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NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 07 May 2024 17:39:55 +0000
From: Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action
Subject: Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN APRIL 2024?
Date: Tue, 07 May 2024 13:39:53 -0400
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On Tue, 07 May 2024 11:55:51 +0300, Anssi Saari
<anssi.saari@usenet.mail.kapsi.fi> wrote:

>Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> Disappointing. I generally enjoyed the first "Horizon" game, even if I
>> found it to be a bit too formulaic. But it had pleasing visuals and
>> the central game-loop and mechanics were satisfying enough (the combat
>> was a bit too melee-focused, and the camera was somewhat uncooperative
>> but otherwise it was fine). 
>
>All that's still there and the visuals are still pleasing and in fact,
>you can fly. Or rather, there's a mount you can whistle up that
>flies. And there's no tedious waiting for it to land and climbing on and
>taking off, it swoops in and grabs you and throws you on its back in a
>funny animation. Makes sightseeing easy and in fact the end credits show
>off some of the sights.
>
>> But it sounds like the sequel got kitchen-sinked*, with the developers
>> adding in new ideas willy-nilly without really understanding how it
>> would affect the overall balance, loop, and atmosphere of the game.
>
>Unfortunately yes, I have to agree about the kitchen-sinking. They even
>put in races! Still, it's not all bad, like the flying mount above. 


Yes! You used the word! ;-)


>Also, I didn't much use the other weapons in Zero Dawn either. The one
>time I felt the ropecaster would be useful right then to tie down some
>big machine, there was this other guy "helping", doing almost no damage
>but his ineffectual firing caused the machine to pull loose from the
>ropes. Just as I was trying to hit it where it hurts, of course.

I was underwhelmed with the weapon selection in the original Horizon
game too. I mostly just used the standard bow. All the more exotic
weapons - the rope-gun, the trap-gun, etc. - just didn't seem worth
the bother. They seemed to situation specific; it was just easier to
snipe from afar with the arrow appropriate to the monster's weakness,
and running away if things got too hairy. Honestly, most of the time I
just found a ledge where the monsters couldn't reach me (or at least,
couldn't get up to me before I pincushioned them to death). The AI
pathfinding wasn't really that great.

And by the end of the game, my melee weapon was so powerful - and my
character so robust - that I often just waded right up to the monster
and whacked it to death. 

Of course, I wasn't playing on the hardest difficulty levels, and
maybe there the other weapons were more necessary as the game gets
harder. 

Still, it was never the combat that intrigued me with Horizon. It was
the pretty world, the intriguing - if fairly cliche - setting, and the
platforming that I most enjoyed. I'm a sucker for a good rock-climb.
;-P