Recent reviews by AlephNULL™

Fantastic game with interesting combat, a lovable protagonist, beautiful world and unique setting. Absolutely recommended, especially if you liked the first installment. 10/10


Gameplay and combat feels like a solid improvement on what made Zero Dawn so appealing. New weapons, skills and abilities, weapon techniques, and an improved melee combat add even more layers to the--already engaging--combat puzzles. New transversal options and better climbing are welcome additions.

The story is great, but franky does not match Zero Dawn's. It does nothing groundbreaking new and therefore feels a bit predictable. However, the writers still made a fantastic job with Aloy's character development. Living through her early life and overcoming the struggles in ZD lets the player connect with the protagonist; in Forbidden West Aloy grows as a person and finds her true self. It seamlessly continues the quest for her identity from the first game. The exact same thing can be said about the Burning Shores DLC.

There is even more side content, and the recurring activities (e.g. tallnecks or cauldrons) are more interesting as they they are all unique. Loot system is more complex now, as you need specific machine parts for upgrading your gear. This gives you a reason to hunt machines outside the quests.

I also want to praise how the devs handled continuity: most skills from ZD are unlocked from the start, which forces the skilltree to offer something new. It is a great balancing act which suits both new players and veterans alike.

Graphics, Music, Sound, Animations etc are all as you would expect from a AAA title.

Overall it is the perfect sequel in every aspect. Well done, Guerrilla.

Great Coop Game, I like the mix between exploring, mining, and combat.
Setting is fun, the procedural maps in the different biomes pretty, and the missions aren't just "go to A, press B", like in soooo many other coop games.

Love it!

Awesome combat, original setting, cool story, good graphics, lots of great content. An absolute marvel of a game. Too bad its only single player, wish it had a coop mode. Still, 10/10

Well, dumped 700+ hours into this marvel so far . . .
10/10

You play in groups of four against hordes of rats, which try to overrun the city Ubersreik. Its main focus lays on melee combat (which is by far the best implementation I've ever seen). You carry a ranged weapon as well, which are often needed to take out the nasty special enemies which spawn randomly. You can choose from 5 heros which all have individual weapons; they play very differently. When you succeed a map, you will be rewarded with loot.

Gameplay:
Slaying rats is utterly fun. The combat is quite complex and that pays off. You can do different combos, block, push, landing charged attacks, and every single swing has an individual feel. For example a sideways slash of a sword will result in a horizontal gaping wound on the rats chest; a 2 handed hammer swing will knock back the rats in beautiful arcs; hitting a heavy armored stormvermin and your weapon will get stuck in its swing.

The weapons play quite differently, but are not always well balanced. But still there are multiple viable load outs for each character which offers some varity.

Team play is paramount, as in many coop games. This one punishes you hard when you think you can rush alone or not taking care of your fellow heros.

When playing solo, bots will jump in. They are good enough for lower difficulties, but generally are bad. Can lead to frustration at times. Anyhow, the game is meant to be played with others.

Loot:
Yes there is loot. But sometimes it takes time to get what you want. Overall, the game depends more on your skill rather than on loot. There is hardly any situation where you can't progress because you miss certain items.

Through a few DLC's, the devs added the ability to forge weapons, or improve them (re-roll traits for example).

That being said, loot is a mixed bag. It's fun that you can grind and always try to improve your setup, but some people get frustrated with it. I don't, but still feel, more different individual items could add more value.

Performance:
Overall I find it runs very well on my machine (i5, HD 7950, 2560*1080, almost full details). The graphics are very nice, sound keeps that quality as well. I only think, the network code needs some work: Lag can be a pain (due to its sophisticated combat system), and crashes are not as rare as they should be. Especially since there is no dedicated servers or host migration, this sometimes lead to frustrating experiences.

Verdict:
Even with the few bugs and issues still existing, it's an marvellous game. The difficulties scale quite well, and the loot aspect keeps the long term motiviation high for me. I wish there was more content, but the devs are very commited to this game. Patches are released at a reasonal pace, and 2 of 3 DLC's were even free of charge.

I would rate it at 9/10.

Great Coop game! Best experience when playing in a party of 4 (like any other coop game out there...)