Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

Horizon Zero Dawn - open world action-RPG from Guerilla Games - now on PC

Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
97,236
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth


http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-11-06-horizon-zero-dawn-the-frozen-wilds-review

Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds review
Let it snow.

jpg

Frozen Wilds' wintry wasteland looks awe-inspiring, but its story breeds the same disappointment as a melted snowman on Christmas morning.


There's a nostalgic euphoria I associate with the sound of crunching snow. It reminds me of childhood winters wrapped up in scratchy scarves and impractical mittens, trudging through Irish fields, white as the eye could see and making that first welly-boot footprint in an untouched blanket of glistening snow.
It's a difficult feeling to recapture but Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds manages it beautifully with scenes straight out of a winter wonderland.

The Frozen Wilds, an add-on for Guerrilla Games' PlayStation 4 exclusive, sees Aloy venture north into The Cut - harsh, frozen lands occupied by the nomadic Banuk Tribe. The Banuk Shamans believe a Daemon is controlling and influencing the machines, causing them to be much stronger and more ferocious than previously. Of course, ever-helpful Aloy agrees to look into the issue and thus the branching storyline begins.

The Frozen Wilds storyline has around 15 hours of gameplay, runs concurrently with the main story line and is accessible fairly early in the game, upon completion of the “Enemy at the Gates” quest line. However, it's recommended you don't start your tundra adventure until reaching at least level 30 as new machines make things challenging at times.

Alongside the new icy region comes suitably frosty inhabitants to patrol it. There's five new machines in total, including Daemonic Machines, fire-spewing Scorchers and Control Towers.

Control Towers interact with nearby machines, repairing and buffing them, while disabling your mount and any machines you have over-ridden. To give yourself half a chance of taking out the overpowered enemies, you must override the Control Tower, rendering it obsolete.

jpg

The Banuk Shamans believe a Daemon is controlling The Cut's machines.

However, developer Guerrilla Games has added new Banuk-inspired weapons and armour to assist Aloy in taking down her new fearsome foes, such as the electric-spurting Stormslinger. These powerful new items can be bought from special merchants using blue gleam, a new form of currency, which is gained through the environment or quests.

Speaking of quests, side quests now offer more, giving better rewards than previously. For example, one allows you to modify Aloy's spear, an ability which was previously unavailable. Previously mundane tasks in the base game have even been given extra layers of challenge.

Take the Tall Neck task for instance, previously the player must commandeer the gargantuan machine through agility. However in Frozen Wilds, Aloy must repair a Tall Neck which has been destroyed and scavenged before she can override the machine. It's a slight change of pace that's nevertheless appreciated.

jpg

Frozen Wilds is phenomenally beautiful. All images were captured through PS4 screenshots.

The real draw of Frozen Wilds is the environment itself. The snow texture and design is breathtaking at times. Snow-capped mountains and frosted firs line the horizon, inhabited by new wildlife such as mountain goats, owls, squirrels and badgers. There's clear thought in the little details, like how heavy snow flurries reduce your vision and particularly the way Aloy slowly labours through thick snow, her footsteps captured in the white canvas and the oh-so-satisfying crunches of each boot hitting the frozen earth.

The sheer beauty of this is partly down to subtle changes Guerrilla Games included in the DLC. Frozen Wilds features better motion-capture and facial animations, more dynamic camera-work and improved snow design. There's also the essential ability to make snow angels in photo mode. Unfortunately, these updates only apply to the DLC and not the base game, and while some of these improvements felt obvious, others still left much to be desired.

jpg

Though Aloy can make snow angels, there was no option to smile while doing so.

Though the lip-sync has undeniably been improved, interactions with NPCs still have all the charm of two salt shakers engaging in conversation. As a lover of open-world games, I found I couldn't connect emotionally or with any sustained interest to the story or its characters. There may be more movement in character's expressions but they still ultimately feel stone-faced and a little dead behind the eyes.

However, a welcome new feature is the new Traveller skill tree, which unlocks streamlining abilities such as being able to break down items into metal shards without having to visit a merchant, or being able to pick resources while mounted. Really, skills which should have been available in the base game and, arguably, are too-little too late. Thankfully this is one of the features which does transfer into the base game, allowing everyone use of these much-needed skills.

Frozen Wilds introduces no miraculous feature which has the ability to elevate Horizon Zero Dawn. Though there is no denying the allure of Frozen Wilds' snow-capped peaks, but its beauty is skin deep. I found myself being captivated by my surroundings but feeling no investment in the story or side quests, and no connection to Aloy herself, finding the whole thing a slog. It is disappointingly generic.

If you were captivated by Horizon Zero Dawn, and the prospect of an extra 15 hours of similar adventures sounds perfectly palatable, then you'll find more than enough to enjoy in Frozen Wilds. If not, then it's best to avoid Frozen Wilds as this is in no way a game-changer. Though the enchanting environment is a spectacle to behold, this particular winter wonderland can be quite hard to warm to.
 

Metro

Arcane
Beg Auditor
Joined
Aug 27, 2009
Messages
27,792
no choices whatsoever
What? I thought Horizon had quests with multiple choices, even some in the main storyline. Ive seen playtrough, I know it has.
, extremely simple character progression of just unlocking some skills
Like perks in skyrim.
no loot system to speak of (you just buy everything).
You get chests with loot after completing quests, doing some stuff or just finding.

This is not like Farcry, it's Farcry that wanted to be more RPG beceause walking and shoting was not enough for the FPS genre.
Maybe you should play it. I finished Horizon. There are no real choices and definitely zero branching. Some fake flavour dialogue "choices" (that are also extremely rare) do not count, sorry.
Chests are full of meaningless "loot" in the form of some upgrades. Meh. It is not an RPG. Skyrim is very barely one.
So what you're saying is it's like Witcher?
 

m_s0

Arcane
Joined
Jun 18, 2009
Messages
1,289

I wish Matt Barton was managing telling this guy exactly what to do. These are well-produced, mostly bland documentaries about mostly AA(A) games that, frankly, don't deserve more attention than they're getting already. Some interesting stories, but overall a bit of a waste of time given the antagonistic relationship the video game medium seems to have with its past and the potential that results from this relationship.

Hopefully, all this so far is just to get some cred and get warmed up. Otherwise, the channel reflects exactly what he's supposed to be going against according to his mission statement.
 

Kem0sabe

Arcane
Joined
Mar 7, 2011
Messages
13,076
Location
Azores Islands

I wish Matt Barton was managing telling this guy exactly what to do. These are well-produced, mostly bland documentaries about mostly AA(A) games that, frankly, don't deserve more attention than they're getting already. Some interesting stories, but overall a bit of a waste of time given the antagonistic relationship the video game medium seems to have with its past and the potential that results from this relationship.

Hopefully, all this so far is just to get some cred and get warmed up. Otherwise, the channel reflects exactly what he's supposed to be going against according to his mission statement.


The series on FFXIV was pretty cool, not for his shitty interviewing or direction, but because those crazy devs at square had no problem saying that they were shit by releasing the first version of the game unplayable and how they went about to turn it all around.
 

Paul_cz

Arcane
Joined
Jan 26, 2014
Messages
1,996
So what you're saying is it's like Witcher?
Shhh... decline popamole gameplay is okay when it is made by some polish guys, do you want to be hit by a polish mob?
Sorry, but this is bullshit. Witcher series has never been interested in being hardcore 2D CRPG or whatever it is you worship.
It has always been, and was intended to be, action storydriven RPG. And unlike Horizon, it suceeds at that with its good worldbuilding, writing and quest design.
Horizon is not horrible game, it is fine, but nowhere near Witcher trilogy. Painting the two as "equally popamolish" is bullshit.
 

Anthony Davis

Blizzard Entertainment
Developer
Joined
Sep 7, 2007
Messages
2,100
Location
California
I miss John Gonzales. He was so awesome to work with.
Details my good man, don't leave a story hanging.

I mean for starters he was just a really good person who was witty and funny. He was very open and easy to talk to, and many writers are actually more reserved and quiet. As a game developer, he always had great and challenging ideas. John, if by some chance you are reading this, I do hope you get to make your 'dream' game someday, yes, I remember it - I never forgot it. ( proof to John that I remember: changing photograph )

I should clarify too what I consider a good writer to be. In my experience, too many writers these days are just looking to create vessels to espouse the WRITER'S beliefs and values.

That's not good writing, that's actually terrible writing. Though even good writers can mess up, just like bad writers can sometimes get it right.

I'll give you an example. Extremely liberal SJW Joss Whedon created and wrote the crew of the Serenity. Malcolm Reynolds, and Jayne, Zoe, etc. Most of the crew, especially Malcolm, hold very strong anti-authoritarian views, Malcolm is a straight up libertarian archetype. Avellone once described Malcolm to me as the "loveable Confederate soldier". Joss Whedon has even stated in interviews that he does not agree with Malcolm Reynolds on anything.
The fact that Joss Whedon can put aside his own personal bias to create really good and endearing (as well as imperfect) characters shows that for all his flaws (of which there are many) he IS a good writer. His characters serve the world and story he created.

Now I actually don't know John's personal beliefs, and that's a GOOD thing to keep that stuff to yourself, but he is that type of writer. His characters have had all sorts of varying beliefs and desires, and he creates his characters to serve the story, not to serve himself.

I mean for more examples of stories... if you've played FO:NV and the Honest Hearts DLC, you've experienced how good he is. I think John Gonzales can easily count himself equal with Avellone and Zeits as a writer.

I don't know what else to say, I guess the take away was that he just has a great presence and was always great to work with.
 

Quillon

Arcane
Joined
Dec 15, 2016
Messages
5,214
I miss John Gonzales. He was so awesome to work with.
Details my good man, don't leave a story hanging.

I mean for starters he was just a really good person who was witty and funny. He was very open and easy to talk to, and many writers are actually more reserved and quiet. As a game developer, he always had great and challenging ideas. John, if by some chance you are reading this, I do hope you get to make your 'dream' game someday, yes, I remember it - I never forgot it. ( proof to John that I remember: changing photograph )

I should clarify too what I consider a good writer to be. In my experience, too many writers these days are just looking to create vessels to espouse the WRITER'S beliefs and values.

That's not good writing, that's actually terrible writing. Though even good writers can mess up, just like bad writers can sometimes get it right.

I'll give you an example. Extremely liberal SJW Joss Whedon created and wrote the crew of the Serenity. Malcolm Reynolds, and Jayne, Zoe, etc. Most of the crew, especially Malcolm, hold very strong anti-authoritarian views, Malcolm is a straight up libertarian archetype. Avellone once described Malcolm to me as the "loveable Confederate soldier". Joss Whedon has even stated in interviews that he does not agree with Malcolm Reynolds on anything.
The fact that Joss Whedon can put aside his own personal bias to create really good and endearing (as well as imperfect) characters shows that for all his flaws (of which there are many) he IS a good writer. His characters serve the world and story he created.

Now I actually don't know John's personal beliefs, and that's a GOOD thing to keep that stuff to yourself, but he is that type of writer. His characters have had all sorts of varying beliefs and desires, and he creates his characters to serve the story, not to serve himself.

I mean for more examples of stories... if you've played FO:NV and the Honest Hearts DLC, you've experienced how good he is. I think John Gonzales can easily count himself equal with Avellone and Zeits as a writer.

I don't know what else to say, I guess the take away was that he just has a great presence and was always great to work with.

Now that Horizon ZD is about to be finished Obs should try to get Gonzalez back, offer him twice the money or something.

Why didn't you pressure Feargus? :negative:
 

Paul_cz

Arcane
Joined
Jan 26, 2014
Messages
1,996
I miss John Gonzales. He was so awesome to work with.
Details my good man, don't leave a story hanging.

I mean for starters he was just a really good person who was witty and funny. He was very open and easy to talk to, and many writers are actually more reserved and quiet. As a game developer, he always had great and challenging ideas. John, if by some chance you are reading this, I do hope you get to make your 'dream' game someday, yes, I remember it - I never forgot it. ( proof to John that I remember: changing photograph )

I should clarify too what I consider a good writer to be. In my experience, too many writers these days are just looking to create vessels to espouse the WRITER'S beliefs and values.

That's not good writing, that's actually terrible writing. Though even good writers can mess up, just like bad writers can sometimes get it right.

I'll give you an example. Extremely liberal SJW Joss Whedon created and wrote the crew of the Serenity. Malcolm Reynolds, and Jayne, Zoe, etc. Most of the crew, especially Malcolm, hold very strong anti-authoritarian views, Malcolm is a straight up libertarian archetype. Avellone once described Malcolm to me as the "loveable Confederate soldier". Joss Whedon has even stated in interviews that he does not agree with Malcolm Reynolds on anything.
The fact that Joss Whedon can put aside his own personal bias to create really good and endearing (as well as imperfect) characters shows that for all his flaws (of which there are many) he IS a good writer. His characters serve the world and story he created.

Now I actually don't know John's personal beliefs, and that's a GOOD thing to keep that stuff to yourself, but he is that type of writer. His characters have had all sorts of varying beliefs and desires, and he creates his characters to serve the story, not to serve himself.

I mean for more examples of stories... if you've played FO:NV and the Honest Hearts DLC, you've experienced how good he is. I think John Gonzales can easily count himself equal with Avellone and Zeits as a writer.

I don't know what else to say, I guess the take away was that he just has a great presence and was always great to work with.

Great post. And yeah Joss Whedon's Buffy and Firefly days were the fucking days. Such great shows. I think Gonzales wrote Mr. House, and I cherished every fucking line of dialogue with that guy. New Vegas is, as far as I am concerned, pinnacle of AAA gaming (with Witcher 3). I really hope whatever Tim and Leon are working on there will follow-it up, quality-wise.

And I hope Horizon 2 is made into an RPG, though I am not holding my breath on that one.
 

Anthony Davis

Blizzard Entertainment
Developer
Joined
Sep 7, 2007
Messages
2,100
Location
California
I miss John Gonzales. He was so awesome to work with.
Details my good man, don't leave a story hanging.

I mean for starters he was just a really good person who was witty and funny. He was very open and easy to talk to, and many writers are actually more reserved and quiet. As a game developer, he always had great and challenging ideas. John, if by some chance you are reading this, I do hope you get to make your 'dream' game someday, yes, I remember it - I never forgot it. ( proof to John that I remember: changing photograph )

I should clarify too what I consider a good writer to be. In my experience, too many writers these days are just looking to create vessels to espouse the WRITER'S beliefs and values.

That's not good writing, that's actually terrible writing. Though even good writers can mess up, just like bad writers can sometimes get it right.

I'll give you an example. Extremely liberal SJW Joss Whedon created and wrote the crew of the Serenity. Malcolm Reynolds, and Jayne, Zoe, etc. Most of the crew, especially Malcolm, hold very strong anti-authoritarian views, Malcolm is a straight up libertarian archetype. Avellone once described Malcolm to me as the "loveable Confederate soldier". Joss Whedon has even stated in interviews that he does not agree with Malcolm Reynolds on anything.
The fact that Joss Whedon can put aside his own personal bias to create really good and endearing (as well as imperfect) characters shows that for all his flaws (of which there are many) he IS a good writer. His characters serve the world and story he created.

Now I actually don't know John's personal beliefs, and that's a GOOD thing to keep that stuff to yourself, but he is that type of writer. His characters have had all sorts of varying beliefs and desires, and he creates his characters to serve the story, not to serve himself.

I mean for more examples of stories... if you've played FO:NV and the Honest Hearts DLC, you've experienced how good he is. I think John Gonzales can easily count himself equal with Avellone and Zeits as a writer.

I don't know what else to say, I guess the take away was that he just has a great presence and was always great to work with.

Great post. And yeah Joss Whedon's Buffy and Firefly days were the fucking days. Such great shows. I think Gonzales wrote Mr. House, and I cherished every fucking line of dialogue with that guy. New Vegas is, as far as I am concerned, pinnacle of AAA gaming (with Witcher 3). I really hope whatever Tim and Leon are working on there will follow-it up, quality-wise.

And I hope Horizon 2 is made into an RPG, though I am not holding my breath on that one.


He did write House. I know somewhere here on the Codex he got a lot of love for the Survivalist in Honest Hearts too.
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom