Apologies for the awkward cut at 16:16 where the best part of the video used to be (a montage of Aloy kicking butt to Shania Twain's 'Man! I Feel Like a Woman'). I had to cut it to stop it from being blocked in like, half the world. This is what you get when you start a Youtube channel and throw music in your videos because you're entirely clueless about things like copyright checks. Anyway, go watch my newer stuff instead of this broken old-ass video. 🙏

My favourite part is a mission where you have to track a missing person, you can clearly see a cartoonishly big trail of blood that goes up to a a mountain, you follow it and nothing happens when the trail stops. The thing was that you have to use the "detective vision" at the start of the trail for Aloy to notice it, she must be blind, and then you can follow the trail, enemies now attack you at the end of the trail.

I think the "well yeah it's just a mindless open world game" defense would be a lot more appropriate if it didn't set itself up as being story-driven for the first few hours.

It really feels like it's putting its best foot forward to define itself, and then after a few hours it's like "Oh you're still here? Uh go gather some flowers on the other side of this valley or something".

Great video! I enjoyed the game a lot for its creature design, environment, character design, and especially combat-- but was incredibly disappointed with Aloy's characterization and the sometimes shockingly poor dialogue/voice acting. I felt like Aloy, considering the outcast way she was raised, needed to feel more like a wild-woman-someone who doesn't speak much and has trouble connecting with others. Maybe have her form close bonds with animals or robots more than people. IDK, I think her character had a ton of missed potential to be more unique and interesting.

i tried so damn hard to love this game, started and left several times, felt like i'm missing something since the game is mostly praised by others. but at some point while i was looking at the map full of markers, i accepted that the game was not for me. i can't pinpoint it exactly but something feels so crowded, huddled and chaotically colorful. i guess i started to like everything more plain and simple as i age.

The odd dialogue and the non-stop talking of the protagonist was a big annoyance for me in this game and I feel like not enough people talk about that. We need more critical takes on games, this is great! I still enjoyed my time with HZD, but I don't think it lives up to it's hype. and yes, that guy looks a lot like Gary Oldman lmao Great work, hope to see more from you :)

Jin Sakai in Ghost of Tsushima has everything that Aloy lacks!

After watching your Dear Esther video and now this, I've realized how eerily similar my opinion about these games is to yours. I would never be able to articulate my feelings as well as you though. It's a really weird feeling when you watch someone talk about something and your mind goes "Yeah THAT!!! EXACTLY THAT!! That's what I felt as well". Really glad I discovered your channel through that Errant Signal tweet.

Keep up the good work!

Damn. I actually expected this to be a bit on the Ameteur side of things with the editing and sound quality of the review, but this is a great video! You deserve more views. Keep it up!

My main issue with the game besides of "open world game nr 9024" is that after 10 hours i didn't even remotely cared about anything or anyone in the world. The way everyone acted didn't make any sense to me. I played until the first big city. It feels like sony gone Ubisoft

I remember playing the game for the first time, being excited for the adventure ahead, and then hearing those awful lines of dialogue in the opening scene. I pressed on however... only to realise it did not get any better. But the dialogue and gameplay are only part of the problem: for some reason, the open world did not tickle my exploration bone... at all. I would look at some distant hill and shrug. Also: terrible, tasteless music.

I remember thinking, "nah, I'll stop playing this," right before the lockdown went into effect, and suddenly HZD became the first game I played just to fill time. And yeah, perfect for that, just this constant stream of missions and content, but none of it really resonated with me- same feeling you had, I think. I did find the core premise of Caveman vs. Robot-Dinosaur, pretty good, and I think the game is best when it has you dismantling some mechanical behemoth with like, a sling and a particularly mean spear.

I think your point about Aloy's character was especially telling. Before watching the video I probably would have called her a good character, but now I realize she really just an inoffensive one- someone who I liked, but couldn't tell you anything about. I imagine you have some videos already planned and in production, but I'd love to see you cover some examples of well-written women in games or what sorts of characters writers could draw from to make more complex leads.

thought i was insane for not liking this after everyone i know absolutely loved it. refreshing to hear im not the only one

You've put my every thought into words. I could never dream to articulate my thoughts as well as you have. Loved the video. Subbed. Side note, I'm actually shocked and almost appauled that you don't have more subscribers. The way you explain things, your witty sense of humor, and your ability to really articulate EXACTLY what you're thinking is sublime. I honestly really hope you make a video for Horizon 2. I heard it's better than the first after all.

me as a dude working for a moving company would say fuck you if you wanted me to carry that pallet with smithing materials down or upstairs

Completely agree, I would also add the emptiness of the world in which there's nothing to do or to explore aside from the main quest because precisely, all the (few) necessary and sufficient content you need to understand the game is telegraphed in the main quest. I would also add the poverty of the gameplay loop, all the possibilities of interaction available to the player were just thought for the fun they could bring to the game, which prevented the devs from implementing any that could have brought the player closer to Aloy, allowed them to dive into the tradition's of the world or just have pushed them to feel how dangerous and imposing the wild was supposed to be.

I would also point how all the quests in the game are just: "follow a markor on the world, kill a bunch of guys that were placed here without any scenaristic justifications, look to a cutscene, go", all of them follow the exact same structure regardless of the evolution of the story, which makes it really artificial. Out of that, none of the gameplay sequences are thought to bring life to this world or to make you feel like Aloy, 95% of your in-game actions are never referred to in the story because they don't matter to its development, which leads to a story that the game tells in 60 hours whereas there would at best be content for 8 in a series.

We would also need to underline that even if the world is well imagined, well justified and original (clearly the best aspect of the game to me), the story is bland. All the side-characters are empty shells that are only here to be quicked away, to call Aloy for help, to be saved by her and to praise her as a result, Aloy is the typical super-heroin, as you said, and in the end, if you transpose the exact same story in a classical fantasy world, you obtain a generic and uninspired story for teenagers. It's not terrible in this category, just completely forgettable.

I don't dispise the fans of this game by any means, but no, it's clearly not a good one, thanks for being vocal about that.

I was looking for critical analysis of this game to help understand why I've played 26 hours and have been bored the entire time.  This is exactly the sort of analysis I look for in games and wish there was more of this rather than reviews where someone tells me if they liked something.  Looking forward to checking out more of your content.

I love HZD, it's one of my favourite gaming experiences, but I also agree with your critiques.

I will definitely play Forbidden West (and I expect to love it too), but I will be approaching it with the hope that Aloy will be more fleshed out as a character, and that we get to make tough choices that matter.

Very few YouTubers I've watched analyse gameplay, world building, and writing like you do

Love your content!

Since this video's getting some traction, I feel obliged to say that this is the 2nd video I ever made and all my newer stuff is FAR better! So please don't let this video be the only thing of mine you watch! I actually mostly make positive, philosophical content and spicy takedowns aren't hugely my thing, so head over to my channel page and check out what I've got to offer.