#burning shores didnt even have a tallneck.

[gravityqueen]

i finished hfw's dlc, and i think after that it really solidified my opinion of the horizon series in that if a third game comes out, i'll probably wait for a sale on it.

there's just some distinct difference between the first and second game where it feels like the original is an interesting world, but aloy cant currently focus on it bc she's the only one that knows how to stop the end of the world thats happening due to ghosts from forever ago, but there is content there that just isnt shown. compared to the sequel where it feels like the game can barely talk about its own characters or world or whatever without skipping over things and heavily implying development instead of showing it. i kept hearing how people said the dlc finally gave aloy character, but i dont think so. again, it felt heavily implied, like i skipped all the side quests that further built her character. the dlc especially feels like a ball thrown to people that really wanted aloy to finally be comfortable enough for romance in hfw, but in burning shores she doesnt exactly interact w seyka any more than the hfw side characters, but now says things that sound like shes head over heels, but you dont really feel it at all. when i watched bad end theater, a game with the max playtime of 2 hours, i felt more chemistry between the overlord and maiden than these two. aloy and seyka honestly feel like how i feel with most straight relationships in media. the world also feels too big, the devs claimed its full of life, but its full of machines that are hard to scavenge in this game and theres no real reason to go interacting with them after a certain point, also due to the amount of weapons given in hfw compared to hzd. there's rarely characters or groups, the characters that do interact are immediately forgettable, the quests all end up being the same type ("hi please help me find my lost friend" with a 50/50 chance theyre dead). the customization for face paint and clothes arent that unique (and kind of ugly) while being hard to get, the new machine mounts are kinda disappointing, the new machines for the dlc werent as good as The Frozen Wilds's, and more i probably cant remember. i think i didnt like the plot and did my best to ignore it, too, lol. hfw was just too much of the wrong stuff in the wrong direction, to me. hzd was a sci-fi post post apocalyptic game where aloy has to contend with being one of the only people that can stop an ancient self destruction caused by people ages ago, and then hfw just goes hard on literally showing u these evil rich guys that apparently came down from space and are ~super advanced~. it's just weird and felt like it had none of what i liked abt hzd... i have no clue what happened, but it feels weird. wish it was just a game abt ppl living in a new world that happens to have robot dinosaurs to nurture the planet.