Horizon Forbidden West |OT| it's out

kitler53 · Mar 19, 2022, 08:32 PM

I assumed since the game was announced the story would be worse.

the story in the original was just sooo good. how could they possibly top that while keeping the game in the same lore?!?

GoW 2 will also probably be a downgrade as well. not that spreading the ashes of his wife was a particularly good motivation. ...but the whole trying to escape his past while raising his future thing was Soo good. I can see where they are going but it won't be as good as "boy!"

BananaKing · Mar 19, 2022, 09:08 PM

I feel they set a really strong base to continue the story with God of war though. The fight between the gods, being sucked into it, artues wanting to make some of the same mistakes kratos did. There is so much there for a great story. My concern is that Cory isn't on it. What made GoW 2018 SO good was how the story just blended every aspect of the game together.

kitler53 · Mar 19, 2022, 09:34 PM

I'll agree GoW ended with more to work with than horizon.

horizon ended on sylens being a sucker. not exactly sure what FW is doing but sylens doesn't seem like an interesting main antagonist.

GoW really has the opportunity to "go bigger" now that kratos is on the radar of the gods. but the most interesting aspect of GoW was kratos relationship to atreus. I don't think I will like it as much now that they are opening fighting each other.

Legend · Mar 20, 2022, 05:46 AM

I think Horizon was designed from early on with this sequel in mind. Unless I missed a retcon, the stories are really interconnected.

Just got the answer to my story question though and it was both predictable and not that good. Maybe this is just early though. Game says I'm at 30%.

nnodley · Mar 20, 2022, 04:28 PM

I'm pretty sure they didn't expect what you just got answered to be a big twists. It was definitely pretty predictable. The final answer at the end of the game is a bit more twisty but part of it was predictable for me

Legend · Mar 30, 2022, 08:55 PM

Finished.

Way worse than Zero Dawn in some ways, a bit better than ZD in others. I'd compare it to God of War Ascension following GOW 3.

In general my biggest disappointment was the lack of drive. In Zero Dawn there were so many things pulling me forward and I'd often ignore other content because I was hooked. This happened with the story, but also with side characters, map locations, etc. Meanwhile in Forbidden West I almost always was doing stuff because the quest log or map icon told me to do stuff. Forbidden West is also significantly larger and content felt artificially stretched out. I put in ~70 hours with a lot of that feeling like a grind, and yet that's still only 60% completion according to the game.

The story and writing were probably the worst offender though. Sometimes they shined, such as many references to Alloy being an unstoppable force just like during gameplay, but most of the time they just felt off. The game spent a lot of time about the moral complexities of life, yet it really really didn't want you to think. People just bluntly state things/emotions as if they were narrating to the audience. It never felt natural. Plus on the game side, there are even fewer dialogue choices stretched out over a much larger game. It felt like I was there to absorb, not be an active listener/player. In an extreme example with a minor story spoiler, there is even a part where Alloy keeps secrets from the player.

The background logs/ancient world building is mostly uninteresting, since it focuses on events way before the end of the world. It's a prequel and it just doesn't work. We already know how it ends so spending so much time focusing on the problems of man again but on a smaller scale is boring. Only one set of audio logs were actually good imo.

Pacing was horrible at times.

Spoiler for Hidden:

Spoiler heavy thoughts on the story.

Spoiler for Hidden:

I really loved the world though. It was a downgrade from the first but still great. I loved one of the new weapons.

the-pi-guy · Mar 30, 2022, 09:07 PM

I guess onward to other games.

nnodley · Mar 30, 2022, 10:45 PM

Zero Dawn came out as such an amazing first game to a new IP, so forbidden west had a lot to follow, but i think they ultimately did it well. Wasn't as great as zero dawn, but still my favorite game in while

Legend · Mar 31, 2022, 12:34 AM

Quote from: nnodley on Mar 30, 2022, 10:45 PMZero Dawn came out as such an amazing first game to a new IP, so forbidden west had a lot to follow, but i think they ultimately did it well. Wasn't as great as zero dawn, but still my favorite game in while

Zero Dawn 9.5
Forbidden West 8.0

Or something like that.

Quote from: the-Pi-guy on Mar 30, 2022, 09:07 PMI guess onward to other games.

Given covid, it's still very good. Can't think of a recent AAA that comes close.

nnodley · Mar 31, 2022, 12:52 AM

Eh I'd agree with zero dawn but I'd say forbidden west is 8.5 to 9

Legend · Mar 31, 2022, 01:55 AM

Quote from: nnodley on Mar 31, 2022, 12:52 AMEh I'd agree with zero dawn but I'd say forbidden west is 8.5 to 9

I loved a lot about it but it lacked so much compared to the first imo.

It's better in many ways too, such as conversation animations, but those don't affect my personal score that much.

What did you think about...

Spoiler for Hidden:

edt:

the graphics look so dated now, really a testament to how good Forbidden West looks.

the-pi-guy · Mar 31, 2022, 02:13 AM

Forbidden West looks insane.

It's crazy for me because back when it was originally shown off, I think even digital foundry was disappointed.

And then it really seemed like a proper PS5 the next time it was shown.

Legend · Mar 31, 2022, 02:27 AM

Quote from: the-Pi-guy on Mar 31, 2022, 02:13 AMForbidden West looks insane.

It's crazy for me because back when it was originally shown off, I think even digital foundry was disappointed.

And then it really seemed like a proper PS5 the next time it was shown.

I used photo mode a lot to zoom in and see how they did things. So many details are incredible. All cutscenes are real time because you can change your outfit, and some of them just have a ridiculous amount of stuff going on.

Far from perfect though. The game has drastically bad transitions at times when going from outside to inside. I think it calculates ambient light based off camera position so if the camera is in the sun then the inside of a building/cave is glowing. The second it gets out of the sun, the inside quickly switches to a proper dark black.

Also I had issues with stuff taking a while to load. Run up to the campfire and it's just a floating fire, sit mid air cause the stool hasn't loaded, whole chunk of a building is missing allowing you to see through the ground, etc. It's a strange glitch cause most things load in way before you notice.

nnodley · Mar 31, 2022, 06:48 PM

Quote from: Legend on Mar 31, 2022, 01:55 AM
Spoiler for Hidden:
Ted Faro mission?
Regalla final fight?
Nemesis just being a repeat of the original apocalypse?

Spoiler for Hidden:

the-pi-guy · Mar 31, 2022, 09:40 PM

Guerilla added an option to disable pickup animations.

Heads Up: You can now Disable Pickup Animations in the Settings : horizon

Which is kind of fascinating to me.