Horizon: Forbidden West - coming to PS5

[Grey Donovan]

Robot dinosaurs could be cool, but the game would have to be hammy and over-the-top to actually pull the concept off. Or...

The idea of a robot plague decimating the world and reducing humanity to near caveman like status does actually have some potential: Basically a low-fantasy setting with the remaining working tech replacing magic. Now add to it the ability to kill robot animals, crafting axes and other weapons and armor from their remains, and riding across the crumbling ruins of a long dead civilization like a Mongol warrior seems like a winner idea.

To bad that's not the direction they went with.

Horizon being a character-driven origin story was a real jabroni move by Guerrilla. Guerrilla’s storytelling has always been garbage carried by graphics and decent gameplay.

A critic I trusted at the time told me the story was good lol. I enjoyed the game enough to finish it, but Forbidden West looks like more of the same which is not up my alley. Maybe the weebs will enjoy it after using Aloy in Genshin.

 

[Mooger Meng]

She had no personality. Horizons story and world building were absolutely top tier. The writers knew how to make a very compelling narrative. But they were absolutely terrible at writing actual humans. Quick quiz!

What is the name of the hunter lady that wanted to take down red maw?

What is the name of the hard ass Nora War Leader? Bonus, what is her Son's name?

What is the name of the boy Aloy saves as a child?

I think I know the answer: none of them were Rost, who's the only one I can fucking remember because within an instant you just know he's the Father Figure/Mentor archetype who dies 30 minutes in, because he's the most interesting character by way of not being a complete retard.

I only made it to just inside the Carja territory before I lost the few fucks I had left to keep playing: everyone is less of a character and more of an archetype, and I couldn't be fucked to care what was going on one way or another to any of them. The Carja are obviously Baby-Eating Evil at the top and most of the way down, though a small nod must be made that you at least run into some for side missions who treat Aloy with genuine respect once she does their dirty work, and overall don't just paint them all as wholly and unquestionably evil through-and-through. The Nora come off as an idealized version of most every feather-Indian stereotype (which is itself hilariously racist, but as usual, it's okay when WE do it) with a healthy dash of zealotry, and Aloy is a completer fucking tool for wanting anything to do with them in light of her treatment being more or less "lol get fucked for existing, no we won't tell you what you did wrong, fuck off and die" from the word "go".

Does it get better? Who cares, fuck that noise, I'm out. If I wanted to see that much high-octane stupid in the wild, I'd make a Twitter account.

 

[ZMOT]

A critic I trusted at the time told me the story was good lol. I enjoyed the game enough to finish it, but Forbidden West looks like more of the same which is not up my alley. Maybe the weebs will enjoy it after using Aloy in Genshin.
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we already have plenty of waifus in genshin tho.

but I like it simply for the mental gymnastics after "nono aloy has to be a real women for the sequel", which means either they have to fatten her up in her anime form (completely destroying the purpose of putting her in a successful gatcha played by millions that's already full of waifus) or give her anime proportions which makes "I can only identify with her if she looks like me" and "anime is pedo" tards seethe.
so either way, it's a win.

 

[NerdShamer]

I think I know the answer: none of them were Rost, who's the only one I can fucking remember because within an instant you just know he's the Father Figure/Mentor archetype who dies 30 minutes in, because he's the most interesting character by way of not being a complete retard.

I only made it to just inside the Carja territory before I lost the few fucks I had left to keep playing: everyone is less of a character and more of an archetype, and I couldn't be fucked to care what was going on one way or another to any of them. The Carja are obviously Baby-Eating Evil at the top and most of the way down, though a small nod must be made that you at least run into some for side missions who treat Aloy with genuine respect once she does their dirty work, and overall don't just paint them all as wholly and unquestionably evil through-and-through. The Nora come off as an idealized version of most every feather-Indian stereotype (which is itself hilariously racist, but as usual, it's okay when WE do it) with a healthy dash of zealotry, and Aloy is a completer fucking tool for wanting anything to do with them in light of her treatment being more or less "lol get fucked for existing, no we won't tell you what you did wrong, fuck off and die" from the word "go".

Does it get better? Who cares, fuck that noise, I'm out. If I wanted to see that much high-octane stupid in the wild, I'd make a Twitter account.

Honestly, you aren't missing much and the apocalypse was caused by the autistic fuckup in not using failsafes, twice.

 

[Coldgrip]

The Nora come off as an idealized version of most every feather-Indian stereotype (which is itself hilariously racist, but as usual, it's okay when WE do it) with a healthy dash of zealotry, and Aloy is a completer fucking tool for wanting anything to do with them in light of her treatment being more or less "lol get fucked for existing, no we won't tell you what you did wrong, fuck off and die" from the word "go".

The Nora seemed like a stereotypical hollywood tribe only with wimins in charge instead of men, because it's progressive or some shit.

You know what's funny about the way the Nora treated the ginger bitch? In any tribal culture, a baby just suddenly appearing in what's considered to be the most holy of places, where only the most holy and wisest can go, would be considered an fuck-off huge omen. That child would be considered a demi-god or at the very least divinely blessed and everybody in the tribe would look up to them as a future leader, one that'd lead them to great glory in battle or be wise and knowledgeable in things that others could not understand or know. They'd have the best of the best in training, living arrangements, food, and company.

So them treating her like a piece of trash and an outsider is pants-on-head retarded.

 

[Marissa Moira]

Honestly, you aren't missing much and the apocalypse was caused by the autistic fuckup in not using failsafes, twice.

they over road the failsafe because the robots were that hungry

literally negated the original failsafe with the second

like the twilight zone episode where automations replace man for the company

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

The Nora seemed like a stereotypical hollywood tribe only with wimins in charge instead of men, because it's progressive or some shit.

You know what's funny about the way the Nora treated the ginger bitch? In any tribal culture, a baby just suddenly appearing in what's considered to be the most holy of places, where only the most holy and wisest can go, would be considered an fuck-off huge omen. That child would be considered a demi-god or at the very least divinely blessed and everybody in the tribe would look up to them as a future leader, one that'd lead them to great glory in battle or be wise and knowledgeable in things that others could not understand or know. They'd have the best of the best in training, living arrangements, food, and company.

So them treating her like a piece of trash and an outsider is pants-on-head retarded.

The weird thing is that the prologue actually evades a lot of the usual SJWism. Like the women in charge are wrong and there's a strong noble father figure. And immediately afterwards the writing takes a dive and every good male is a beta.

 

[Mooger Meng]

The weird thing is that the prologue actually evades a lot of the usual SJWism. Like the women in charge are wrong and there's a strong noble father figure. And immediately afterwards the writing takes a dive and every good male is a beta.

Once Rost bites it, you may as well pack it in since it's mostly all downhill afterwards. Part of me wanted to play as the Carja psychopath that gives you the first "clear bandit camp" quest, if only because I might have found the setting more interesting through the eyes of a self-aware murderhobo who's keen on being a useful monster instead of a dead one.

The Nora seemed like a stereotypical hollywood tribe only with wimins in charge instead of men, because it's progressive or some shit.

You know what's funny about the way the Nora treated the ginger bitch? In any tribal culture, a baby just suddenly appearing in what's considered to be the most holy of places, where only the most holy and wisest can go, would be considered an fuck-off huge omen. That child would be considered a demi-god or at the very least divinely blessed and everybody in the tribe would look up to them as a future leader, one that'd lead them to great glory in battle or be wise and knowledgeable in things that others could not understand or know. They'd have the best of the best in training, living arrangements, food, and company.

So them treating her like a piece of trash and an outsider is pants-on-head retarded.

I think the most frustrating part is that they did that shit by halves. If you're going to go with a "super Satan spawn outcast fuck you demon child you will never belong" opening, why the hell did it get brushed aside so quickly in motherfucking Act 1? There's the obligatory "fuck you you'll never be one of us" Ebil Huwyte Man temporary leader after the entire graduating class gets 360 noscope'd, and one of the three matriarchs as the only people who vehemently object to the Great White Saviour Ginger Daemonspawn being anything but dead after how she'd been presumably viewed and treated by the majority of the tribe. They actually did a good job in the early game, showing that Aloy had a bit of a rep for being reliable, even for an outcast, but everyone save the one trader was shitscared to talk to her unless the situation was dire enough. The problem is, people just don't break that sort of religious stigma in a day. If the aspect of her being accepted was stretched out over the course of the game, rather than rammed through without comment before the map opens up, it would have worked a lot better.

 

[Marissa Moira]

Frozen Wilds is probably more interesting than the main campaign, since you're dealing with a Demented AI that was intended to stop Yellowstone's underground volcano from exploding, so it hijacked the Firebreak facility and started making corrupted bear robots that engulf themselves in flame before charging at you and huge wolf robots with rail cannons on their back.

it still has ass collectables, you're collecting paint and here you're thinking that you can customize your armor in some way, nope you get all the paint and an NPC paints a gay mural for you on a huge rock.

Also all the weapons from the expansion beat anything you get from then onward. The flamethrower is overpowered as are all the other new specialty weapons, and all the regular weapons from there are even better than their NG+ Ultra hard equivalents. The new weapons have quests attached to them in order to unlock them, which outside the hunting lodge in the main game they didn't implement in the original. So you'll be exploring abandoned US Military bases to find parts to old military equipment.

You don't need to clear the main campaign to start the expansion, you can get there right after the tutorial area.

 

[Mooger Meng]

corrupted bear robots that engulf themselves in flame before charging at you and huge wolf robots with rail cannons on their back

They should have focused more on that, since it sounds metal as fuck.

 

[Marissa Moira]

They should have focused more on that, since it sounds metal as fuck.

The new enemies are more challenging, but they also give you an area to fight the Giant Mole robots, which are only fought like once or twice in the main game and then never again. The moles are whale sized machines and can just fuck you up bad. They're more dangerous than the thunderjaws.

 

[Snekposter]

They should have focused more on that, since it sounds metal as fuck.

Oh, very. Marissa has it a bit wrong though. Given how crap the game is it may not deserve a spoiler, but anyways...
You're trying to save the quite-sane Yellowstone AI that oversees the caldera and vents magma for geothermal energy and pressure venting from Hephaestus, one of the AI subroutines of Gaia that went rogue after she kablooied herself to keep Hades from taking over her. Still metal as fuck because yeah, the Hephaestus guy has literally only one job (make robots) but the humans keep wrecking them for parts which is why everything's been getting worse and worse as he comes up with more deadly killbots. AI rationality taken to the extreme, really. So he's hacked into the place to take it over for R&D projects and to expand production outside of his original vaults.

 

[DeadwastePrime]

You don't need to clear the main campaign to start the expansion, you can get there right after the tutorial area.

true, but i dont recommend it because holy shit was that area hard to do at a low level. i just came back when i was level 30 and beat it around then

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

I think if the plot had gone less about the background of the apocalypse it would have been better overall for it. We don't need to know or care about the evil white male that caused it (because you know, every tech project is done solely by a single rich guy and not armies of engineers and coders who can think for themselves), or the muslim woman who created the AI.
It removes pretty much every mystery around the background of the game and doesn't give much insight for it that's more than "capitalism bad, white man bad" (in a game made by white people to sell as many copies).

 

[Marissa Moira]

true, but i dont recommend it because holy shit was that area hard to do at a low level. i just came back when i was level 30 and beat it around then

You level up quick, go around collecting bluegleam and when you get your first weapon you can start killing shit and leveling up quick like maybe 3-5 levels per kill. All leveling up does is increase your HP and allow you to get perks.

 

[NerdShamer]

The weird thing is that the prologue actually evades a lot of the usual SJWism.

It kind of reeks of feminism, early on by having Aloy being the only one who gets stuff done and having the backing of one of the matriarchs. After that,the writers can't decide between: Hammering why isolationism is a bad thing, how cool having two versions of the Roman Empire coexist, and that big tech will steal your jobs.

The Nora seemed like a stereotypical hollywood tribe only with wimins in charge instead of men, because it's progressive or some shit.

You know what's funny about the way the Nora treated the ginger bitch? In any tribal culture, a baby just suddenly appearing in what's considered to be the most holy of places, where only the most holy and wisest can go, would be considered an fuck-off huge omen. That child would be considered a demi-god or at the very least divinely blessed and everybody in the tribe would look up to them as a future leader, one that'd lead them to great glory in battle or be wise and knowledgeable in things that others could not understand or know. They'd have the best of the best in training, living arrangements, food, and company.

So them treating her like a piece of trash and an outsider is pants-on-head retarded.

Honestly, if they wanted an outcast, the writers should have had Aloy in some random underground lab as opposed to being conveniently cloned in the same labs as everyone else was.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

It kind of reeks of feminism, early on by having Aloy being the only one who gets stuff done and having the backing of one of the matriarchs. After that,the writers can't decide between: Hammering why isolationism is a bad thing, how cool having two versions of the Roman Empire coexist, and that big tech will steal your jobs.

Yeah but feminism gone so far to the point of having women be fallible is considered sexist. Also the grey goo incident is because "muh evil military" which writers keep insisting on despite multiple industries being far worse for planet earth than the occasional drone strike modern warfare turned into.

An interesting thought I had while playing is that they can justify women being so strong by some genetic manipulation done on the new human race to have it be stronger. A thing that won't happen because it will necessitate admitting physical differences between the sexes.

In general the game liked to have its pie and have it: Have evil "men only" organizations like the hunting guild, only to not have any valid reason why such a situation would occure if it is displayed constantly both sexes are equally strong.

 

[NerdShamer]

Have evil "men only" organizations like the hunting guild, only to not have any valid reason why such a situation would occure if it is displayed constantly both sexes are equally strong.

It's justified by the "new" social norm of men goes out to have fun and hunt while women stay home to cook and farm...Which is tangentially disproved by the blacksmith who builds the grenade launcher, who is considered a bit of an outcast from her tribe, IIRC.

But knowing our luck, the sequel will include the evils of fossil fuels, given how vibrant the environment is.

 

[DavidS877]

But knowing our luck, the sequel will include the evils of fossil fuels, given how vibrant the environment is.

Having machines that didn't require fossil fuels was the old world's first mistake.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

It's justified by the "new" social norm of men goes out to have fun and hunt while women stay home to cook and farm...Which is tangentially disproved by the blacksmith who builds the grenade launcher, who is considered a bit of an outcast from her tribe, IIRC.

But knowing our luck, the sequel will include the evils of fossil fuels, given how vibrant the environment is.

Having fun hunting is bullshit that exist in video games, logically hunting will be risky as shit and you'll probably be a broken wreck over the years, doubly so when your targets are robots that can kick your head off. The whole dynamic of men doing X and women doing Y is just minmaxing our species done over tens of thousands of years, only to be stopped now because technology flattened the ability curve (at least physically, mentally women are still women).
That's the kind of shit that makes you want some cataclysmic event to turn back time some centuries back.