There's so much more left to discover before the world ends... Let's Play Horizon Zero Dawn

RIP Aragorn. Long live Elessar?

1 Like

YES

The Cauldron seems really cool. It answers a question I had, which is “Where do the Machines come from?” It doesn’t explain who designed the whole shebang, but learning how new Machines are made is pretty neat.

I also like the aesthetics of the Cauldron, since running through biomechanical bowels is my favorite thing.

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14 lpz

What’s this? What’s this??? It’s time to continue the story!!

We’re going to do a little quest first that introduces some new Machines and then we’re going to get on our way with a brand new friend!

Feel free to add names from here on out in the thread, just like before, for our new longhorn-shaped robot buddy.

Oh, I almost forgot, I mentioned that I had already been taking some photographs when @Mansedan asked, and I’ve been collecting them in an album on imgur that I’ll be updating with new photos as I play through the game.

It probably won’t be 100% up-to-date on Machine types we encounter, but I’ll be trying to get the best shots.

Click the image below to go to the full album:

And just a reminder that I am taking photo requests as we go through the game.

Need to start watching this bad boy! Always interested in the game.

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15 lpz

The journey to Meridian is not a short one, so we’ll be taking in the sights of Carja territory as we go.

We’ll also get a glance of the two largest Machine types in the game, but we’re not going to mess with them just yet.


With this video, we’re closing in on finding Olin and dealing with him, but here’s a question that I’ll leave up to the thread:

What should we do when we find Olin?
(Please make sure that you save your vote until after watching this episode.)

  • Forgive Olin.
  • Make Olin pay.

0 voters


LP Note: The next two (maybe three) videos are going to be bonus videos, but then we’re back to our regularly-scheduled story.

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Some documents from the latest episode:

Olin’s Journal:

Full Text

4TH DAY
I am a traitor now and see no way out.

If I start at the beginning - how they turned me - perhaps I can see something I missed?

No. There is no escape. What good can writing it do?

10TH DAY
You gave me this folio when you taught me to write. All these years later, it still smells of you - lavender and ash of the forge. All I have left of you.

Write me notes, you said when you gave it. Share your thoughts - tear the leaves, send the pages. To show I’m thinking of you. But I never did. Hands to grubby to touch parchment.

How I wish I’d done as you said. How I wish I could now.

15TH DAY
The same dream. Your hair in the forge-light, our son’s weight on my shoulders. All of us free. You turn to me and whisper - it is a dream. I answer - Yes, I know.

And then awake. Alone.

Even awake my life is a dream - a lie. My treachery will not buy your freedom. It only buys time. But every moment you live, that he lives… if treachery is the cost, I will pay it.

34TH DAY
Every week the device calls me in secret to a new dig site. We work like men with whips to our backs - as though it was left to us to upturn the soil of the entire earth and time has run low. Scrabbling to find the carcasses of ancient demons. It’s the weapons they want, must be. What misery am I helping birth into this land?

38TH DAY
I drink with Erend and Ersa, but not even the sweetest brew can wash the taste of guilt from my mouth. Every day my silence betrays them. The villains watch through the device. I keep expecting Ersa to stick a blade through my throat, but fire and spit, she does not suspect me. A better liar than I thought myself, must be.

54TH DAY
Fitful sleep the past three nights, thinking on that Nora girl. Why did it order her killed? The device, must be. Even so, what threat could she pose?

We heard explosions and distant screams from the village. I thought the savages might blame us, turn on us. I almost wished for it. But their Matriarchs ordered us gone. We fled to the border with an escort of braves, crossed at Daytower.

Now I am called to a dig in the Rockwreath, They promise another glimpse of you, of our son. How I hope to see you both.

You missed a great opportunity to say, “Theres a Thunderjaw, the meanest machine you ever saw”.

i’m kinda surprised by how unforgiving the vote is going. they literally kidnapped his family and sent him a video of holding knives to their throats to make him do the thing. it would be another story if he actively threw aloy to the wolves, but this was straight up the shadowy big bad catching sight of aloy through his leash. making him pay is roughly on par with blaming the guy with a dashcam for recording a car accident.

The only thing that I’ll say about the vote is that it is not a false choice. Both options lead to different outcomes in the next story mission.

So just finally got around to watching some episodes. I love the game and the concept, but holy crap Aloy’s inner/outer monologs are super annoying just because nobody constantly talks to themselves like that. Also feel like it takes away from the players/viewers own questions or thought process.

I know it’s not a major thing, but I can’t help but feel like it’s excessive and probably directed poorly. Something about it doesn’t flow or feel natural.

Is it better or worse than when Batman does it?

Good question! Not sure. I’m assuming you mean the Arkham games right? I only played one years ago so I don’t remember how bad it was.

I’ve actually heard that there’s a Batman reference in this game at the very, very beginning, but I wasn’t able to find what people were referring to (they also didn’t show any pictures of it).

Apparently, when Aloy was a small child and fell into the Metal Ruins and the bats first rush out of the cave, there is supposedly a Batman symbol somewhere in the room. But like I said, I couldn’t find it.

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SUPREME TRIPLE BONUS UPDATE!!!

16 lpz


17 lpz


18 lpz


There’s a lot to unpack here, so I’m just going to describe all three videos in one go.

Since we arrived in Meridian, which is a pretty big city, I think it’s time we slow down and enjoy the sights of this sprawling hub of activity. There are plenty of side quests to pick up from here, but we’ll be looking at them later. For now, let’s take a look back on who the Carja were and what they’ve become in the city atop the mesa.

Then, we have the next three Machines in our bestiary straight out of the Nora Sacred Lands. We’ve seen two of them a bunch already, but let’s take a look at the Grazer, the Sawtooth, and the Shell-Walker.

Finally, the pièce de ré·sis·tance: fighting a Thunderjaw! And yes, I took this opportunity to show off a bunch by skyrocketing the difficulty all the way up to Ultra Hard, our first look at the newly-patched-in difficulty.

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I definitely appreciate the tour of the big city. Too many LPers or streamers get to a place like that and go WOW NEAT before sipping on past all the cool details.

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19 lpz

Today, we’re going to discover a new Machine type causing trouble at the local quarry. Then, we’re going to run all the way to the excavation site to confront Olin about what happened at the Proving.

3 Likes

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20 lpz

Erend has been out in the desert for a number of days now, so we should help him find out what happened to Ersa. After we uncover a mystery at the site of the Vanguard ambush, we get an audience with the Sun-King himself, Avad.

Ravagers can be a lot of fun… just not all of them in the same fight.

2 Likes

That was a pretty big leap to conclusions with that shattered rock there.

I really like Blameless Marad. He seems… clever.