Quick Look: Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds

Thanks for fixing title :)

I literally just finished the quest they are starting on. Lol.

Still one of my most anticipated games; I'll get around to it eventually.

It's the new branding, from now on Quick Looks will be referred to as Horizon Zero Dawns.

Surprisingly hard DLC coming in with a postgame save. They mitigate the godmode armor in clever ways.

I forgot how good this game looks. Currently playing Assssins Creed Origins, and it is a very stark contrast.

So is this post game DLC, or like the XCOM DLC where it just goes into the main game? I just got the game and want to know if I should just buy the DLC to start.

Looks like more Horizon. Liked the game but not enough to go back and play more of it.

@beachthunder: I am down for this future.

@danryckert blaming the controller :)

@cooljammer00: It basically unlocks an extra zone of the map which you can access at any time, but its suggested going at level 30. Also, The main quest will reference the DLC content if you finish it before finishing the main quest, while the dlc will mention stuff in the main quest if you finish that first (up to the final fight which ends the game and is where you'll reload once you finish, Like pre DLC Fallout3 was.)

For me this derailed Zelda. But then again i never did play more then a few hours of Breath of the Wild as it really didn't click with me.

I LOVED this story, and the way it was told was fantastic. I am hoping that when it comes to Game of the Year Podcasts time, this game's story doesn't get over looked. I really hope Vinny and others can play enough to get the main story beats. IT IS SO GOOD!

This game is one of my favorites this year, but I think diving back into this game at top-level with everything unlocked would be a little too overwhelming. There are a ton of little mechanics in this game.

hi i am just writing my the words quick look aren't in the title comment ok thanks

It's 10:07am here on the Beast Coast and the title of this video is now fixed.

One of the best games of this year, and 2017 has been pretty special. Looking forward to jumping back in this weekend.

14 minutes before dan sees an enemy

He plays this like call of the wild.

I too drank the Zelda Kool aid but got bored 30 hours in and need to finish this game. I bought virtually all big releases this year and it's gonna be really hard going back to a 1080p ps4 game when I have 4k origins, shadow of war, rise of the tomb raider, wolfenstein 2, forza horizon 3, nier, prey, divinity 2, destiny 2, and tales of berseria on pc. Also steamworld dig 2, super mario odyssey to get through. I hope 2018 is even 30 percent as good as 2017 was.

If people haven't played this, it's really special and I would put it far above Zelda in my own experience.

Going to jump into this this weekend I think. About the inventory, sell the stuff that *just* says "valuable to merchants". There are absolutely too few slots, that said.

Holla at ya boy, Aloy.

Is no one going to mention the load times when going between fast travel points? 1 minute 34 seconds, yikes.

@rongalaxy: Agreed, it is not fidelity but the aesthetic

@cubbielover: one of better Sci-Fi story in any media recently

@cooljammer00: It is like X-Com.

@cubbielover: I dunno man, personally I think it’s one of the weakest story’s of the year. When you compare it to Wolfenstein or Nier it’s just your run of the mill sci-fi. I was definitely expecting a better justification for the robot dinosaurs and whatnot, not to mention all the characters, all of them, are so incredibly flat and lifeless that Aloy stands out like a sore thumb.

fire and tearblast arrows all day son

While they complained about not knowing what the loot is for, it literally says what each item is used for.

@humanity: I think the way it told the story about what actually happened was done in an incredible way. The idea that people had to choose to either die with their families in the hellscape of the world, or try and preserve the future of humankind, knowing that the work they do will not save them or the family they chose to live is a gut-wrenching choice. Loved every bit of it, IMO.

Easily my favourite game of the year (at least the base game), but Dan seems to be a weird person to showcase this QL given that he doesn't actually engage with the combat whatsoever. It is probably some of the most fun I have had in video game combat, setting up traps and figuring out weaknesses and behaviors of all the machines.

Still, it stands VERY strong from a story perspective, but I feel Dan is maybe doing himself a disservice with his approach.

Then again, I may just be a different type of gamer. I remember when people were leaving this game for Zelda, and I went in the opposite direction. Never really got back to Zelda either. May just be looking for different things.

Anyway, this QL looks like more of Horizon, which is basically all I wanted.

@cubbielover: I had the direct opposite reaction where I thought their plan was so incredibly unrealistic and against human nature that it just took me out of the experience entirely. Like no way that human being would actually do that. But that is the beauty of storytelling I suppose - everyone will get something different II of it. Plenty of games that flew by under the radar really resonated with me and vice versa.

I don't like Zelda.

45 hrs in, all I see is some1 telling me: go here fetch this, go there kill that and it looks like a PS2 game.

How is THAT GOTY?!

I always found fighting in this game to be a chore until I unlocked certain abilities, specifically the melee combat. The first thing I would've done would've been to hack an enemy or two, and call in my mount, then I would've gone ham. Getting charged down by things that want to melee you and send you flying while you're trying to shoot them is pretty annoying.

@humanity: People can be altruistic. Don't let 2017 dictate cynicism in everything :(.

Also I agree with the comment about Dan and the combat. 1. He's playing on a very easy difficulty as the damage on Ultra Hard you basically one shotted by those Frostclaws. 2. He absolutely does not engage with the combat in any sort of strategic way. 3. Spamming arrows can be a viable strategy, but does he not have the ability to shoot two or three at a time?

I think this goes back to a podcast when Horizon came out where Vinny thought that the combat was weaker than the Witcher 3. I was surprised to hear that as I found the combat in the Witcher 3 by far the weakest part of the game. If he and Dan play the game like we just saw, then I guess I can't blame them for thinking so.

Horizon Zero Dawn: The Year's Best Game with the Worst Release Date.

I'm positive the game did well, but damned if they didn't "Titanfall 2" themselves a little bit by releasing so close to Zelda: BOTW.

This was my favorite game this year.

I can't wait to jump back into this when I have the monies, really enjoyed playing through it.

EDIT: Dan Ryckert - Zero situational awareness / strategy. Should've guessed.

I really dislike how people are like "Shame this game got killed by Zelda" when Horizon is pretty much better than BOTW in almost every way.

For me it's weirder that they assume there is this gigantic overlap between people who wanted to play both games and that they automatically assume everyone just dropped everything they were doing to play Breath of the wild. I played this game to the end and Zelda didn't kill it for me because I had neither a Gamecube nor any real desire to play Breath of the Wild.

It's been awhile since I played it but I don't think it was that long, it didn't feel that long at least.

I'm sad to say the Gamecube didn't have Forward Compatibility.

Nah, this game is going nowhere in GB's game of the year. Everyone just shrugs when it comes up, and even Jeff, who reviewed it at 5 stars said that the game didn't stick with him afterwards, and was kind of meh on it too. Which is baffling to me, since in a year of incredible games, this is by far and away my favorite. There's no accounting for taste, and all that.

@redhotchilimist: Oh yah the Wii U, I knew I was forgetting one of those systems in between.

@ravelle: I installed an SSD in my PS4 for FFXV and so loading times aren't an issue for me. I'm also on a Pro, so not sure if that affects things.

I just don't get this line of thinking. For games journalists, I definitely understand that they had to choose, and most people enjoyed Zelda more, but the average video game player will most likely not have that option. Because Switches were not easily found at that point and not many people bought it on WiiU.

The game did well enough and the post release support by GG has been great.

RELEASE THE ZELDA CONTRARIANS!!!! It's Bioshock Infinite all over again.

I have to finish both, but I fell off of this waaaay before I did (hopefully temporarily) with BotW.

Never forget everythting is a competition, and you can never like/love two things at the same time.

That combat was amazing to witness. I can see why they added easier difficulties to this game - for 8 years olds and Dan Ryckert.

I really, really liked Horizon. The combat in particular was incredibly satisfying to me, playing on the hardest difficulty. You really did have to gain an understanding of the enemies, of your myriad selection of weapons, and how the enemies were designed in-fiction. The later story reveals that explained why the enemies functioned the way they did elevated them way above "vidya-game enemies" to creatures in an eco-system, to me personally.

It's a hell of a game, and any other year, it might have proven to be my GOTY. But uh.. 2017, ya'll.

I'm definitely picking this up. Not so much because I can't wait to get more, but.. I really want to support this franchise, as I loved this first game to bits, and really want to see more of it in the future.

As much as I slobber whenever I talk of Nier, this has to be the best new "series" for me this year.

Watching Dan gloss over the extremely fun systems of the HZD combat was disheartening as a huge fan of the game, but I'm not one to talk. I was that guy who dropped Witcher 3 to the lowest difficulty because I was more interested in exploring the world and interacting with characters than brewing oils and decoctions.

I think (at least with this specific situation) it's because Horizon cannot get mentioned without the caveat of "it got Zelda'd" as if people bounced off of this because they preferred Zelda. That's at least the way almost every GB member talks about it. The "competition" is almost baked in at the get-go - it's not just "zeldra contrarians" that see it that way.

Just playing devil's advocate on this one.