Horizon Refuses To Reach Its Potential 

Highly agreed. It feels like Guerilla wants to keep Aloy confined to this "unbreakable" or monotone type Geralt-like nature. She's been through quite a bit, emotionally, with struggling to be accepted by the Nora, discovering her nature in relation to Elizabet and even losings a few friends. But none of this has really been shown as having that great of an impact on Aloy, atleast not for long. She always ends up reverting to something of a machine, a robot, which is ironically her literal physical nature. There's just so much inconsistency with her emotion and it's made it harder to relate to and/or bond with her as a protagonist we've been with for 2 games. And as you've said, it doesn't help that we've failed to bond with the world itself. The way the lore is tackled is reminiscent of something like the souls games. Many RPGs have rooted scrolls and documents to read for lore, but none of them have really been that much of a necessity to the game's narrative like it is for Horizon. I've read almost everything and I love its narrative, but I can definitely understand some of the fans complaints of the narrative being boring and uninteresting, and it's because Guerilla has failed to show off what's interesting about it, or. . . they've not displayed that well on what Aloy or the player are fighting for, because it's all in some documents scattered around a world that they've masked so much with its beauty, that players just probably end up accepting the fact the purty graphics are the focal point, and not an engaging narrative.

I saw a tweet that summarized how i feel about this franchise to a t "I think it's more people wanted to be like Monster Hunter instead of having boring things like human emotions and relationships"

I feel like if horizon were to build an open world foundation designed as well as games like Elden ring ,botw,outer wilds it would still not be enough. Tears of the kingdom is bringing really fun looking mechanical depth and Elden ring has great storytelling and engaging gameplay. I feel like horizon would need to focus on its best elements like story and combat with huge robot dinos to the forefront in an already really fun to explore open world to reach its potential.

Horizon is such a fascinating game because these titles sell very well, receive immense critical praise, are generally well liked, and yet outside of it’s dedicated fandom, almost nobody ever talks about it unless it’s to make jokes about unfortunate release timings. These games hit every single milestone for what the general audience considers a “good” game, and yet even amongst its own Playstation contemporaries like God of War, Spider-Man, and TLOU, it feels like it just doesn’t have that same “spark” that pulls people in and makes the franchise cemented into the gaming landscape. It’s a really interesting topic because the very essence of Horizon is a contradiction. Good in every way, makes lots of money, well-liked by all, but so often forgotten.

Horizon refuses to reach it's potential cause it's not a first person shooter set in the future about the war between the ISA and the Helgast Empire

You helped me realize why I couldn’t get into Horizon. This video’s on point

This dlc feels like segway to part 3 it seems like they didnt wanna change much because its a dlc so improved on what they have. Im expecting aloy to have more vulnerabilities on her next outing and for all gameplay mechanics being set up to work in tandem e.g flying combat which they started using but could expand upon

I love the graphics in this game but the stories, characters and some missions are making me sleepy, then I turn off my ps5 or go and play ff7 remake, god of war, uncharted or ghost of tsushima

Very good video. I love this game, but you hit the nail on the head with what it needs to see even greater success. I hope that Guerilla will continue to innovate as they grow the world of Horizon

I haven't watched this video YET, so idk if it mentions this.....but one of the things that brings these games down is the upgrade for weapons. --- You'll keep finding new weapons on your adventure, and most of the time these new weapons will outclass the ones you already have....So there's no point in upgrading your weapon and wasting resources unless it's one of those hight tier end game rewards.

I still haven’t played the burning shores DLC as of yet but I hope to very soon. I had a blast with Star Wars Jedi Survivor.

3:30 I think this is what hinders aloy. It does feel like Q&A instead of interesting engaging dialouge. Also this is what I said on the last vid. Aloy needs more engaging relationships that bring out Ashley Burch acting. Great vid!

Data logs are such a tired way of storytelling in games. If it’s worth telling it needs to be delivered in a better way. Whether that’s through dialogue or visual storytelling

The more interesting thing to do would be to just analyze the game without the need to mindlessly repeat the "how Horizon is somehow failing when compared to elden ring/botw" blah blah blah.

Yeah Horizon FW is a very well made game but the narrative and characters especially Aloy feels so unexciting. Like I am never thinking what would Aloy do after playing the game. Probably won't be playing the next one but still hopeful.

Please include more spoilers from The Burning Shores

AGREED!!

I don't know exactly how to put it in words, but if i would try: the world feels "too big".

So you are telling Guerilla... to git gud. Sorry I had nothing else interesting to say lol

I disagree with your argument on not being able to find Good/important side quests with out having been directed. I feel compelled to explore the world personally this is one of my favorite Open worlds (I don't consider Zelda BOTW or Elden any better honestly)

I don't know what anyone of you are talking about. All I hear from any of my friends is how Horizon is one of the best games they've ever played. To me, it is one of the most visual stunning games, and the gameplay mechanics are beyond what I've experienced in any game I've played. The idea is quite fresh, and the performance is masterful. I love Spiderman don't get me wrong. But, that has gotten so stale for me. Every game they release is the same formula. You have side missions that require you to unlock suits. While this game adds new features that make it feel fresh.

Honestly, the FW kind of lost all the narrative potential this series had. The actual main character of these games is the setting itself, the lore about the world is By Far more interesting than the story around it. WIth the first entry it was a great bet - because the moment you fall in love with the setting of post-postapocalyptic world with robosaurs and tribal communities of humans you are a goner for this series. The first game ends with Aloy cooperating with different tribes and formiing friendships despite her one-woman-army nature, but it offers extremely little in terms of her character, she is the definition of bare minimum, and even th personal drama that should drive her thirst for knowledge is just said once and never shown again. The sequel had to solve this problem. Gameplay and environment-wise FW is gorgeous and a huge upgrade, to the point that the first game seems sluggish and almost boring in comparison. However absolutely nothing was done to make Aloy a better protagonist or an interesting character, PLUS the actual main story turned out to be much much dumber and shallower than what the lore entries of the first game heavely suggested was coming (I am talking about Vast SIlver, and the fact that majority of the fans probably don`t even know this name is very sad and a huge failure on the main story writing department). HFW was marketed with Aloy having allies (some of them returning charaters from the first game!) with Focuses, but they help her like on 2 missions in total, and don`t help much. Even the Beta development was...kind of quickly thrown under the rug, there are no meaningful interactions between them. HFW`s story butchered the series for be basically, and Burning Shores stomped on it for the good measure. I am a huge sucker for the setting, so I have to see how it all ends, but I have no hope for it to be any good anymore. It also feels like HFW buckled under the Console-Selling Exclusive weight that was placed on the game - it feels like a superhero(ine) movie, which it was not intended to turn into. Burning Shores especially, a Hollywood sign is NOT supposed to survive apocalypse, and Aloy kind-of fist fighter the most horrifying machine in the serise so... it`s just epic for its own sake, but ultimately boring and dumb, and there are now literally no stakes of threats present. Sorry for being so negative. I really love Horizon and desparetely wish for it to be better, so I tend to rip it apart mercilessly when needed.

I have to say I totally disagree. The game has some of the best biomes and locations in gaming history. Some of the cutscenes are done so well they put most other games to shame. The idea of the conversation being too stunted is not very fair as that is clearly why it is built this way, to give the gamer the chance so completely skip it and move on or relish the storyline rather than being forced to sit through endless dialogue when all you want to do is skip it and move on. The design of the world is deliberately placed out so you have to go and look for extra things to do. Look at how much of the map does not open up if you just do the main storyline..... It may not be the best game ever, but there is an awful lot of innovation and sheer great design and gameplay that you would be mad not to give it a go. Is there room for improvement, yes, as there is for everything in life, but I do not see this game as refusing to meet it's potential at all. Still, what do I know, only played all the big hitters for the past 40 years.....