We do a special kind of review on gamelust called a ‘rolling review’ where we play the game and share our opinions on a daily basis as we progress through the game. This gives you an in depth look at whether or not we are enjoying the game, as well as a dynamic score through out the experience from beginning to [hopefully] end, updated daily.

2/27/17 – xsuicidesn0wmanx

We’re going to be live with our rolling review at 6PM central time. Join us on our twitch channel to watch the live stream and chat as we play the game. Both myself and Killer1022 should be participating in the stream. See you tomorrow!

2/27/17 – Killer1022

I’m excited.

2/27/17 – xsuicidesn0wmanx

You’re excited? Feel these nipples!

2/27/17 – Killer1022

30% Chub

2/28/17 – xsuicidesn0wmanx

Like always, I picked up the game during lunch and came home to install it. Things got weird this time. Initially I had 45 gigs free on my hard drive. Yet the game insisted there was not enough room for the install. I was not given an option to go to Storage Management and had to go find the option on my own. After clearing out two games I had not played in a while I tried again but was still not able to install the game. I had to hard reset my PS4 just to install this game. After about 5 minutes of dealing with unnecessary bullshit I finally got the console to start installing the game. I go to watch the install progress and SURPRISE!!!! Sony sucks at math. Either the console is lying and the install size is much larger than the 15 gigs printed on my screen. Or the console doesn’t know that 15 is actually smaller than 45.

So I go back to work still eager to try the game, finish up my tasks there and rush home to get things setup. I run a few tests to make sure our Twitch stream is all setup, ready to start at 6pm as promised. Killer1022 joins to help test the stream and make sure we’re ready to go and then I hear him say…  “Man, I hate when games make you play as a kid!” Any erection I may have had instantly disappeared. Now I’m wondering if this game can possibly live up to the hype. This thought was still stuck in the back of my head after I had played the game for roughly 6 hours.

I would say the first hour of the game has you playing as a 5 year old Aloy. I find this somewhat upsetting. Not one game that had you play as a child has been enjoyable in my experience. This is no different. I spent the first hour waiting for Aloy to grow up. The whole sequence was treated as one big tutorial, but added absolutely no value to the game at all. It was only a handful of missions later that I found myself in a race where game mechanics were being used for the first time. You know, that thing the tutorial is supposed to teach you about? No surprise I died 3 or 4 times over the simplest of shit.

The thing is, I actually enjoyed the game quite a bit so far and I don’t know why. This game is basically a Rise of the Tomb Raider clone with Robotic Dinosaurs in a post apocalyptic world. The game has a female lead whose main weapon is a bow and arrow. She can climb tree’s and ledges. Has to scavenge twigs from small trees and items from the machines for ammo. Even has small animals running around that provide ingredients for crafting. Other games have clearly influenced this one too. Games like Assassin’s Creed(Tall grass for stealth kills and ‘towers’ you have to climb that reveal the nearby map), Mass Effect(Dialog is very similar, conversations can feel quite robotic most of the time) and Dark Souls(Campfires == Bonfire, using them respawns all enemies).

It seems like all I can do is shit all over this game, yet I can’t stop playing it. To sum up how I feel about this game in one line, this is the most underwhelming 95 I have ever played. The game plays perfectly and it is absolutely beautiful. Yet it does almost nothing new. The only thing that separates this game from any other game is this weird woman vs machine story. I am intrigued at the ideas that it has swirling in my head. But I also have absolutely no idea what in the fuck is going on. Hopefully things make more sense tomorrow. I want to give this game a provisional score of 87. Although the game feels like a 95, it simply isn’t living up to the incredible hype pushing this game down the tracks. But an 87 also doesn’t represent how great the game is either so I’m going to start off with a 92 and pray that this game starts living up to the hype.

2/28/17 – Killer1022

I think suicidesnowman is on to something, we expected this game to be different because of the robo-dino/cave butch woman, but so far its a collection of all the good things games have been doing the past 2-3 years.  You have Assassins Creed stealth and towers, Dark Souls combat, Uncharted platforming, Mass Effect dialogue segments and yet somehow it isn’t enough.  Had this game come out 3-4 years ago, it might have been the greatest game ever made, but that’s not the case.  I’m still waiting for the story to flourish and god does it have the potential to do so because everything seems to be building up to some crazy twist.

Also I think I’ve collected 200 rocks in the 2-3 hrs I played.  I don’t know why, but I can’t stop collecting shit in this game AND I HATE COLLECTING STUFF.  It has a Mad Max crazy addicting aspect to it, you WANT to do all the side missions, climb everything, explore the world.  FUCK I GOTTA GO PLAY IT AGAIN, BYE.

3/01/17 – xsuicidesn0wmanx

I spent another 3 to 4 hours playing Horizon tonight. So far the experience hasn’t changed much. I’m really enjoying the game. Yet still can’t shake that feeling that it hasn’t come close to living up to the hype. One thing I’ve noticed is that I feel that I have to complete the side missions to stay ahead of the leveling curve. I hadn’t done many of the side quests leading up to the mission to head out to Meridian. Upon reaching the next step I was confronted with a level 12 mission, that required you to kill a bunch of level 15 enemies, and I was only a level 9. This is poor game design in my opinion. If you have no choice but to perform the side quests in order to complete the main quest on easy mode then they’re not really side quests. A side quest should not be a requirement to progress through the story.

I’m still trying to figure out what the story is about as well. I’m not sure if this is a story involving time travel, but many aspects are starting to remind me and my friends of the basic plot for The Terminator movies. But truth is this story so far has no real direction. The developers want to have you soak in the post apocalyptic world and only sprinkle in the futuristic machine world that exists beneath the facade that is the mountains and tree’s. I also noticed that a lot the backstory about how this world came to be like this is found through hidden text and audio logs. Without revealing too much, I can at least confirm this story does take place in the United States well after the year 2054. I can’t say that I like this approach. Quantum Break did the same thing and the story there was absolutely AMAZING. Unfortunately the majority of gamers missed this entirely since the best parts of the story were found in these collectables. I am hoping that Guerrilla did not make the same mistake. Few will spend the time to hunt all over the place for the missing pieces of the story.

I wont have a chance to play this game again until Saturday night, but I am still very eager to continue the game. As much as I’ve complained so far I really do like the game. It really caters to the type of gamer that I am. But that is also the problem. Most of my friends can’t stand how I play games, seeking out collectables and finishing every quest 100%. I think a lot of people are this way, and I don’t like the idea that many of them will miss out on the small details that give this game that edge.  I’m sticking with my 92.

3/05/17 – xsuicidesn0wmanx

After a few days off to tend to family matters I finally got a chance to dive back into this game. One way I know this game has me hooked is because I couldn’t pull myself away at midnight. All along I’ve been waiting for the story to finally begin to unfold. I think it took a long time to finally get to the good part of the story. Things like why the world ended up this way are starting to come out. Everything is given a meaning in this game. I like that. Normally a sci-fi story leaves too many holes. I find myself with more questions than answers. This game doesn’t leave much wiggle room for the imagination to wander too far off the intended path. It makes the possibility of this fantasy world more believable.

There are a few design choices that I am not happy with. Although a friend pointed out the golden fast travel pack(50x shards, 1 fox skin, 10x fatty meat), it really annoyed me that I had to use a consumable to fast travel. It entirely defeats the purpose of a fast travel option if you have to craft an item to use it. Another thing that irks me is that Aloy stops cold in her tracks every time she uses a health item. I can see how this is maybe more realistic but if I wanted realism I’d go outside. What this ends up doing is leaving Aloy vulnerable for a second when her character stops moving and lets the enemies catch up. This is not only frustrating when you’re running away from a stronger enemy but also when you’re under fire from an enemy like the Deathbringer who has a pair of rocket launchers and chain guns. As soon as you use a health item those guns are back on you taking the health you just gained back. There are other design choices I don’t understand, like why the game goes into bullet time randomly when you’re climbing, this doesn’t enhance my experience at all.

The big thing is that I am still enjoying this game. I’m upgrading my provisional score to 95.

3/06/17 – xsuicidesn0wmanx

And it is done. I have beat the game after about 35 to 45 hours of play. Even after I had beaten the game I still wanted to play it. I’m going back and working on 100% completion of the game now. As it stands I’m at roughly 60% complete with most of the campfires, collectables and bandit camps east of Daytower done. The only part I am not really looking forward to is the Cauldrons, those just seemed like a lot of work for little reward. Sure it’s cool to take control of a machine, but I think I used the option maybe 3 times total. Even after I got the option to keep a mount and call for it, I just called the Horse mount rather than override a more powerful machine like a Sawtooth.

I also found the game to be incredibly unbalanced. Somehow I managed to go the entire game without running out of material for crafting, only to run out of wire right before the final boss battle. Taking down the boss with only regular arrows and fire arrows was a complete pain in the dick. But this wasn’t the only balance issue I ran into. Early on I found the game forced you to complete side missions to keep up with the level requirements to continue the main story. I also did not really feel the need to upgrade many of the skills I had. They simply did not enhance the game very much nor did they open up new game play opportunities. It felt more like unnecessary fluff that was tacked on after the core game was built.

Throughout this rolling review I’ve been fairly harsh towards the game. That is a bit unfair as Guerrilla got a lot of things right in this game. While the entire game mechanics are a mashup of ideas from other games, they all work near flawlessly. It allows this fantastical post apocalyptic sci-fi story to shine through and be the primary reason to play the game. Additionally it enables the exploration and discovery aspects of the game to come to the front. The whole feeling of ‘oooh, whats that over there?’ always present. Your mind is in a constant state of wonder while playing this game. I think this is the key to game design in the future. Solid gameplay that does not hinder the cinematic experience. As games inch closer and closer to delivering an experience on par with Hollywood this will be the key.

Earlier in this rolling review I referred to this game as ‘the most underwhelming 95 I have ever played.’ I’m not entirely sure that I ever got over that feeling. This is definitely a 95, that is not in question. But did the game live up to the hype? Not really. This is a great game, but so many made this game seem like it was going to be the greatest game ever. I think this game is the perfect example of how hype can ruin the gaming experience. Even though I’m giving the game a 95, it is not the Star Wars of gaming, or even close to it. It’s not even the best game of this short gen.