMB3 Sun]
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can you people just not open the topic? Or maybe take a break from Reset because I don't know what the hell you're talking about.
Ah sorry. I misinterpreted your original post then. You argument is sound. The story is phenomenal and blew me away when I expected nothing. I don't understand people saying the story is bland.
And without a hint of irony you'll never realize you're the actual fanboy in this thread.
Some of the side quests in this game can be a bit tedious. And I thought that the melee was a little OP by the time you reach end game.
Overall I still like the game due to its flexible combat system and the story, but I can definitely see why it does not click with everybody.
Don't force yourself to play through it, move on to another game instead.
Overall I still like the game due to its flexible combat system and the story, but I can definitely see why it does not click with everybody.
Don't force yourself to play through it, move on to another game instead.
The best thing about Horizon is, in my opinion, its combat. It's magnificent, it provides you with a plethora of options and playstyles. In that sense, it's comparable to something like MGSV. Which is good and bad.
It's good because it's deep and satysfing because it empowers you to be creative with your options. Like, sliding under a machine to hit one of the cannisters on its belly and seeing it explode from the other side is some Vanquish shit.
It's bad because I feel that there's not enough game in there for the combat mechanics to really shine. Even on the hardest difficulty, most of the tricks you get are unnecessary so it's more about just plopping them to have fun instead of having to use them because otherwise the game will murder you. Specially because several weapons are too overpowered and steal the focus from the rest (ropecaster for example) . And there's nothing wrong with that, it's just that it'd been nice to have more variety and opportunities to use all the nifty tools and mechanics the game gives you.
And speaking of combat, I'm gonna have to disagree with you on the meelee, OP. Melee in this game is more of a 'get off me' / finisher sort of tool. If you are using it enough to be annoyed by its slowness or lack of damage, you're playing the game wrong. It'd be like complaining about the guns in Bloodborne.
Outside the combat, the best that can be said about the game is how stunningly jaw droppingly beautiful it is, and how surprisignly engaging and poignant the story can be. I must admit that the way the story hooks you in was a strong motivation for me to keep playing and finishing the game.
But the game has several flaws:
I completely agree.
It's good because it's deep and satysfing because it empowers you to be creative with your options. Like, sliding under a machine to hit one of the cannisters on its belly and seeing it explode from the other side is some Vanquish shit.
It's bad because I feel that there's not enough game in there for the combat mechanics to really shine. Even on the hardest difficulty, most of the tricks you get are unnecessary so it's more about just plopping them to have fun instead of having to use them because otherwise the game will murder you. Specially because several weapons are too overpowered and steal the focus from the rest (ropecaster for example) . And there's nothing wrong with that, it's just that it'd been nice to have more variety and opportunities to use all the nifty tools and mechanics the game gives you.
And speaking of combat, I'm gonna have to disagree with you on the meelee, OP. Melee in this game is more of a 'get off me' / finisher sort of tool. If you are using it enough to be annoyed by its slowness or lack of damage, you're playing the game wrong. It'd be like complaining about the guns in Bloodborne.
Outside the combat, the best that can be said about the game is how stunningly jaw droppingly beautiful it is, and how surprisignly engaging and poignant the story can be. I must admit that the way the story hooks you in was a strong motivation for me to keep playing and finishing the game.
But the game has several flaws:
- It's too barren, in the literal sense that there's very little to do. The main story missions are good, but the side stuff is middling and bland. And there's so little of it. The game feels empty and unfinished. There's a ton of Carja outposts later on, for example, that have nothing in there. No NPCs to interact, no items, no vendors, nothing other than a campfire for fast travel. Most NPC sidequests belong to the earlier parst of the game, and they dry up considerably after leaving the Nora lands.
- It suffers from the Contemporary Open World Game of being simultaneously too big and too small because there's very little incentive to explore since everything (except for the location of the Grazer dummies, which fittingly net you a trophy) is marked on the map. Fast traveling is a de rigour necessary evil which dismantles any sense of place or mistery.
- It feels like it wants to be the Witcher 3 but with 1/20 of the content of that game. Meridian is beautiful, but there's so little to do there and so little going on that it feels unnecessary.
- Weapons are too front loaded. Less than a third of the way into the game you'll probably have gotten all the Purple upgrades, and only by getting access to the Hunter's Lodge and doing the trials will you get better weapons. Which means there's little to look forward to in terms of upgrades since you'll be using the same purples for most of the game.
I completely agree.
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Finished it within two weeks. Can't say that about many games, so I think it was good enough for me. But I actually didn't play it for it's gameplay (which I rarely do at any game) but for its story and setting.
Nope, you gave me a good laugh child. Keep playing those totally not console shooters.
I freaking loved it.
Controlled great, looks incredible, interesting plot, engaging characters.
Couldn't have been better if they tried methinks.
Controlled great, looks incredible, interesting plot, engaging characters.
Couldn't have been better if they tried methinks.