Death will arrive in about thirty seconds
I don’t know why I’m surprised, really. They’re huge metal dinosaurs. They’re dangerous. All the same, I wasn’t expecting to die quite this much in Horizon Zero Dawn.
I’m around a dozen hours into Guerrilla Games’ post-apocalyptic dino hunting game and I keep on getting my arse kicked. I had been expecting the initial difficulty to ease as I upgraded my character and unlocked better gear, but nope. These dinosaurs kill me just as dead now as they did the first time I fought one.
Here is a short list of things that have killed me in Horizon Zero Dawn.
These huge flame-spewing bastards.
This thing is officially known as a Bellowback, but I prefer “huge flame-spewing bastard.” You fight a couple in early story missions, and they are very hard to kill. They can take a beating and then some, and the only effective way I’ve found of killing them is to pin them in place and fire arrow after arrow after arrow into their gas tank.
Above: The face of death.
The first “cauldron” you explore was marked at a reasonable level, so I went in at around level 15 thinking it’d be no sweat. Ha. Ha! There sure was some sweat at the end, when I had to fight one of these bad boys in an enclosed space. I must have died eight times before I finally pulled out a win by the skin of my teeth.
These stupid velociraptors.
These guys are called Watchers, and they’re supposed to be the easiest robots to fight. Guess what? They still weigh like a ton and will still wreck you if they plow into you at full speed. Several hours into the game I was feeling pretty good about my ability to stay alive in most of the opening areas, so I let my guard down around these guys. Not a good call. A couple of stray hits later and I straight-up died, run down by a shitty velociraptor before I could heal
These cute, harmless crab-bots.
Aw, look at the robot crab! See how it trundles around, carrying a big carrying case on its back. What a cute, dumpy robot.
I need a part from one of these things to trade for some armour, so I guess I better kill it. Let’s just shoot an arrow at it and see what…
OH MY GOD WHAT
These horrible scorpion robots.
First of all, these things remind me of the Guardians in Zelda. (I suspect i’m not alone in having lots of Zelda sensory bleed from playing both games at the same time.) Second of all, oh man they suck to fight. The first time I fought one of these I had a bunch of friendly NPCs backing me up and it wasn’t too bad. The second time, it was just me, and man it did not go well. Not only can this creature (real name: corruptor) fire rockets at you from range, but it can leap across huge distances, whipping its stinger around so fast you probably will not dodge in time.
A mountain.
Whatever, so I jumped off a mountain and died. It only happened once. I blame Breath of the Wild. I’d gotten too used to having a paraglider! I don’t think I’ll ever let this happen again. Stupid mountain.
This fucking thing, probably.
I haven’t fought one of these fucking things yet, but just look at it. It is seriously one of the biggest free-roaming enemies I’ve ever seen in a video game. At some point I’m going to have to fight one, and I predict it is going to kill me.
You may notice “humans” is conspicuously absent from this list. That’s because I have never once been killed by a human in this game. The human enemies in Horizon Zero Dawn are blessedly dim-witted, happy to wander the same patrol routes over and over again, oblivious to the fact that I’ve killed ten of them while hiding in the same bush. It’s almost like they’re there to help relieve the stress of being constantly pounded into the ground by unstoppable giant robots.
You know how usually the message with this kind of story is that the giant robot monsters are bad, but the humans are the real threat? So far for me, that has not been the case. It’s the giant robot monsters. The giant robot monsters are the real threat.
Comments
11 responses to “A Short List Of Things That Have Killed Me In Horizon Zero Dawn”
Tramplers and Glinthawks. Especially when they’re both in the same paddock. For the glinthawk hunter trial. omfg *throws controller at wall*
Glinthawks suck, there’s no other way to put it. I got immense satisfaction when I took control of a Stormbird and it went after a flock of the bastards that were nearby.
And Tramplers can get easier once you get access to a souped up teargun. One good shot to the belly and it’s disco inferno time.
Glinthawk trial took me the most attempts but the tramplers don’t leave their arena and have no ranged attack so I didn’t have any issue with them.
Aim for the chest. It’s hard though as a small mobile target that swarm. Now my first encounter with two corrupted rock tunnelers, was an epic fight. Tough even after they bumped into a bandit patrol and a behemoth.
Tearblast arrows are ideal for stripping thunderjaws of weapons.
Man I love those robot designs.
Thunderjaws are easy.
Tearblast both disc launchers off at the start.Spam ropecaster at close range until it’s pinned.
Freeze it with ice bombs from sling.
Pick up disc launcher and unload into it.
Tie down again, repeat with other disc launcher.
Now glinthawks… they can FRO.
The solution to everything is a Tripcaster full of damage mods pumping out ~500 damage per blast wire.
Except for Glinthawks, but they drop like a rock after a couple fire arrows.
The trick with Glinthawks is equip ice armour and ice potion. Their freeze attacks mean nothing. Ropecaster and fire arrows make short work of them. The only issue I have with them is when you lose track of them.
Things that are killing me… the loot system (area loot anyone?). Constant crafting (especially just normal arrows). The fact that mobs are clearly located on the map (the world would just be far more interesting and challenging if you didn’t know where the next danger came from)
Mostly loving the game however those things are killing me more than the mobs
Humble brag time… I’ve died about 5 times and knocked it up to the first difficulty setting.
I’m really not great at games, especially those with bows and arrows, but I’m surprisingly good at HZD. Level 43 atm and clearing the map because I don’t want to finish the main campaign. Such a good game.
And Glinthawks are easy-as, three fire arrows and a couple of heavy attacks, and another arrow or two…it’s those Stormbirds that give me the shits.
I’ve really enjoyed this game, some 50-odd hours in and still finding stuff to do and beasties to take down
For myself, have found the easiest way to deal with mobs is either by taking control of one the predatory types (sawtooth, stalker, etc) or one of the really aggressive types (watcher, bellowbacks, trampler, etc). Once controlled, call over another one and then run and hide. Then sit back and watch the fireworks as everyone from the mob gets involved in the fight. If it’s a really hectic fight, you can even sneak a couple of arrows in, but need to ensure that you don’t hit your minion (select and highlight once you’ve controlled it works wonders) and not to shoot too many arrows in succession else the mob will get suspicious
If all else fails, carefully setting out tripwires, laying out traps and hiding in a grass patch a couple over will also work
I would say that
Behemoths and Rockbreakers are ass holes to take on if there are more then one of themFunny how no one’s mentioned going up against a Rockbreaker.
That’s one tough fucker to fight against .
Put some good fire mods into your arrow(preferably the Shadow Hunter bow as it shoots rapidly) and you can kill any machine in HZD.