Horizon Zero Dawn

[Dicknose]

Metal Ring I did a bit of stealth, then got spotted and just went to blow the target. That then lets others come to help, plus moves the save/restart point forward!

Had it snowing on me, when I was inside a building!

[Tom Servo]

Nice...I hit that point where dying set me so far back that I'm having to get myself amped to try it again.

Not helping that I'm all tired from gardening. Hooray for adulting.

[Tom Servo]

Thanks for the advice to just go for it on that one. Past that now, and finally realizing that my bow is massively underpowered at this point. Haven't been buying much, am suddenly realizing that I need to do a lot more of that.

[Dicknose]

Buy weapons and use mods to up the power.
If you can, save for shadow weapons, they have more types of ammo and usually more slots for mods.

Took down a couple of behemoths. Hardest bit was separating them so I only had to deal with one at a time.
Then it was a lot of "shoot arrows", move to new hiding place. Used some ropes, shock and other stuff. But the shoot a few, move, re-hide works well. Having a small creek in between us was good. It could cross it to attack me, but wouldn't cross it just to look for me.

[Tom Servo]

You folks are still way ahead of me. I just had to take down two Sawtooths and it took me damn near 45 minutes. Hitting that blaze canister on the underbelly was a pain in the ass, but it was impressive how much damage it did. I'm learning more and more that if it seems like I'm getting nowhere, it's just that I'm doing it wrong and need to start changing up my tactics. As part of that, I've only recently learned just how much fun it can be to target the Grazer right in the middle of the pack with a fire arrow right in the blaze canisters. Seeing a watcher running away on fire was a nice bonus.

That said, I saw a bunch of talk about how effective the ropecaster is. I have to admit I have not found that to be the case...I tried to take down one Sawtooth while I worked on the other and five ropes later, that asshole still killed me. Got to watch in slow motion as I died and all those ropes were doing nothing to him.

[Dicknose]

The ropecaster is better the bigger the opponent.
Sawtooth is probably not big enough!
Also the ropes snap if the target takes a lot of damage, so use it to pin them down and then either do a specific hit or move away to a safer place before attacking.

Don't fight anything tough on open ground. Getting trampled is bad!

[Tom Servo]

Just got through the first Cauldron - that Bellowback was really tough. 'Course, in that one, you don't seem to have much of a choice about fighting on open ground. It's just one big area with little tiny walls it can smash through.

[Jason]

Just started this up the other day, definitely like it so far! Only about 5 hours in. Notes:

- Game looks absolutely fantastic... BUT has the uncanny valley thing going since they tried to go for realism. In a way, I prefer having a more cartoonish style like BotW. That being said, the world, atmosphere, animals, robot dinos, etc all look amazing. The textures are killer and never stop failing to impress me.

- Stealth is handled really nicely so far, which I greatly appreciate. I like sneaking around in games. Also the bow/arrow is surprisingly handy early on. I also appreciate that weapons don't break or anything (side eyes BotW)

- Exploration is severely hampered compared to BotW due to the lack of free climbing, and no glider. But I do like that there's at least climbing paths, and also various quick ways to get down from higher elevations ('zip lining'). At least it's better than FFXV, where you can't climb at all other than like two spots in the entire map.

- Voice acting is really good so far, and general audio is handled nicely. I like that there are audio cues when you're sitting next to a herd of robots.

- I'm not very far in, but so far I like how health and items are handled.

So far I'm doing what I can in this opening area, collecting as much as I can, to make my life easier after I get out into the open world. It's how I usually do things in these sorts of games, which is why it generally takes me forever to 'complete' them

Open to any non-spoilery hints

[Jason]

This game is purdy, and has a neat photo mode:

[Jason]

I got to my first Tallneck, which was neat. I like that they are sort of like the towers in BotW. Hunting continues to be a lot of fun, but I'm nervous to fight humans again after my first encounter I've been doing a lot of farming to get upgrades that I can, and make sure I have a little bit of cash should I need it. Still missing the ability to free climb and glide from BotW, but I'm getting used to the more straight forward nature of this game. While there doesn't seem to be much in the way of puzzles, apparently you can set traps, which I haven't played with quite yet, since the 'ammo' is kinda expensive. Been sticking to sneak attacks for the vast majority of the game, with some bow/arrow action here and there.