Horizon: Forbidden West - Disassemble all

Spikeout wrote:

There are far too many elemental/status type attacks, acid, purgewater, fire, ice, plasma, adhesive it feels like your weapon wheel is chock full of the various arrows, sometimes two bows having ice or acid attacks.

In general, you shouldn’t be trying to cover all the elements with a single loadout. Some of them have redundant effects, and you’re almost never going to be using more than two elements against a specific machine before it is destroyed. Usually, you just use one. For exploring or going prepped into a specific area or encounter, you need to outline what you intend to do for a particular encounter, list the ammo you’re going to need, and then equip those. You usually have enough to have something like 4 or 5 sorts of approaches, but changing your elemental ammo and coils to precisely target the specific elemental weaknesses of every machine in the world map isn’t going to be on the menu.

Weapons that have multiple elemental ammo are flexible when you’re considering them for a loadout, but once you coil them up, you usually only use just the one ammo you’ve boosted for that weapon. Weapons that have elemental and damage-oriented ammo tend to be more tactically flexible, but also less strategically flexible.

You can also take advantage of cheaper or less-used elemental ammo when using skills that are expensive on ammo, as the skills don’t care which ammo type you’re using, so if you only have that one weapon in your loadout that works with that skill, using a cheaper elemental ammo means you have less overall or a more balanced ammo consumption.

As an example, one of my loadouts has Frost Arrows and Acid Arrows on the bow, but I only really use the Frost Arrows on that, and only ever use the Acid Arrows if I happen to get jumped unexpectedly by a machine that requires me to weaken it with Acid before whittling it down.

In general, once you enter the midgame, most machine groups along your path shouldn’t be taking you more than 30 seconds to dispatch, or weaken to the point of irrelevance. On Easy Machine HP (or just the Easy global setting), you’re going to be one-shotting a lot of machines.

I have just come here to say that I finished this game last weekend and I absolutely loved it. Beginning to end, easily one of my favorite gaming experiences of the last few years. I hit level 50 and did every side quest and almost all of the errands. The game certainly doesn't owe me anything!

It's pretty clear they're expecting to do a third one. My guess is that it heads over to the Quen homeland, which would be pretty cool to see.

d4m0 wrote:

I have just come here to say that I finished this game last weekend and I absolutely loved it. Beginning to end, easily one of my favorite gaming experiences of the last few years. I hit level 50 and did every side quest and almost all of the errands. The game certainly doesn't owe me anything!

It's pretty clear they're expecting to do a third one. My guess is that it heads over to the Quen homeland, which would be pretty cool to see.

I'm glad you had a great time. After a year of great games, it still remains my GOTY.

Even before a third one, I'm very confident we'll get DLC. They did it for Zero Dawn and there are lots of hints and curious places on the map.

It would definitely have been my GOTY too had Elden Ring not come out. In my mind though it's really close between the two of them.

I was wondering about some DLC. The game out long enough ago that I would think we'd be hearing about it pretty soon.

I liked it a lot but got "map icon burnout" with so much stuff to find.

d4m0 wrote:

I was wondering about some DLC. The game out long enough ago that I would think we'd be hearing about it pretty soon.

The DLC wait for Zero Dawn was 9 months, which is where we are now since HFW release. This article summarizes why some believe DLC is on the way.

https://www.svg.com/1038236/why-hori...

I hope it hasn't been skipped on in lieu of Call of the Mountain. Given the passion of the fanbase, it seems like easy money for Guerilla.

They might have diverted resources from a DLC to making a Horizon multiplayer game; Sony's currently big on having 10 mulltiplayer games release in the next few years, because they want that constant stream of microtransactions.

Evan E wrote:

They might have diverted resources from a DLC to making a Horizon multiplayer game; Sony's currently big on having 10 mulltiplayer games release in the next few years, because they want that constant stream of microtransactions.

Just what I need when I’ve scanned a machine, it doesn’t know I’m there, and I’m about to line up that perfect shot to hit the weak spot … xXxAloySmAshEr69xXx bunny-hops into the scene shouting “LOL NOOB” and wrecks everything*

*based on ancient experience, I assume multiplayer games haven’t changed that much in the last 20 years or so.

Yeah, that's pretty much where I'd be at for a multiplayer-only Horizon game. I'd skip it too. Hopefully that's not what they're doing. Big single-player games like these are my jam.

It's too bad you can't just use any VR headset on the PS5, because I'd definitely play Call of the Mountain! Unfortunately a PSVR2 is a bit too far when I've already got this Reverb.

DLC announced.

https://youtu.be/YAkyilNmUJc

April 19, 2023 release date

Hurrah!

Nice!! I'm in 100%.

Looks like the game is going to be on PS Plus. I’ve been wanting to buy and play it but couldn’t let myself with so many games I already own. I’m also 50/50 on whether I’ll enjoy it. I loved the first game but I don’t like games where the combat is over complicated. This way I’ll feel less guilty playing it before other games and if I don’t like it the game won’t owe me anything and I can move on.

It is a good game but I really suffered "map burnout." There are just icons everywhere, so much stuff.

That’s my concern. Although if an open world grabs me I seem to have an above average tolerance for running around and clearing up repetitive tasks.

I'd like to note that the map icons in this game much like its predecessor are mostly marking sites where you will find a certain type of machine not an actual side quest/collectable/etc.

The map icons are just the indicator for the bloat. It's still so overstuffed with content that it makes the first game seem lean and efficient.

Evan E wrote:

The map icons are just the indicator for the bloat. It's still so overstuffed with content that it makes the first game seem lean and efficient.

Interesting. I found it leaner and better organized.

With minimal spoilers, this is the content in the open world map:

Machine sites: Actually less content and sadly less interesting than the first game because the machines didn’t migrate over from site to site, so each site is basically its own thing. It would be very uncommon for you to get ganked from behind by machines not indicated on the site.

Ruin Puzzles: mini-puzzles on the scale of Breath of the Wild Shrines. Maybe about two or three Shrines in one. There’s ten of these.

Tallnecks: Five I think? At least two of these are essentially gated so you’re only really interacting with 3 on an emergent basis.

Bandit Outposts: Optional. About 5 to an area.

Bandit Camps: Also optional. Separate line from the Outposts. 1 to an area.

Machineback Races: 1 to an area. Has its own optional questline.

Rumor mills: Camps or villages in the wild where you can pick up clues on quests you haven’t completed yet.

Oseram Scavenger Camps: 1 to an area

Vantage Points: basically identical to the first game

Ancient Recordings: actually less than the first games mugs and crap.

Metal Flowers: even more optional this time around. Only contains material caches, no more hints about what they are since their nature is revealed in the main game.

Did I miss anything? You can, of course, clean up the map by just removing the icons you don’t like.

You missed the mini game you can play when you want to play a game inside your game.

I don’t get the “bloat” criticism here, if there’s too much to do, just… don’t do it.

My only complaint is that the DLC isn’t coming to PS4, when I only just got hold of PS4 to play the game. And even that isn’t much of a complaint, I didn’t have to pay for anything except the game.

It helped (for me) that the map lets you turn certain types of icons on/off.

I’m excited to try this game now.

Edit: The new games are available. Downloading HFW now. Whoo!

So jealous. I wish I could play this game again for the first time. I hope you have a blast!

2 months to DLC. Need to get off my butt and finish 100%ing my NG+ run.

Yet another check in to say that I finally got around to playing this game, and I f*cking loved every minute of it. I enjoyed the first game for sure, but this one was so much better, and as has been discussed on this page to some extent, much better focused, organized, and under control in its open world design.

Case in point: I did basically every activity I could -- every quest I could find, every camp and outpost, every tracked collectible -- and never felt the slightest big of fatigue. (The only thing I passed on was machine strike, the racing league (after the first race), and the very last arena fight because that sh*t is stupid.)

Part of that, I think, is maybe attributable to the fact that there's just a lot more maturity to how the game works with narrative and character development -- it really succeeds at giving you reasons to care about the world you're exploring and the activities you are doing by injecting living, breathing, human stories throughout (and not just relying on finding audio logs from the distant past to do it, even if there is still a lot of that going on too). Also, adding Mass Effect style base and companion mechanics really, really worked for me, and I felt so much more connected to the characters I met along the way (whether they were explicitly part of the base mechanic or not) because of the structures that system added to how the game worked with story and character in general.

I guess my only really complaint (as someone who has lived the vast majority of my life in Northern California) is that I wish the game had given me more reasons to spend time in the areas inspired by Yosemite, the redwoods, and San Francisco. Not that I didn't enjoy the parts of the game that were more heavily in the Utah and Nevada inspired parts of the world (the art direction of the Utaru areas is amazing, and what they did with Las Vegas is cool beyond words), and the idea of the Mojave desert and surrounding areas becoming a beautifully realized jungle environment is very cool as well, but the parts of the world I'm most familiar with felt under utilized, and a bit of a missed opportunity. Granted, though, they were spectacular in terms of visual design!

Anyway, I'm stoked beyond words to have the Los Angeles DLC coming so soon, because I was definitely left wanting more. Also, although I was absolutely among the MANY people who delayed playing Zero Dawn in favor of Breath of the Wild, and Forbidden West in favor of Elden Ring (and I do NOT regret those choices, even if Forbidden West maybe deserved to be played a bit sooner), I'm pretty sure that whatever once in a decade industry changing game ends up releasing the same week as Horizon: Fallen Nemesis is going to face a bigger struggle to claim my attention in the same way.

Great to hear ZeroKFE.

I’ve dipped my toe into the game and can completely see me loving it as much as I did the first one. It’s on hold for now, while I play something that isn’t an open world and break a streak of what would have been three open worlds in a row.

It looks like Burning Shores might be playable co-op. Although no articles are mentioning it as a feature so perhaps it’s just a companion character? I was getting excited there for a minute.

I've been lurking on Arktix's discord and haven't seen any co-op leaks.

There is a fair bit of scuttlebutt about mounted combat being changed/enhanced though. That might be what we're seeing evidence of.

Under 5 days now. My PS5 is counting down to 2023-04-19T04:00:00 UTC. I'm definitely not getting to bed on time Tuesday night.

Higgledy wrote:

It looks like Burning Shores might be playable co-op. Although no articles are mentioning it as a feature so perhaps it’s just a companion character? I was getting excited there for a minute.

It’s almost certainly a companion quest line. There were at least two per companion of those in the main game. I like that structure and I hope they keep it.

peanut3141 wrote:

I've been lurking on Arktix's discord and haven't seen any co-op leaks.

There is a fair bit of scuttlebutt about mounted combat being changed/enhanced though. That might be what we're seeing evidence of.

Under 5 days now. My PS5 is counting down to 2023-04-19T04:00:00 UTC. I'm definitely not getting to bed on time Tuesday night.

I love mounted combat in this title and in Zero Dawn. I’m a little miffed that it felt like they nerfed it by a lot, so improvements to it will be very welcome.

I do adore fighting robot dinos (and other wildlife) in these games (I’m still very early on.)

I predict I’m going to make extremely slow progress considering I am taking multiple screenshots for every five metres or so of travel. I can’t believe how stunning the game is.

Anyone else playing Burning Shores? I'm probably a couple hours in now and just continuing to love this game. I finished the base game back in December but I was still able to jump right in and pick everything back up again without too much trouble. I'm going at a nice slow pace so I can just take in everything. I just did a fun mini-boss battle that I won't spoil here!

And yeah Higgledy, I think I've taken more screenshots playing this game than possibly any other game I've ever played. I just wish getting them off the PS5 and onto my computer to use as backgrounds wasn't horribly stupid, but that's Sony's fault, not the game.

Anyone else playing Burning Shores?

Yeah, it was pretty good!

I will say that just like with the representation of San Francisco in the core game, I do feel like they could have done a bit more with the Los Angeles setting. Granted, they did more than with the Bay Area for sure, but that's a pretty low bar to clear, and especially compared to the really delightful way they represented Las Vegas it's still a bit disappointing.

That being said, yeah, this game continues to be incredibly impressive on all fronts -- particularly the SPECTACULAR performances of Aloy and Seyka, both in voice acting and directing, and in the unreal technology on display in capturing and and displaying their physical performances. Even if the pace of the writing rushed their story a little bit, goddamn was impossible not to be

Spoiler:

sold on their relationship, and get carried away with the emotion of Aloy finally getting to drop her guard a little bit and get to just be a teenager for a while, lost in the overwhelming experience of falling in love for the first time. Really drove home how devastating it can be to have to have adult responsibilities forced on a person so early in life, and made the constant expression of her martyr complex and avoidance of human connection throughout the main story much more relatable (and tragic) as a result.