Last game you DIDN'T finish and your thoughts

Holy s***, Athrun888 didn't finish a game he started? What is the world coming to?

Today's victim is Horizon: Zero Dawn, Sony's answer to Nintendo's blatant Game of the Year back in febuary. Because, y'know, releasing a big budget new IP next to one of the most anticipated instalments ever in one of gamings most well known franchises is totally a smart move!


The game started out perfectly fine, in fact better than fine. For the first five hours or so I was singing the game's praises everywhere I frequented, and thought myself onto a genuinely top tier game and hidden gem (hidden if only because of the aforementioned stupid release date). I mean come on, it's a open-world game where you go around killing robo-dinosaurs, that concept alone is goat material!

Alas then I got to the part of the game where things open up, and the game's issues started to grind on my nerves to the point I actually rage-quit a story mission. See the game likes its big powerful robo-dinosaurs (awesome concept), and fighting a big robo-saber-tooth is epic. But when you end up being pitted against two similar scale enemies and a couple of powerful support robots at once things start to get irritating. Increasingly I was finding enemies when I ran across them were simply too powerful to actually confront, and so instead I had to sneak past.

I get that stealth is supposed to be a big part of the game, the problem is stealth usually falls flat on its face after an attack or two, and then you have to finish the fight in a regular fight. To be blunt stealth was too weak to remain a viable strategy for anything besides the early enemies. Combine this with the fact most enemies are basically bullet (or rather arrow) sponges and you've got a game whose once-enjoyable combat becomes tedious.

After I got to a story section where you had to fight two corruptors at once in a semi-confined space I just found I'd had enough. I could have beaten them of course, but doing so would have been incredibly boring, and so I found myself extracting the disc from my ps4 and replacing it with Final Fantasy XII HD.

I might some day finish this game, or at the very least try to, as I have the distinct feeling that most of what I just complained about was my missing something, but for now this goes unfinished.

Not sure if you call a game that has done nearly 4 million a hidden gem but the timing did effect people like me as I played it for like 2 days then played Zelda then Persona 5 and I've not really gone back.

I remember Jay, saying it looked good but Zelda upcoming put him off it, I don't know if he ever got or not but a GOTY edition is coming out December.

I bought it in the summer, yeah. It was pretty damn good, but definitely not the GOTY candidate people were hyping it up to be back at launch. The world was really interesting - the whole technology being overcome by nature thing and whatnot - and the combat was satisfying once you started unlocking the better weapons and abilities.

I just couldn't help compare it to BotW, and traversing Horizon's world was pretty dull in comparison to BotW. It definitely fell into the trappings of bad open-world design in that I felt I was following icons on the map rather than exploring for myself. Still, really fun for what it was, but I'm glad I waited until it dropped in price.

I know I've not finished HZD and about halfway but I did the same as you Jay, couldn't help compare the two and I think when I'm done with HZD whenever that will be, I'll prefer it.

I don't play many open-world games, so it inheriting bad design choices it's something that I would really notice part from ohh I climb these robosaurs that's like AC.

Irritatingly H0D seems to have sold more than BotW. I know the PS4 has a (much) bigger install base than the Switch, but it still ain't right.

I do worry that, as BotW was my first real open-world game, any other will seem mediocre in comparison. Mostly due to the lack of verticality, but also due to the preponderance of filler, especially in those icons Jay mentions. Skyrim could be the biggest victim of this.

I think with Skyrim potentially being your first Bethesda game it'll feel fresh enough for you. Don't get me wrong - things like the quests which are just procedurally generated (not all, I should add, there's still loads of great hand-crafted questlines) and the map markers might irk you, but there's still plenty to enjoy in there.

All of our discussion about games not ending soon enough (in some cases) got me thinking as to what it is I look forward to next in MHS.

Is it the story?  No: the villains are generic and I actively hate two of the party characters.
Is it discovering new areas?  No: while some are pretty there's nothing overly jaw-dropping, and the dungeon designs are uninteresting, made up of repeated non-special tiles.
Is it the combat?  Nope: the special moves are fun once each, and the bulk is just standard-issue turn-based battle with some pattern recognition that I've never really tried to nail.  While not bad, it's not game-defining, not something to keep me coming back.
Is it the crafting?  Nuh-uh: gathering stuff is dull and cosmetics alone aren't that much for me.
Is it the joy of hatching a new monster?  This is the closest thing to an answer I can give, but as I've rabbited ad nauseam in the game's thread, every Zamtrios or Arzuros is accompanied two Iodromes or Basarioses.  Or, worse, pallet-swaps of monsters I already own.  Without recognising them from the main series, the mostly reptilian monsters lack charm and variety when compared to Pokémon, or even Yo-Kai.

I've realised that I kept coming back to it not because I was looking forward to doing so, but simply because I kept coming back to it.

Reaching the beach area really drove this home for me.  The mediocre-to-bad script was coupled with an environment I shrugged at, and the thrill of hatching a lemur-monster was tempered by the third hatchable frilled lizard in the Monsterpedia and its brood.  I put Mario & Luigi, a game I've played thrice before, into my 3DS, and never wanted to replace it with MHS again.

If you're a Monster Hunter fan, you'll no doubt get more out of this than I did.  Otherwise, it's a very average JRPG.

At least Balla won't be coming into Monster Hunter threads with his negativity any more.

In seriousness though, gutted you didn't enjoy this more as I was hoping it would cure your wrongness and bring you into the fold a little.

Sorry sir!  I actually think it's a better gateway drug to get MonHun fans into JRPGs, rather than the other way around.  The gameplay, and even focus (single-player vs. online multiplayer), is so radically different to the main series, and I don't think the monster designs will make many converts of Pokémon fans.  It's more likely that MonHun fans will appreciate riding on their favourite beasts from the main games.  And it is pure JRPG in the way it works.

There were still parts I liked, though.  If it were on Switch and I had less of a backlog, I'd probably have finished it.  And you're right, Arzuros is bae(r).

Can you really finish a game like FIFA and as you can't it's here as I'm now done with the game.

I'm surprised how much FIFA 18, I've played it's gone to the top of my played games on Switch which comes from me playing 8 seasons in total and I don't feel I can do much more as I don't like Ultimate Team and the game lacking Journey & Online with friends doesn't help.

I said in the thread for the game that it feels last gen and I think Cappa or Jim said about getting the PS4 version instead, even though I had fun and definitely got my money's worse.

I could have got more out of a PS4 version just from the Journey and Playing with friends at a cheaper price as well.

The reason to get this on Switch is either it's your only option due to your gaming choices or you are on the go are a lot.

7/10

I can't be bothered to go back to the one-player mode of Spla2n.  Y'all have registered disappointment with it compared to Splat1, and with SMO coming over the horizon, plus games like M+RKB and SWD2 in the backlog, I can't see why I'd want to wrestle with unfamiliar controls when the level design is so... eh.  Not good, not bad, just eh.  Like the last game I didn't finish, I'd probably give it more of a chance if I had more time and fewer games to play.  Damn you Nintendo and your thriving launch period!

(Oh, and I'm baws at the multiplayer, so that ain't being picked up again any time soon.)

Even though I don't rank it as highly as the first I still think it's a great game, hopefully you do go back to it one day as depending on where you've left it it'd be something that could be beaten in a few nights.

Isn't the single player like 6hrs long, that's like one decent sitting.

Whilst I finished the single player I had a similar feeling of disappointment with the game aimed towards the multiplayer, maybe, despite having more options than the original it all just feels a bit samey. I haven't unlocked any other modes than Turf War though so I'll give it another chance somewhere down the line.

I enjoyed the single player but again it doesn't feel all that fresh (nope not intended). Perhaps it was maybe just too soon for a new Splatoon?

masofdas wrote:

Isn't the single player like 6hrs long, that's like one decent sitting.

You probably could beat it in one sitting but I feel like that'd be rushing through the game ignoring most of the collectibles which can be tricky to find in the latter half of the game.

Remember I don't explore

Beggin' yer pardon sirs, but regardless of exploration, 6h is definitely not one sitting for me. Even when I enjoy a game, I start feeling twitchy at around the 1.5h mark (maybe 2h if I'm really engrossed). With Spla2n, half an hour was tricky for me because I didn't really 'get into it'.

But it's not completely out of the picture, if there's a really dry patch down the line. I just like to have a tidy backlog, and this isn't going to get a look-in for a good while. I left it after the first boss though, if that gives you (Jas) some idea.

Ugh. Filthy casual.

Filthy Catholic, more like it. Dat religious guilt.

Balladeer wrote:

Filthy Catholic, more like it.  Dat religious guilt.

That's certainly something to put on a T-shrt.

Can you not watch Blade Runner 2049 then Balla as that's close to 3hrs long?

I like how 6 hours is a "decent" sitting. What's a good sitting?!

masofdas wrote:

Can you not watch Blade Runner 2049 then Balla as that's close to 3hrs long?

It's kind of different going out to the cinema versus sitting at home playing a game though eh? Joking aside I can get where balla is coming from even though I have much longer game sessions on most games there are times when I know I should doing much more important things.
Long sessions also depend on what game I'm playing too, for example I'm not going to sit and play something like Graceful explosion machine for like 7+ hours but I likely will for BotW. Now this is a complete guess but I imagine my average play time per session for Spla2n single player probably sits at 2 - 2 and a half hours.

If I'm watching BR49, say, it's going to be with another person. Therefore it counts as socialising/romance. Therefore my brain places it under 'productive'.

gjones wrote:

I like how 6 hours is a "decent" sitting. What's a good sitting?!

Also, this!

gjones wrote:

I like how 6 hours is a "decent" sitting. What's a good sitting?!

I played Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for like 14 hours on the way home from Newcastle