Podcast: Episode 23 - Is Horizon Zero Dawn PS4's Best Exclusive?

Horizon has to be one of the top games of this year. Pick up nier last night it's good so far and the combat is excellent but I don't think there is a game that can compare to horizon right now.

"Is Horizon Zero Dawn PS4's Best Exclusive?"

Yes.

Even though ive literally just got to grown up aloy (dont judge me i only got it yesterday 😊), its certainly doing really well so far ☺

Horizon is a start of a promising new future for Sony.

Totally and utterly, one hundred percent agree with you Sammy about the Witcher.

Especially the looting which drove me mad (as you have to be perfectly aligned for the loot prompt to appear. Just being near the loot item isn't good enough! Project Red take note!)

Looking forward to getting tucked into Horizon soon. So far for me PS4's best exclusive is Bloodborne (honourable mention to Until Dawn) but hopefully this will top it!

It's a great game but I don't know about best exclusive. Bloodborne, Uncharted 4 and Yakuza 0 have brought me more enjoyment. That is until Persona 5 comes out.

is Horizon: Zero Dawn the best PS4 Exclusive?
Yes! Simple! Its better than any game I have played this generation 3rd Party included! The Witcher 3 is maybe better in some aspects but this is far more accessible and 'fun' too. Combat is incredible!

Is it the best Playstation Exclusive ever... Quite possibly....
I certainly enjoyed it more than any other - including the Last of Us, Uncharted series etc

Just finished the game and got my Platinum trophy at the conclusion. Even the end credits are not just a black screen with scrolling text. I notice how Hideo Kojima got a 'Special Thanks' and we get a 'Thank you for playing' message too. The cast list is a scroll though...

•Moan of The Month: 1:09:16

Yay sounds great in a totally negative which is a positive way! I had a quick skim through earlier on youtube before the article, and will listen properley tonight in the gym.

@Dodoo don't forget also, geralt sounds like a monotonous zombie, the inventory is confusing, the level up system is pointless, in order to fast travel you gotta find a sign post and the load times were a joke :/

Bloodborne.
Bloodborne is high art. Performance stutter in areas aside, it's nearly perfect.

HZD will be remembered fondly.in the years to come, and it deserves that. It won't be spoken of as much as any Dragon Age game, and I don't see anyone.talking about them very much (though I hate BioWare games don't get me started).
The story is good, the lore is great, the graphics are fantastic, and the.combat is good. However, the characters speak in paragraphs of exposition and are paper thin. "I have a drinking problem, because I'm irresponsible. My character suddenly changes because I come to terms with loss. Bye." or "I don't conform to gender norms. Bye." but it takes forever.
The quests are one maybe two steps deep, generally, and choices just don't matter bar one or two, and I didn't care because I didn't want anyone to talk any more.

Half the perks don't do anything. Melee is there to stun things without the critical hit perk, and that's not very effective without other perks. The trees make no sense.

Oh, and I can't talk to Gaia, becaue the.door doesn't respond. Guess I'll wait for a patch, or just flip the disc the bird and sell it. I am not starting over.

"Shiny shiny graaaaaaayfix" is no reason to say this is somehow a perfect game. It's a very good open world action game with too much dialogue, no pacing and not that balanced. If you don't fast travel or rush the main quest you'll be overleveled and wreck everything. I turned in my hard-earned flowers and vessels to get garbage I didn't need.

I enjoyed my time with the game when I wasn't dealing with NPCs.

@ironcrow86 I played with Polish audio and English subtitles. Way better voices and acting.
I prefer limited fast travel personally (rarely use it anyway), and leveling up is huge. What are talking about? The perks change everything, and you can change your build as you see fit to suit the situation.
Otherwise I agree. Inventory is a mess, and the load times made Bloodborne pre-patch seem fast.

@TheGZeus "It won't be spoken of as much as any Dragon Age game"

Mate it cant possibly be as crap as Dragon Age Inquisition. That's talked about for all the wrong reasons.

@TheGZeus tbh I just wasn't that much of a fan of witcher (as you no doubt could tell) but moving to the topic in hand horizon; for want of a better expression, kicks witchers arse

@ironcrow86 Exactly! +1

@ironcrow86 apples and oranges.
HZD is NOT an RPG.
Any elements borrowed are thinner than what Borderlands borrows.
If you look at it as an action game, it's good, but the storytelling is pretty stiff and heavyhanded aside from main quest.
If you look at it as an RPG it's rubbish, but the combat is pretty fun.

@themcnoisy not one BioWare game I've played (one from each franchise at least, people kept saying "but this one is good!") has even been playable. I suffered through a bunch of Baldur's Gate because it's dated, and tried to forgive the horrible mechanics, but I hated everything else, too.
NWN was OK, I suppose. Just made me want to play real DnD.
DA:O was twice as bad as BG. I uninstalled after the first boss. Same for Inquisition, but it was worse than either.
Didn't make it to a boss in Mass Effect. Leroy Jenkins joke in the first mission, awful combat and interface.

They don't.make good games. They make Telltale games and shoehorn garbage RPG tropes into them for no good reason.

Tough question to answer since I'm not done with it yet but Horizon is definitely up there right now. I'd say my favorite is exclusive is Yakuza 0, and of course inFamous: Second Son, Ratchet & Clank, Uncharted 4: A Thief's End and Gravity Rush 2 are high on the list as well. Only 30 hours into Horizon but it gets better as I go along so wouldn't be surprised if at the end it overtakes Yakuza 0 as my favorite PS4 game.

@BAMozzy
Best PlayStation exclusive of all-time is really tough one to answer. Looking at it objectively some games just simply don't hold up but transporting back into the time they came out, Twisted Metal 2 was awesome, Gran Turismo was a genre-defining effort. On PS2, the Ratchet & Clank games were phenomenal and God of War was brilliant. Last gen saw Uncharted 2 and The Last of Us which I'd definitely put up there but I was also a big fan of Guerrilla's own Killzone 2 as well. I don't know if I'd say Horizon is the best PS exclusive ever but it definitely will be one of the PS4's defining games along with Bloodborne, Uncharted 4 and, more than likely, The Last of Us Part II.

@BenTarrant @Batman @get2sammyb

Great listen as always!

@Gamer83 For their time, most of those I would say were the best Exclusive for that generation on that console but whether those games would hold up against Horizon (for example) if they were released for the first time today, I don't know.

I loved Uncharted 2 as well as Killzone 2 - wasn't such a fan of Last of Us as I didn't really 'gel' with the characters or particularly like Joel. The story was very predictable too and I found the game rather slow in general but still can't deny its an incredible achievement considering the hardware etc.

I really don't count Bloodbourne, its just a Dark Souls clone and not made by a Sony Studio. Maybe its just me, but I tend to look at 3rd Party developed games as something different. I don't tend to think of Titanfall or Sunset Overdrive in the same context as Halo 5 or Gears 4 either. Its more a case of 'buying' exclusivity rather 'developing' a game themselves. I loved Uncharted 4 in general too but I did have a few minor complaints - it was not an Uncharted game like its predecessors, felt different as a result and certainly could tell it was developed by a different team despite having the same characters and look. Visually its right up there with the best game on any console and the facial animations are incredible. The attention to detail is phenomenal too but overall I felt the story was a bit 'flat' and didn't thrill or entertain me as much as Uncharted 2.

What sets Horizon apart from these is it's moment to moment action, the incredible set pieces that can play out and intense battles that are endlessly available and the variety of ways you can overcome staggering odds to win. Whether that's fighting alongside a hacked Thunderjaw fighting another Thunderjaw, watchers, scrappers, Glinthawks and Longlegs, setting up traps and luring a herd of Behemoths into them to knock down their health or even the spectacular explosions by setting fire to a few 'Grazers' canisters. The Story was great too but I won't go into it as I don't want to spoil it for anyone. I admit its quite 'linear' for a story - no different in essence from Last of Us or Uncharted but that's also set in a beautifully crafted world.

There are not many games I have fully completed (i.e got ALL the possible trophies/achievements) although some I have 100% completed their campaign. Those that I have though are generally consigned to the 'never play again' but I can see myself jumping back into Horizon to just roam around and fight giant robot dinosaurs. Its not like I am earning XP or need to get resources to buy something, upgrade something etc either. Its just that the actual game-play itself is so much fun. Of course I would love some 'Witcher 3' style DLC announcement, some expansion of the world, the Robots, the gear etc but I don't necessarily feel I need a reason to jump back in either even though I have no outstanding quests to complete.

@BAMozzy
The reason I don't want to throw this game at the top yet, is because I'm still not done with the campaign (don't think I'm close really). It does get consistently better though and I really love the combat, would absolutely agree that's a huge part of what makes this game. It's fun to just run into random battles or go in stealthy and feel like a badass. The story is intriguing, generic maybe, but the drops it has which explains what happened in the past add greatly to it. Can't wait to get further along.