scumble on 7/11/2017 at 10:21
Forgot to mention that I found the music to be pretty good. I think it's Hans Zimmer esqe with the electronic elements but there is some very good work with strings such that it's hard to identify them as samples. Possibly a bit heavy on the female voice element that is all over the place.
Another small point is that when some of the best bits of music are playing and Aloy goes into some idles she looks like she's enjoying the moment of taking a break, feeling the snow on her face and hands stretching her arms out and so on. I don't recall seeing idles that stand out to me in the same way.
Malf on 7/11/2017 at 11:27
Regarding the cultural diversity thing, I agree it does come off more like ticking some political correctness tickboxes. I mean, yes, you could initially argue that the game takes place in post-apocalyptic Colorado, so there would be a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds.
But then, you learn the game takes place about a thousand years after the downfall of civilization, so surely interbreeding should have resulted in a merging of physical features? In fact, I think I would have been more impressed if the artists had tried to represent this.
The way it looks in game is that despite humanity struggling to rise from the ashes, ethnic groups have maintained a degree of segragation, implying an inherent and enduring bigoted cultural hangover from our times. But this is never commented on.
The only differences people comment on are very hard for the player to recognise. For some reason, everyone in the entire world seems to be able to tell the difference between Banuk, Nora, Carja and Oseram at a glance, when the only thing I can tell is reliably different is the way they're dressed. And that becomes a nonsense when Aloy is wearing another tribe's clothing.
Otherwise, each of these tribes consists of members of all contemporary ethnic backgrounds.
scumble on 7/11/2017 at 22:05
Maybe they have discussions whereby they try to avoid making the tribes have different racial types - it would make more sense that tribes separated for hundreds of years would have different appearance, but then they might get accused of portraying asian types as being the "bad" tribe for example.
Still, if in Skyrim you can have Redguards essentially being black, and there being no particular outcry against them being some stereotype of black people, why worry about it in this game?
Back to the game however, and I've found that I can almost aim the bow while strafing and not miss constantly. I was avoiding scrapper fire while actually hitting them, but I'm still not even close to mouse aiming speed.
Most fun bit this evening was charging into a group of scrappers and watchers on the back of a Broadhead, which took damage and fizzed out causing Aloy to bounce off. I was further satisfied by me actually hitting something with the bow while running in circles.
The other fun thing I've got the hang of is luring dumb machines into grass with a rock throw and a whistle for a stealth kill. It's interesting to approach a small herd to try and clear it without being noticed, but in some locations you don't get any guaranteed cover so it's back to running about again.
Also there is overriding a watcher or a grazer, waiting for the ensuing machine chaos and cleaning up afterwards. It will be interesting to see what happens when I can override some of the larger machines.
The human enemies are still dull by comparison, and when mixed up with machines they are generally just an annoyance. I'd also like to sneak my way into camps reliably but it seems hard. I retried one approach several times to get in to an alarm without being seen but gave up when it didn't seem like it was going to happen.
Malf on 7/11/2017 at 23:14
Heh, when you get to control Sawtooths and bigger, that's when it starts to get really interesting.
And yeah, the human enemies are incredibly dull to fight when compared to the machines. Just nowhere near enough variety of attack, both on your part and theirs. I find the missions to clear outposts particularly dull because there's usually lots more enemies than there need to be. I don't think I've died once clearing an outpost.
scumble on 8/11/2017 at 22:31
I've switched up to normal difficulty and I haven't noticed a big difference. Yet I got to Carja territory and found myself getting bombarded by a huge bird which seems unkillable at the level you're supposed to be able to traverse the lands to meridian. I tried fighting it but if it lands near you it just walks towards you with a shield up and there's no way to escape unless I've missed a trick to disable it. I used a broadhead to get past it but still got caught half way. I tried to shoot it whilst riding but got blasted off and just had to run away. Not entirely sure why they put this thing where they did.
Malf on 9/11/2017 at 12:55
Ah, that'll be a Stormbird, and yeah, they're dicks. But overall, I'd say once you're used to them, they're a lot easier than Rockbreakers.
I hope I'm not teaching Grandma to suck eggs here, but use your Focus to scan any enemy you come across. This will highlight different components for you, as well as notifying you of what damage works best on said components. You can also check out this information in your notebook at your leisure.
I would say there are three weapons that should be permanently on your weapon wheel:
Sharpshot Bow
Hunter Bow
War Bow
The Sharpshot is probably the bow you'll be using the most. It has two staple ammo types and one that's less important.
The important ones are:
Precision Arrows - High Damage and reasonable Tear, these will take out almost all human enemies in the game with one headshot, two for enemies with a skull above their head. They're also handy for removing the protective shields from Blaze, Chillwater and Spark cannisters
Tearblast Arrows - These hit then explode, removing components and thereby disabling the attacks associated with them, such as Ravager canons (which can then be picked up and fired!)
Harvest Arrows - Honestly, I have trouble working out why anyone would use these instead of Tearblast Arrows. I suppose they're there if you run out? Apparently, you get more of a resource if you remove a component with Harvest arrows, but that's much less important than effectively removing the component in the first place.
The Hunter has three ammo types total, but you're only really interested in its Fire arrows. The other two ammo types are only really good for hunting wildlife or removing shields from cannisters. The Sharpshot's Precision Arrows do the job of both much more effectively.
But Fire arrows are a vital tool. As well as being able to set enemies on fire (which disrupts their attacks as well as doing damage over time), when you hit exposed Blaze cannisters on machines with them, they fizz for a bit then explode, doing massive damage to the host machine, setting it and any nearby enemies on fire.
Fire arrows are also massively effective against Glinthawks, the smaller cousins of the Stormbird. They can't fly while they're on fire.
And the War Bow is basically just another set of elemental arrows, which behave in much the same way as Fire arrows when targeting cannisters of the same type (Shock Arrows & Spark Cannisters, Freeze & Chillwater). And Corruption Arrows are great for turning enemies against each-other.
scumble on 9/11/2017 at 14:09
The game pretty much keeps reminding you to use the focus through Aloy saying "maybe I should use my focus" a great deal. I was able to scan it once before being fried but the trouble was hitting the weak points and getting out of the way.
The tips are still useful although I've got the three bows now, I think. Haven't used the war bow in combat yet but I can see it might be handy.
The sharpshot bow I have been using a lot already, makes life a lot easier for hunting. You can take down a boar with one shot as well as dropping bandit snipers unawares.
I've now see a thunderjaw but didn't feel like tackling on yet.
What's your view on the outfits? I didn't find the silent hunter helped that much now I've swapped to protector. It occurred to me that the survivor armour might be better with more creatures lobbing ranged elemental attacks, but it looks like getting some really good mods would make more difference that the starting stats of the outfits. I guess that's the idea of the silks outfit having three mod slots.
Malf on 9/11/2017 at 15:10
I've actually stuck with the Silent Hunter and later the Heavy variant pretty much throughout the game. Once you've invested heavily in to the Stealth tree, it seems to pay off, especially with mods that increase the stealth stat. In addition, you should really be playing so as to not get hit as much as possible, so bonus defence is pointless. The extended dodge helps massively with this.
And that's another good tip: stack mods that enhance equipment's best stats. For example, on my Hunter's Lodge Sharpshot Bow, I've got three high-end tear mods; fire mods on my Hunter Bow; you get the idea.
I'm one power core away from unlocking the Ancient Armour though, and from what I've read, that's the best in the game, no question.
scumble on 9/11/2017 at 22:29
I think I've still got some basic co-ordination problems with the dual stick method of moving/aiming and timing dodges to get out of the way. Sometimes I'm just getting the buttons mixed up. I know what I mean to happen but my fingers get confused...
I had a fairly chaotic series of encounters this evening, losing to a Sawtooth by overriding it then not realising when it had turned hostile. I ran into a bunch of Longlegs which I wasn't familiar with which were mixed up with longhorns (where I managed not to die somehow). Later I charged a Broadhead into a few corrupted watchers and jumped off before contact, not noticing that I'd alerted a few more and got charged from behind, and after that a Shellwalker turned up to join the fun and I realised its bloody shock fire seems to home in on me when I'm running away. I escaped and picked up the main quest bit where you have to fight two Ravagers, and that fight I'm still working on.
However I still haven't got entirely fed up, and some level of competence seems reachable. I will have to practice shooting weak points a bit more on the safer machines, and I've noticed that trick of pressing the right stick to get a short span of slow-time...
