Thoughts on storyline

[Sinophile]

I love the gameplay but having a hard a hard time getting into the story. I liked Final Fantasy VII, The Witcher, Falliout 4, and Red Dead Redemption. All of those games had more likable characters, and an easier-to-understand world. I kinda wish Horizon had 10 minutes of doing nothing but riding a longleg through the desert while some old guy talks about his late wife or something.
Is the story objectively not good, or is it simply not my cup of tea?

[teg]

Terrible plot, poor writing, decent gameplay.

[Subset6]

It's kinda a paleontologist / futurist dream with a sci-fi twist. I dig it because I'm into both and they made it work quite well here.

[Avallac]

Did you not play zero dawn? This is a sequel that continues the same story, you are in the middle of it, of course it wouldn't make sense.

[Jeff4u]

It is sci fi meets barbarian, don't know how long I can stand it but it is acceptable, but can be far better as the world is so pretty but busy to deal with clan stuff.

Horizon 3 will be barbarian in space to defend the AI.

[Wild_Ghost]

Originally posted by Avallac:

Did you not play zero dawn? This is a sequel that continues the same story, you are in the middle of it, of course it wouldn't make sense.

I agree. Horizon Zero Dawn had an insane story and awesome lore, but you had to really dig deep to get the full experience. Without that knowledge I imagine the sequel might seem a bit out of left field. I highly recommend playing Zero Dawn for the full experience. (Or at least catch up on the Zero Dawn lore videos on youtube.)

[Sinophile]

Originally posted by Avallac:

Did you not play zero dawn? This is a sequel that continues the same story, you are in the middle of it, of course it wouldn't make sense.

Yes, and the prolog did a good job of refreshing my memory of a game I've played 5+ years ago. However, the new stuff like the Tanakh tribes are confusing AF. Like I can barely tell the difference between the 3 tribes, then there is some crazy lady whose name I forgot.

[Avallac]

Originally posted by Sinophile:

Originally posted by Avallac:

Did you not play zero dawn? This is a sequel that continues the same story, you are in the middle of it, of course it wouldn't make sense.

Yes, and the prolog did a good job of refreshing my memory of a game I've played 5+ years ago. However, the new stuff like the Tanakh tribes are confusing AF. Like I can barely tell the difference between the 3 tribes, then there is some crazy lady whose name I forgot.

I have no idea whats confusing about them. There are three tribes, each living in specific environments, desert, jungle, mountains. There is a reason for that too in their story/lore. Its all pretty well explained through quests, don't even need to read the text lore pieces.
If you've played zero dawn you should be able to understand the rest of the world and the lore. Most characters are stone age or at best medieval primitives, no wonder there isn't much to like about them. It gets a bit better later in the story.

[TasmańskiZwierz]

Originally posted by Avallac:

Originally posted by Sinophile:

Yes, and the prolog did a good job of refreshing my memory of a game I've played 5+ years ago. However, the new stuff like the Tanakh tribes are confusing AF. Like I can barely tell the difference between the 3 tribes, then there is some crazy lady whose name I forgot.

I have no idea whats confusing about them. There are three tribes, each living in specific environments, desert, jungle, mountains. There is a reason for that too in their story/lore. Its all pretty well explained through quests, don't even need to read the text lore pieces.
If you've played zero dawn you should be able to understand the rest of the world and the lore. Most characters are stone age or at best medieval primitives, no wonder there isn't much to like about them. It gets a bit better later in the story.

Technically they are Iron Age+, since all tribes know how to work metal ;)
But then, you have Oseram, who are clearly in early industrial age.

[Soulkey]

I really enjoyed Horizon Zero Dawn's story and the story trailer for FW made the sequel's story look epic.
However after playing it (finished 10 our 14 main missions) the story feels mediocre.

Game tries hard to hype up the new main villains (Far Zenith) and how much of a threat they are, but considering they have 0 presense in the gameplay outside the main missions it they don't add much to the story.

[Sinophile]

Originally posted by TasmańskiZwierz:

Originally posted by Avallac:

I have no idea whats confusing about them. There are three tribes, each living in specific environments, desert, jungle, mountains. There is a reason for that too in their story/lore. Its all pretty well explained through quests, don't even need to read the text lore pieces.
If you've played zero dawn you should be able to understand the rest of the world and the lore. Most characters are stone age or at best medieval primitives, no wonder there isn't much to like about them. It gets a bit better later in the story.

Technically they are Iron Age+, since all tribes know how to work metal ;)
But then, you have Oseram, who are clearly in early industrial age.

I thought they mostly adapted technology from "the old ones" as opposed to inventing much of their own. In most other games I had an easier time telling the other groups apart. For example, in Fallout 4(which is arguably closest to Horizon in terms of storyline and gameplay) , you had The institute, the railroad, the Brotherhood of steel, and the Minutemen. They all had clearly defined agendas and were easy to tell apart. You had other groups such as ghouls and super mutants.

In Horizon, you have three tribes whose main difference is the type of biome they live in. Also, a crazy lady whose motives are unclear.

[5ean5ean]

I actually think its one of the better video game narratives...especially if you take the time and read all the datapads eventhough its not needed.

I honestly wished they would make an Enduring Freedom prequel that could be a Halo Reach type experience. I havent really been invested in a narrative like this since Cyberpunk and Mass Effect.

[Dr.Abscondus]

This is the fault of the public school system, the internet, cellphones, and TikTok. Just play on and everything will become clear, maybe, if you read all the data points, talk to all the NPC's, and try to remember the character's names. You can still have fun just running around and blowing ♥♥♥♥ up.

[Grumpy-Granddad]

Best way to understand the game is by playing Horizon Zero Dawn first and then get anoyed by the changed keys in Forbidden West.

[Sol3]

After the fantastic HZD story line, this was a let down in story telling. Firstly the language used was way too modern and quite jarring if not world breaking. The knowledge and understanding that was acquired by some of the characters in the prior 6 months was way out of what you would expect. It was brought up to modern day understanding which would only be understood if you lived our modern life. It is like 2 different worlds

[Zeno]

Forbidden West suffers a bit from middle installment syndrome. The first game had a focused and coherent story, with well-paced, incremental revelations of what the heck is going on and of Aloy's origins. Aloy's character arc was especially well-drawn, I think.

This game is necessarily less focused. It has more ground to cover, narratively, though to less overall effect. For one thing, the key revelations regarding Far Zenith and, eventually, Nemesis don't have anything near the same punch as the revelations of the Faro Plague, Zero Dawn, Enduring Victory and the extinction signal, and the fate of Elizabet Sobek. (I replayed it recently, and once again had a lump in my throat when Aloy visited Sobek Ranch in the epilogue.)

The middle part of the game is a too-familiar three-extended-fetch-quests structure, though at least those quests are interestingly varied and bring their own revelations and interesting set-pieces (like the bit underground in Horizon New Vegas).

Some of the narrative mechanics have become more erratic, too. The brain/heart/fist dialogue options which were peppered through HZD show up only very occasionally in HFW, and don't show up at all when you might think they should.

Aloy does have something of a character arc, here, though it is less focused and coherent than it was in HZD.

Also, HFW makes (so far as I've seen) only one attempt to the player the chance to make a consequential choice (regarding the Desert Clan of the Tenakth), though its consequences are really only very slight. Where there are really consequential decisions to be made (like at the Bulwark, when I would like Aloy to have explored an option other than endangering the entire settlement to spite its chief) the story is entirely on rails again.

I have other, lesser complaints about the story and, especially, about the parade of minor antagonists who all have one or two distinguishing characteristics in common, but I wore out that theme on another thread.

Still, as a whole, I've found the game pretty enjoyable, and it's actually a lot of fun to learn to take down robot animals more efficiently.