Horizon Forbidden West

[Shoganai]

This is probably the best picture I can find of Ashly Burch. The rest are not that great.
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It's her incredibly stupid hair. She needs to keep getting haircuts like this:

She's not ugly, she just never gets haircuts that go well with her facial features. I think she's pretty, but she's also insufferable, so that removes any redeeming qualities she may have.


Edit: She honestly has the worst haircuts I've ever seen anyone have in the history of ever. Looking her up is just a goldmine of horrendous hairstyles. Good grief.

 

[Decko87]

This did not end well.

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Graphics aside, which generally look quite good, I think I prefer the first game. I find it to be a lot more clunky control wise. Seems like even the basic machines are harder to knock parts off of and which discourages the use of more interesting weapons, but I am probably less than a quarter of the way done.

This thread really devolved. If you look at some the larger screenshots in this reply with Aloy's face in them, I think she looks stunning. She might not look incredible at all angels but she's hot. I'm fine with her character design, I think she looks great. Some people have rounder faces it's not necessarily a bad thing. She's super attractive either way.

 

[Flogger23m]

This thread really devolved. If you look at some the larger screenshots in this reply with Aloy's face in them, I think she looks stunning. She might not look incredible at all angels but she's hot. I'm fine with her character design, I think she looks great. Some people have rounder faces it's not necessarily a bad thing. She's super attractive either way.

The main problem is it looks a bit unnatural. Almost like her face is swollen in Forbidden West. I'm more or less done with the game now, finishing off secondary side quests or errands (smaller side quests) that I missed.

The game is quite clunky and the controls are quite bad. I don't remember having these issues with the first game. Thankfully the game is not that hard otherwise it would have been frustrating. Sometimes I want to reload my weapon but it calls a mount... or tries to place a trap. Because the game has difficultly determining what does what. R is for reloading and using potions, calling mounts, setting one of dozens of traps, throwing distraction rocks. Very dumb idea. Aloy gets tossed around like a fish out of water in this game compared to the first, so often times you'll be mid reload, get thrown around, and when you try to resume the reload by pressing R it will use up all of your potions, or call your mount, or try to set a trap. And this happens frequently.

I'm not sure why Aloy is so bad at fighting in this game. The first game played so much better and controlled so much better. Forbidden West isn't a bad game, I still find it good. But it makes me wonder what happened. They messed up a lot of simple things that worked so well in the first game. It isn't just her face they messed up.

Of course the story is not quite as interesting either but that is a given seeing it is a sequel. I still think it was good but it is clearly a regression from the previous game, and feels too Ubisoft like.

Will play the expansion later.

 

[Decko87]

The main problem is it looks a bit unnatural. Almost like her face is swollen in Forbidden West. I'm more or less done with the game now, finishing off secondary side quests or errands (smaller side quests) that I missed.

The game is quite clunky and the controls are quite bad. I don't remember having these issues with the first game. Thankfully the game is not that hard otherwise it would have been frustrating. Sometimes I want to reload my weapon but it calls a mount... or tries to place a trap. Because the game has difficultly determining what does what. R is for reloading and using potions, calling mounts, setting one of dozens of traps, throwing distraction rocks. Very dumb idea. Aloy gets tossed around like a fish out of water in this game compared to the first, so often times you'll be mid reload, get thrown around, and when you try to resume the reload by pressing R it will use up all of your potions, or call your mount, or try to set a trap. And this happens frequently.

I'm not sure why Aloy is so bad at fighting in this game. The first game played so much better and controlled so much better. Forbidden West isn't a bad game, I still find it good. But it makes me wonder what happened. They messed up a lot of simple things that worked so well in the first game. It isn't just her face they messed up.

Of course the story is not quite as interesting either but that is a given seeing it is a sequel. I still think it was good but it is clearly a regression from the previous game, and feels too Ubisoft like.

Will play the expansion later.

Man I haven't experience that at all, I have 0 complaints about how the game plays and handles. I think everything is an improvement over the original game except for the story. I'm flat out having more fun and mechanically it's a way better game for me. I think there is too much stuff (imo they could've just gotten rid of traps), but I love the gameplay.

 

[Flogger23m]

Man I haven't experience that at all, I have 0 complaints about how the game plays and handles. I think everything is an improvement over the original game except for the story. I'm flat out having more fun and mechanically it's a way better game for me. I think there is too much stuff (imo they could've just gotten rid of traps), but I love the gameplay.

They put too many options into one button. You have everything from three different healing options, to mount calling, to lures, to a least a dozen or more trap options, to reloading all mixed into one button. That is just poor UI/UX/control design. To switch one out in the middle of battle pulls up a little box that requires scrolling but the combat is real time and does not pause. They needed to replace the lower end versions of potions and traps to purge them from the options menu, and have the menu box bigger. If you get into combat and need to bring out a potion or trap it is more or less useless. Even the most basic of enemies can match your distance before you can select your option.

The result is I never use anything, except mounts and rocks before/out of combat. Because If you want to swap to something mid combat Aloy is thrown around like a fish out of water. All those options, yet they're useless in gameplay. Yeah you can press Q to heal with plants you collect which is the way I heal. The health potions get used 95% of the time the second I need to reload a weapon anyways even if I am at full health. I can have four health potions, be mid reload, and then have them all used at once. You don't need them. But it is just dumb and lazy design.

It is still fun. But compared to Horizon Zero Dawn the extra options are just not practical and the diversity of combat is much more limited.

 

[Decko87]

They put too many options into one button. You have everything from three different healing options, to mount calling, to lures, to a least a dozen or more trap options, to reloading all mixed into one button. That is just poor UI/UX/control design. To switch one out in the middle of battle pulls up a little box that requires scrolling but the combat is real time and does not pause. They needed to replace the lower end versions of potions and traps to purge them from the options menu, and have the menu box bigger. If you get into combat and need to bring out a potion or trap it is more or less useless. Even the most basic of enemies can match your distance before you can select your option.

The result is I never use anything, except mounts and rocks before/out of combat. Because If you want to swap to something mid combat Aloy is thrown around like a fish out of water. All those options, yet they're useless in gameplay. Yeah you can press Q to heal with plants you collect which is the way I heal. The health potions get used 95% of the time the second I need to reload a weapon anyways even if I am at full health. I can have four health potions, be mid reload, and then have them all used at once. You don't need them. But it is just dumb and lazy design.

It is still fun. But compared to Horizon Zero Dawn the extra options are just not practical and the diversity of combat is much more limited.

Yeah I don't agree with that at all, the weapons are far more useful in this game, and they're way better. The only real combat thing on bottom bar are the traps. I can do so much more in this game than I could in Zero Dawn becasue of how many types of weapons there are and they all have different behaviors. The weapon wheel, elements, skill tree, melee combat, actual weapons themselves and being able to combo different types of stun, etc. is so much more diverse and better imo. Zero Dawn isn't nearly as deep.

 

[Flogger23m]

Yeah I don't agree with that at all, the weapons are far more useful in this game, and they're way better. The only real combat thing on bottom bar are the traps. I can do so much more in this game than I could in Zero Dawn becasue of how many types of weapons there are and they all have different behaviors. The weapon wheel, elements, skill tree, melee combat, actual weapons themselves and being able to combo different types of stun, etc. is so much more diverse and better imo. Zero Dawn isn't nearly as deep.

The problem is a good 70-80% of those are useless. The resource gathering requirements are even worse in this game. So even if you get a new weapon it will be too under leveled to be useful. The resource gathering was one of the worst parts of Horizon Zero Dawn, and they made it a bigger factor in Forbidden West. Even if you get your weapons leveled up for the time being you will need to level them up further which requires knocking off certain parts. In turn, the game won't let you use the more fun and interesting things unless you want to be under leveled. You're going to use the one or two tear weapons you leveled up to get new specific machine parts. Even finishing up post game stuff I have only just barely scraped by with the appropriate parts and it took a concerted effort to gain them at the expense of using new weapons. They failed at creating a proper upgrade/progression path through natural gameplay.

The result is monotonous gameplay that actively discourages creativity and fun. sure, now most of my equipment is leveled up, but I have a handful of side quests and outposts to take out. The game is over right at the moment your weapons become properly useful. And post game is okay, you can finish off a few outposts that you didn't do but it is never as fun as the main game. Especially when you hear disjointed dialogue. Aloy commented on "new" discoveries she made after clearing an outpost regarding an enemy faction, piecing together what these new discoveries might mean. The problem is she already knows those answers as I finished the main story already. It was like Aloy made a brief moment of amnesia.

This isn't uncommon in open world games. The struggle is always to develop something that makes logical sense and allows you to progress both gameplay and story in a logical manner. Forbidden West dropped the ball on the progression/unlock aspect which was detrimental to the combat.

 

[Hershy]

The problem is a good 70-80% of those are useless. The resource gathering requirements are even worse in this game. So even if you get a new weapon it will be too under leveled to be useful. The resource gathering was one of the worst parts of Horizon Zero Dawn, and they made it a bigger factor in Forbidden West. Even if you get your weapons leveled up for the time being you will need to level them up further which requires knocking off certain parts. In turn, the game won't let you use the more fun and interesting things unless you want to be under leveled. You're going to use the one or two tear weapons you leveled up to get new specific machine parts. Even finishing up post game stuff I have only just barely scraped by with the appropriate parts and it took a concerted effort to gain them at the expense of using new weapons. They failed at creating a proper upgrade/progression path through natural gameplay.

The result is monotonous gameplay that actively discourages creativity and fun. sure, now most of my equipment is leveled up, but I have a handful of side quests and outposts to take out. The game is over right at the moment your weapons become properly useful. And post game is okay, you can finish off a few outposts that you didn't do but it is never as fun as the main game. Especially when you hear disjointed dialogue. Aloy commented on "new" discoveries she made after clearing an outpost regarding an enemy faction, piecing together what these new discoveries might mean. The problem is she already knows those answers as I finished the main story already. It was like Aloy made a brief moment of amnesia.

This isn't uncommon in open world games. The struggle is always to develop something that makes logical sense and allows you to progress both gameplay and story in a logical manner. Forbidden West dropped the ball on the progression/unlock aspect which was detrimental to the combat.

Did you try lowering the difficulty? It sounds like you didn’t like the balance?

 

[Hershy]

This thread really devolved. If you look at some the larger screenshots in this reply with Aloy's face in them, I think she looks stunning. She might not look incredible at all angels but she's hot. I'm fine with her character design, I think she looks great. Some people have rounder faces it's not necessarily a bad thing. She's super attractive either way.

In life… real life… are you attracted to… what’s the proper phrasing here… big ladies? Plus sized ladies? Weight-challenged ladies? Ladies of magnitude?

There’s nothing wrong with that… it’s just that most guys prefer their ladies skinny. Meaning that most would find young Aloy attractive, and old Aloy… um, beauty challenged.

 

[Decko87]

In life… real life… are you attracted to… what’s the proper phrasing here… big ladies? Plus sized ladies? Weight-challenged ladies? Ladies of magnitude?

There’s nothing wrong with that… it’s just that most guys prefer their ladies skinny. Meaning that most would find young Aloy attractive, and old Aloy… um, beauty challenged.

Are you brain dead? She's thin, bordering on muscular.

 

[Decko87]

The problem is a good 70-80% of those are useless. The resource gathering requirements are even worse in this game. So even if you get a new weapon it will be too under leveled to be useful. The resource gathering was one of the worst parts of Horizon Zero Dawn, and they made it a bigger factor in Forbidden West. Even if you get your weapons leveled up for the time being you will need to level them up further which requires knocking off certain parts. In turn, the game won't let you use the more fun and interesting things unless you want to be under leveled. You're going to use the one or two tear weapons you leveled up to get new specific machine parts. Even finishing up post game stuff I have only just barely scraped by with the appropriate parts and it took a concerted effort to gain them at the expense of using new weapons. They failed at creating a proper upgrade/progression path through natural gameplay.

The result is monotonous gameplay that actively discourages creativity and fun. sure, now most of my equipment is leveled up, but I have a handful of side quests and outposts to take out. The game is over right at the moment your weapons become properly useful. And post game is okay, you can finish off a few outposts that you didn't do but it is never as fun as the main game. Especially when you hear disjointed dialogue. Aloy commented on "new" discoveries she made after clearing an outpost regarding an enemy faction, piecing together what these new discoveries might mean. The problem is she already knows those answers as I finished the main story already. It was like Aloy made a brief moment of amnesia.

This isn't uncommon in open world games. The struggle is always to develop something that makes logical sense and allows you to progress both gameplay and story in a logical manner. Forbidden West dropped the ball on the progression/unlock aspect which was detrimental to the combat.

I never ran out of parts the entire game, you can buy them from vendors. You're supposed to mix and match damage types. And ways to restrict the enemies movement. You're also supposed to use the new, more robust melee system.

 

[SmokeRngs]

Are you brain dead? She's thin, bordering on muscular.

Her face sure isn't. Based on the changes in her face from the first to the second game it looks like she put on 40+ lbs. And had plastic surgery to make her jaw even bigger.

 

[Decko87]

Her face sure isn't. Based on the changes in her face from the first to the second game it looks like she put on 40+ lbs. And had plastic surgery to make her jaw even bigger.

I am once again, asking you to get your eyes checked. Cherry picking a photo here and there any then complaining about it is stupid. It's a completely normal, very attractive face.

 

[Sycraft]

So... I have to ask... Why are people here so worked up about little details of how the character looks? This seems like some extremely silly whining. Unless the character has some real jank design, why does it matter the details of how they look? Is it a good game that's fun to play? That's really what matters. I do not get all the Strum und Drang over how a videogame character looks.

 

[Flogger23m]

Did you try lowering the difficulty? It sounds like you didn’t like the balance?

No, because the game wasn't hard. Maybe on higher difficulty settings it is. The problem is the annoying and convoluted resource gathering. It requires very specific parts from very specific machines. Which means if you want to keep upgrading your weapons you need to use a weapon with a higher tear value to knock it off. So despite having some more gameplay options, realistically, you're going to use a few weapons. And primarily the tear weapon of your choice which is a bow. I remember the first game had more weapons that were not bows that also had very high tear values. That allowed a bit more diversity in gameplay.

I never ran out of parts the entire game, you can buy them from vendors. You're supposed to mix and match damage types. And ways to restrict the enemies movement. You're also supposed to use the new, more robust melee system.

Most vendors don't sell the parts, if they do they are limited to maybe 1-2 in quantity and you may need 2-4. They also don't tell you what they sell on the map, so you have to fast travel to every vendor looking for a specific part after browsing their catalog. You can mark the parts and it will show up when browsing their selection but IMO if a game requires constant fast traveling it pulls me out of the game and gets quite tiresome.

Take Slitherfang grinders for example. I need 4 of them, though in the story/side quests I've encountered maybe 4 of them total (one in the first mission). Every time a Slitherfang shows up, you essentially are forced to use a tear weapon. If you use explosives rare parts will be destroyed. If you use weapons with low tear, you'll kill them before you can tear them off and won't get said rare part.

In some cases I bought tier 4 or 5 weapons, but it was impossible through normal gameplay to upgrade them so they are better than my tier 3 weapons. As you clear the map more locations will show up showing the specific machine types, but you still need to go out of your way and you would have more or less finished most of the side quests/main quests. The first game had a much more natural upgrade/progression system.


As for Aloy's face, the problem is her lower face in some angles. It looks like she gained some pounds despite still being slim elsewhere. It isn't that bad though. Just a bit off and unnatural in some scenes. My main question is why they charged it from the first game. I cannot stand when they do that in games.

I still liked this game, I would probably give it something like a 7.9 / 10.