From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action
On Friday, December 30, 2022 at 7:23:07 AM UTC-8, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
On Thu, 29 Dec 2022 12:57:31 -0800 (PST), Justisaur
<just...@gmail.com> wrote:
On Tuesday, November 1, 2022 at 8:14:57 PM UTC-7, Justisaur wrote:
On Tuesday, November 1, 2022 at 3:37:16 PM UTC-7, PW wrote:
I have a older friend who can't stop playing it on his PS4.
$50 on Steam. Very positive reviews.
Its been on sale frequently, I think for $25, wait until it is again.
Not sure if it is my type of game.
Haven't played it yet, but it's on my wishlist. There's just been
other things either I'm more interested in or cheaper.
Since it's on sale on GOG for $17 right now I bought it and
started playing it. I'm probably not that far into it, but I'm
somewhat disappointed in it as I've read a lot about how
great it is, but it just seems to play like Far Cry/AC with
some post apoc stuff/primitive stuff. It feels very much
like a mash up of FC3 Blood Dragon, FC Primal and one
of the later ACs.
It also has a shit ton of crafting/gathering components which
I find annoying. Though I don't really need them, but feel
compelled to collect all the things.
I've been mostly ignoring the stealthing, and using melee
which works reasonably well on almost everything I've
encountered as long as I can kite/separate singles.
I'm playing on normal, so I'd assume it's much harder
if I bumped it up, but I can never bring myself to do so,
and there's of course easy mode too.
It seems to have a bit more interest than the typical FC/AC
game due to the setting and story, but the gameplay itself is
pretty much using the the same very old and now boring
formula with some minor differences and a lot of slapping
a different look on it.
- Justisaur
That's more or less the same impression I got. Of course, I played it
on a Playstation, and even then only for a few hours - but I was underwhelmed considering how much excitement the game had generated.
I don't really see it as a FarCry/Assassin's Creed clone, except in
that it is also an open-world game and thus shares a lot of
similarities - and problems - with other games in that genre.
It's not just that it's open world. The skill tree is almost identical,
The climbing and stealth are almost (is?) identical. The crafting
is very similar (hunt stuff for parts to expand your inventory, etc.)
It's even got towers you need to climb to show stuff on the map,
they just made the towers mobile robots, and you can clear fog
of war without climbing it. It's a skin on top of basic AC/FC stuff.
FC's 18 years old, I don't know if that basic framework started
with it or it came from something before it.
It's a really good iteration of it, and I like the more interesting
setting (Primal and Blood Dragon are the only FCs I've finished
and they have something different going for them, as well as AC
Black Flag.)
It's so far varied enough to keep me interested, and I'll probably
finish it unless it gets very repetitive later.
The
problem is that the maps are just too large, so developers are forced
to fill them up with repetitive activities - most egregious of which
is dull-as-dishwater crafting mechanics - to make all that space seem useful. But while Ubisoft games may spring to mind because they use
that formula in all their games, it's not unique to that publisher;
pretty much every open-world game suffers from the problem. It's why I
am increasingly more interested in smaller 'corridor shooters' that,
while they offer less exploration, have much better pacing.
I agree with the 'open world' general issues, that's one reason I put
Elden Ring below DS3 on my list. The interesting map parts of ER are
pretty much just bits imported, fiddled with a bit and reskinned from
their non open world games.
"Horizon: Zero Dawn" is a perfectly acceptable game of its genre - if
you accept its limitations. But - beyond its unusual setting (and the
usual excitement a female protagonist generates in the media) it
really doesn't stand out mechanically. Fun? Sure, I guess. But hardly original.
The female protagonist is alright I guess. The voice acting is a bit
off or something, doesn't feel like protagonist voice acting to me,
the voice is a tad bookish/flighty for what she's supposed to be.
They need one of the Lucys (lawless, lu)
Usually I like the female protagonists, but this one just leaves me
feeling meh.
That reminds me, I come riding up on a strider, you'd think people
would be losing their shit, as no one else does that and machines
are dangerous. The voice acting/script in general is a bit
uninspired. At least it's alright, could've got some japan high-school
grade garbage like's in Monster Hunter that I couldn't stand.
It's why the sequel doesn't excite me in the least. The one thing HZD
had going for was the novelty of its setting... and with a sequel,
that's lost.
Yeah... I can't see playing the sequel unless it ends up free
But milage varies, and so do opinions. And who knows; I only played
the game for a few hours so maybe there was a tremendous switch up
just after I gave up on it. One day maybe I should find out... but
I've no rush to see right now.
It is getting more varied, the monsters more varied and different,
requiring somewhat different tactics, armor and weapons. The
frozen sacred land where you start was wearing on me a bit,
but it changes up once you leave that area.
- Justisaur
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