I have a complicated relationship with this game, or rather the base game. When I played it almost three years ago (how the fuck), I had a very mixed and conflicting experience with it. One day I'd get on and play for a few hours, loving every second of it. Then the next day, I'd hate every second. It was very bizarre and unique, as with most open world games there is a bit of a hurdle to get over and then it's just a smooth ride of gameplay loop. Yet, with Horizon Zero Dawn, I never really found that comfort point. Some of the issues I have with the game are seemingly small and nitpicky, but they all really combined to just get under my skin in a way not many other games have.
For starters, I fucking hate the camera so much. In most games, you'll have a fixed camera with the player on the left or the center of the screen; here, it's fluid, meaning that it can change and just go anywhere at any time. That sounds kind of neat, but in execution it's one of the most frustrating and distracting features of any game I've ever played. The only way to "fix" it is to aim or use your focus, which only interrupts you for a few seconds, but it's just not needed. To be fair, I recall Alan Wake having a similar way of angling the camera, but I guess it didn't bother me so much in that game because the FOV was far superior and it wouldn't just move on its own while you're playing, from memory. Whoever thought it was a good idea to shrink the FOV when you're inside a building or a camp has some explaining to do. Also, the waypoint marker is awful, though that isn't unique to just this game. And jumping is also very lackluster, but mainly that camera thing.
Despite those issues that did mostly persist, and some very questionable mission design that had me stumped, I would say I enjoyed this more than the base game. Not to say that it's great, especially since most of the fun I had here was actually with the side missions and collectables of the base game, so I guess I just didn't really enjoy the main quest. Not surprising, as I feel open-world games aren't really known for their great stories, especially ones that rely on urgency but also give you the freedom to fuck off for 200 hours to play a card game. Traversing this world is just very boring and it has the all-too-common issue of being too damn big, for me at least. But even with those caveats, I was able to have fun and I can't really explain why. Something just clicked and when I was left to my own devices, I enjoyed it. And I guess that's the beauty of the open-world game, the freedom and ability to do it your way, or at the very least the illusion to do it your way since it's a game made by people and everything you can do was already thought up and programmed by them, but they don't want you to know that.
So overall, it's fine. I'm sure I'd enjoy the main campaign on a second playthrough, but I can't say I will get around to that any time soon; it's also possible that because I played this game at a tumultuous moment in my life, some of those external feelings and my general mood leaked its way into my time with the game.. or maybe it's just wank. There's just something very off-putting about this game that I can't quite put into words. As NerdCubed once said, "It's a game that does everything very well, but does absolutely nothing new so I don't care about it," or something to that effect, what does it matter. It excels in areas that I suppose I just don't really care about. The game overwhelms me with a plethora of options and weapons and different modifications for those weapons and I just simply can't be arsed most of the time. Idk.
For starters, I fucking hate the camera so much. In most games, you'll have a fixed camera with the player on the left or the center of the screen; here, it's fluid, meaning that it can change and just go anywhere at any time. That sounds kind of neat, but in execution it's one of the most frustrating and distracting features of any game I've ever played. The only way to "fix" it is to aim or use your focus, which only interrupts you for a few seconds, but it's just not needed. To be fair, I recall Alan Wake having a similar way of angling the camera, but I guess it didn't bother me so much in that game because the FOV was far superior and it wouldn't just move on its own while you're playing, from memory. Whoever thought it was a good idea to shrink the FOV when you're inside a building or a camp has some explaining to do. Also, the waypoint marker is awful, though that isn't unique to just this game. And jumping is also very lackluster, but mainly that camera thing.
Despite those issues that did mostly persist, and some very questionable mission design that had me stumped, I would say I enjoyed this more than the base game. Not to say that it's great, especially since most of the fun I had here was actually with the side missions and collectables of the base game, so I guess I just didn't really enjoy the main quest. Not surprising, as I feel open-world games aren't really known for their great stories, especially ones that rely on urgency but also give you the freedom to fuck off for 200 hours to play a card game. Traversing this world is just very boring and it has the all-too-common issue of being too damn big, for me at least. But even with those caveats, I was able to have fun and I can't really explain why. Something just clicked and when I was left to my own devices, I enjoyed it. And I guess that's the beauty of the open-world game, the freedom and ability to do it your way, or at the very least the illusion to do it your way since it's a game made by people and everything you can do was already thought up and programmed by them, but they don't want you to know that.
So overall, it's fine. I'm sure I'd enjoy the main campaign on a second playthrough, but I can't say I will get around to that any time soon; it's also possible that because I played this game at a tumultuous moment in my life, some of those external feelings and my general mood leaked its way into my time with the game.. or maybe it's just wank. There's just something very off-putting about this game that I can't quite put into words. As NerdCubed once said, "It's a game that does everything very well, but does absolutely nothing new so I don't care about it," or something to that effect, what does it matter. It excels in areas that I suppose I just don't really care about. The game overwhelms me with a plethora of options and weapons and different modifications for those weapons and I just simply can't be arsed most of the time. Idk.