3 people found this review helpful
Not Recommended
0.0 hrs last two weeks / 52.8 hrs on record
Posted: 16 Jul, 2023 @ 10:37am

Overall
I came into this game blind wanting to experience the game without any prior knowledge. I had a blast with the story and I really loved some of the combat engagements. The visuals took me by surprise and was blown away. I can really say I got hooked later in the game and it was an amazing game to experience. But this game felt incomplete and it falls flat from perfection due to lots of bugs, poor immersion, cramped environments, annoying movement in dialogue, issues in cut scenes and the list can go on. I chose to look past the issues to continue to experience the game. I upgraded my monitor and graphics card to play game on high refresh and ultra graphics. I recommend you play this at peak quality or the other issues will drag you through. I knew how great this game would end so I pressed on to see it through. This is a great game and I hope you take the time to experience at its max or else I would wait till HZD2.

Story: I'll address my first issue and go on from there. Its confusing for the first bit of the game and I don’t know why but it did not grip me for the first few hours of the game.. IT GOT BETTER. That's what ill tell people when I talk about it. It sums up later, and it wraps up greatly! BUT. It isnt great at the beginning.
Beyond the game's beginning, what gets you hooked (for me especially) "what happened before now" what was the then, what is the now. So many questions as the game gives you GREAT questions to ask and the slow roll of info and answers as you progress the game is so satisfying.
The little text stories you can discover, and the little audio stories are Awesome! It was a little touch of feeling instead of a fact, or the game telling you what is going on. its just a feeling you'd get by awesome voice actors throughout the game that really added to the atmosphere. Bravo.

Visuals: WOW! AMAZING! Characters look good! The scenery looks AMAZING! The shadows are killer! The creatures are so well designed it is a shame we cant just get some time to admire them, some high quality slow shots would be amazing for some of the creatures. But the game is truly beautiful. The areas are so well thought out and designed.
Talking about it for me wouldn’t do it any justice so this is a game that I recommend you experience and that can be said for a lot of games.

Game play: great game play, I enjoy the rouge like hiding and killing this game has to offer. The skirmishes were enjoyably difficult and there are plenty of resources to play around with. This game very much caters to how you play the game your way. If you want to fight straight up, go for it. If you want to sneak around assassinating everyone, go for it. Do you want to setup traps and have the advantage? We got you. How about sneak past the enemy "cause fk that ♥♥♥♥", we go you covered there too.
There are lots of ways to play the game I applaud that. This is great to see for players to feel like what they want to do in the world is an option.

Open World: The game is vastly open world, it has a lot to offer but there was too much to deal with to really appreciate it.
There are times where I felt that the game was pretty cramped. There was so much space but you could be having a tough battle and walk into another group across the ravine or hill. Then it isnt just a battle of 3 specific enemies its become a fight for survival as you're chased 1 v 10. also there would be animals posted up in spots just to fill a hole it felt like.
There are a lot you can cheese, ill admit there were a few times I decided to cheese and go around cause it was way too tough to not go around (And not sneak by I mean I climbed the hill where I shouldn’t have been able to get to, to get around). There is allot of that available. Rocks you shouldn’t be able to climb up or down, but it is what it is, it doesn’t ruin the game entirely

People in the world: the characters are great, the npc's are poor and clunky. Which isnt a deal breaker, youre the main character so who gives a ♥♥♥♥ about the random towns folk or whatever. I don’t care but as they're apart of the atmosphere and environment so they account for something. My problem is their uselessness as teammates or guards. They really just useful distractions against enemies but nothing else.

Immersion: there was a disconnect for me at the start where you as a player to charater have to learn what they know and overcome the skills to do so. Climbing isnt a challenge at all which was unfortunate. People and merchants are posted up in random spots sometimes.
There are wild aggressive animals right out the gate in your own land, it just didn’t seem to add up. What they were there for to warm you up about the creatures but they did not fit the atmosphere. You ask questions like "how is this even possible", "why is this here", "how would you have tribes and cities running around or merchants trading with enemies on your front lawn"… constantly.

issues
- the sound in cut scenes at the end of the game were switching from my speaker and then my headphones while the audio was set to headphones. lucky i didn't miss the ending with no sound.
- refresh rate drops during cut scenes which was a bummer
- people falling out of the map which is crazy
- the head nodding and eye twitching in dialogue pulls the immersion right out of the game unfortunately.
- finishing the bandit camps would automatically reset you for no reason. (Let me light the fire and then reset the camp plz)
- right after fast traveling to campfire you could recive agro from nearby creatures.
- The level gap between creatures is not evenly placed as you try to progress the story, you could run into some hard fights easily, now add other creatures nearby and you got a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ to deal with.
- beyond the cut scenes there were lots of audio issues, hearing creatures not there, not hearing sound effects just empty noise. There was lots.
-no banking system to store mods or resources, I constantly had to break things down to make space as my bags would fill and there was no more bag upgrades.
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