Ahhh man, Horizon: Zero Dawn looks great, doesn't it? We've always had a soft spot for Guerrilla Games ever since the original Killzone days, and it's great to see the studio branch out and try something bold and ambitious. But we're worried because the studio's never managed to write a great story in its entire history, and it needs to nail the fiction if its role-playing game is to be a success.
To be fair, it has taken measures to rectify old errors; the writer of Fallout: New Vegas has penned the script, and it's recruited big name voice talent like Ashly Burch to lend her to larynx to the main character. But some of the cut-scenes that we've seen thus far leave a lot to be desired; one in particular is so bad that it went viral on social media over the past 48 hours.
And that's left us a little worried. Killzone's always been a great shooter, but in our opinion it never caught fire because of characters like Rico. Now, with the plot front and centre in Horizon, it needs to nail the fiction β and it needs to ensure the performances are good across the board. We want nothing more than our fears to melt away when we play the final game, but there is reason to be worried at this stage.
[source bit.ly]
Comments 46
Tell us the game won't be any good and it won't sell enough times and it might just happen.
I'd love to have a renegade interrupt where Aloy just kicks him over the edge.
@LieutenantFatman ?
The character in question probably isn't a main one and these criticisms can be attached to pretty much every open world game I've ever played, especially when applied to minor characters. No game is without fault but why aren't we focusing on the positives, the combat looks better than most if not all games of this type. The graphics are amazing and the facial animations/voices in most of the cutscenes I've watched are nowhere near as bad as is being made out, yes this one guy is terrible but at least he didn't offer her a lockpick. It just seems that sometimes we focus more on the 1 thing that's wrong rather than the 100 that are right
Some npc expression in cutscenes is little weird, but the graphics in gameplay is really good, the night time is just stunning!
@get2sammyb You wrote an article saying the Nintendo Switch release would likely stop the game selling recently.
I am fine with the terrible voice acting and script writing for these side quests, just as long as the side quests themselves are more interesting than the FFXV "Go Fetch me a Tomato" and similar.
Definitely agree that it may look worse because the rest looks so much better. It raises your expectations, but then the animations and voice acting don't live up to the rest of the game. It's not awful, but I've seen bits that just aren't really good.
It's definitely a problem that all open world games seem to have. Remember children in The Witcher 3? They were freaky mutated adults in the bodies of toddlers. So yeah, HZD isn't the only game that falls flat on this, although I hoped they would set a new standard, that won't happen unfortunately. Still, won't completely judge the game until I've played it all, maybe the rest is better than this.
@LieutenantFatman Well, I said it would steal mindshare, and it will.
I preordered the game but I complained to the hills about the poor animations and bad acting on ign forum.
Hey now, I happen to like space nazis in my video games.
So pick on an interaction of a side quest - not even part of the main story and out of context it could be seen as quite bad (although I have seen a lot worse in games and not all of them are 4-5yrs old or more! Do you know why the character was behaving like he was? That could be part of the reason that Aloy was there!!
Was the writing bad in Fallout: New Vegas or Shadow of Mordor? This game shares the same Lead writer as those. Combat in the Witcher 3 isn't bad at all - not on higher difficulty settings anyway but that game was not 'combat' focused - like Bloodbourne or Dark Souls are - that's like trying to compare a first person shooter with Fallout shooting mechanics/combat. I played it on the Xbox One and Combat felt solid enough to me and an improvement to the combat in the Witcher 2 (on Xbox 360) - maybe because I was invested in the story, the characters and lore that helped me enjoy the experience more.
The Witchers combat doesn't look to have the 'variety' of options that this game appears to offer - from planning your attack, using stealth, luring or steering the enemy towards traps you have set to going in all arrows blazing on the back of a mount. The Witcher may have more lore, more RPG elements and this appears to have more emphasis on 'action' overall - not saying the story isn't important but the combat does appear to have more attention and time spent on it than most RPG's of this nature.
So far we have seen very little of the actual story and most (if not all) interactions have been side quests - including the one you highlighted. I can think of Many side quests that the writing and dialogue is a little on the cheesy/weak side - including those in some of the biggest and highly praised RPG's
The animations (apart from some of the speech animations which aren't the worst I have seen by any stretch of the imagination) look great. The way Aloy tries to keep her balance on a walking Tallneck for example, the different stealth attacks - depending on how she approaches an enemy etc etc....
The more I have seen, and there has been a lot in the past 2 days, the more I can't wait. In a lot of ways, this game blows many other recent releases away with the attention to detail, the variety of Combat etc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq2tKEW4SB0 is a good video...
I honestly don't know why this is such a big topic, every major open world game has its problems. If we take the Witcher as the gold standard then even that game had combat which was never as tight as it should of been, no real point in collecting herbs, loads of NPCs looking the same, quests that weren't as memorable as the Bloody Baron one and an overwhelming sense of too much content. You can pick holes in any game but if Horizon's biggest issues are slightly funny looking side characters and a story that's not to the standard of Naughty Dog then it's in a good place. Besides what would you have...This or the NPCs in Assassin's creed unity day one
Final Fantasy 15 facial animations outside of main quest cutscenes are so bad. It's almost unsettling.
@Octane It's good to know I'm not the only one who thought the children in The Witcher 3 were creepy as hell.
TBH this game looks amazing iv already made my mind up iv preordered it, if I'm wrong and its bad so what il still finish it.
Meh, Zelda games have gotten by through it's many iterations with pretty bland and clichΓ© stories. As long as the game itself plays well, and the story is SEMI cohesive, it'll do well.
@biscuitmay It's definitely not going to be bad even if the story falls short. The action looks ace.
I suppose sacrifices have to made when creating a huge open world. Do you have great combat? Do you go for better than normal AI, Do you go for amazing lighting effects and draw distance? Do you go for amazing facial expressions or do you go for amazing story? I'm a massive fan of ESO and the facial expressions in that are OK(ish) but when you have a great story then I'm happy to look past them.
For me, this game just looks a bit boring at the moment to be honest. I suppose we'll get more and more info about the story, different locations, the world's different environments and various beasts as the previews start coming together. At the moment I;m not really sold.
To be fair, the character in question seems like he's lost his marbles, but it does seem a little overacted.
The facial animation does look hokey at times, I agree. I don't really get the critiques for the voice acting aside from that one scene, however. From what I've heard of it, it's fine enough.
Worrying over one cutscene where the rest were pretty darn good is nothing but nitpicking, seriously. I saw GAF complain about it, but it was mainly from people who were never really interested in the game to begin with so no surprise there. Yet, the animation is a bit jerky in that scene - but did every Witcher 3 had flawless cut-scenes? No, of course not.
I've seen and heard much worse, I played Bound By Flame.
how spoilerific is the video?. i don't really want to know anything about the story or watch something that might prejudice it.
i'm currently playing through skyrim having never played it before, and honestly the graphics are nothing to write home about even on PS4 pro. the facial/character animations are incredibly clunky looking. there are plenty of side/miscellaneous quests and characters where the writing is of seriously ropey quality, yet it's one of the most critically acclaimed games ever.
though if i'm honest, i'm hoping horizon zero dawn is not really that similar to skyrim at all.
Very nitpicky for a side quest that's potrating a crazy person. If it was compared to ME or Fallout then it looks way better. But because it's a PS4 exclusive people are trying to find the smallest thing to complain about. The game looks stunning and some of the best combat I have ever seen. You article is a bit click bait as you well know they hired fallout and witcher writers to help with the story.
In the neverending quest for gaming perfection and dissecting every little piece of everything that can be pulled apart, my only fear is that gamers who fall victim of this will miss the fun that there is to be had here. And it seems that there will be a lot.
Fair point on mindshare, Sammy, but it could cut both ways β Horizon is a real looker and may by comparison make Zelda appear underpowered and childish (although I personally am excited about both games).
Why are people here so overly defensive? Would you simply buy a game because it's a PS4 exclusive then? Aren't we allowed to expect a certain standard anymore?
This game was by far my most anticipated game of this generation, but boy am I glad the embargo of this game's preview got lifted yesterday so I can get my expectations in check. I for one did expect a game that had very smooth and meaningful interactions with characters like these, or writers and dece with the presence of mind to avoid it all together if it couldn't be done right, but I guess I'd better go in expecting Fallout than go in expecting TW3.
I know quite a few people who worked on this project and I really hope this game will be a smash hit if it were just for them, but I as a gamer who was so excited for Horizon can't just put my feelings about what I saw aside because I want it to succeed. I've watched every bit of footage I could get my hands on to try and see if I would warm up for the game a bit, but the more footage I saw, the more my excitement dwindled to be completely honest.
I'm probably the only one feeling this way, cause God forbid a Sony first party title will be a flop, but I'm glad there is such a thing as the internet because I would've felt really disillusioned if I'd played this side-quest day one.
@Boerewors I don't know where your coming from with the "god forbid a Sony first party title will be a flop" comments. People are just saying that it's unfair to nitpick at one small thing that Sammy seems to have latched onto over the many other things that the game has been praised over.
@finalstan This is why publishers are pushing on 4K and HDR games because people demand great graphics but it comes at a huge price, longer development, more stressful deadlines for developers and more damning, less focus on a game's overall package. The result is we get games that might sell a million units or two but it won't be enough to recoup the expenses, it's why we have an industry now that fits into two categorys...AAA or Indie.
Wow, cringe-worthy scene. So hyped by the ideas behind Horizon and Mass Effect but actual footage has been off-putting besides from some great stills/scenics.
Yes, Witcher 3 combat is certainly a weakness, similar to Red Dead, but good story/world/characters is soooo important, which those games did exceptional with.
Maybe I'll just preorder Nier Automata instead, nervous to watch gameplay of it though.
Bottom line is Horizon looks great in general, but let's not sit and defend a dialogue scene that's clearly crap. You can be excited about a game while also expressing your worries, you know. Same deal as loving a game but also admitting to its flaws - not everything you like has to be perfect.
I was never expecting "Naughty Dog" story telling. I'm expecting some fun killing and looting in a great looking world.
Ha, I forgot how bad Fallout 4's facial animation was.
That voice acting bit was hilariously bad. Reminds me of the first practice of my One Act class back in high school.
I don't need an award winning story to get sucked into a game. i just need it to be engaging. And Since Horizon show the uprising of robot dinosaurs, it's a safe bet that it'll be engaging.
Eh, not that big of a deal. If weird facial animations and questionable voice acting were enough to ruin a game for me, I'd never have enjoyed Zero Time Dilemma last year.
Still, I'm glad I opted to wait on picking this one up.
Ok i watched it what a cheap way to use clickbait where are all the Bethesda games where you complain Skyrim, all Fallout games.
Dont want to be even more mean but this guy is going nuts. And
i rather stop wacthing these things because big titles are just clickbait.
And you spoil the whole game by going in to all details i rather go in blind.
And lets not defend one dialog in a huge game that makes your comment even worse......
@JoeBlogs
I think some other previews also mentioned that the game overall runs well, but suffers a bit during encounters with the Tallnecks.
Guerilla claims they have adressed it:
In IGN UKβs preview of Horizon Zeron Dawn from the recent media event, they noticed that performance on a standard PS4 dropped when facing the Tallneck. To clear up any worries, Technical Director Michiel Leeuw said, βMentioned performance drops were only in preview code, fixed in Gold Master.β The build IGN played was a week or so old, and Leeuw says the βUS event had one without the framedrops. Last-minute fix.β
http://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2017/01/31/horizon-zero-dawn-gone-gold-performance-issues-preview-build-fixed/#6r0p4apvIkwJeu42.99
@Boerewors You're missing the point here, it's not about whether people defend this game just because of all the hype it had over the past two years, it's more of a unfair judgement based on one jerky animation - in one particular segment of a quest. Yes, a segment, not the entire quest. Which by the way, can be easily patched if GG sees that people can't sleep at night knowing it is in the game.
I've finished TW3 + the two expansions twice. I've done every side quest imaginable and it is by far one of my favorite experiences in recent memory both from story standpoint, quests and world exploration. But can I say that every single side quest in TW3 had amazing animations and no jerkiness? Of course not, just look on YouTube and you'll find plenty - not game glitches (which were also aplenty even 6 months after release) but actual animations that looked off. Did these small moments deter me from the overall amazing experience that was TW3? Not at all.
Hence, going back my original point, people defend this because it is nothing more than nitpicking, plain and simple. Doesn't matter whether it is Sony title or not.
@Boerewors Because we all know TW3 is perfect right.
No game is perfect and yes TW3 has them alone with very bad lip sync.
Hello guys, im new member here, but im on this site every day. I can`t wait to play this game, got mine preordered ^^
@JoeBlogs Yeah, as already pointed out, they said they'd fixed that.
There is always a story problem with open world games, in that the world really has to change to meet the change in story and I find them not as cohesive as narrative games (overall, I'm sure there are a few exceptions).
The world looks interesting, the gameplay pretty good so I'll still keep my pre-order. I just hope that at one point, someone calls out to the protagonist 'Aloy Aloy you laaackly people' in a cockney accent.
@ShogunRok - it's not about defending a dialogue scene that's crap. it's about the oversensationalistion of a very small side part of a game with no context. if there's a general concern about the story then mention it as part of a preview that you may have seen or played - not as an 'oh my god, horizon's story looks like it might be crap' article in its own right based of very little. this is literally something that didn't need its own news headline, and seems little more than a clickbait generator.
@leucocyte Surely this is a warning sign, though? When Final Fantasy XV got that awful E3 demo, people started asking questions and rightly so. This is footage captured from a build intended for the press - and this awful scene was left in. Given Guerrilla's history of poor storytelling I don't think this is overblown at all - more a case of "the story might not live up to the rest of the game". I hope I'm proven wrong, but this isn't inspiring confidence.
@slampog I don't understand, why is so important facial animation into that kind of game for most of people. This game looks beautiful. I don't care about facial animation. They put a lot of effort into this game. We should support GG. (Pre-ordered Collector Edition π)
@ShogunRok - i haven't seen that FF XV demo, nor followed the game in general, so i can't comment on that. i don't exactly know how much has been previewed to the press, there's a rumoured 5 hrs worth or so.. and this focuses on a couple of minutes of that 5 hours?. and does anybody know how long the full game is?. why not encompass all impressions coherently in a single preview, rather one article.. 'it looks pretty', then another 'meh, story might be a bit crap'. it seems the flimsiest of excuses to base a full blown article on.
as for guerrilla's history, killzone's hardly going to win any awards for its story/dialogue, but the actual lore behind it all is quite extensively documented. back in the KZ2/3 days, the website had a detailed history of the helghan/isa conflict. it was quite interesting and showed a lot of potential, even if it wasn't remotely evident in the games. having said that, the story/dialogue for KZ2 is miles better than titanfall 2 for example, which several of the pushsquare staff praised for some unfathomable (to me) reason. also guerrilla recruited ex-Fallout and ex-CDProjekt staff to work on the story specifically because the studio lacked experience in creating an RPG or campaign of any considerable length.
Low tier JRPG localisation level terribad - when it's so bad it becomes entertaining.
@get2sammyb couldn't agree more about the witcher 3. I absolutely love it but not for the combat, that's sure.
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...