What Was The Last Game You Played?

[Miguel Sanchez]

Horizon Zero Dawn (PS4, 2017)

Before I went into Horizon Zero Dawn I didn't really know anything about it. I knew it had a redhaired girl as the main character. I knew it had a world filled with machines. That was pretty much it. I've since learned the girl is called Aloy, the machines are all eerily similar to animals from Earth's present and past, and as she sets out into her third person action adventure she finds out who she is and why the machines are there. 

Aloy is born a member of the Nora, one of the tribes that inhabits the game world. The Nora are extremely snobby however and Aloy is an outcast, doomed to be raised by another outcast until she reaches 18 and can run in The Proving, a sequence of tasks people that age partake in in order to become a Nora Brave, and properly join the tribe. Sadly right at her moment of triumph some bad guys turn up to kill her and Aloy's world is turned upside down. The Nora instead make her a Seeker and send her out into the world to discover what's going on. 

Like all open world games nowadays, Horizon offers the player complete freedom on how they approach the game's various quests and activities. There's a levelling system which allows you to unlock skills, with quests tied to that in an advisory manner rather than required. The problem I always have with open world games, especially large ones like this, is that I'm overwhelmed. I barely know who Aloy is, who the Nora are or why every location in their area is called Mother's Something or other, now I'm out into the world meeting the Carja and the Oseram and the Banuk and various individuals within those tribes and I'm doing quests for all of them and I'm doing hunting trials and I've got different weapons and outfits and upgrades with different categories to improve and there are loads of locations with funny names to find them all in. If reading this feels fast and poorly explained, now you know how I feel. 

This isn't really something that improves as the game goes on. In one session you could spend two or three hours just doing side quests, visiting various places on the map and getting the life stories of various different people in the process. Then the next time you play you go back to the main story and you've no idea who anyone is, something not helped by there being two separate main quest threads in the early game. Is this a problem I have? Is it because I don't play games like this very often, and is this why I've always preferred a more linear experience? 

I think something which limits any real sense of connection I had with the characters is how you interact with them. There's an air of the Betheseda open world RPG about things, where you talk to people and have a list of conversation topics to work your way through in lieu of exposition. The voice acting isn't that great (Aloy's in particular can be downright weird, and the amount of talking she does when you're controlling her in the world is irritating) and during these conversations the people have that classic Fallout dead eyed thousand mile stare the entire time. Near enough everyone you speak to has the same look, same mannerisms and same vocal delivery, and they all look ridiculous while they're doing it. As a result, I don't pay that much attention. 

Now that I've finished the game I'm in two minds about the world. I spent 70 hours in it across my first playthrough, the Frozen Wilds DLC and New Game+ and I like it. I like the premise of the story and I'll expand on why later, and the gameplay loop of fighting machines and scavenging in the open sections remained satisfying through all those hours. 

Gameplay is your standard modern-day open world action adventure fare. There's a crafting system based on scavenging from the environment as well as defeated enemies, allowing you to make as much ammo and health potions as you like. There are a range of weapons to provide different strategies for approaching both human and mechanical enemies. This is also slightly overwhelming in the early game because there are lots of different types of weapons which all do different things and, for me at least, there was a sense I should be using all of them. I realise this isn't the case, I realise most games have problems like this where the default weapon is the best option despite whatever else they can make you try to use, but my experience with the weapons was similar to the characters and locations. There are a lot, and it's a lot to try and process when you're new to the game. 

Once you do though, it's worth it. Finding some machines you need to take out and planning your assault beforehand, laying down traps and tripwires then baiting them to run into them while you finish them off with arrows, this is very satisfying when it comes off and it remains satisfying for the whole game. The combat controls are solid, and different ammo types easy to switch between. Aloy also has a melee weapon which is about the most useless weapon I've ever seen in a game - it starts off an uninterruptable movement animation that takes about four seconds to finish and does no damage. Terrible, especially if you accidentally trigger it while you're trying to aim your bow. 

Outside of the full attack option on machines and humans alike, there's little viable variety in the gameplay. You can kill human and machine enemies with stealth - either with well-placed arrow shots or contextual melee strikes or over-riding the machines to make them fight for you, but even on lower difficulties it's hard to take out more than a couple of enemies before you've alerted a whole area full of them. This often leads to you being swamped from all sides, and it can be easy at times to be physically overwhelmed by machines, being pushed around. It doesn't help in this regard that most of the machines you can't take down in one hit are all absolutely huge, but these ones can move just as fast and as suddenly as the smaller ones. 

The final note I'll make on the combat is that there's an elemental system in the weapons and outfits. You can use ice, fire and other kinds of ammo and certain machines are vulnerable to them and it's almost completely pointless because fire works pretty much perfectly against all of them. Spam a few fire arrows until the flame or thermometer symbol above the machine fills up, then spam its weak spots with regular arrows. Job done. 

Now that I've said "machines" about a thousand times, what of them? What of the story that put them there? I'm a big fan of dystopian fiction and as Aloy explores the world we start to find the ruins of what is clearly, or was, Earth. We discover that throughout the 21st century mankind became more reliant on increasingly sophisticated robot technology. Then the biggest robot manufacturing company in the world made a line of "peacekeeping" (read: military) robots that had a glitch in their software. They're fuelled by biomass and they can self-replicate at will. And now they can't be shut down. Whoopsie. 

The biggest thing I can say about the story for this game is that even though, perhaps because, it took me a long time to uncover it as I was going about the map that it felt properly momentous. I realise that mankind dooming the planet to lifelessness then enacting a successful plan to counter it is about as large-scale as it gets, but the pace you uncover the details and then the remnants of it feels well-paced in a way that's surprising for an open world game. By the time you discover what Zero Dawn is (we know what Zero Dawn is, still not sure about the Horizon bit) Aloy isn't just a clueless Nora wandering about the world anymore, so there's a reasonable amount of character development tied in with the story details. 

That said, the manner in which the story is presented is... well, let's call it convenient. Aloy has a Focus, a device from the pre-apocalypse days she found when she was young. This lets her scan the area around her and interact with old technology, and forms a useful part of the gameplay as you scan areas to find out where enemies are and what their weaknesses are. Rather than Aloy exploring the world on her own and finding out the truth about herself - an admittedly daunting task - the Focus starts talking to her. It starts talking to her in the voice of Cedric Daniels from The Wire, who conveniently has spent several years scouting locations and gathering information and perhaps more things he's not being honest about, and he guides her through everything she has to do. I realise it might have seemed implausible for Aloy to find out so much on her own, but it's probably worse to just put a voice in her ear which gives her all the answers. 

The Frozen Wilds DLC offers a new location, new story and some monsters even more irritating than before, purely by virtue of their size. It's alright. It raises some questions about the game's geography, since it seems to have a volcano in it which was once Yellowstone National Park. But the rest of the game is set in and around Colorado and Utah. I might be completely off with this, I'm sure if you've read this far you care about the game enough to know if this is nonsense and will tell me as much. You get some new weapons here too and elemental combat comes into play a bit more, but for the most part it's just more of the same. And that's fine, since I like what I had already. 

Despite everything that I've said here, I know what the best compliment you can give an open world game is. It's how much you want to be and spend time in that world, how much you want to be the character you're playing as or spend time with them. After playing this for a bit I had a day where I was really immersed in it, I sunk a good few hours into it. The next day I was out and while I was walking down the road I realised I was looking at cars and automatically scanning them as if they were machines. I was looking at the lights and body panels as areas to target, as weak spots, and I didn't even realise I was doing it. That makes up for all the dead eyed conversations, convenient plot delivery and surprisingly underwhelming final boss fight. 

I'd love to say my positive experience with one of the most celebrated PS4 exclusives will make me more eager to seek them out in the future, but my backlog's big and there's always something else to work through first. It's a hard life, this. 

[NotThePars]

Horizon Zero Dawn is another game I'd have desperately loved if it was 20-30 hours but like Assassin's Creed, Final Fantasy XV and numerous other open world titles it's simply too long to be a classic. Games have to start getting better at editing themselves down.

Lance Reddick is a superb voice actor. He sells the shit out of this and Quantum Break and elevate them far beyond where they arguably deserve to be.

[Stellaboz]

Think I've mentioned this before but the speed in which you learn of the unfolding prior events is a bit skewed towards the end. 

Takes a while to get used to everything and I thought they maybe should have spaced out the intro more, and lessened the middle part, but Horizon ZD is pretty decent for the most part.

[Mark Connolly]

Got Tokyo 2020 for the PS4. As usual, it's an Olympics game that is mainly just button bashing, but the table tennis is equally the hardest and most fun game I've played in a long, long time.

[SANTAN]

19 hours ago, Mark Connolly said:

Got Tokyo 2020 for the PS4. As usual, it's an Olympics game that is mainly just button bashing, but the table tennis is equally the hardest and most fun game I've played in a long, long time.

Rockstar Table Tennis remains one of the funnest yet tricky non Fifa sports games I've ever played. Was a sublime wee game as you'd expect from Rockstar. 

[NotThePars]

I finished the Assassin's Creed III remaster. I remembered being so pumped for this coming out back in 2012 and just feeling meh I rolled credits. Gave it another run and it's even worse than I remembered. Bad combat, fiddly running mechanics, maybe the worst missions, a story which is more boring than enjoyable nonsense and a load of supplemental stuff like the Assassins Contracts and trading which is badly implemented. 

Made me appreciate Valhalla a bit more even if it's still far too long and filled with poor writing.

[SANTAN]

9 minutes ago, NotThePars said:

I finished the Assassin's Creed III remaster. I remembered being so pumped for this coming out back in 2012 and just feeling meh I rolled credits. Gave it another run and it's even worse than I remembered. Bad combat, fiddly running mechanics, maybe the worst missions, a story which is more boring than enjoyable nonsense and a load of supplemental stuff like the Assassins Contracts and trading which is badly implemented. 

Made me appreciate Valhalla a bit more even if it's still far too long and filled with poor writing.

Is that the one in the US? I think I fell off after failing to complete the Italian one (even though I loved it) but watched one of my mates playing a bit of it and it felt nothing like the first 2. 

Now I'm sure you know why I'm here... Valhalla... what particularly did you think was poor writing? Is their any specific big plot hole type of stuff or do you mean more the general dialogue they have? I wouldn't necessarily disagree but can't say I noticed much wrong for me on the parts I didn't skip. 

[NotThePars]

4 minutes ago, SANTAN said:

Is that the one in the US? I think I fell off after failing to complete the Italian one (even though I loved it) but watched one of my mates playing a bit of it and it felt nothing like the first 2. 

Now I'm sure you know why I'm here... Valhalla... what particularly did you think was poor writing? Is their any specific big plot hole type of stuff or do you mean more the general dialogue they have? I wouldn't necessarily disagree but can't say I noticed much wrong for me on the parts I didn't skip. 

Everything that wasn't part of the main plot felt like it had been written in five minutes. A lot of the voice acting work was also generally pretty poor. I didn't find the story all that engaging after a point as well. Felt like the most half-baked Witcher of the lot.

It's fine I'm not going in expecting to be all that captivated it's like KFC for me just pure junk food that I enjoy once a year. It's an enjoyable switch your mind off or podcast game. 

ETA: bad writing for me isn't plot holes or anything I don't like that type of media criticism at all as it feels like nitpicking I just meant whatever the game was trying to say and the story it tried to tell just didn't resonate with me which is fine as it's not really why I play these games I've found.

Edited July 29, 2021 by NotThePars

[Gianfranco]

I enjoyed Resident Evil Village that much that I’ve decided to play them all from the start, so I’ve just bought the first Resident Evil remastered.

Holy moly the camera angle takes some getting used to. You can’t see what’s straight ahead of you most of the time. It’s really annoying not being able to carry a lot and having to find ink ribbons to save the game. Great fun though.

[accies1874]

I finished the Assassin's Creed III remaster. I remembered being so pumped for this coming out back in 2012 and just feeling meh I rolled credits. Gave it another run and it's even worse than I remembered. Bad combat, fiddly running mechanics, maybe the worst missions, a story which is more boring than enjoyable nonsense and a load of supplemental stuff like the Assassins Contracts and trading which is badly implemented. 
Made me appreciate Valhalla a bit more even if it's still far too long and filled with poor writing.

I remember finding the stuff in the forests quite cool as it was different from other AC settings, but stopped playing it when I was commanding an army or something and I never picked it up again. The setting still appeals to me but nothing else - a bit like Black Flag.

A bit like Unity.

A bit like Syndicate.

A bit like Valhalla.

[Empty It]

I enjoyed Resident Evil Village that much that I’ve decided to play them all from the start, so I’ve just bought the first Resident Evil remastered.

Holy moly the camera angle takes some getting used to. You can’t see what’s straight ahead of you most of the time. It’s really annoying not being able to carry a lot and having to find ink ribbons to save the game. Great fun though.

The camera angles are what made RE1 what it was, I remember playing it as a kid on the PS1 shit feared, completed the remaster not long ago and there is still bits that get the heart going.

[Ludo*1]

I've never been as scared of a game as I was RE1. Amazing game - the original is still my go to even ahead of the Remaster.

Fixed camera angles are better than first person for horror games and that's my unpopular gaming opinion of the day. Still reckon there's a place for fixed camera angles and tank controls and it will have its day again one day.

[Gianfranco]

I've never been as scared of a game as I was RE1. Amazing game - the original is still my go to even ahead of the Remaster.
Fixed camera angles are better than first person for horror games and that's my unpopular gaming opinion of the day. Still reckon there's a place for fixed camera angles and tank controls and it will have its day again one day.

I’d never played RE1 before. The licker that came through the window or wall in RE2 in the police station made me near shite myself back in the day.

[Stellaboz]

For me it was Silent Hill. Still never played any of them, f**k that!

[BFTD]

27 minutes ago, Stellaboz said:

For me it was Silent Hill. Still never played any of them, f**k that!

Same here; the original was a PlayStation exclusive, and I'm weird in that I feel like I should play series in order, so couldn't bring myself to skip ahead to the second game. Same reason that I've never played an Assassin's Creed game.

It sounds like they were all shit after Silent Hill 2 anyway, so not a great loss.

[NotThePars]

I’ve been watching Waypoint’s play through of Resident Evil Remake and while I think Resi’s shift to first person has been a revelation the tension with the fixed cameras in the first one is undeniable. Hearing shit like the spiders hissing or a faint moan while the camera is fixed facing towards you and a mirror is so good.

[dysartrovers]

Same here; the original was a PlayStation exclusive, and I'm weird in that I feel like I should play series in order, so couldn't bring myself to skip ahead to the second game. Same reason that I've never played an Assassin's Creed game.
It sounds like they were all shit after Silent Hill 2 anyway, so not a great loss.

Silent Hill 3 was absolutely brilliant. I didn't go any further than that but the silent hill games were always that wee bit better than resident evil for me.

[Blootoon87]

Alien Isolation is the scariest game I've ever played, a genuinely terrifying experience. It's a brilliant game, but not enjoyable in the slightest.

[54_and_counting]

On 29/07/2021 at 21:55, Ludo*1 said:

I've never been as scared of a game as I was RE1. Amazing game - the original is still my go to even ahead of the Remaster.

Fixed camera angles are better than first person for horror games and that's my unpopular gaming opinion of the day. Still reckon there's a place for fixed camera angles and tank controls and it will have its day again one day.

Stick your tank controls where the sun dont shine

Fixed cameras fair enough, the remake is good with them, but no to tank controls, so so so outdated, 

Tbh back then they weren't bad, but game designs now have advanced so much that tank controls would cripple a gamer during gameplay 

Iirc the original resi barely had any moments when you felt overwhelmed with enemies, even the dogs you usually had long corridors so they were only in two directions, so the controls never really got you into the shit

But looking at nee age resi games, the action is faster, you need to react quicker, and theres more elements of feeling trapped and outnumbered, f**k doing they bits with tank controls

[Busta Nut]

I am playing days gone and until I looked it up I was having a pure Mandela effect about it having Daryl from the Walking Dead in it.
I must have mashed that and the Death Stranding thoughts together.