** Official Horizon: Forbidden West Complete Edition Thread **

Caporegime
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First was a 9/10 for me, Forbidden West maybe a 7.5 max. It was still worth playing but the storyline was worse.

To be fair most of the score for the original came from the storyline, which for me personally was excellent. That also explains why I never could complete a second play through as the gameplay was actually quite generic.
Really it was the backstory of Horizon Zero Dawn that was so good.

The actual story wasn't all that.
 
Soldato
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Anyone who's played this on PS5 (mainly the DLC) perhaps could answer my question?


Have we seen one of these actually moving yet? I've not played the DLC for Horizon II so not sure whether they had one in that.
Oh yes! (not saying at which point!)

The game doesn’t match the story of HZD but since it’s a trilogy, you get more of it and your questions answered from the first game. The lore is superb and remains so here, combat isn’t so good as has been mentioned but there’s a lot more pros than cons put it that way.
 
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TNA

TNA

Caporegime
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Controls are fine iirc, they made combat a bit more complex. There’s a million bow types now so expect some inventory management/juggling.

I like inventory management. Started that addiction from Resi games from the 90's :cry:

I really enjoy it when done right.
 
Man of Honour
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Just reinstalled HZD to see if I can feel compelled to continue from the 13 hours I already put into it before stopping due to the tediousness of the game . I figured I'd check nexus mods to see if there are any graphical mods available to increase textures etc, nothing, but loads and loads of Aloy mods. many (many) chubby Aloy that mods I decided enough was enough and can't be bothered lol.

Uninstalled :o
 
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Soldato
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Just reinstalled HZD to see if I can feel compelled to continue from the 13 hours I already put into it before stopping due to the tediousness of the game . I figured I'd check nexus mods to see if there are any graphical mods available to increase textures etc, nothing, but loads and loads of Aloy mods. t was at chubby Aloy that I decided enough was enough and can't be bothered lol.

Uninstalled :o

Chubbyhater.
 
Caporegime
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Disappointed to hear FW isn't up to the same standard as the first - agreed that the storyline was definitely what "made" the game for me as well. Will still pick it up, but think I agree with @TNA and will wait for the price to drop a bit (and give them a chance to iron out all the bugs :p)
As well as the story for FW being super bad (have to disagree that it was just OK - it was positively awful).. FW also suffers from needing to be be "morerer" in every way over ZD. And some of the additions really aren't welcome, where I'm sitting.

1. The stupid board game. Would be OK if they hadn't locked skill points behind completing the board game tournament. Ugh.
2. The extra elements like acid that really don't do anything, except force you to have more equipment.
3. The added grinding, which they dialled up to max on everything. Want that nice weapon upgraded? Feel free to grind out 10 rare spawn machines until you get the drop you need. Oh and not just once, oh no. Once per weapon level. So you need 30 rare spawn machines for the best version of it... Just, no.
3b. The extra grinding for machine overrides. Just doing a cauldron is no longer sufficient, now you need to do a cauldron AND hunt 10 rare spawn machines for that drop you need.. Joy!
4. The arena. Now you have equipment locked behind a monster battling arena and online ranking and all that crap. Ugh.
5. The special abilities and the super Sayan charging mechanic. Want to fight a monster normally? Yeah, tough luck. To beat them now you need to charge your power level during the fight so you can do a super Sayan special move that tips the fight in your favour. Otherwise all monsters are now bullet sponges and your regular attacks don't cut it. Freaking hated that.

So yeah, the story is pants, and the "morerer" stuff they added really failed to hit the mark, for me.

e: Almost forgot! Moar grinding! The various ammo types for your weapons now need you to farm machines for materials that are often really quite hard to get. Replacing the crafting from the first one which was fairly light in its demands, with "you must farm for hours to have the materials to make your ammo."

So you see, they asked themselves, "How do you turn a 60 hour game into a 600 hour game?" And the answer they came up with was, "60 hours of gameplay and 540 hours of grinding! That's what players want!"
 
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Caporegime
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Another thing and then I'll shut up :p

In ZD you had a bow, and as far as I can remember you could fire all types of ammo that you had acquired.

In FW, this is no longer the case. One bow can fire normal arrows and fire arrows. One can fire normal and ice. One can fire ice and acid, but not normal.

One can fire normal only, but gets a bonus when fired from stealth.

One can fire normal and acid, and gets a bonus vs air. Or bonus at range, or...

Now the stupid thing is that Aloy can carry unlimited numbers of weapons and outfits. Changing them is only a matter of going to the menu and swapping them out. There is no inventory management for weapons and armour (but there is for ammo and crafting resources... eh?) Whilst you can only carry three tortoise noses at any one time, Aloy can carry 29 sets of armour, 15 bows, 10 boltcasters, 13 slings, 8 spears... you get the point.

So what was the point in having all these different bows that can only fire certain types of ammo... And how does that even make sense? Does your bow say to you, "Sorry Dave, I can't let you do that" when you try to string up a normal arrow and it takes fire arrows only...
 

TNA

TNA

Caporegime
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Just reinstalled HZD to see if I can feel compelled to continue from the 13 hours I already put into it before stopping due to the tediousness of the game . I figured I'd check nexus mods to see if there are any graphical mods available to increase textures etc, nothing, but loads and loads of Aloy mods. many (many) chubby Aloy that mods I decided enough was enough and can't be bothered lol.

Uninstalled :o

Lol. The things that bother you, honestly :cry:
 
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As well as the story for FW being super bad (have to disagree that it was just OK - it was positively awful).. FW also suffers from needing to be be "morerer" in every way over ZD. And some of the additions really aren't welcome, where I'm sitting.

1. The stupid board game. Would be OK if they hadn't locked skill points behind completing the board game tournament. Ugh.
2. The extra elements like acid that really don't do anything, except force you to have more equipment.
3. The added grinding, which they dialled up to max on everything. Want that nice weapon upgraded? Feel free to grind out 10 rare spawn machines until you get the drop you need. Oh and not just once, oh no. Once per weapon level. So you need 30 rare spawn machines for the best version of it... Just, no.
3b. The extra grinding for machine overrides. Just doing a cauldron is no longer sufficient, now you need to do a cauldron AND hunt 10 rare spawn machines for that drop you need.. Joy!
4. The arena. Now you have equipment locked behind a monster battling arena and online ranking and all that crap. Ugh.
5. The special abilities and the super Sayan charging mechanic. Want to fight a monster normally? Yeah, tough luck. To beat them now you need to charge your power level during the fight so you can do a super Sayan special move that tips the fight in your favour. Otherwise all monsters are now bullet sponges and your regular attacks don't cut it. Freaking hated that.

So yeah, the story is pants, and the "morerer" stuff they added really failed to hit the mark, for me.

e: Almost forgot! Moar grinding! The various ammo types for your weapons now need you to farm machines for materials that are often really quite hard to get. Replacing the crafting from the first one which was fairly light in its demands, with "you must farm for hours to have the materials to make your ammo."

So you see, they asked themselves, "How do you turn a 60 hour game into a 600 hour game?" And the answer they came up with was, "60 hours of gameplay and 540 hours of grinding! That's what players want!"
Huh? Finished this on the PS4 straight after the first game, didn't have to do manditory board games? Maybe once in a tutorial? But I can't even remember this even being a thing? Nor what they even look like/are haha, let alone a requirement. So can't of been manditory, or it would have annoyed me as well and I'd remember holding a grudge against it.

Yeah the bow stuff is stupid, totally agree, having to upgrade all of them or despite having the element required for a certain enemy, if that bow is weak it'll take you years to kill it, and you'll have run out of arrows long before them, you also can never carry enough of the ones that matter.

Have no idea what you're talking about regards a monster arena or stuff being locked to it? I played it offline on my PS4, so maybe it doesn't appear/effect the game offline?

IIRC I did it in 34 or 36 hours... No 600 hours for me, just took longer to do some bosses with my lack of weapon skill points. That's about it. They definitely made it a lot harder in places, I'll agree with that, the first is better than the 2nd but the 2nd has some awesome bits, like the shuttle bit... IDK if I prefer the first more as a placebo, because it's the first one you play, kind of thing? Then having to do it all again on a sequel is less unique, as with the Ass Creed games?
 
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Caporegime
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@keef247 Not mandatory (board game and arena) just skill points and gear locked behind them.

The gear doesn't bother me so much but having combat effectiveness (via skill points) gated behind a board game tournament? Bonkers.

It's truly amazing that in Aloy's frantic and time-critical bid to save the world, she has time to enter a board game tournament. And that the people starving because of blight and machine attacks have decided it's OK for members of their community to dedicate themselves to playing a board game.

And it's a naff board game to add insult to injury :p And requires you to hunt down the more powerful pieces hidden in the world (think chess but you have to obtain the Queen before you can use it, but your opponent has all their pieces from the get go).

The whole thing is just a time sink. Again, this is how they've decided to add "morerer" gameplay - timesinks and grinding.

You *can* avoid the whole thing, but then you miss out on those skill points. Does it matter? If you're playing on V.Hard as I did, every little helps.

Pro tip: Don't play on V.Hard. It just makes grinding more painful. (A number of threads on Reddit suggest grinding on Story mode and then bumping the difficulty back up to do the quests, but I'm too stubborn to do that...)
 
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@keef247 Not mandatory (board game and arena) just skill points and gear locked behind them.

The gear doesn't bother me so much but having combat effectiveness (via skill points) gated behind a board game tournament? Bonkers.

It's truly amazing that in Aloy's frantic and time-critical bid to save the world, she has time to enter a board game tournament. And that the people starving because of blight and machine attacks have decided it's OK for members of their community to dedicate themselves to playing a board game.

And it's a naff board game to add insult to injury :p And requires you to hunt down the more powerful pieces hidden in the world (think chess but you have to obtain the Queen before you can use it, but your opponent has all their pieces from the get go).

The whole thing is just a time sink. Again, this is how they've decided to add "morerer" gameplay - timesinks and grinding.

You *can* avoid the whole thing, but then you miss out on those skill points. Does it matter? If you're playing on V.Hard as I did, every little helps.

Pro tip: Don't play on V.Hard. It just makes grinding more painful. (A number of threads on Reddit suggest grinding on Story mode and then bumping the difficulty back up to do the quests, but I'm too stubborn to do that...)
It's vaguely ringing a bell. I just remember the new layout for stuff in the menu when leveling up was different, I think you're twigging it, I just thought it was more a layout change then making you play a board game?
If I've remembered it wrong then my bad mate, at least that means it didn't annoy me - as any kind of hindrance to drag/pad stuff out usually annoys me haha!

Board game tournaments really aren't ringing a bell, maybe I missed them completely, whoops :D:cry:

Well she's an empowered woman, so ofcourse she has time, are you saying a bloke wouldn't ;) :cry: I kid I kid! Yeah that does sound ridiculous, which means it must have been optional as I certainly would have been in total agreement with you if that was mandatory and would have been fuming, that'd explain why some stuff was a bit harder than the first as I was using crapper spec stat'ed weapons haha!

That literally sounds like pure aids, yep I'm basically 90% sure I never even played 1 board game now, definitely must be mandatory, thank god!

It could be worse though my brother, it could be Postman Man Simulator Death Stranding... Then we both wouldn't be here typing this and would have committed suicide instead :D
 
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Associate
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Zero Dawn and DLC was excellent, recommended both to my 15 year old son and he really enjoyed them - looking forward to Forbidden West. Tried to stay away from any YT videos and have told friends to not tell my any storyline at all on PS.
 
Man of Honour
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What's the Zero Dawn DLC and is it on PC?

Edit* I have the Complete Edition so have the expansion :o

I actually forgot how nice HZD looked, I was replaying an old save (13 hours progress) before I got bored last time I fired it up properly with a 2070 Super, but this time round I started a fresh new game and wow it's actually really nice.

Just like ratchet & Clank, the control mechanics feel natural once you learn what buttons are what. I also didn't have the XM2we mouse back then so was using 125Hz polling rate of the MX Master 3 which isn't a great gaming experience for light and instant mouse movement response. I think the reason I got bored previously was because of the 2070 Super's inability to really get the best out of how smooth this game is and quick you can be with reactions. At +60fps which is what I was getting before on the 2070 Super at 3440x1440, it was fine but really wasn't what I would call buttery smooth like it is now. I also had a 60Hz ultrawide then too so didn't really know what I was missing out on. Even the 3080 Ti wasn't getting the full effect really whereas the 4090 is just delivering an average fps over 120 at GSync 5160x2160 lol. I'm using DLSS Quality for the AA and sharpness benefits.

Gives me a game to casually complete until the next new release!
 
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