I get it today, impressions later!

I'm going to call Sony and oh boy are you ever going to get banned.

Wow this one sets a great impression right from the start. It's beautiful, it controls great, the story is interesting right from the get go. It has all the polish you would expect from a naughty dog game, I am shocked I care about the characters and world so much already.


I'm going to talk about some gameplay systems from the first few hours.


I finally got loose in the first part of the world and there are a bunch of plants to get which can serve as healing items or stuff to make potions. Basically crafting seems very in depth, and if you ever need a resource you can create a custom side mission and the game will direct you to where you can find it. Really neat and it helped guide me to robots to get shards to make arrows, which I quickly ran out when I tried to take on a semi big robot. So weapon parts and mods you find on robots, healing stuff you find in plants. You don't have to get overwhelmed by it, there seems to be enough to get what you need quick and move on.



I got a few side quests, there are random quests to find as you roam around, standard open world stuff. Haven't really completed one yet I have been distracted by just hunting which I love. The robots feel like animals in packs, there is this natural feel to it all how they react and interact with each other. Sneaking by them is thrilling, getting caught creates all sorts of chaos as you either escape or engage. I have fought three types so far, one is a more difficult one with a surprising attack. I managed to kill one only to have another come from behind and totally wreck me. I have had to run away before I can get resources for a kill only to see another robot go to the dead body and gather the resources for itself. So it's all really cool and dynamic.


Combat is nice and fluid and feels kind of like new TR. you can unlock specific skills that slow down time, get stealth kills, gather more resources; standard skill tree stuff but a lot of these skills seem super useful. Your melee attacks work great when being charged, dodging is fast and fluid. I still don't have traps, should get there soon. I am playing on very hard so I am being cautious, so I focused more on stealth and it seems a bit too easy. All three of the types I have met so far can be insta killed by stealth which is as easy as hiding in a patch of tall grass, throwing a rock to lure them close then just stealth kill them. I assume that strategy won't be viable for long, but it has helped me to stock up on arrows. If you want better resources you need to shoot components off the robots so there is a little strategy there.


Graphically it's gorgeous on a normal ps4. I don't see any performance issues at all, no slow down, nothing. The music so far is really great and dynamic as it shits from quiet to action quickly. The animations are ok but not uncharted tier but the art design of the world is as good as anything I have seen.


Ok going to play more hopefully I can have some more impressions on how good the content the game offers is as so far I have just been messing around on my own.

...

So I'm like 4-5 hours in, all in the first area of the game. I did all side quests and the first main quest. The side quests are definetly witcher inspired which has its pros and cons. The good news is they have a story to go with the mission, usually someone is in trouble and you get a backstory as to why. One quest had the same damn stupid follow the trail crap as witcher, just follow the line to some object and keep following it until you reach the goal. At least here the goal is usually a heard of robots which I find more interesting to fight than witcher enemies.


So far everything is basically pushing the player to get into the loop of fighting robots to get items to increase your gear. Missions push you to hunt for certain gear, learn to use traps and so on. Since I am still in the first section it's been the same three robot types and I'm kind of bored of them already, I've gotten good and dodging and fighting, running back setting a trap and having them rush at me into them.


First thing tomorrow when I play is to advance the story and really start the game.

edgecrusher said:

So instead of cocaine Vader smuggles games.

I can't start to imagine the sacrifices made to get that game into Vaders hands.  A game must be a lot harder to smuggle past the border than cocaine.  I pitty the person who had to stuff up his or her anus, as we all know is the only true way of the smuggler.

So I am like 7 hours in and just finished the opening area and story. Basically now is when the real game begins, you are let out into the open world and so many activities and point of interest open up, it's so exciting.


So the opening area doesn't have much to do, it is basically a tutorial area with a few enemy types, and only a few side quests. You can spend time just messing around as I did and do everything but it's not a good approximation of what lies ahead.


Stuff happens that gets you to the open world and it was pretty exciting. The story is no joke, this is a story heavy game with lots of characters and some dialogue choices to make, can't tell you if they change much but it's there. The main missions tied to taht story were exciting and gave me some boss battle like moments with all new enemy types. I learned to override beasts so I got a brand new skill and then was let out into the world.


There were vantage points, areas to clear of enemies and my favorite little timed challenges to do. That's just what I found near me, I have yet to really explore as I had to go to sleep. I look at the completion page and there is so much to find and do, this game will keep me occupied for a long time.


So far I am enjoying very hard mode. I die if I am careless but most of the time I get by fine. I have had some close calls that deplete my health so I do have to gather supplies to restock. I do think dodge is a bit of a super move, I have gotten by with dodging a bunch and laying traps. Dodge, trap, dodge, go in for the stun kill, repeat. Again these are still easier enemies so I bet for the tough ones it won't work but dodge is very effective and has a nice invincibility window.


So any questions?

gamingeek said:

Do the robot dinosaurs excrete computer chips?

How are your bows and arrows killing massive robot dinosaurs?

No and very poorly. The regular bow and arrow is good for hitting certain components off the robot or hitting a weak spot. Just shooting an arrow at it is like hitting it with a rock. It's best to use traps to stun it and go in for melee kills.

Dvader said:

No and very poorly. The regular bow and arrow is good for hitting certain components off the robot or hitting a weak spot. Just shooting an arrow at it is like hitting it with a rock. It's best to use traps to stun it and go in for melee kills.

I know this is a videogame and all. But does this feel plausible?

When I saw the original reveal, it just seemed hinky seeing cave women beating the shit out of massive robot dinosaurs.

Great pics. Nab some rock textures too.

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