spoilers
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I tried to play this game without any spoilers or outside help. Except for finding 1 powercell that I missed and wanted to know if I'd have to restart the game to get it. Thankfully I didn't but kind of regret having to look online for a solution.
This game.. as a single player experience is very rewarding by its end. Except that there's so much that's missing.
Like why isn't there a movie or more CG of old days included for players dedicated enough to complete the main story? CG is expensive.. and somehow solid state storage isn't a thing so only a handful or recordings survived.
It doesn't make sense. The bunkers were all sealed.. except they all seem to have been destroyed over the centuries (not destroyed as in obliterated, just cracked open and exposed to the elements. Just ruined. 1 thousand years isn't actually that long of a time for these types of buildings to be expected to survive. What's the reason they bunkers are all ruined? Did the swarms get to them all after Zero Day?
The amount of material presented by Guerrilla regarding the last few years building up Zero Day would make interesting fodder for either a movie, like King's Glaive or a show.. novel.. Looking at The Expanse and how it had an explosive first season even though it is trying to be hard sci-fi which normally doesn't work on TV or ends up being too expensive.
HZD seems to have a great counter to that because it would have a scheduled end. Watching the second season of Expanse is damn near painful because there's nothing left of that explosive first season. No characters to learn to care for and no plots that are interesting or compelling. Only a few episodes left to put it back into gear.
No knowledge of the old world
A substantial part of the Zero Dawn project was to archive knowledge up to Zero Day for future generations to learn from. Ted Faro decided to wipe that option. Further Hades would do the same for any future cycles. But artifacts of the past remain littered across the world for new generations to discover and make sense of. It isn't a clear library with a teacher to ensure they would understand.. but it is the same thing humanity has had for millennia. We find things buried in the earth and find ways to use that knowledge to make or lives better or worse. Having everything they knew up to Zero Day though? would that really have been a curse?
And even more than that Gaia doesn't communicate with humans outside. I don't understand this because even with Apollo getting wiped at a minimum the humans Gaia creates that aren't allowed to be modified in any way, are still educated to a point. This helps bootstrap cultures by at the minimum providing language and skips the long hunter gatherer phase.. except.. apparently they can limit themselves to that level of development.
This comes from the concept of having access to very advanced technology causes developing cultures to invent religion.
Apparently it is a common enough thing with very few humans in the game's story being able to learn about technology.
So there's no vehicles
My first impression of this was that it breaks immersion because it doesn't fit with the story being told.
I find this one to be the most limiting and annoying because there are only two a couple of tribes in a very tiny part of the world. It doesn't fit with the scope of the story being told. perhaps the area in the game is the only suitable region that can support life? Maybe but there's hardly even that much food being grown.. Meridian isn't all that big. It is the same as Ark. No vehicles other than mounts, which aren't used by the NPCs even though there's examples of ancient vehicles littering the landscapes and some roads.. It's like either Hades is too effective at obliterating nearly all traces of old civilizations or it just focuses on life.
Again it just feels like the game fails to live up to its scope because there should be much more available. If the game wasn't so hard core scripted to be a certain way and so limited.. it would be a much more fun sandbox to play in after the final battle ends.
Was there a fear that adding more diversity to the sandbox and limiting the game to a single player story where you have zero control over the world would ensure players enjoyed the story?
I feel like Destiny did this better because while there's some single player things you can do, and a story you can run through, there's more to do because of multiplayer.
HZD could have been a middle ground then for players to build new worlds. Or at least presents an interesting base for a strategy based open world game where players could build.
Which is Ark. Except for their own reasons Wildcard doesn't allow vehicles either.
All three games, I'm including Destiny because Sparrows are basically bullshit mounts, would be much better with vehicles.
No sniping or cloaking
Once you get the ultra-weave armor the game becomes significantly easier. But there's still other technology out there that Aloy never gets to use. Or at least that I haven't seen yet. Over 80% completion I'm guessing there's little left.
But when hunting Stalkers I kind wish Aloy did have access to a sniper rifle AND a cloak.
There are parts of the story that would be broken if that was the case but.. still. Cloaking tech and snipers are both there by example. At least a sniper makes sense because the example from Stalkers is there to inspire any weapon smith.
No diving or swiming
I find this interesting because the water is supposed to be clean by the time humans appear.
If this is the case deeper waters should be teaming with life. But more than that there should be creatures filling the waters and land with life. The robots that appear in the game are supposed to be the green robots that help restore life.. no matter that they have no chill and are too willing to murder humans.
I figure an RTS version of HZD would have animals like whales that pump out new fish and bottom dwellers that make coral and shrimp etc.
It's a thing that's completely missing from the game.. where do creatures come from? and why are flora and fauna so limited?
No roman options