Topic: Horizon: Zero: Dawn

@Ralizah The enemy information screen (I forget what word this game used) gave you info on weak spots like that I think?

@Octane @Ralizah IIRC some machines have armour plates which you have to tear off before you can damage them.

At first the weak spots are all exposed but they adapt to how they're hunted and are later created with protective armour. I thought this was brilliant when I first found out.

@Ralizah Ye of little faith. You just wait until it all kicks off! It wasn't voted the forums best game ever for nothing.

I love HZD brilliant hairstyles ftw.

@Octane I tried your strategy. It didn't work for me. Fortunately, I found one that did. Unload shock arrows into their stupid faces until they're stunned and then shoot the pouch in the back with precision arrows to get rid of the ranged attack. I killed frost and fire breathing ones at the same time that way.

@Ralizah I looked up a video online, and precision arrows seem to do the trick as well. If you hit the fuel sac and the gullet with precision arrows it should explode after a while. They stunned them in the video, making it easier, but I don't think it affects the exploding part.

Like with most of these things, there is more than one way to defeat the machines. That is one of things I liked best about HZD, finding the best strategy that works best for with what weapons and stuff you have on you at the currrent moment.

One of my favourite moments in H:ZD was sneaking up on a Thunderjaw at a 'water hole' with another Thunderjaw and several other machines in close proximity and hacking it. I got back to a safe distance that I could both watch the massive battle of these two giants fighting - the poor Thunderjaw I hacked, totally outnumbered by the others in the area so I had to help by blowing off weapons and armour of the other Thunderjaw to weaken it and the hacked Thunderjaw making light work of the weaker robots. It was an amazing thing to see and almost something you would expect in Jurassic Park or some Dinosaur movie - the AI, the movement etc was incredible. I watched for a few minutes before I felt I had to help my Hacked Thunderjaw which turned the fight in 'our' favour. After the fight, I collected al the parts etc, and then put my poor and badly damaged Thunderjaw down (a 'mercy' killing LOL) and collected what parts remained collectable.

That was the most Epic thing I saw on my play through - not that there wasn't other great and epic moments but that was the most Epic...

I really loved this game!!

@BAMozzy Think I had a similar experience, loved when stuff like thst happened!

So, I found a dungeon that rewarded me at the end by allowing me to hack more of the robots.

Took me a while (and a number of tough fights when I messed up), but I managed to hack one of the Sawtooths and hid in the bushes to watch it fight with another one.

I like the Tallneck robots. Climbing them reminded me of Shadow of the Colossus.

The Stalker was obnoxious until I discovered that a TearBlast arrow makes short work of its camouflaging abilities.

Ha, ha, yeah I think this game has so many moments to reminisce about. Everyone’s got their own Horizon memory that they spontaneously created. For me, I got giddy when I finally obtained the Shield-Weaver armor and put it on and experienced it’s awesomeness while I charged into battle
at the nearest herd of corrupted machines.

@Octane I really liked that somehow the first time i found a game with collectables that where usefull and not just a waste of time.

@Th3solution I think I locked myself from getting that armour set as I didn't collect one of the earlier pieces and when I went back to get it later, I could not get back to where it was.

@JohnnyShoulder Its totally possible - its not something you get locked out of and, if I remember correctly, a trophy too and no trophies are missable. It maybe that you cannot find the right entrance to it and/or may have to approach from a different direction but I don't think any part was missable.

@Ralizah Sorry for the delayed response to yours, was away from my computer for a day or so!

I'd disagree - I loved BOTW for what it was, I loved HZD for what it was so no complaints there. I do feel however, that each had flaws. For me, BOTW had a few niggles. Exploration was fun but I felt the rewards were limited. Shrines, seeds, occasional side missions etc. were fine but with such an amazing world to explore, I wanted more. Couple that with generic enemies that constantly respawn while your best weapons vanish, I thought I had little consequence in the world. HZD has its own issue with icon mania all over the map which diminished exploration.

I would also disagree with the environment in HZD. I thought there was a good level of environmental storytelling with a well thought out world. Each area had its own geopgrahy, cultures built around that geography, enemies that fit with that geography and indeed, stories that dealt with those elements and cultures. I wanted more of that - I loved seeing the flying beasties in the distance over the plain.

In terms of should they be merged - in terms of atmosphere and point, no, but I think there is a melding of the strong points of both to be had. I still feel there is a version of the best open world out there that hasn't been done yet. Anyway, they are both good games and I put a lot of time into both!! Enjoy!

I thought H:ZD was great environmentally and had quite diverse selection of environments - although the DLC was set in one particular environment. It was pretty much see it, can get to it but I will admit, some cliffs, rock faces etc were not scaleable. Everywhere you went, there was something to do, something of interest and you were never too far from any action - whether that was Robot Dinos, Bandits or Wildlife needed to craft things. The enemies all had their distinctive behaviour and even reacted differently. For example, tear off a weapon with a well placed shot, that robot would change its attack pattern. Those harvester crab things would return to its knocked off shell if it can't find you, pick it up and put it on its back before resuming its task.

If I had any criticism at all, it would the RPG mechanics - most notably the lack of variety with armour and weaponry. Talking of Armour though, depending on the outfit, people would comment differently. Their comments were based on the 'tribe' of outfit you wore. Crafting weapons mid fight was great - not the first to do so and the fights themselves offered a lot of variety, a lot of strategy and creativity. Whether you set Traps first, Sneak up and go for a stealth blow first, maybe whistle to try and get the attention of one (or more) to come close for a stealth attack or maybe even Hack so they then turn on the rest and become an Ally against the rest of the horde. I loved firing arrows into canisters, watching a herd all run off together until a 'big' explosion took out the majority, using the environment, force the herd up a pathway with traps and or logs that would cascade down and kill most/all.

Despite being an Open World game, the story was very linear. Not that I am complaining although I had worked out Aloy's origins long before it was revealed. The data tapes filled in a lot of the lore and very little (apart from the 'obvious' story-centric ones) was necessary to the overall ark. Generally, they were 'relics' of the past, informing us of the way the world was and gave us some insight into the lives of the people long since dead. There are 'lots' in the open world to find - if you want - but the most interesting ones are those in the story missions. It made sense to have this method on the context of the game and its setting. It would have been odd to have a 'live' character and dialogue about things long since past that they shouldn't/wouldn't know about. I loved some of the descriptions of relic finds, objects that we know today but for them, they were archaeology items and had to interpret their usage...

The only thing I would change is the RPG elements and weapon variety. I can understand having a 'sniper' bow but find it illogical that a certain bow can only fire some arrows and another bow in exactly the same class can only fire a different set of arrows - even if they can fire at least 1 'common' arrow type. Why can X bow fire normal arrows, Fire arrows and Ice arrows yet another bow that is the same type can fire normal, fire and poison arrows? I think that you should have a bow that fires non elemental Arrows and another that fires any elemental arrows. As you level up, you can craft better, stronger bows to do more damage or some other RPG like system. It wasn't bad by any means - just could of been much deeper. With so few Weapons and so few outfits, All the lens/heart parts were pretty redundant - just clogging up your inventory until you sold them. The games economy wasn't great - not that it was a struggle to accumulate, but nothing needed to buy - at least not if you actually collected materials to craft ammo, potions and traps.

I loved the game and got the platinum in around a week. It was one of, if not my game of the year and can't wait for Guerilla Games to release a follow up...

@BAMozzy I mean it was like two years ago that I played HZD so it is most likely I'm getting things mixed up. Something to do with power cells?

@JohnnyShoulder If I remember correctly, you had to collect 5 Power cells but, even if you missed them during your play through, they were all collectable after beating the game... I can't remember exactly where every one was, or the route back to collect any missed ones but every one was collectable after beating the game. If you are still playing, maybe search youtube to help...

@BAMozzy I've not played the game in two years and no longer have it. I'm not even that bothered about it, I moved on with the rest of the game as I'm not really a completionist when it comes to video games, and stop playing whenever I feel I've had enough from a game.

So, I'm level 29 now and have decided to move on to the second half of the continent. Apparently I'm supposed to be heading to a city called Meridian. In the meantime, I completed another one of those dungeons, hacked a second longneck, have fully completed all activities at three of the hunting grounds, indulged in a mess of side-quests, and, finally, spent an hour and a half trying to kill some terrifying thing called a Thunderjaw. I found out pretty quickly that, while they take a LONG time to kill, you can remove their ranged weaponry pretty quickly with some well-placed tearburst arrows. It also has a thing on its back, I believe, that can be picked up and used against it. I had a hell of a time trying to hit its heart, and, in general, I feel like I just ended up wasting a bunch of resources in my fight with the thing.