I started playing this technical marvel and it doesn't disappoint. I does look fantastic, and I was even captivated by the intro cutscene, which rarely happens. A beautiful game.
The hunting in this game is very enjoyable. It reminds me a lot of Tomb Raider, except it takes place in weird robot viking world. I like the big paradoxical mystery of the universe, and can't wait to know more about why it is like it is.
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Guerrilla are really going for the close-ups, with some very well-modeled faces. It is very Uncanny Valley, but gets closer than most games. It may be that facial animation transitions are ruining the illusion. Aloy and Rost both are incredibly detailed, and are both hard to look away from when they are on screen.
I completed The Trials, which was a nice attempt at storytelling, mostly successful. I have to say, the crazy hair that everyone has is almost a little distracting. It looks good, if a bit stiff, but it comes off a bit over-designed. Being that as it may, I murdered a 'demon' robot and got the ability to control robotic creatures, a type of ability I always enjoy a lot. I can't wait to see what I can make the creatures do.
After some hunting and exploring, I discovered my first Tallneck. What an wonderful design. After that, I murdered a bandit camp. I don't enjoy fighting humans as much robot animals, but I also don't hate it.
I've found Sona, the military leader, and exacted some revenge. I'm enjoying the robot hunting and the dynamic nature of the hunting gameplay more than fighting humans.
I'm home with the influenza, and played for hours. What a stunning and great playing game. The robotic creatures are amazing and beautiful, and discovering new species is a joy.
After seeing the very serious Corona Virus briefing from the Danish government, I played an hour of robot hunting, and finished the quest 'The Sun Shall Fall', quest 15/23.
To get the Shadow War Bow, I needed the heart of a Trampler, so I went hunting for one. After a tense encounter with a small heard of the giant beasts and a group of Glinthawks, I got the heart and the bow.
I'm learning a lot about the world and how it came to be. It all makes sense, and is so far not very original. I think I liked the mystery better than the explanation.
I woke up today with a theory about what was going to happen in the story of HZD. My theory was that 1) Civilization collapsed for some reason, 2) Aloy was a clone of Elizabeth Sobek, destined to awaken a frozen population of humans from the past. I had a second theory about Aloy being a robot as well, the pinnacle of robot evolution. Both theories were wrong.
An observation: You don't lead your shots in this game (at least on the standard difficulty). When you fire an arrow, it will hit whatever you aimed at, even if it has to curve. So in essence, you have homing shots.
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Another observation: I played through almost the whole game using arrows, grenades, and the melee spear. The game has a few other weapons such as wired traps, a shot-gun like weapon, and a rope caster that allows tying down enemies, and I didn't need any of them to complete the game.