How Horizon Forbidden West Can Improve Aloy’s Memo Scores
When the guerrilla game released Horizon Zero Dawn in 2017, it was an amazing new direction for the studio. In previous years, the specialty of the studio was Killzone, a series of first-person shooters set in alien lands. Against all odds, Horizon Zero Dawn was a resounding success introduces gamers to Aloy and her world of robot dinosaurs.
In spite of Horizon Zero Dawn managing to pull off excellent gameplay in a setting that remains beautiful despite the sprawling ruins of chaos, Guerrilla Games is definitely looking to outdo itself with Forbidden Horizon in the West, the next entry in the series. One of the gameplay elements that can be significantly improved is the Flashpoint system. While its implementation in Horizon Zero Dawn allowing players to tweak Aloy’s personality to their liking, it seems to be just the skeleton of what can be done with the idea.
Flash point in Horizon Zero Dawn
In a short time, Aloy has skyrocketed to become one of the PlayStation’s most recognizable and beloved mascots. This is partly thanks to her personality. She remains fierce in the face of dangers far greater than her own, and despite the challenges posed in her path, giving up doesn’t seem to be in her game plan. . Her fierceness is admirable, and her quirks as an outcast can be amusing.
Transparent Aloy’s interactions with many other characters, players will sometimes be given options for how they want to respond. These are called Flashpoints. Flashpoint offers three possible types of responses: Heart elicits an interest response, Brain triggers an intelligent response, and Fist leads to a positive response.
Flashpoint allows players to identify with Aloy more by giving them discretion about how she reacts to the world around her, and this is a feature that is definitely appreciated. Unfortunately, the importance of Flashpoints is illusory, because they have minimal impact on the story or any outcome of the game. Thus, the weight of the player’s selections is removed.
There is a sense of helplessness and a sense of deception that comes when one realizes that the choices the game asks one to make don’t have much of an impact on the story. It’s a complaint often made against story-based games that promise completely branching stories but end up telling relatively linear stories. When Horizon Zero Dawn never fulfill a promise branching stories, Flashpoints make players feel as though they are being selected. However, in most cases, the options are meaningless. When they do have an effect, it’s always minimal, and they don’t do much to make Aloy or the people she interacts with feel more alive or believable.
Improvements to Flashpoints in Horizon Forbidden West
Flashpoints can be made to feel more meaningful without including branching stories or multiple plotlines. For an example of how this can be done, it would be helpful to look at an open world game that has managed to make NPCs seem really alive by making interactions with them feel. found meaningful.
In Red Dead Redemption 2, the player can interact with almost all NPCs. If players choose to be nice to others, they can usually expect to be treated kindly. In contrast, rude behavior often responds to rudeness. Furthermore, NPCs and settlements keep in mind how players behave. Thus, if a person decides to shoot and get arrested, subsequent visits to a town will have locals commenting on a person’s arrest and misconduct.
It doesn’t have to be complicated. Flashpoints in Horizon Forbidden WesNS can be done in the same efficient way. If Aloy chooses to be kind to key figures, like the leader of a settlement, they should remember Aloy’s kindness and speak kindly to her in the future. But things shouldn’t stop there. By choice, she also has good relations with the rest of the tribe, and she should expect more friendly comments and reactions when she visits the settlement again.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, players should be fully privileged to give a rude response to the head of a settlement they believe deserves, but they shouldn’t be surprised if it leads to an interaction. annoyed with them later. Furthermore, the rest of the tribe should be more hostile towards Aloy, perhaps a few NPCs making sniping remarks as she passes by.
Such an implementation would go a long way toward making settlements and NPCs feel more dynamic and believable while allowing Flashpoints to be used to their full potential. Flashpoint can become a way Adjust Aloy’s relationships with the entire tribe, this adds weight to the choices the player makes.
Regardless of what the guerrilla game decides to do, some excerpts have been display of Forbidden Horizon in the West proved that Horizon Zero DawnThe sequel is going to be bigger and better in every way. Hopefully Flashpoints is one of those well-improved gameplay mechanics.
Forbidden Horizon in the West released on February 18, 2022 on PS4 and PS5.
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https://gamerant.com/horizon-forbidden-west-aloy-flashpoint-dialogue-improvement-ideas/ How Horizon Forbidden West Can Improve Aloy’s Memo Scores