Wow - I have to say this is one of the most graphically beautiful games I have ever played. After a pretty cheesy cliffhanger at the end of Zero Dawn, the story picks up momentum starting slow but reaching an early game peak with some lore dumps. I think I'm around 40% through the main story so I hope there is more to come!
However, there have been major downgrades - most notably the combat system. It's much more difficult, not because of the enemies themselves, but the near inneffective dodge mechanic. So many times you are hit by invisible hit boxes or can't fully evade an attack and get chip damage. It just feels clunky and unfair.
Traps and tripwires have also been nerfed, meaning you can place only 3 unless you acquire perks or equip different armours. But 3 traps or wires are barely even enough to apply a decent status effect on the enemies. The traps themselves take at least 5 seconds to place so good luck doing that getting slapped around repeatedly by spammy AOE attacks from the enemies which have Infinite stamina and get right up in your face.
Spears - have a wind up to throw.
Bolt casters - are heavy weapons so are slow.
Traps - take ages to place.
Tripwires - Burst if you place them more than half a meter apart so you have to spend time placing them. Or if you walk into them, which happens more often than not because you need to run away from the enemy right in your face.
Shredder weapons - Need to charge to be thrown.
Bows - need time to reach full draw, and do barely any damage to enemies even when taking off the removable components.
All of these take far too much time when an enemy is right in your face. And you also can't outrun the enemies, so good luck making any space to use any of the above equipment.
I'm just really sad about it, I absolutely adored Zero Dawn and had so much fun with the challenging yet balanced combat, the OP feeling you could get towards the end - but bots like the thunderbird and thunderjaw were still challenging. But they also felt like fair fights.
Why they nerfed the roll to only 3 rolls and give you no other way to dodge attacks is beyond me, I have no idea how this wasn't a major piece of feedback during user testing. You have a slide but I found this inconsistent when running and pressing the button to slide - sometimes you just crouch.
At this point it feels like the only way to make the game fair is to either give yourself Infinite weapon stamina, Infinite traps that are placed immediately, or a decent dodge mechanics so you don't get screwed over. Or drop the enemy difficulty down to story mode - but should this really be necessary to play combat when you have no options to use a stealth approach? To me it just doesn't work.
Dark souls for example you could learn the enemy patterns and work around them, but this doesn't apply here - the enemy jumps right on top of you and does a massive AOE you cannot outrun and can dodge 3 times before getting hit again because you have no other option.
This is my biggest issue with the game, it's so beautiful but just no fun to play during combat...
However, there have been major downgrades - most notably the combat system. It's much more difficult, not because of the enemies themselves, but the near inneffective dodge mechanic. So many times you are hit by invisible hit boxes or can't fully evade an attack and get chip damage. It just feels clunky and unfair.
Traps and tripwires have also been nerfed, meaning you can place only 3 unless you acquire perks or equip different armours. But 3 traps or wires are barely even enough to apply a decent status effect on the enemies. The traps themselves take at least 5 seconds to place so good luck doing that getting slapped around repeatedly by spammy AOE attacks from the enemies which have Infinite stamina and get right up in your face.
Spears - have a wind up to throw.
Bolt casters - are heavy weapons so are slow.
Traps - take ages to place.
Tripwires - Burst if you place them more than half a meter apart so you have to spend time placing them. Or if you walk into them, which happens more often than not because you need to run away from the enemy right in your face.
Shredder weapons - Need to charge to be thrown.
Bows - need time to reach full draw, and do barely any damage to enemies even when taking off the removable components.
All of these take far too much time when an enemy is right in your face. And you also can't outrun the enemies, so good luck making any space to use any of the above equipment.
I'm just really sad about it, I absolutely adored Zero Dawn and had so much fun with the challenging yet balanced combat, the OP feeling you could get towards the end - but bots like the thunderbird and thunderjaw were still challenging. But they also felt like fair fights.
Why they nerfed the roll to only 3 rolls and give you no other way to dodge attacks is beyond me, I have no idea how this wasn't a major piece of feedback during user testing. You have a slide but I found this inconsistent when running and pressing the button to slide - sometimes you just crouch.
At this point it feels like the only way to make the game fair is to either give yourself Infinite weapon stamina, Infinite traps that are placed immediately, or a decent dodge mechanics so you don't get screwed over. Or drop the enemy difficulty down to story mode - but should this really be necessary to play combat when you have no options to use a stealth approach? To me it just doesn't work.
Dark souls for example you could learn the enemy patterns and work around them, but this doesn't apply here - the enemy jumps right on top of you and does a massive AOE you cannot outrun and can dodge 3 times before getting hit again because you have no other option.
This is my biggest issue with the game, it's so beautiful but just no fun to play during combat...