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

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!!!

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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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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.

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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.

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

I really like Blameless Marad. He seems… clever.

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CW: Torture

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We head off to Pitchcliff to meet Marad’s agent in order to hopefully find Dervahl’s hideout. With our newfound information, we head off to mount a rescue attempt to get Ersa back.

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Man I gotta say this game has some real impressive facial capture/animations going on.

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And we’re back!

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It’s time to get back to Meridian to stop whatever Dervahl has planned!

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There may have been some divisiveness over whether or not to save Olin, but it definitely feels like the right thing to do to go save his family. And luckily, he gets to tag along to do… whatever it is that he ends up doing, including losing all interest in the rescue attempt.

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It’s about time for the next Cauldron, so let’s see what this one contains!

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A bit of a note about this and all future episodes of this Let’s Play:

Simply put, I’m switching the format of the videos from subtitled to voiced commentary. Subtitling these videos has been a monumental undertaking that has been getting harder to do with each video, and it’s kind of easy to see how this was the video that made me stop and realize how much work the rest of this LP would be.

Subtitling videos requires me to go through and essentially re-edit a video several extra times to make sure that there are no typos, that the text is readable (no game overlays/subtitles interfere with its placement), that the text is up long enough to be read, etc.

So, with all of that said, I’m switching back to voiced commentary, which I’m just so much more comfortable with at this point. One thing to note about the episodes of this LP that are already out there:

I’m going to be replacing those videos’ subtitles with voiced commentary at a later date just to keep everything all consistent, but the videos themselves aren’t going anywhere. I’ll put a link up on one of the first posts in this thread so that they aren’t lost, but as I go along, I’ll just be redoing them. The videos will basically just be me repeating much of the subtitles, but I just want to redo them to have a consistently-formatted LP.

Thanks for being patient with my erratic upload rate for this LP, but hopefully switching formats will fix that!

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In the meantime, let’s tackle a huge chunk of this game’s side quests in one fell swoop as we clean up much of Meridian. (Pay no attention to some really bad lip sync that I couldn’t really begin to fix.)

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i was worried you had moved on to other projects and i’m glad to see more. whatever you want to do, whatever is most convenient and comfortable for you is A-OK. it’s your time you’re spending after all. i just wanted to say i appreciate you showing this game to us.

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Oh yay, I’m glad this is still on. Thanks for your time, I’ve been enjoying the LP a lot.

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What could have been so bad that it caused a global civilization to collapse?

Hopefully, we’ll find out some answer to that question at Maker’s End.

I’m planning to do a timeline/plot summary video much later on, so if details about the game’s story seem a little scattershot, I’ll try to lay them out more clearly then.

Also, one of the documents we picked up doesn’t really need a lot of explanation, but it’s so indicative of the kind of person that Ted Faro is that I wanted to put the full text of it here:

Spiritual Summit

FROM: Ted Faro
TO: Paula Vassara
SUBJECT: Spiritual Summit
Paula,

Recent events have sharpened my perspective, and I think that I, and FAS in general, have been neglecting the spiritual side of things. Not under any specific religious framework, of course, but in a more general sense, as in not giving enough thought to our shared values, hopes, and aspirations for the afterlife. I’d like you to reach out to religious leaders of every stripe with the intention of scheduling a conference soon. Very soon. I’ll have more thoughts about the agenda later, but for now, let’s put out some feelers and see if we can lock something in. Make it a big tent - no kooks, but anyone with a credible audience. Let’s go deluxe - make it clear we’ll spare no expense.

Thx
Ted

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