Does it get better

[PhantomFear94]

The Horizon series is the most overrated PS series IMO and I cannot fathom how Forbidden West got 88% on OpenCritic. 

 

I enjoyed Zero Dawn but felt it was an above average rather than exceptional and enjoyed it on a sort of 7.5/10 sort of scale. Forbidden West I just flat-out disliked. Visually beautiful, but that's the extent of my enjoyment The story was much less impactful than 1, the character I didn't connect with, the open world too large for its own benefit, the side-activities made Ubisoft games feel unique (so repetitive/boring - Cauldrons are god awful in particular), combat clunky and the traversal almost "rubber banded". There is just no life to this game, everything feels sedated and bland - ironic, given the luscious visuals. To top it off, it didn't perform that well for me either. I've only had 5 PS5 crashes (granted, its my 2nd system) and 3 of them were with Forbidden West.

 

One of the few games I did not bother to do the DLC nor NG+ on after the platinum.

 

Reviewers glossed over a lot of the games fundamental issues, whereas when I look at here, or Reddit, I see a lot of people who had issues with it. Similar thing with The New Colossus; critically did very well, but "on the ground" many people seem to not actually like it compared to The New Order. 

Edited July 11, 2023 by PhantomFear94

[PhantomFear94]

On 11/04/2022 at 6:19 AM, Rando-Calrisian- said:

 

This echoes my sentiments exactly. Graphics blew me away; gameplay was satisfying but nothing new. Story was forgettable. I was skipping all dialogue by mid game. I loved number one 5 years ago, story included, but this was underwhelming.

 

My thoughts:

- Elden Ring hangover: Elden Ring's gameplay and environments blew me away. Perhaps one of the best games I've played, ever. Anything I played after it (this) would pale in comparison.

- Developers are taking less risks these days: games are hugely complex and take years of development. If they know a gameplay formula is successful / makes money, they won't deviate from it or take risks. This means, for most big release, we have basically played that game many times before.

- Each year there are MANY action-adventure games that come out: If you are doing the same stuff many times each year over many games it starts to get stale.

 

Check, check, check.

 

- Admittedly, Elden Ring didn't help. Similar to me now after playing Tears of the Kingdom, in fact. Some game just set a new level of expectation that takes a few weeks to pass. Still a relative disappointment for me, but this is a valid point. 

- Games (and films) are really struggling with risk aversion during the past decade. This has been the weakest console generation IMO and its because of this issue. I wish more studios would focus on "one and done" games - i.e. continuing the movie comparison - Tarantino, Anderson, Lanthimos sort of approach to video games. Make a game, put your heart and soul into it, and just let it be. Move on to something else. Of course, this is - as you say - risky - some will hit, others may not, and for publishers they likely want certainty of a worst-case scenario base line for a game. 

- Open World bloat is a huge problem for me at this point in my life. Elden Ring and TOTK felt like they did something different with the experience. Whilst some criticise Elden Ring for being too sparse, I thought the barren landscape filled with only things of great significance matched the atmosphere of the game, and made what you did find valuable. TOTK is just a ridiculously dense AND vast game with so much genuine content jammed in its beyond comprehension, a ridiculous feat for the industry. I quite like the "semi-open world" trend of Star Wars Jedi and God of War where it's  a balance between open-world-esque offerings whilst feeling a bit more refined, focused and secret-laded than "checkboxy". 

Edited July 11, 2023 by PhantomFear94

[liquish]

I'm 110% in agreement with the author of this topic. I loved Zero Dawn, and getting that platinum was fun. But just getting through the story of this game is dragging so hard that I each time I highlight the game on my Home screen, I hesitate and go to another game that just grips me more. It is a beautiful game. It has new robots, but I'm early on enough to just not really feel its high praise it has received beyond its beauty. I will get to it eventually, but I am currently in agreement with this topic!

[jdizzle0420]

I didn't like the first game at all and this one was just as bad. I give both a 3/10. Very boring. Unlikable characters. Gameplay is ok and it's great looking, but not good games imo. Not as bad as Assassin's Creed 2, but close. 

[Jasmin-Harun]

Just finishing up my second playthrough on UH and I can say the game runs silky smooth on PS5 Performance mode. Graphics are stunning and Burning Shores is probably one of the best looking games out there. Face animations went from bad in the first game to one of the best in the second. Personally I've found combat enjoyable and with lots of new machines  and it's still fun to shoot machines in different ways.

And here comes HOWEVER...

Don't read if you don't like SPOILERS.

 

The story was darn awful. It has no weight and it becomes messy real quick.The plot twist at the end with Elizabeth and one of the Zenith women being lovers was also out of place and out of touch. It felt artificially introduced. Same energy was transferred to the DLC for the sake of 'equality' I guess with the big reveal of Alloy being gay/bisexual as well. Even the main villain in the DLC felt like a bad copy of a Marvel guy. Lots of plot holes and lazy superficial writing.

 

IMO when your game costs 220 million dollars you have to do better. They really had a fine structure with the AI going rampant but it was incoherent and sluggish all the way until the end. Somewhere in there there's a great story. 

 

 

 

[ARIXANDRE]

On 3/6/2022 at 12:38 PM, Kwotey said:

Im currently about 7 hours in and this game seems to be dragging a bit.. i swear its been like 70% cut scenes and the story isnt gripping me.. i loved the first game!

Im all for story driven games but this game seem to be overkill on the cut scenes. 

I really hope it gets better or should i cut my loses now?

 

Let me tell you a secret...(this game is highly overrated and boring 🤫😉). 

[Pen_Dragon_138]

The first game was my first ps4 game. I really enjoyed but was one of the first games of that generation that I played, so a lot of new things for me.

But then i hated when i tried to play it again last year before FW comes out. Played for just an hour or so. 

I managed to finish and plat FW but for me is a 5/10 game. Better combat and gameplay in general, but everything else boring. Side quests and activities are so lame. The story for me was the worst. I had the felling i was playing a 20h long filler. 

 

I think the first game was a perfect product of that ps4 mid generation period. An interesting world building with a decent openworld. But now it feels like a singleplayer sony game that went full Ubisoft style (i think the same about that mediocre Days Gone).  The second game comes out when elden ring comes presenting a new dynamic of open world. So FW feels dated in the moment it comes out. It feels just like a dlc presenting new biomas.

I hope the next Horizon and also Ghost of Tsushima 2 doesnt go that way. I hope the new generation may renew it. 

Edited January 11 by Pen_Dragon_138
d

[daveM12DIM]

On 1/11/2024 at 4:26 AM, Pen_Dragon_138 said:

i think the same about that mediocre Days Gone

I have no words.. well I do, but I am not going to say them

[Mickeyminime]

I enjoyed the first one more, but between all the other games released in 2022, this was my best one, even better than Elden Ring in my honest opinion.

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[Culturegeek]

Just got my platinum on this one and I think the worst part of this game series is the rag-doll combat mechanics. It's just not fun at all to constantly be flung around the screen with every single hit (even on low difficulties), and many times in row without a chance to even get up to get your bearings before you're swung around again. How is that in the slightest bit fun and enjoyable?

[alexandra-jane09]

Beautiful scenery but so grindy and boring storyline, love the different machines they have introduced but I find Aloy hinting I supposed on what to do next is very annoying.  I loved the first installment and climbing ruins [ the climbing was far better ]  and picking up the Vista Point tapes and hearing the young man's storyline in them, you got the post apocalyptic feels about it, this one just feels meh.  

[el-manssouri456]

Im enjoying it so far i finished the beta distress signal mission and im lvl 33 im doing everything is a great game better then zero dawn