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I’m finally playing Horizon: Zero Dawn and I badly wish this came out in 2016. I like this more than Witcher 3 through a few hours and it’s doing so much so well, but everything after BotW feels dated now and that, you know, came out the same month.
Although I fully endorse adventure RPGs with original characters as protagonists! This should be the standard! Create-a-characters stink for these types of games!
I’ll say that I know people who like this more than Breath of the Wild and, while that has has extremely not been my reaction, I absolutely get why you would. It’s just opening up but so far this game nails the rulebook it’s given, and better than more acclaimed games.
My other big Horizon: Zero Dawn take is that every horse in every game feels terrible! Breath of the Wild is better at this after making it a point of emphasis but horse combat is still bad in that game! Both games emphasize spears and bows, the two weapons that you use on horses
Just once I would like a game to consider that sometimes you will be fighting things on horseback and make horses dominant over infantry! Just once. Every open world game set before 1920 has horses as a major mechanic and horses are famously good for fighting!
I do not want to be a game designer because it is a famously terrible job but I do want to find a game designer and tell them to re-orient their game around 1. Giving the main character more friends and giving those friends meaning 2. Fighting on horses. End of list.
Okay, last thing before I inevitably get back to this thread every afternoon this week (feel free to mute now!): I do not like the extremely 2015 heavy HUD, but I do like the plot integration that it's effectively Aloy's individual power! Big fan of plot reasons for mechanics!
