Just... Wow (Horizon Zero Dawn)

[Arvandor]

I've just started this game (no spoilers, please!). I'm only put about 8 hours in so far, but... I seriously think this may be the all around best game I've ever played. Solid gameplay, mind blowing graphics and animation, engaging story, and just all around nicely polished. Super impressed. Glad I finally joined the current generation (last console I bought before my PS4 last week was a Wii haha!)

[brentsg]

This is one of my all time favorite games too. It's weird that I sometimes read posts by people that hated it, b/c it makes me feel like I played a different game.

[BulletMagnet]

I actually just played through this recently myself; it almost certainly qualifies as the first "open world" game I've played in earnest, so I can't really compare it to much, but overall I quite liked it. I did find the camera to be inadequately cooperative in battle, especially since there's no way to lock on to an enemy, and spent more time than I'd like desperately retreating with a sliver of health because an arrow missed by an inch and suddenly every critter on the continent was trying to kill me simultaneously, not to mention the occasional "yeah, by all appearances you should be able to explore here, but guess what, you just can't", but when the game is humming along the way you hope it would it's pretty great (and just plain pretty). On a personal level it has an extra layer of charm because it comes from a developer whose previous output held zero interest for me, but is now very much on my radar; any game that does that to me will always have an extra layer of rose on the glasses I view it through.

[Strider77]

I fell off..... I fealt like I was playing a running to yellow dots simulator for a bulk of the time.

[FRO]

Now that I have a PS4, I want to get HZD and play it, but having put nearly 400 hours into Breath of the Wild, and knowing it's not as open as that, part of me wonders if I'll be playing the game, looking at it through that lens and end up being disappointed.

[soprano1]

Is this the one where you play as a red-haired amazoness-like girl killing robot dinosaurs? Heard good things about it.

[bigbadboaz]

Is this the one where you play as a red-haired amazoness-like girl killing robot dinosaurs? Heard good things about it.

Yes.

Now that I have a PS4, I want to get HZD and play it, but having put nearly 400 hours into Breath of the Wild, and knowing it's not as open as that, part of me wonders if I'll be playing the game, looking at it through that lens and end up being disappointed.

This is what I wanted to pose to the other posters, but it doesn't sound like many others have also played BotW. It's the natural comparison from last year, and I wonder if they would love HZD as much by comparison.

(I'm not expressing an opinion; I have also only played Zelda.)

[BulletMagnet]

On a related note...

[Jonny2x4]

As far as PS4-exclusives are concerned, Zero Dawn never really quite caught my attention. The heroine's design seems a bit unappealing (being voiced by Ashly Burch doesn't help) and it seems to be one of those games like the Uncharted series where the designers were too concerned trying to show off how witty the protagonists by having her remark on everything she encounters.

I still want to try it out of curiosity though, since Death Stranding will run on the same engine.

[Sumez]

I fell off..... I fealt like I was playing a running to yellow dots simulator for a bulk of the time.

Pretty much my experience with the game.

I was initially very impressed with it, and there are so many individually great parts to the game, to a much higher extend than the standard for this "genre", too. But it's one of those games that, to me at least, are very much less than the sum of their parts. Things just never add up in a way that works, and gives the game a purpose. Instead you just end up running errands for people endlessly.

[Ji-L87]

I remember seeing all those stunning stabilized gifs and just felt an urge to get it.

I spent a lot of time in summer and then later in the winter when the DLC launched playing the game.

The gameplay is certainly not as innovative as the visuals are gorgeous. The combat have the potential to be good and exciting, if you're good and have the right equipment. Robot dinos are so much more fun to fight than humans and the way the melee attack homes in on targets can look really jarring. Side missions get extremely one-sided as well, but at least a few interesting small stories are being told while Alloy's detective office is open for business.
Being my first PS4 game, and not having had neither my PS3 or 360 hooked up to an AV receiver, I was surprised the game had such effective surround sound. Though I say that, currently only have a 3.1 setup at the moment - it was still a noticeable difference switching back and forth to stereo. Especially in conversations as the center channel was used quite a bit.

I bought a magazine that had a long feature about the making of the soundtrack for the game but to be honest, the soundtrack didn't really stick with me that much except for the one melody that plays in the menu and loading screen. Speaking of loading, data streaming worked very well once in game (and not fast traveling) and visiting Meridian for the first time certainly left an impression, with you seeing it all the way back in the distance while slowly making your way towards it and all the bridges and verticality, cool stuff.

[WarpZone]

Now that I have a PS4, I want to get HZD and play it, but having put nearly 400 hours into Breath of the Wild, and knowing it's not as open as that, part of me wonders if I'll be playing the game, looking at it through that lens and end up being disappointed.

This is what I wanted to pose to the other posters, but it doesn't sound like many others have also played BotW. It's the natural comparison from last year, and I wonder if they would love HZD as much by comparison.

From the 10 hours of Horizon I've played so far, it's a by-the-numbers AAA open world design, not on Zelda's level but a cut above some of these games (I've never liked Rockstar's model much).

Zelda's minimal forced missions and its telescope and map-marking systems are a great way to avoid Horizon's 'yellow dots simulator' effect and keep the player actively involved in interpreting its world (for example there's legit value in climbing to a high-up place at certain times of day to gather information). Zelda's a lot more meaningfully interactive as well -- probably the most jarring thing in playing Horizon afterwards is the lingering temptation to climb everything in this similarly mountainous world but being thwarted. You only climb special marked areas (and some ledges elsewhere are grab-able, but inconsistent) and it just feels janky with a lot of slippy slopes and invisible walls in places.

(Still can't resist the temptation to just bunny-hop up boulders everywhere anyway.)

I also think Zelda is more visually impressive; it pushes less geometry and shaders, but there is a much tighter connection between form and function, and in understanding the world based on how it looks, which I find increases verisimilitude. In Horizon, everything is so detailed that it blends into a thick mass of noise, with visual aids deployed (shiny white toothpicks dotting the countryside) so you don't miss something.

If you're someone like Arvandor who doesn't really play these games much and hasn't touched consoles since the Wii, I can definitely understand being blown away by Horizon in the very best sense, and some of the cynicism that creeps in after playing many of these games may not show up for you (or maybe the open world high in the early hours that these games often ride on will take longer to wear off).

[BulletMagnet]

On another related note...

[bigbadboaz]

..it's a by-the-numbers AAA open world design, not on Zelda's level but a cut above some of these games ...
I also think Zelda is more visually impressive

thanks for the impressions. This is pretty much what I've been expecting. I am still looking forward to checking HZD out, probably at this year's Black Friday price. I expect to be wowed by the engine but somewhat underwhelmed by the actual game.

Having said that, I totally hear what you're saying about Zelda's looks. Nintendo develop some incredibly effective art styles, whether for their own merits or to overcome the relative limitations of their hardware. I'll always be the guy who wishes they would get with the times and work with some real hardware, but I can certainly see BotW looks awesome, regardless.