Topic: Horizon: Zero: Dawn

@kyleforrester87 Thank you!

Just beat The Frozen Wilds! Not as strong as the main campaign, but still very enjoyable.
Took me 18 hours to fully explore 'The Cut' and finish all the quests (those Fireclaws!!!), bringing my total playtime up to 84 hours.
Payed my respects to Rost and finally deleted the game.

Things I would like to see from a sequel:

-Stat bonuses on outfits need amending. Some of the outfits are pretty cool, but I would think most playing are just using the shield weaver outfit. Outfit stats completely depended on mods would be better imo. I only used like 2-3 outfits as the rest simply didn't fit my playstyle.

-Underwater fights. I believe the only (semi) water-based enemy is the Snapmaw. Would be pretty cool if Aloy tries to fight off Robo-Sharks with a spear gun as she makes her way to an underwater Cauldron.

-Don't cut down the number of machines. HZD machine/monster catalog is pretty diverse and contains a decent number of enemy types. Unless the sequel is set in a different region/country/continent they should keep adding to it & even then I would like to see more enemy types. Like previously mentioned, more water types would be nice.

It's been a fun ride . Doesn't beat out Persona 5 as my personal GOTY, but it was very, very close.

Ikrie's Challenge...

At least I did it. But that took some thinking with the limited resources you have.

So I'm doing the Frozen Wilds cauldron, and my teammates won't move anymore. I'm stuck. I need Aratak to open the last ''corrupted door'' for me, but he won't move. I activated the bridge and they should be moving across it. Anyone know how to fix this?

I’m still playing the base game of this. The story is good and the combat is absolutely fantastic, but holy hell am I bored with some open world tropes. I do not give a toss about cookie cutter side missions, opening up the map, taking over bases or searching for collectibles. Big thumbs up for the emergent combat scenarios though. I think this game does that better than any other.

@Wesker Pretty much agree with that, what Horizon does well it does really well (Graphics, Combat are both brilliant)... I think Aloy is awesome too. The side quests are not too bad, some of them, anyway. But following way points around gets old just like many other RPGs. I'm looking forward to playing Zelda since I understand you're left to find your own direction and stumble across objectives and secrets naturally. I like the idea of that...

@kyleforrester87 Some people say Zelda overcame a lot of those same old problems just as HZD got released... I really like HZD anyway, but when they keep putting main quests far away and loads of boring side content in between, it gets me down a bit. I don’t want to find someone’s lost antique sword for 1000exp while i’m on a personal quest of discovery and saving the world at the same time, which i’m really invested in.

@kyleforrester87 You can turn way points off.

@Octane Yeah I know, same with games like Witcher and Skyrim.. but I always feel like the game has been designed around the player having way points enabled, so by disabling them I might occasionally cause myself great frustration. Something like Zelda on the other hand has been designed without those in mind..

@kyleforrester87 True.

But after playing Zelda, I don't mind way points that much. I've been thinking about it and I think it's difficult to design a game like Horizon or Skyrim around no way points. It's possible in Zelda, but the side quests, well, aren't very deep and/or meaningful. Most of them are boil down to ''get me x amount of this item'', fetch quests that can function without way points.

Even the ''main'' quests are all optional as a result, and the game lacks any sort of character progression, or progression in general I feel.

If that's the trade off, I prefer way points. I can always turn them off when I'm the mood for a bit of exploration.

As you adventure across Hyrule in BotW, you gain access to more consistently powerful weapons, upgrade armor sets, gain additional abilities after each of the divine beasts and grow your HP and stamina gauges as you discover and conquer various shrines. So there is plenty of character progression throughout the game. It just doesn't link your character's mobility entirely to his toolset and then dole said tools out gradually over the course of the game like in previous Zeldas.

@Octane Did you sort your issue with the Cauldron? It's the recycling area, right? If memory serves right, you have to go all the way around, get to higher ground using the switches that go up and down and the gears. Then you grab onto one of those containers that pass over you and catch a ride. Look below you and jump off just as you get over the platform that would connect you and your teammates. Open up the bridge and they should join you. If not, you may have to restart the checkpoint.

On the discussion of open-world burnout...
I too am exhausted. It actually deters me from a game. The Witcher 3 despite being fantastic was just too much for me. Horizon and FFXV are manageable open-world games, they are the ideal size for me.
The Lost Legacy with it's semi-open world structure was probably the one I enjoyed exploring the most.
Having said that I'm about to start Skyrim VR, so maybe I'm really not exhausted, but I'm looking for more unique experiences .

@Fight_Teza_Fight Yeah, I managed to fix it. I traveled back to the last checkpoint and walked back, which was surprisingly short thanks to all the shortcuts. Don't know what the issue was! But re-spawning solved it.

The final fight was absolutely brutal (and I'm not even playing on the highest difficulty). The post-game of the DLC (I love that this is a thing now) sounds pretty neat too, I'm definitely in for a few more fights, and I think I'm going to do those later today. There was a surprising amount of lore at the end too, which makes this feel a lot more like Horizon 2 than regular DLC. I wonder how much all of this is going to impact the sequel...

2 questions folks;

Im almost at the end and cant get a blazing sun on the crab loot trial. The videos online are useless as they are prepatch and have 3 loot boxes on the floor, I could only wish for that right now as theres only 1 on the floor and the other crabs all have loot boxes on their backs. Honestly didnt think I could hate loot boxes anymore! Lol.

1) is there a good way to do this trial post patch?

2) can i finish the story then mop this up?

@themcnoisy If I recall correctly there are many loot boxes but if you make any kind of sound they get them on their back. You just have to perfectly copy those videos. Those trials gave me a lot of hard time.

@themcnoisy Hmmm, I think I snuck to one and then just use my explosive bow to pop the boxes off. It's been awhile though.

@themcnoisy I believe there are at least two crates lying about. Not sure what the time limit is, but I found that a fully upgraded Blast Slinger with standard explosives does wonders late game, maybe it works in this trial as well?

There's also a tear-blast shotgun weapon that may be useful in this challenge. I'm certain it can dismantle those Shellwalkers within seconds.

@belmont thanks for replying bit thats not quite right, a patch changed the trial. I thought i was doing something wrong and ended up reading a thread on the alteration. There used to be 3 boxes on the ground in 2 seperate locations with 8 boxes in the trial altogether including the boxes on the shell walkers backs. Now theres 1 on the floor in 2 locations and 3 boxes already on the shell walkers backs meaning only 5 possible boxes and you have to attack the shell walkers.

@starhops @Octane @Kidfried Thanks for the tips. I wrote the original post when I was pretty frustrated. I then immediately went back on and smashed it and the platinum. Woo woo. I used tearblast arrows and a good slice of luck. The whole scene goes mental with like 9/10 enemies trying to kill you, so you need to get lucky with picking up the stuff in the boxes before you are whacked. Which is way harder than it sounds.

@themcnoisy Don't worry though, the hunting grounds get more difficult in the DLC!

@Octane Brilliant game, but the dlc can wait for sure. I spent 54 hours grabbing the plat. So made up I never used a guide bar the grazer dummies, the crab trial and to find the location of 1 battery for the suit. I was buzzing when the all allies trophy popped!

But yeah Im done with Horizon. My second favourite game this year.

The last mission and ending are amazing.