Have played a fair chunk of this on Hard and I am done with that because the combat is boring. Constantly getting gunned down by mobs of prescient enemies, or barrelled over by unpredictable machines. On normal now and combat is still a real slog, it's just endless attrition. Evertbing you can do just seems to amount to "stun it for a bit".

Yeah, bit surprised. The game I played is one where you sneak up on robo-enemies, set traps, tie them down, shoot specific areas to disable individual attacks (and then sometimes pick up a dislodged weapon and use it against them), or find a vulnerable spot and make it explode, or set fire to them, or reprogramme one of a group, either to fight the others or so you can ride it into battle, or do slo-mo slide-by shootings, or even just twat them with a spear. There's probably more - variety was certainly not an issue.

The human enemies are far less interesting, of course, and dumb as hell.

The combat appeared to have layers but exploring the possibilities felt like faff.  The deeper levels of trapping, luring, setting fire to and so on weren't enticing enough to warrant learning, so I rarely mixed things up at all.  Which meant I suffered from the attrition thing too, but becoming a Jack of all trades still felt less appealing than the straightforward approach.  I mostly used sniper bow shots or got up close enough to spam with the staff.

I get that but it felt like some of the laziest way of doing exposition. 10 years since Bioshock and there's no better way.

Tempy, stealth is the way to go. It's ridiculously op. Hide in the long grass and then stab a robo dinosaur up the jacksie with yer spear. Never fails.

Loved how each type of robo-dinosaur had it's own character traits.  They are beautifully designed. Just thinking about them now makes me want to get back to this with the snowy level dlc. Looks aren't everything, but boy did it make me wanna stick around and see things through until the end. 

I'd like them to ramp up the survival elements with the sequel.

I do think that when it's good it's great though, it's just my experience so far has been one of unevenness. It's hard to stay warm to a game when off screen KOs have you losing progress multiple times.

Anyway, it's probably the misery talking. This is my third game of 2018 and they've all been underwhelming in some respect. Perhaps i'm just not receptive to the nuances that make them good.

Tempy wrote:

Also there are like three Robot Dinosaurs, everything else is just variations on big cats and horses/goats - what's the actual difference between Striders, Broadheads and Chargers?

Think some are a bit faster when u ride em. They have different elemental weaknesses too. (loved setting a herd of robo-goats ablaze and watching em panic n scatter!)

You need to continue to plough deeper into the game...some fantastical metal beasties lie there.

Tempy wrote:

I also can't teleport to places I haven't been.

You could if you had leet skillz.

I wasn't being patronizing, just keeping it light, I thought. I never had any trouble fighting or avoiding (there's so much long grass in this) enemies so I guess I can't really relate.

Also, meant teleport for when A to B involved going back over places you've been. Obviously!

Shame you're not enjoying it Tempy, I found the entire ecosystem and the way the enemies weren't always there specifically for you to be refreshing, and you could decide your own level of interaction. Traps and stealth are a decent way to go, or at least how I played it. The only time I went gung ho was at the bandit camps where stealth is far too slow.
I didn't do the cauldrons until much later own and I'm currently mopping up now and again.
Haven't touched the DLC so far and can't wait to get in to it.

Actually, things like the proving grounds and the challenges attached to each weapon really made a difference IMO, just because they get you to experiment more.

If it's feeling like busywork then perhaps it's just not going to do it for you.

I would say that I wasn't a fan of the corruptors though. They weren't much fun to fight, especially early on. Later you may be powered up enough to take them on at closer range.

Gah it's making it difficult to move, had to just give up and die in a cauldron that had bugged so every time I entered a new part all the enemies had spawned right at the door. Still, last bandit camp was a lot easier.

I never went back. Glorified Far Cry game if you ask me. Looked nice though.

So I stuck with it after I dropped it down to normal. 40 hours and 79%

I didn't do every sidequest because after a while it became obvious they were quite rote and their rewards were bad.

I never fully warmed to it, but I did enjoy it quite a lot, as an extremely solid 7 out of 10 experience.

I spent a lot of time playing it fondly remember a conversation I had with Lazy Gunn about the amazing display of technical artistry in GTAV. Horizon is so obviously the most technically accomplished game I think has ever existed, it's so staggeringly lush and detailed that it almost defies belief.

I am more into the aesthetic and feel of Breath of the Wild, but I can appreciate this kind of gung-ho heavy flexing when it's backed by a desire for something oren than guns and guesses. There was a moment, in a desert, where the light caught the sand and it sparkles in front of me as I moved. A pointless flourish, but one I imagine would have excited Gunn.

The story is... not bad. It's actually quite good. It keeps revealing new layers and ideas that I wasn't sure it would bother with, but its delivery is so utterly ham fisted via - it's already been said in this thread a few times but - fucking audio logs! Of all things! And no easy way to listen to them other than have them all ramble on over the top of other dialogue unless you stay still or in the menu (that fucking menu music by the way...) which is less than ideal. Still, it's a neat world they've built and I would definitely play another game in the series to find out exactly what was going on with the stuff right at the end.

Combat never really coalesces into something greater than the sum of its parts, but there's a decent amount of tactile enjoyment to be having knocking parts of machines. It could have done with less going on, as there's a lot of redundant options in there which don't amount to much. By the end of the game a lot of the fun stuff is just vastly inferior to a handful of arrow types, which sort of solves the problem in a disappointing way. I

t strikes me that the best comparison in scope, scale and execution of mechanics is probably The Witcher 3. HZD had more going on gameplay wise, but the ambition meant the rough edges were there like with W3. Climbing got me the most deaths out of everything else combined, and the wonky system clashes made a few hunter challenges a little tougher than they should have been.

I was also disappointed with the end of the game, like Reg said, they really did only make them so big before stopping. Sign me up for course number 2, but hold the Glinthawks thanks.