On the fence; should I get it?

[Luminaire]

I'm interested in Horizon Zero Dawn because I'm looking for an immersive story-driven single player campaign, but I'm a bit conflicted about whether or not to get it during this sale. I've heard it compared to certain games, mainly The Witcher 3 (which I adored, especially the story, characters, quests, and lore) and the Tomb Raider reboot trilogy (which I also loved), but also Assassin's Creed and Far Cry, and while I like some entries in those series, I also find Ubisoft's open world formula (go to this dot on the map, complete this mission, and rinse & repeat with redundant side quests and bland narratives) quite stale at this point. That combined with the PC port's issues make me hesitant to pick this up even at $30usd, though a lot of people who have similar tastes as me *really* like this game.

To those who've played this and formulated an opinion on it - care to weigh in?

[JackFlapFlap]

I previously owned this game on PS4 (my first ever PLATINUM ACHIEVEMENT game in my entire PS4 collection. Yeah, that's how serious I got into this game), and I've just bought it like 30 minutes ago when I got to know that it's on sale. I got it because I want to re-live the magical moment that I first got & play this game on my console. Perhaps you already searched and look up various reviews on YouTube (if not, you should do so first), and I can tell you that the main story itself is worth getting this game. Of course, like any other "story-driven single player campaign" games, it has some sort of repetitive elements into it. However, the fact that you can divert from the main story and explore the vast world of Horizon, seeking out for the lore of what had happened to humanity will get you hooked. The game-play itself is fantastic, as you'll be fighting not only machines, but humans as well (duh).

I would suggest that you look this game up on YT to make the final decisions for yourself. Though my response is not that all helpful, I hope that you'll give this game a chance, since it's on discount anyway (unless of course you're tight on budget, then better don't jump into conclusion that fast).

Happy gaming!

[FrEd JoNeS]

I played about 10 hours on PS4, it's not bad. The story seems really interesting, but entering a new area with a large amount of aggressive robodinos with not much room to run got me frustrated. It does have areas where you climb up high to get a lay of the land similar to assassins creed, and stealth is a big part of the game. I'd say flip a coin. Heads you get it, tails you don't. Hope this helps, but someone with more time in the game might be of more use than I.

[Luminaire]

Originally posted by XtremePreJudice:

I previously owned this game on PS4, and I've just bought it like 30 minutes ago when I got to know that it's on sale. I got it because I want to re-live the magical moment that I first got & play this game on my console. Perhaps you already searched and look up various reviews on YouTube (if not, you should do so first), and I can tell you that the main story itself is worth getting this game. Of course, like any other "story-driven single player campaign" games, it has some sort of repetitive elements into it. However, the fact that you can divert from the main story and explore the vast world of Horizon, seeking out for the lore of what had happened to humanity will get you hooked. The game-play itself is fantastic, as you'll be fighting not only machines, but humans as well (duh).

I would suggest that you look this game up on YT to make the final decisions for yourself. Though my response is not that all helpful, I hope that you'll give this game a chance, since it's on discount anyway (unless of course you're tight on budget, then better don't jump into conclusion that fast).

Happy gaming!

Thank you very much for your input! I have indeed watched several videos (reviews & gameplay footage) on YouTube, but they didn't sway me one way or the other in any big way. The world looks gorgeous, the combat sounds interesting, and I like how the footage I've seen evokes Tomb Raider (and a bit of Shadow of the Colossus too, which is one of my all-time favorite games), but good writing is very important to me in this type of game and I've heard a lot of complaints that the characters are one-dimensional and the story is flat & boring (a big issue I had with a lot of the Assassin's Creed games along with how dull I found the missions). The heavy emphasis on crafting also reminded me of Far Cry, and I really wasn't fond of that mechanic in them (I played up to the fourth entry, and I've heard HZD compared to Primal which adds to my hesitance).

[Alcator]

it's a 2017 game, so the rough edges from many of the games you mention have been smoothed out. There are many "anti-frustration measures" in Horizon which make it more enjoyable than those games.

If I can give you just one piece of advice: When you get the chance to spend the first skill points, definitely pick Silent Strike and Critical Hit as your first two choices. On my first playthrough, I did not get those skills at the very beginning and was having needless difficulty in the "tutorial" section. Silent Strike allows you to one-hit-kill lesser beasts from stealth, massively simplifying things.

[Alcator]

Horizon has a spectacular story, it is one of the most powerful stories I've ever played, and I've been playing since 1987.

[Luminaire]

Originally posted by FrEd JoNeS:

I played about 10 hours on PS4, it's not bad. The story seems really interesting, but entering a new area with a large amount of aggressive robodinos with not much room to run got me frustrated. It does have areas where you climb up high to get a lay of the land similar to assassins creed, and stealth is a big part of the game. I'd say flip a coin. Heads you get it, tails you don't. Hope this helps, but someone with more time in the game might be of more use than I.

Regardless of your limited time with the game, I thank you for your response. I was reminded of Assassin's Creed and Far Cry in the footage I saw in which you climb those large giraffe/cyborg looking creatures to unlock the map for an area, but as I said, I didn't really care for the newer entries in those franchises (I loved ACII and IV in particular but not many of the entries after).

[Luminaire]

Originally posted by Alcator:

it's a 2017 game, so the rough edges from many of the games you mention have been smoothed out. There are many "anti-frustration measures" in Horizon which make it more enjoyable than those games.

If I can give you just one piece of advice: When you get the chance to spend the first skill points, definitely pick Silent Strike and Critical Hit as your first two choices. On my first playthrough, I did not get those skills at the very beginning and was having needless difficulty in the "tutorial" section. Silent Strike allows you to one-hit-kill lesser beasts from stealth, massively simplifying things.

Thank you; I'll definitely keep that in mind if/when I get the game and start playing it.

Would you mind expanding on what you mean by "anti-frustration measures"?

[Luminaire]

Originally posted by Alcator:

Horizon has a spectacular story, it is one of the most powerful stories I've ever played, and I've been playing since 1987.

I'm an older gamer myself (my first console was a Coleco Intellivision). I've heard polarizing opinions on Horizon's story & characters; people seem to either share your position that it's "spectacular and powerful" while others say it's boring and the characters are undeveloped & one-dimensional. Most opinions about the game as a whole are just as polarized as well, which is a big reason I'm so hesitant to buy this despite my interest.

[Alcator]

Originally posted by Luminaire:

Would you mind expanding on what you mean by "anti-frustration measures"?

Antifrustration measures
> Systems that reduce player frustration

Typical example: Ever had one of those games where a blacksmith tells you "To upgrade this sword, you need 3 hearts of a dragon, 17 bones of a bazilisk, 25 gold coins and 375 sacrificed virgins"? Which then forces you to constantly check your inventory to manually count how many you have, to run back to the merchant to check what the requirements are, etc.

Well, in Horizon, whenever you come across such thing, you can press a single key to "Create job" -- at which point a custom-tailored quest (errand) will be created which will be displayed on screen if you want, and will automatically track the requirements and how well you are fulfilling them (so you will see "3 out of 17 bazilisk bones collected" etc.). And, if this errand requires you to hunt specific beast for components, then those beasts will have significantly increased chance of dropping that specific item.

Quests have recommended level listed next to them, so you know whether you are comfortably ready -- but of course, you can try the quests earlier.

You can change difficulty level at any time, and the easiest difficulty, "Story", quadruples your damage output while at the same time limiting maximum damage taken by you to 10 hit points (you start with 200 hit points and keep increasing this as you level up).

Fast-travel in this game works really well.

Once you gain the ability to ride machines, you can ride them along roads and they will keep speed (no need to hold "W") and will automatically steer to keep on the road (but you can steer them away from roads). Speed of riding is adjustable.

The TVTropes page for this game has many more examples, but these are really cool.

[Luminaire]

Originally posted by Alcator:

Originally posted by Luminaire:

Would you mind expanding on what you mean by "anti-frustration measures"?

Antifrustration measures
> Systems that reduce player frustration

Typical example: Ever had one of those games that tells you "To upgrade this sword, you need 3 hearts of a dragon, 17 bones of a bazilist, 25 gold coins and 375 sacrificed virgins"? Which then forces you to constantly check your inventory to manually count how many you have, to run back to the merchant to check what the requirements are, etc.

Well, in Horizon, whenever you come across such thing, you can press a single key to "Create job" -- at which point a custom-tailored quest (errand) will be created which will be displayed on screen if you want, and will automatically track the requirements and how well you are fulfilling them (so you will see "3 out of 17 bazilisk bones collected" etc.). And, if this errand requires you to hunt specific beast for components, then those beasts will have significantly increased chance of dropping that specific item.

Quests have recommended level listed next to them, so you know whether you are comfortably ready -- but of course, you can try the quests earlier.

You can change difficulty level at any time, and the easiest difficulty, "Story", quadruples your damage output while at the same time limiting maximum damage taken by you to 10 hit points (you start with 200 hit points and keep increasing this as you level up).

Fast-travel in this game works really well.

Once you gain the ability to ride machines, you can ride them along roads and they will keep speed (no need to hold "W") and will automatically steer to keep on the road (but you can steer them away from roads). Speed of riding is adjustable.

The TVTropes page for this game has many more examples, but these are really cool.

Nice. One of the things that came to find was Far Cry 3's upgrade system in which you had to hunt down specific creatures and collect their pelts to do things like expand the amount of items you could carry, and finding those creatures required a lot of wandering around the map while not being able to pick up & carry the items you find along the way. It's good to hear that the Horizon devs took things like that into account.

[Perdomai]

I bit the bullet and purchased the game and have been playing it recently. From my experience, I'll say that it is an okay game that is ruined by occasional crashes. It might be different for you however

[SecretAgentKiiN 特务健]

I wrote a short review about this game, maybe will help you summarize the main reason to buy:

https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198087794419/recommended/1151640/

[Luminaire]

Thanks for the responses, everyone. They're very much appreciated.

Originally posted by SecretAgent:KiiN:

I wrote a short review about this game, maybe will help you summarize the main reason to buy:

https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198087794419/recommended/1151640/

Thank you; this is especially helpful. It's disappointing that the cinematic storytelling ends after the first two hours and it turns into an open world combat-driven grind without any NPCs to meet with good backstories. Based on your review, it sounds a lot like Assassin's Creed Odyssey - fun but repetitive gameplay without nearly as much emphasis on story or character development. I am hoping Horizon is a cross between Red Dead Redemption 2's / Witcher 3's open world with lots of lore established through character development and Tomb Raider's / Uncharted's cinematic action-adventure, but the more I read about it, the more it sounds like AC Origins & Odyssey, and that kind of "go to the dot on the map, complete the mission, rinse and repeat" gameplay grows very stale for me very quickly.

I'll probably skip it for now and pick it up later when the price drops further. Hopefully it'll show up in a Humble Bundle with a few other games.

[Flybye]

I put over 150 hours in to it. My take is that it is well worth it. Will I play it again? I sure will...after I forget most of it. I want the harder NG+ as I found the first game through too easy on the hardest setting. There is a lot to explore, and seeing things from the "old world" drives the imagination into overdrive with what happened with the story. The more you dive into the story, the more depressing you find what happened to the earth really is.

I never look at missions as rinse and repeat. I mean you might was well call the game a walking/cowboy rider simulator if you are going to take it that far. So many games have missions and locations to complete on a map.

[Luminaire]

Originally posted by Flybye:

I put over 150 hours in to it. My take is that it is well worth it. Will I play it again? I sure will...after I forget most of it. I want the harder NG+ as I found the first game through too easy on the hardest setting. There is a lot to explore, and seeing things from the "old world" drives the imagination into overdrive with what happened with the story. The more you dive into the story, the more depressing you find what happened to the earth really is.

I never look at missions as rinse and repeat. I mean you might was well call the game a walking/cowboy rider simulator if you are going to take it that far. So many games have missions and locations to complete on a map.

That's true, but how much do the missions progress the story & develop the characters and how good is the writing & narrative structure? From the gameplay I've seen, the majority of the game seems to be roaming around the environments (which are very beautiful) killing robot creatures. Games like Assassin's Creed Origins & Odyssey (to which I've heard Horizon compared) are story-driven, but I didn't find them very interesting or intriguing (certainly not enough to keep playing the main story missions past a certain point); the main draw of those games for me was the gameplay (which became very redundant after a dozen hours or so) and the historical settings (the novelty of which I also found limited). As I said, the opinions about Horizon's story are extremely polarized, so I think whether or not I like the game is going to come down to how much I like the story and am drawn to characters...based on my experience with open world games like this, the combat & exploration only hold my interest relative to how invested I am in the plot, characters, world building, lore, etc.