Gameplay reveal! during a live event:
It’s about 10 minutes of actual play, repeated, with intro and outro by studio staff. Can’t tell exactly how far into the game’s story this is, but seems to be a fair way, so there are mild spoilers if you care about that sort of thing.
Lord, it looks pretty.
Bumping my own thread because we’re on the doorstep of the release, and there’s now a hands-on gameplay video.
It’s not a review and it’s not even really journalism because we know these sites’ relationship with AAA titles and studios, but still, there’s a lot to see here.
Loved Zero Dawn and can’t wait for this.
I’m just sad that I’ll be waiting years for it to be ported to PC. I only became aware of Zero Dawn in the last year, and found the process of uncovering the future history absolutely wondrous. I am not, however, buying a Playstation just for one game.
I can’t remember when I’ve been this excited for a game. I recently replayed Zero Dawn and I was reminded why it’s probably my favorite game.
I’m pretty excited for this one. I don’t do a lot of gaming and miss a lot of the AAA titles and the interesting efforts from smaller studios as I just don’t have the time. But I’ll be sure to play this. I just hope that I can snag a PS5 in time.
Edit: I’ll add that I am concerned about the line that “combat is more complex.” I never have really gotten on with games that require learning a bunch of combos. The most recent God of War ended up frustrating me for just that reason.
An FYI for anybody planning on getting this:
I’ll probably bring a trade-in to Gamestop and pick it up this weekend, assuming it’s in stock. The early reviews are extremely favorable and mostly report that H:FW does everything H:ZD did, but better.
My thoughts about the original was that it did everything very well, but no single component of the game was groundbreaking. The phenomenal thing about H:ZD was that it really did do everything well.
So I’m pretty excited to see how they’ve iterated on existing systems. This game is the entire reason I bought a PS5 at retail when the opportunity presented itself back in September.
Got it today(on PS4), finished the tutorial mission, just started on main questline, loving it. Everything I loved about H:ZD but better, so far. Most noticeably, the animation of people, but the pullcaster’s nice, too.
Ugh. If combat is based on reflexes, accuracy and tactical thinking then I’m fine, but don’t make me memorize key combinations - my mind just doesn’t work that way.
FWIW, I’m a couple dozen hours into the game. After exploring some of the skill tree and the extended combat options, I have tentatively concluded that all the new fancy weapons and combos are not at all mandatory. As far as I can tell, it’s entirely possible to play (and beat?) the game without memorizing “R1+L2+(wait a moment to prime)+O to detonate” like in God of War, or anything like that; all the standard weapons and conventional attacks, including melee, still function basically the way they did in the first game. It feels like the extra stuff is there if you want it, if you want to explore different options and develop a more personal style of combat, but you can also stick to the tried-and-true basics if you prefer.
Remains to be seen if that holds true for the rest of the game, but that’s the impression I’m forming.
Super cool, thanks for the info. I’m headed to Italy later this week so I’m holding off on getting started. I just know if I dig in now, when I get back I’ll be dead lost.
I saw someone propose a flow for these kinds of games where if it detects that you haven’t played in a few weeks, it triggers a ‘reminder’ sequence about the mission you’re on, what the controls are, etc. I could use that as it’s not uncommon for me to not have time to play for an extended period. That was really my failing in God of War. I just don’t remember what I was doing.
Hoping to finally get a PS5 before I start, too. That appears to still be semi-impossible.
I don’t know if it’s still a thing, but I got mine by signing up for the Playstation mass-marketing email list. After several months I got an invite to purchase one directly from Sony.
There is a difference between the PS4 and PS5 versions regarding the resolution and frame rate. If you have a PS5 and a 4K TV, it’s worth the extra cash for the 60 Hz 4K settings on the PS5. Regarding the combat, besides my general problem with this sort of gameplay, I’ve had the biggest problem using the new “Resonator blast” ability, which requires doing a bunch of melee attacks and then hitting a specific spot on an enemy with a ranged attack. I enjoy it a lot more when I can go stealthy with either sneak melee attacks or long range attacks with the powerful bow. Or sometimes nothing but traps. I’ve never liked being in the scrum and feeling like I’m just doing a bunch of button mashing feeling like I’m doing it wrong somehow.
I loved Horizon Zero Dawn, and after completion, added the Frozen Wilds (Is that what it was called?) expansion, and COULD NOT win the boss fight. A lovely game, and a touching hero storyline. But sheesh, I found some of the battles frustrating due to thoughtful strategy requirements, which I guess I lack.
Thanks. I’ve been on that list for a few weeks now with no invite yet, but I understand that there’s two invite only sales supposedly happening this week. Fingers crossed.
Agreed.
And in any case, once I purchased the trusty old Sharpshot bow, I fell back into my standard sniping strategy from H:ZD.
Waiting for the pc version is gonna be tough.
If you’re referring to the Fireclaw in the last cauldron, I also found that fight terribly frustrating. I died a dozen times without feeling like I was making any progress. The Fireclaw is too fast, too powerful, and the combat space is too constrained. I felt I was hitting a wall.
Then I remembered the ropecaster. I had mentally compartmentalized it for flying machines, which is why it hadn’t previously occurred to me. Not knowing what else to do, I gave it a shot, and it made a huge difference, basically pushing a pause button on the Fireclaw’s otherwise unbroken attack cycles. It still wasn’t a piece of cake or anything, but tying down the Fireclaw was the only way to make a dent.
It’s worth a shot, if you want to go back to it.
So I’m maybe a dozen hours into the game. I’m taking it pretty slow, not necessarily trying to be a completionist but not rushing to each main quest. I did beeline for the first cauldron as soon as the game stopped warning me that I was underleveled (I did appreciate that, actually).
Overall, I think the game is “more of the same” in the best possible sense. Everything feels great and responsive and the graphics are undeniably gorgeous. The combat feels similar, but I haven’t even begun to touch the various elemental bits. There seems to be a lot of depth if you’re willing to spend time tinkering with your loadout for synergies. For example, I found a merchant (early on and in a hub, so not a spoiler I think) selling a ropecaster that shoots canisters with your choice of element, which you then have to detonate with a bow shooting that same element type. Then there are the outfits - I’ve seen at least five different outfit ‘archetypes,’ and they have different stats even within the archetypes.
It seems like the game would benefit from the ability to create multiple loadouts so that I could have a “machine assassin” loadout, a “human brawler” loadout, etc.
The most impressive part of the game is absolutely the character models; I’ve never seen CGI characters with such evocative and realistic facial expressions. It seems like they skirted the uncanny valley by not trying to make the models photorealistic - they’re obviously CGI, but they’re phenomenal CGI.
It’s been five years since I played the last game, so I don’t recall - has the costume design gotten way more goofy? Lots of wildly impractical headgear and huge sleeves not connected to anything.
…no.
Sure. but here he is now:
Definitely more tchotchkes and doodads, and a MUCH less practical hat.