Topic: Unpopular Gaming Opinions

The invasion of "shovelware" games like during on Wii / NDS era on PS4 such as My Universe games by Microids was actually something good for me as PS4 games library added by casual games for casual players.

@Ralizah Agreed. The way you actually feel like hunting is great, but the RPG part feels unneeded and the characters/story are decent at best. The traps, vulnerable parts, and such feel great though
Also, Alloy is the most overrated character and is not that interesting or well-written. Her apprentice being a bit different is all she going for her to stand out, but I would hardly call the way she looks iconic.

@Trisque @Ralizah @Jaz007 My 2 cents on HZD - I enjoyed the first 15-20 hours or so, until I sort of lost interest and wandered into other games. Perhaps it was lack of connection to the characters and story (although I’ve always really liked Aloy), or maybe it was the open world fatigue that plagues these games — whatever it was I didn’t play it for several months. I don’t remember feeling under-powered, but I did rely on melee attacks predominantly and was just surviving with that. When I finally felt convinced that I needed to finish the game and see what all the fuss was about, I returned to it and really enjoyed it so much more the second half. I think the difference was that I decided to start using all the weapons and tools at your disposal. The best part of combat is varying your approach and attack tactics. Use ropecasters, traps, all the different arrows, spear, bombs, etc.; experimenting seemed to be the key to having fun in the game for me. It helps too that the story picks up in the second half and becomes much better imo.

In the end, I really enjoyed it. It’s a refreshing new IP. It has a nice spin on the action-stealth combat loop, it’s a beautiful world and a really interesting and unique setting, it run smoothly and technically sound, and the RPG elements were fine imo. I really think that the game becomes easier as you progress and learn to use all the tools you have, but the late game enemies pose some pretty stout challenges, but nothing on par with a FromSoft boss or anything

@Th3solution You played 15-20 hours of HZD mostly using melee attacks? 🤦‍♂️😂

Horizon Zero Dawn is awesome, I understand it may not have the most awesome story ever compared to a book. For a game though, I think it stands up very well and leaves the door open for sequels (or prequels). The graphics are impressive to say the least.

Yes it has issues, some of the side quests leave a lot to be desired, the odd invisible wall and not being able to climb everything. Otherwise it's great.

I think a lot boils down to open world fatigue. When I started BOTW coming on the back of the likes of HZD, Yakuza and MGS5 I couldn't enjoy it. That also applies to the Witcher 3. I couldn't be bothered and had no motivation to progress after the first few hours. We have had so many openworld games the last couple of gens it occasionally feels like you are playing the same game. Subconsciously the curiosity wanes and the dopamine hits fail to register. This applies to other genres too.

@JohnnyShoulder Sure did. I mean, I’d use the bow too, but I found it so much easier to do “silent strike” or just smack them around with the spear. Eventually the larger and stronger enemies necessitate ranged tactics, but I relied on spear and stealth attacks way too much early on.

@Jaz007 Aloy isn't great. Standard christlike character archetype, and I didn't really grow attached to her over the course of the game. They could, frankly, have made the sequel about someone else entirely, and I wouldn't have minded.

But I can say the same about Geralt in TW3, and Link in BotW.

@Th3solution I think melee combat is an area where the sequel can and should innovate, as it was a bit simple and lacking in depth compared to the variety of ranged options available to the player.

Wow, thank you all for the feedback! I think that I'd like to give HZD a go one more time based on what you all have told me. If I still can't enjoy it, then maybe it just isn't the game for me.

@Roger Roger I don't normally do second playthroughs because I like to complete a game's main story and then consider it "finished." I may replay a game if I really enjoyed (such as Portal 2), but normally I just move on to the next game. Still, if that ending is really exceptional...

@themcnoisy I forgot about the sidequests. Whoever decided loot boxes should be a reward in that game is insane. Horizon has some of the worst quest reward of any game I’ve ever played. I wish I was exaggerating.
Funnily enough, this does make me want to play some more of the game enjoy the combat/hunting, though.

@Jaz007 Lootboxes?

I can't remember the rewards, like at all! I can remember the overall world and trying to take on that massive Hawk in the mountains. As for opening rewards, I have no idea. Did the equipment come in normal, rare and epic variants or something like that?

@themcnoisy You’d get sh*te reward boxes that contained a random amount of materials. It was.. inconsequential at best.

@nessisonett A roll of copper wire and a bag of bolts for Aloy for defeating that 20ft robot Dino. Yeah, thanks for that, ya bozo.

@themcnoisy You got crates of different levels that have random materials. They’re so stupid they don’t even feel worth opening. There was no good feeling or consistency to it as the fact that you can’t remember them shows lol.

@nessisonett @Jaz007 @JohnnyShoulder ahhh yes, I recall now.

It's weird actually games from the PS1 and earlier I remember a lot. More recent games wade into this middle ground of generecism. So similar. I struggle to remember game mechanics. Probably why I enjoy the likes of The Witness, Fez and Rocket League so much.

@Jaz007 lmao By the time I was done with the game, I had about a dozen boxes that just stayed in my inventory because I was already maxed out on the stuff inside of them. Nobody ever gave me Blaze canisters, despite half the weapons eating through my supply of the stuff like a fat boy in a candy shop. Although harvest arrows + abusing the blast wire challenge made the stuff easy enough to grind out.

I will say this, though: no game, before or sense, has had quest rewards that feel as poorly balanced or pointless as the ones in The Witcher 3. There is zero sense in completing non-main story related side-quests in that game and, past a certain point, zero reason to engage in monster contracts.

@Ralizah I’ve played over 100H and while gear rewards are kinda stupid, money feels just tight enough that it’s a decent reward and you feel like you need it. The quests are also a million times more interesting than Horizon’s too.

@Jaz007 Yeah, I played every side quest in the Witcher 3 for story reasons. Rewards were mostly useless but they were 99% brilliant in terms of the actual story. Horizon had default Sim #5 badly lip sync telling you to go to a map marker so they can be largely useless against the enemies you fight.

@nessisonett The lip syncing in Horizon makes Aloy look more robotic than Markus, Kara and Connor from Detroit Become Human, who are literally androids

An opinion of mine is that many indie games are pointlessly difficult to the point of being a bad game design choice.

Hollow Knight, Hyper Light Drifter, and others I can't remember at this time are within this description.

Being "old school" is not good reasoning as old games were designed to suck down quarters or artificially make very short games appear longer. We've moved on from that.

I'm not saying designers are obligated to make things accessible to general audiences. But games are for fun and leisure, and to be praised as a masterpiece and design choices that result in absurd roadblocks take it down a few notches to "average" quality. Not bad, but not successful in all aspects necessary.

Like an eccentric director who sticks annoying crap in an otherwise good movie.

Rant over. Thank you for your time.

ALOY HAS THE EXACT SAME FACE AS ZAC EFFRON

Now you can't unsee it, sorry.