Tag: Horizon Zero Dawn

Horizon Zero Dawn Allows Time For Reflection

After fighting for survival, playing Horizon Zero Dawn continues to be emotionally exhausting, now I may be in a majority here. But I tend to get emotional with most games I play. I’ll cry if something sad happens, I’ll get mad along with the main character and I’ll want revenge if given the chance. In my mind, I don’t see a point in playing a campaign if you’re not going to hunker down and invest yourself. It just makes everything way more fun and allows you to become a part of the world. Heck, it’s the primary reason I made this site, to express my feelings and thoughts alongside my gameplay videos.

We start with a scene of mourning as everyone came around to pay respects to the fallen in The Proving. It’s a slightly sad walk down the road, it’s kinda cathartic in away. It gives you ample time to process everything that just transpired for poor Aloy. This is what Horizon Zero Dawn excels at, making something happen but allowing you time to disgust it. Let’s analyze things real fast; Rost died, everyone else at The Proving died, Aloy is now a seeker, wow that was fast.

Alright Just Never Let Your Guard down in Horizon Zero Dawn

We run in Teb by the gate we’re trying to leave through just for a little recap on everything that has transpired. Anyway time to leave but first we have to get that gate open. Unfortunately, to open the gate we need Resh to order it open, he was the guy that was in charge of the first part of The Proving. Of course, he is completely unhelpful and really rude after learning that Aloy is now a Seeker. I decide to air on the side of intelligence and outwit him which was a reasonable move. I just didn’t want to incite more violence, there was enough of that lately.

Just as soon as we’re about to butt heads a new machine comes out of nowhere and sends out so bad mojo. I’d imagine it’s being controlled by someone with a focus, but basically, it’s taking control of the other machines. This is bad, like really bad; super amazingly bad. The machines rushed the gate and we had to be ready for one hell of a fight. Of course, I blow the beginning by not trapping the spot right in front of the door. Man, I felt so dumb cause this disrupted everything after the gate was torn open.

Defending the Village from the New Threat as All Hell Breaks Loose

From this point its just a fight to stave off the oncoming horde of machinery. I did not handle this fight exceptionally well, I felt very underprepared. Now I’m not to say that it felt cheap I just don’t think I handled it all that well. While the not big scary machines went down with little to no problem the new menace was a whole different story. No matter what arrow I used it didn’t seem to matter much when trying to do damage. Regular arrows weren’t worth it, fire arrows just felt worthless and the TripCaster was no help at all. Any attempt at going in for a melee attack just ended with me thrown around with a big chunk of health taken off.

The only recourse I had was to keep my distance and just take its health down bit by bit. Now I do realize that I could have been more calculated and taken off his body parts with some good strikes. However, amid battle, it was way too intense and it moved way to fast for me to even think about it. Let alone pull it off with my awful aim. In the end, I just kept my distance, dodged his long-range attack, and whittle its health down till it died. It felt like a long time even though it wasn’t a very long battle. After taking it down we retrieve the part is was using to control the other machines and add it to our arsenal.

O’ Brother Where Art Thou

Now Aloy thinks we can control the machines herself with the thing we pulled from the machine. So we gotta test this theory out. However, before we get the chance I hear a voice in the distance who needs assistance. Turns out Olara needs help finding her brother, thankfully as Aloy has just passed The Proving she has no quarrels talking with her. We ask some questions and zip line down to the scene of the crime. We arrive at a deserted camp and do some investigative work that devolves into following a blood trail.

Turning on the Focus reveals that the blood managed to travel quietly the ways away from the camp. We find a knife, a bucket, fight off some machines, check out a pig head and reach a machine doing something odd. We discover that the brother must be a good fighter as he managed to take down a machine. But soon after we find a bunch of discarded food and gear. We finally catch up to the brother as we hear him shouting how he’s going to kill himself. Which you know is never a good thing.

Talking Brom Down From the Ledge

Brom thinks he hears voices telling him to do terrible things. Taking a moment to analyze the situation I decide to choose the choice where we talk to him rationally. By making him come closer we talk him away from the ledge. After a little crazy chat Olara (his sister) states that she was following us and just glad we found him. With the choice of letting him go with her or back to a tribe for help, I decided to leave him with his sister. Now is this going to come back to haunt me, I’m not sure but I sure am curious.

Horizon Zero Dawn – Fighting a Losing Battle

So we’re back after a pretty crazy ending from the last episode. From the get-go, we see that the other people that participated in The Proving are not very helpful. As it sure seems like Aloy has to do all the heavy lifting of taking these guys down. It’s a basic defeat all enemies to proceed kind of deal, but hearing everyone freak out is kind of chilling. Aloy attempts to hold off all the enemies as the people run to safety. After the first batch, the others get to a better position to not die. I was pretty blown away at just how useless they were after talking such a big game. It’s a good moment to realize that Aloy trained hard and earned the right to be as badass as she is.

We save a few more people as Aloy, Bast, and Vala are pinned down by the cover fire. The leader of this little group comes out with a big Gatling gun and lays down cover fire. Which to be honest was a bit unexpected as I just the machines had this kind of firepower. Sadly Vala picked an awful place for cover as the Gatling gun tears through the wood and she gets killed. Bast runs out to help her and also manages to die right next to Vala. The leader calls for them to take out Aloy as well but we can’t have that happen. It’s a fairly easy fight as I take them down one by one. Stupidly I take down the leader last and can’t use his amazing Gatling gun on anything.

Aloy Just Can’t Catch a Break

Taking out the leader triggers a cutscene where we learn that these bastards also have a Focus. This is strange as we just met someone with one not too long ago. But now there is a whole tribe or army equipped with them, that just doesn’t seem fair. Failing to notice a big guy walking up behind us we get grabbed and dragged to the edge of the cliff. Here we get out throat slit, which is just what we needed here after all the other stuff.

While everything seems hopeless Rost shows up out of nowhere to help stave off this assailant. We get a pretty cool fight scene where Rost rights like a total badass. But the baddie pulls a fast one and breaks Rost stick allowing his knife to hit its mark. Rost goes down and claws his way toward Aloy, but the bad guys are one step ahead. They place a big explosive and light it to destroy everything in its explosion. Rost takes Aloy, says his quick goodbyes, and tosses her over the edge of the cliff to safety.

Aloys Origin Is Just Insane

Some flashbacks and Aloy wakes up in an unknown room with no one else in sight. Walking through a few rooms we recover our Focus as well as our clothing. After scanning in our bow again, for some reason. We take the Focus we pulled off one of the people we took down. Seeing the attack plan laid out for what happened during The Proving. We also see that their target was to take Aloy down, also that she may have a real mother. Teersa shows up and tells us that Aloy was born here and placed on an altar inside the Mother’s Heart. Aloy steps upon the altar and a door scan attempts to allow the door to open so we can see if her mother is still alive. Of course, it malfunctions and we’re left with more questions than answers.

Becoming a Seeker

So now we have our groundwork for the game, go get some things to be able to open the door. On our way to the service, we learn that these bad guys are killing everything and even corrupting the machines. Allowing them to control the machines without getting their hands dirty. We’re appointed a Seeker to go out into the lands and get what we need after a little conversation. Now the world is open and I can’t wait to see where the world takes us.

It only gets worse from here in the next episode.

Horizon Zero Dawn Has a Nice Relaxing Build up to the Proving

After battling sawtooths, this time around Horizon Zero Dawn we’ve got some ups and downs but we’ll get to the downs after some nice ups. To start things off we talk to Rost one last time before it’s revealed that he will be leaving and to not go looking for him. Once we pass “The Proving” well become a Brave and in this join the tribe and no longer be an outcast. In turn, I’d hope more people will be nice to Aloy in this harsh world, but to get there we have to go through the village. Everyone has different opinions and it’s pretty interesting to see such a nice diverse set of characters.

Before heading inside we tell Rost that no matter where he goes we’ll find him since he trained Aloy to be such an amazing tracker. Also with the help of the focus, I don’t see many problems on this front cause that thing is damn useful. Heading up to the entrance we get held up at the gate by some guardians. Thankfully Teersa has our backs as she lets us in and tells us to enjoy ourselves on our way to the ceremony.

Taking in the Culture of a Tribe in Horizon Zero Dawn

As we enter the settlement of Mother’s Heart we can take in some native culture on our route. You can sit on a log to watch a little song and dance. Check out some guy stuck at the top of a house as his wife gets mad at him. Sit back and relax with a children’s story, we also run into Karst again. He wants us to know that he’s rooting for us but wants to keep are the earlier sale of the TripCaster a secret. He’ll become a true merchant for us once we complete “The Proving” and become a brave, so that’s something.

We come upon someone trying to say an apology to the villagers for a past leader’s misguided views. The crowd isn’t having any of it, but thankfully Erend can calm them down. Erend is probably my favorite character yet in the game as he just has a good way with words and is super likable. While this is going on we notice someone else in the crowd with their focus. Naturally, we move in to learn more as this is the first person other than Aloy we’ve seen with one.

He’s pretty amazed to see someone in the tribe to be wearing a focus, but once we say we’re an outsider he states that this makes more sense. He scatters away as his Focus malfunctions, which was weird. We discuss some of the armor choices made with Erend and make our way to the ceremony.

All Mother’s Lanterns and Lodging

We learn that the Lanterns to be lifted to the sky are created by the participant’s mother, thankfully Teersa crafted ours. Who wants to be left out, no one that’s who. We’re given a choice of who to dedicate this lantern to and I choose to go with Rost since he was the one who raised and trained Aloy. Lifting the lanterns to the sky is a nice little scene and now it’s time to rest up for what everyone’s been waiting for; “The Proving”. We run back into the focus wearing guy and question him but he’s super sketchy and weird so we’ll just continue onward.

Entering the lodge after a little mean-spirited back and forth with a person named Resh, we see who’ll be joining us in “The Proving”. Bast was the kid from the beginning who hit us in the face with a rock and he still brings up. Like he’s so proud of it, thankfully Vala’s got our back and we play out this conversation with no violence. Cause man did I want to bash Basts face in. He thinks he’s so cool with that right eye makeup, but he’s not. We become quick friends with Vala. Before going to sleep but before we know it it’s time to finally get to “The Proving”.

The Proving

After a amazing montage, we learn that it’s time to get down to business. We simply need to take down a machine and grab a trophy from it. I’m fairly certain that I was a bit under-leveled for this section as taking down my trophy was tough. It took a lot of arrows, dodging, and probably luck to take just one down. Just as I get mine Bast shoots my trophy from my grasp and I have to get another. This takes up even more time and I’ve got a lot of catching up to do. Oh, and the fact that I died didn’t help anything.

I’m able to kill another machine and push forward to try and play catch up. Seeing that there is a fork in the road Aloy decides that taking the normal path would mean failure. So we utilize the old path that will probably kill us, great choices made here. It’s just a little tougher climbing section, I like how you can see the others in the background. Also, they talk about how you’ll never catch up and are amazed at what you’re doing.

We manage to make it in first and pass everyone, we’re told we’ve become a brave and everything is just roses. For like 5 seconds; then it all goes to hell. I’ll be honest I knew something bad was going to happen, but what happened caught me off guard. I was sort of awestruck at just how off the rails Horizon Zero Dawn goes from this moment.

Everything Just Goes To Hell

Suddenly we’re bombarded with tons of arrows falling from the sky by some masked baddies. There human and they’re ruthless. Killing several people and starting to leave no one alive. It’s looking really bad as Aloy takes to cover a moment to think the situation through. But before you know it we’re in the thick of battle and have to take down every last one of these masked baddies. But that’s for the next episode.

Now it’s time to fight for survival!

Horizon Zero Dawn Lets You Rest Up and Reflect

After a strong start, today’s episode starts with a bang as we’re thrown into the claws of a new machine creature called a Sawtooth. After a brief catch up with Rost where we explain that we completed to give back the beads to Grata, get the Tripcaster from Karst, and proceeded to craft fire arrows. To wrap up the conversation we tell Rost that we’re not going to be a total asshole to him once we complete “The Proving“.

I’m perplexed by the laws of the land thing that are happening in the game. On one hand, it kind of makes sense to shun outsiders from your specific tribe. But it seems sort of insane to have laws in place that strictly forbid it. Did something awful happen in the past that justifies this? We don’t quite know yet as everyone keeps it very vague and confusing.

Horizon Zero Dawn Throws You Right Into The Sawtooths Clutches

After a quick nap at the campfire, we head to the gates and the guards silently open them for us. The path before us is laid with destruction, we see a cabin on fire in the distance and a new creature burning beside the path. We learn that it is a Sawtooth and how it takes a lot of effort to bring one down, as I’m about to find out. Continuing down the path I pick up some items, climb a hill, and out pops the Sawtooth.

Rost being a complete waste here just expects you to figure out how to take down the beast. If games have taught me anything you always aim for the obvious bright parts on the enemy. Much easier said than down in this scenario. Especially after I proceed to screw up this hunt as much as possible. Trying to learn the Tripcaster on the fly doesn’t work out so well.

Just Me and The Sawtooth

After getting the Sawtooths attention I move to a nice stealth location in some large grass. He follows me right into the thick of it and I get a stealth strike that does a nice amount of damage. Then everything falls apart, as the Sawtooth shows it malice. It’s fast, tricky, and sneaky in one scary package. Once it knows your presence its a fight for survival.

Running in circles doesn’t accomplish anything so I take a stand and try out the Tripcaster. It shoots out a rope that you can use to make a tripwire to electrify your enemies. Aiming behind I can shoot out a quick line that the Sawtooth runs directly into. This stops it in its tracks and buys me time to strike for some massive damage.  Utilizing my new fire arrows I aim directly for the yellow canister under its belly. This creates a nice big explosion and leaves the beast with little health. A quick getaway and can get behind the Sawtooth and finish it off with some quick arrows.

All In a Days Work In The Wilds

After taking down the Sawtooth we meet back up with Rost. We learn that once we pass “The Proving” well become a Brave and be expected to fight for the Tribe not just look out for one’s self. We have been practicing just for our gain but that’s all about to change.

Changing lanes seeing as how this will be the last chance we have to do anything before we go onto “The Proving”. We tackle the side quest that I had received in the last episode. A quick jog and were faced with saving Arana from a pack of Watchers.

Sidequests are surprisingly Elaborate In Horizon Zero Dawn

Some quick stealth takedowns and we’re safely able to talk to Arana. During the stealth, the world’s weather starts to change to a rainscape and it starts coming down hard. It doesn’t affect gameplay but the character makes a comment which is a nice touch. We learn that a Watcher took her mother’s staff and that we should go retrieve it.

A cool detail is that we use our ability to track where the Watcher went and follow a nice clear path. A short hike brings us to some snowy peaks. Climbing to the high ground allows us to survey the situation.

Scouting and Planning to Bring Down The Machines

Surveying the situation shows is that there are five machines in total. Planning an attack and executing it is essential here. Don’t worry I manage to blow it spectacularly. Trying to take out the closest one screws up stealth in a big way as being tossed down a hill is never a good thing. Luckily I’m able to recover and take them down by aggroing them one by one until only the true target remains. Quick stealth kill later and we have recovered the staff, now just to turn in the quest. We receive thanks as well as a spear damage upgrade for out troubles.

In the next episode, we take on the proving trial.

I am truly sorry to report that my recording of the first part of this series was completely broken and unsalvageable. I was unable to piece the recording and audio together in a way I was happy with, so I scrapped the entire episode. Thus explains why this one’s opening won’t make sense without the context. For this, I apologize but no point crying over something I couldn’t control.

Horizon Zero Dawn for the PS4 is Awe Inspiring

What I will say is that the opening for Horizon Zero Dawn is just fantastic. It manages to build a harsh world in moments. It allows you to sympathize with Alloy, the main character, and sets a tone of fear and awe. After being a hero for a man who had fallen and was about to be killed by the roaming robots. We come out to get hit in the face with a rock and have a choice to make which is where this episode begins.

Growing Up One Montage at a Time

Rather than being a simple good or evil choice, you get some interesting stand-ins. From what I’ve seen in the future this will change based on the situation laid before you. You can use your brains, brawn, or heart in this first choice. Deciding not to make the situation worse I decided to drop the rock and let the kids be on they’re way.

Rost, our fatherly figure walks into the scene as we explain what happened and gather some useful knowledge. We learn that we could be accepted if we accomplish something called “The Proving”. But it will take a lot of training and years to be ready. Thankfully this boils down to a quick montage, that’s honestly fun to watch. The part where they transition from young Alloy to teen Alloy is just fantastic.

Horizons Missions Structure

After being placed back into gameplay we learn that it’s just two days before “The Proving” but Rost is nowhere to be found. After checking out the menus and grabbing some of the local plant life we find Rost atop a cliff overlooking the world. We learn that we’re ready to take on “The Proving” but we need to get some fire arrows, help old Grata and prepare for something that goes down at night. We hop off the cliff onto a zip-line and begin our adventure in full.

A quick trip and we arrive at Old Grata who won’t talk to us directly since we’re an outsider. But thanks to her ramblings we piece together that we need to go retrieve her beads. Which I’m still confused as to how they got way across the map in the first place, but I digress.

Hunting Animals and Robots

The general gameplay is fun, you use a bow to hunt animals and takedown robots. You can craft new arrows on the fly thanks to all the consumables you pick up along the way. We start with some rabbits but soon enough take on the robots that roam the world. If you make every arrow count than taking them down isn’t too much of a challenge. Just dodge when needed, take aim with the bow and use stealth in tall grass to your advantage. Using parts collected from downed enemies you can improve your bow with some slight perks.

Getting SideQuest Distracted

After climbing to where the beads are for Grata, we start our trek back. After a super cool rappel down the cliff. We run into a person who has been hurt by the robots, he gives us our first side quest. We have to save his daughter and the rules of talking to an outsider be damned. Unfortunately, I am only level 3 and this quest recommends I be level 4 so I’m going to have to hold off on helping him. Returning the beads to Grata we get a pretty lazy thanks as she still doesn’t talk to use directly but I suppose it’s the thought that counts.

Stealth and Tripcasters

For the last length of this episode, we try out some stealth on some honestly dumb robots. When you whistle to make robots come check you out in the tall grass, they come one by one. This makes taking down a whole herd painfully easy. As once you got the jump on them it’s already over. But being able to go from stealth to open combat and back to stealth is pretty exhilarating.

For the ending we meet Karst who isn’t afraid to talk to an outsider, he’s a cool character that we’ll probably see a lot of. Seeing as he’s the shopkeeper who’s willing to help us. We buy a TripCaster which is an electric trap setter and call that an episode.

Hey, if you’re playing Horizon Zero Dawn let me know what you think in the comments below or over on Youtube! Next up we take on some sawtooths and dig into sidequests!