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[Dunkelgrau]

Although the first part didn't convince me, I decided to play Forbidden West over Christmas (probably not the best idea). I didn't play through the first one. Questions:

1. How did the difficulty level evolve? I love to play difficult games, so I normally choose the highest setting. In Zero Dawn I was doing fine until I encountered a boss that was completely impossible to defeat. Of course, I would like to avoid such a spike in Forbidden West.

2. Probably because of my difficulty setting, I felt compelled to really loot everything. That was absolutely insane! Apparently it's the same again in the second part "Loot everything" https://kotaku.com/horizon-forbidden-west-best-tips-items-skills-rope-cani-1848564980?

3. I am not a completionist or something, so I think it's probably the best idea to avoid any side quests, right?

 

[Evolved1]

Actually imo, FW has the best side quests to date. The fact that Ragnarok is getting so much attention for side quests in lieu of FW is kind of blasphemous. I have a lot of issues with the game, but the time, attention, and effort they put into the side quests is remarkable. The writing, high quality unique animation, voice acting in the side content is more than 99% of games' main stories.

 

[Nankatsu]

Actually imo, FW has the best side quests to date. The fact that Ragnarok is getting so much attention for side quests in lieu of FW is kind of blasphemous. I have a lot of issues with the game, but the time, attention, and effort they put into the side quests is remarkable. The writing, high quality unique animation, voice acting in the side content is more than 99% of games' main stories.

Best side quests to date? Big oof on that my friend. Better than Zero Dawn, sure, but best to date is a total exaggeration.

Loot wise personally I think Forbidden West is way worse than Zero Dawn. I played both games with one year interval between each, having finished Forbidden West last month, and Forbidden West is legit horrible loot wise. So poorly managed and convoluted that I barely ended up leveling anything, be it gear or weapon.

Usually I like to go for the best gear on my RPG games, which I actually did on Zero Dawn (even got the platinum in the game) but fuck no, Forbidden West made sure I wouldn't go for it.

 

[Evolved1]

"Best side quests to date? Big oof on that my friend. Better than Zero Dawn, sure, but best to date is a total exaggeration."

You did a terrific job articulating your argument.

 

[Nankatsu]

"Best side quests to date? Big oof on that my friend. Better than Zero Dawn, sure, but best to date is a total exaggeration."

You did a terrific job articulating your argument.

Not at all, you made it sound like FW had amazing quests that go far and beyond the franchise, on pair with other games side quests. Which again, is a totally exaggeration.

But if you're restricting yourself only to the franchise, yeah FW has better quests than ZD overall.

 

[Dunkelgrau]

I have read, regarding the looting, that you can disable the pick up animation: Good news!

 

[Run-M-Run]

I have read, regarding the looting, that you can disable the pick up animation: Good news!

Only for the plants and certain machine parts. Otherwise you'll be pressing that loot button.

 

[rofif]

Actually imo, FW has the best side quests to date. The fact that Ragnarok is getting so much attention for side quests in lieu of FW is kind of blasphemous. I have a lot of issues with the game, but the time, attention, and effort they put into the side quests is remarkable. The writing, high quality unique animation, voice acting in the side content is more than 99% of games' main stories.

I don't see what's so great about the side quests. They are ok but I would still prefer to go on with main story

 

[jm89]

Not at all, you made it sound like FW had amazing quests that go far and beyond the franchise, on pair with other games side quests. Which again, is a totally exaggeration.

But if you're restricting yourself only to the franchise, yeah FW has better quests than ZD overall.

No it really is not an exaggeration, the side quest quality goes far beyond most games. And this isn't just the animations either, nearly every side quests is a decent story with some character development of an npc in a very short interaction, alot of games fail to do this.

 

[The Cockatrice]

As someone who thought the first game was a 7 out 10 and the second an 8.5 out of 10 and its my 2022 goty(that aint much cuz the year sucked anyway) here are my answers.

Regarding 1 and 2. Difficulty levels will indeed force you to loot more frequently but isnt that in all similar games? Not sure how you think thats a bad thing. Enemies deal more damage therefore if you're having issues or getting hit more often then yes you are going to heal more often. Luckily you can stack a ton of heals so it's not tedious at all. Plus now you have so many weapons and tools and skills that it's really hard to suck at the game unless you;'re just bad at games in general like that one dude who said god of war ragnarok on story mode was too hard. I do not remember any difficulty spikes in HZD however you might've played on the ultra plus difficul;ty or somehting like that which is meant only for newgame+ but for some reasons they let you pick it from the start. Ofc thats going to be unfair as fuck. FW is challenging but fair. If you cant handle some beasts you can always return later and since there are so many huge and important side quests I doubt you wont be able to tackle anything in the game. Be warned though, the arena(youll understand once you get there) is very hard. Prolly best to leave it for end-game.

Regarding 3. The side quests are very much improved. They also have an impact on the environment and each one has some nice story to it.

That being said, I highly recommend you do not skip the first one because the second one is a direct sequel and it relies heavily on you knowing the characters , relating to them and so on. Reading the story wont help and going in on the second game like that will hugely diminish the story/side stories especially in regards to some characters but its your call. Main story is not that great.

 

[Vyse]

I loved the first game but for some reason can’t get into the HFW. Tried starting it three times and it’s just not hitting it for me.

 

[ANDS]

Although the first part didn't convince me, I decided to play Forbidden West over Christmas (probably not the best idea). I didn't play through the first one. Questions:

1. How did the difficulty level evolve? I love to play difficult games, so I normally choose the highest setting. In Zero Dawn I was doing fine until I encountered a boss that was completely impossible to defeat. Of course, I would like to avoid such a spike in Forbidden West.

It hasn't. It's the same design philosophy. While this makes for deadly encounters - with ANY machine - it also leads to being unable to complete certain quests in the beginning and is an absolute slog until you get better gear.

. . .it's my most hated approach to difficulty, but sadly you kind of need to turn it on for the game to not spiral out of amuck.

 

[hemo memo]

Played the main campaign at normal and found it the perfect balance for me. Not too easy not too hard. Side quests are a different story. I remember lowering the difficulty to very easy for one of the stupidly and ridiculously very difficult side quest even though I was higher than the quest requirement. So end game side quests aren’t balanced and you will cry at higher difficulty unless you loot and level like insane.

 

[remember_spinal]

Sidequest in HFW ARE much better than god of war’s and a lot of other open world games. Anyone who disagrees probably just didn’t spend a lot of time in the game because I don’t even see how it can be debated. The characters and stories are well written, well acted and well animated. Theres some sidequest like the hot air balloon and slaver sidequest that honestly feel no different than main quest with big set pieces and everything.



Now the main quest? That can be debated…

 

[Ansphn]

The next Horizon should go full RPG. I'm talking choices for dialog, endings, consequences of choices, create your own character, etc..

Aloy's adventure should come to a conclusion a quarter of the way through as a huge tutorial/conclusion. And, you should be able to create your own character from there and create your own adventure.

 

[Woggleman]

The only real issue I had with the game are the upgrades. In the first game when you finally came across a cool piece of armor that was it but in this game you have to do all these upgrades.

I agree that the side quests are great and they flesh out Aloy as a character. So many people saw that first half hour and judge her based on that.

 

[Bruno_Arrais85]

Actually imo, FW has the best side quests to date. The fact that Ragnarok is getting so much attention for side quests in lieu of FW is kind of blasphemous. I have a lot of issues with the game, but the time, attention, and effort they put into the side quests is remarkable. The writing, high quality unique animation, voice acting in the side content is more than 99% of games' main stories.

The main issue is that those sidequests didn't grab my attention the way the side quests from GoW Ragnarok did. The overall plot of Horizon 2 is not that great

 

[FingerBang]

I loved the first game but for some reason can’t get into the HFW. Tried starting it three times and it’s just not hitting it for me.

Because it takes a looooong time until things get interesting. Like, legit 1/3 of the game.

I had to push through, but now I'm actually enjoying it. It's a great game with a bunch of characters I don't really care about.

 

[Vyse]

Because it takes a looooong time until things get interesting. Like, legit 1/3 of the game.

I had to push through, but now I'm actually enjoying it. It's a great game with a bunch of characters I don't really care about.

Thanks. I’ll give it another shot.

 

[Dunkelgrau]

Side quests are indeed very good in this game: They don't even feel like side quests.

I'm level 16 right now, and even if I didn't like the first one that much, Forbidden West ist absolutely amazing. And it has a lot of Zelda vibes in it. I believe the biggest problem of FW was its release date…

 

[remember_spinal]

Side quests are indeed very good in this game: They don't even feel like side quests.

I'm level 16 right now, and even if I didn't like the first one that much, Forbidden West ist absolutely amazing. And it has a lot of Zelda vibes in it. I believe the biggest problem of FW was its release date…

The sidequest are better than the main quest