A great by-the-books game that hides its faults with pretty graphics.
I haven't actually 100% completed cos I'm not playing all those games of Machine Strike but I did get the platinum trophy which, I feel, is good enough.
And that, alone, is a pretty good indicator of how I feel about this game. I didn't think I would want to go for the platinum as I was skeptical about how good this could be but, after a while, I really sunk into this game. Unlike the first game, it gets more fun as it goes along.
Despite adding more combos and whatnot, the combat still feels repetitive after a while but it's still fun. The weapons in this game are also slightly better than the first game because I actually kept swapping them out towards the end instead of sticking with the same set the whole game. The weapon wheel however is still too cluttered. Having three different ammo types for every weapon can often make me select the wrong thing.
I liked the skill tree progression because it didn't feel incredibly generic. Overall, unlocking stuff felt more rewarding in this game than in the first. The D-pad scroll to select shit is still hell, though. That needs a rework cos I spent ages unequipping shit and moving it all around to be in a order that's practical for me.
What also needs a rework is the climbing and platforming. Holy shit, is this the worst the part of the game, holy fucking shit! Breath of the Wild was all like: "you can climb anything" while Zero Dawn was like: "there are these yellow nipples". So they try to be more like BotW in this but it's just horrible. I still opted to cheese my way up mountains by Bethesda-hopping. The yellow lines you climb on mountains seem randomly placed, Aloy gets stuck and just can't fucking move half the time so I have to jump off and it's just so slow as well. I don't care if it's realistic, I don't want to see this three second animation of Aloy leaping for a ledge, grabbing it and phasing through a wall before she decides to climb up. I just wanna climb.
The fact that these games take themselves so seriously is most probably the worst part of them. Once the mystery of the world is gone, it's significantly less interesting, so they bring in these goofy-ass thousand year old rich people to act as the bad guys and the way they end the story with them really isn't that great. They over-explain everything without actually saying anything of value. The amount of dialogue in this that's just so tedious and not necessary (I spent twenty minutes talking to GAIA about some shit I can't even remember). I get the impression they think they're creating some amazing world with their writing but they just give it too much. They attempt to push in two messages into the game (brave for a triple-A game, I know) but it’s executed quite poorly. I literally share the same views and it still got me rolling my eyes. Aloy at one point literally said something like “It’s almost like blind faith is bad or something.”. I agree with these messages but they’re so unsubtle.
Atleast, the voice acting was better, the facial expressions were a huge step-up and not every piece of dialogue was in awful shot/reverse shot. But, for some reason, every dialogue in this game ends with an awkward four second pause.
Aloy has no personality. I quite liked her in the first one but now she comes off as a really generic video game protagonist in this one. The way she talks to herself and interacts with others comes off as real cheesy and lame. I often talk to myself and therefore don’t find it weird but a lot of her solo dialogue is a thinly veiled way of saying “You fucking idiot game, you gotta do this” when, maybe, I wanna figure it out myself. Apparently, a criticism people had of the first one was the side characters. I thought their inclusion was tasteful as it was Aloy's story but clearly others didn't. This game feels far more like an 'Aloy & Friends' story which I didn't like as it felt quite by-the-numbers and they didn't even give them anything noteworthy to do. I quite liked Alva. I also liked the dynamic between Beta & Aloy but it was severely underdeveloped. It felt like there's a huge chunk from their relationship missing.
Side quests were actually really good and not a chore. Almost as engaging as the main story if not equal. I’m glad I’m the type of person who does all the side-quests before main ones. However there was one where you have to go to an island to save someone that bugged me. The world felt a lot more alive than the first but it’ still not great cos I checked out that island before the side-mission thinking there would be a secret there or something, but there was nothing and I was disappointed. A few days later, I find a side-quest that tells me to go there and, surprise! There’s a person there now. I wish I could just go there on my volition and find the guy. Instead of being told to like I’m playing a Rockstar game.
But yeah, I surprisingly got really into it which I was not expecting cos I thought I was done with exhausting open world games. But, I guess not. I had a lot of fun getting the platinum and doing the main story. The map is easily explorable with a good quantity of stuff to do. And, wow. Is it beautfiful. I may be against hyper-realistic graphics because, ya know, it's a fucking video game but just wow. I've spent so much time in photo mode. Zero Dawn was the nicest looking game I had ever played but now this takes it.
Overall, gameplay-wise: it's better than the first. Writing-wise: about the same, I reckon.
But, it's a good entry level game as you don't really need to play the first either. If I’m still alive when the third one comes out, I’ll probably pick it up even though the franchise would’ve lost its steam by then.
There's just some stuff sprinkled in here that makes you forget this is a triple-A game.
~ Aforementioned climbing
~ Mounts don't jump down a little 2cm high rock
~ Sunwing too slow and when you boost, there's a blur effect that just suddenly appears and disappears which is really jarring.
~ Why do I have to hold triangle EVERY FUCKING TIME I WANT TO LOOT SOMETHING.
~ I turned on the feature so you can just press square to activate the Sheildwing but it's quite clunky cos it will deploy even when I don't want it to (BotW paraglider is so much better)
~ Time of day randomly changes (typically in the desert from midnight to mid-day)
~ Will just get a black screen for two seconds when it loads
~ Occasionally get a glitch where I can't use melee attacks and need to restart the game.
Good game, glad I got my second ever platinum for it. I might go back and actually 100% one day. I appreciate it made me feel like a dumb twelve year old again.
I think that’s most of what I had to say.
I haven't actually 100% completed cos I'm not playing all those games of Machine Strike but I did get the platinum trophy which, I feel, is good enough.
And that, alone, is a pretty good indicator of how I feel about this game. I didn't think I would want to go for the platinum as I was skeptical about how good this could be but, after a while, I really sunk into this game. Unlike the first game, it gets more fun as it goes along.
Despite adding more combos and whatnot, the combat still feels repetitive after a while but it's still fun. The weapons in this game are also slightly better than the first game because I actually kept swapping them out towards the end instead of sticking with the same set the whole game. The weapon wheel however is still too cluttered. Having three different ammo types for every weapon can often make me select the wrong thing.
I liked the skill tree progression because it didn't feel incredibly generic. Overall, unlocking stuff felt more rewarding in this game than in the first. The D-pad scroll to select shit is still hell, though. That needs a rework cos I spent ages unequipping shit and moving it all around to be in a order that's practical for me.
What also needs a rework is the climbing and platforming. Holy shit, is this the worst the part of the game, holy fucking shit! Breath of the Wild was all like: "you can climb anything" while Zero Dawn was like: "there are these yellow nipples". So they try to be more like BotW in this but it's just horrible. I still opted to cheese my way up mountains by Bethesda-hopping. The yellow lines you climb on mountains seem randomly placed, Aloy gets stuck and just can't fucking move half the time so I have to jump off and it's just so slow as well. I don't care if it's realistic, I don't want to see this three second animation of Aloy leaping for a ledge, grabbing it and phasing through a wall before she decides to climb up. I just wanna climb.
The fact that these games take themselves so seriously is most probably the worst part of them. Once the mystery of the world is gone, it's significantly less interesting, so they bring in these goofy-ass thousand year old rich people to act as the bad guys and the way they end the story with them really isn't that great. They over-explain everything without actually saying anything of value. The amount of dialogue in this that's just so tedious and not necessary (I spent twenty minutes talking to GAIA about some shit I can't even remember). I get the impression they think they're creating some amazing world with their writing but they just give it too much. They attempt to push in two messages into the game (brave for a triple-A game, I know) but it’s executed quite poorly. I literally share the same views and it still got me rolling my eyes. Aloy at one point literally said something like “It’s almost like blind faith is bad or something.”. I agree with these messages but they’re so unsubtle.
Atleast, the voice acting was better, the facial expressions were a huge step-up and not every piece of dialogue was in awful shot/reverse shot. But, for some reason, every dialogue in this game ends with an awkward four second pause.
Aloy has no personality. I quite liked her in the first one but now she comes off as a really generic video game protagonist in this one. The way she talks to herself and interacts with others comes off as real cheesy and lame. I often talk to myself and therefore don’t find it weird but a lot of her solo dialogue is a thinly veiled way of saying “You fucking idiot game, you gotta do this” when, maybe, I wanna figure it out myself. Apparently, a criticism people had of the first one was the side characters. I thought their inclusion was tasteful as it was Aloy's story but clearly others didn't. This game feels far more like an 'Aloy & Friends' story which I didn't like as it felt quite by-the-numbers and they didn't even give them anything noteworthy to do. I quite liked Alva. I also liked the dynamic between Beta & Aloy but it was severely underdeveloped. It felt like there's a huge chunk from their relationship missing.
Side quests were actually really good and not a chore. Almost as engaging as the main story if not equal. I’m glad I’m the type of person who does all the side-quests before main ones. However there was one where you have to go to an island to save someone that bugged me. The world felt a lot more alive than the first but it’ still not great cos I checked out that island before the side-mission thinking there would be a secret there or something, but there was nothing and I was disappointed. A few days later, I find a side-quest that tells me to go there and, surprise! There’s a person there now. I wish I could just go there on my volition and find the guy. Instead of being told to like I’m playing a Rockstar game.
But yeah, I surprisingly got really into it which I was not expecting cos I thought I was done with exhausting open world games. But, I guess not. I had a lot of fun getting the platinum and doing the main story. The map is easily explorable with a good quantity of stuff to do. And, wow. Is it beautfiful. I may be against hyper-realistic graphics because, ya know, it's a fucking video game but just wow. I've spent so much time in photo mode. Zero Dawn was the nicest looking game I had ever played but now this takes it.
Overall, gameplay-wise: it's better than the first. Writing-wise: about the same, I reckon.
But, it's a good entry level game as you don't really need to play the first either. If I’m still alive when the third one comes out, I’ll probably pick it up even though the franchise would’ve lost its steam by then.
There's just some stuff sprinkled in here that makes you forget this is a triple-A game.
~ Aforementioned climbing
~ Mounts don't jump down a little 2cm high rock
~ Sunwing too slow and when you boost, there's a blur effect that just suddenly appears and disappears which is really jarring.
~ Why do I have to hold triangle EVERY FUCKING TIME I WANT TO LOOT SOMETHING.
~ I turned on the feature so you can just press square to activate the Sheildwing but it's quite clunky cos it will deploy even when I don't want it to (BotW paraglider is so much better)
~ Time of day randomly changes (typically in the desert from midnight to mid-day)
~ Will just get a black screen for two seconds when it loads
~ Occasionally get a glitch where I can't use melee attacks and need to restart the game.
Good game, glad I got my second ever platinum for it. I might go back and actually 100% one day. I appreciate it made me feel like a dumb twelve year old again.
I think that’s most of what I had to say.