Monster Mash-- Horizon: Zero Dawn vs. Days Gone
Вставка
- Опубліковано 21 лис 2024
- This is a comparative video critique of Guerilla Game's Horizon Zero Dawn and its Frozen Wilds expansion with Sony of Bend's Days Gone. They're both PS4 exclusive open world titles that are, on a surface level, extremely similar but on closer examination show themselves to be diagonally opposite games. What elements allow them to achieve such difference in such similar formats? SPOILERS THROUGHOUT.
Horizon Zero Dawn-- 00:18
Days Gone-- 37:51
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If you enjoyed this video and want to contribute to the production of others like it, please consider donating through the crowdfunding website Patreon: / noahcaldwellgervais
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While Noah does amazing game analysis, somehow I've come to appreciate his thoughts on and experiences of the broader USA, especially the non-urban areas. I'm from Europe, and it's pretty much a different planet here. I don't mean that in a bad way, I literally just mean that the whole sense of the place is different, and the travelogue nature of so much of Noah's work (including his travelogues, of course) is just fascinating to me, in no small part because it ties the ideas of journey and traversal with a framework I can relate to (gaming).
Cool story bro
Same here, it's pretty interesting.
As an American, it's pretty eye-opening for me too. I'm aware of the hugeness and emptiness of The West, but I've never really had to consider what it means to be able to drive for 24 hours straight and perhaps never encounter anything more civilized than a small town with a post office and a gas station diner. We never entirely finished conquering the frontier.
Europe on the other hand gave me the exact opposite impression. The one time I visited on a trip to Cologne, I was constantly amazed at how ancient everything felt. Everywhere I went there were old stones underneath. I couldn't imagine a single place I walked that hadn't also been walked by thousands or millions of people over hundreds or thousands of years.
Narokkurai Small towns are not any more or less civilized than urban areas, if you’re using civilized to mean “cultures”. The west didn’t need conquering and it doesn’t need a mindset that promotes conquering now.
@@Narokkurai And now with your comment I realised how I never considered how much of a different perspective someone from the US would have about Europe. Yeah, our continent is old and there are villages everywhere. One of the biggest signs of this is how there are barely any big predators like wolves and bears left in Europe since they'd constantly be threatening the people living nearby. In some of those northen states there are almost nothing but nature.
John Daysgone's completely placid expression while he leisurely jogs away from a horde of zombies in slow motion is the funniest thing I've seen all year
I tend to watch these longer videos by Noah when I'm sad or depressed. There's something about the voice that is very comforting. Thanks for these.
I also put them on in an earbud I'd I'm having trouble falling asleep. It's very calming. But I only do it with ones I've already seen.
@@leftovernoise The same! If it’s one I haven’t heard before, I find myself so interested in what’s being said that it keeps me awake.
@@muddlewait8844 same haha
He annoys me. His style is boring. I fall asleep cuz its meaningless and predictable and when he tries to be funny its even fucking worse.
@@Sidiciousify You seem pleasant.
Around the 50 minute mark, Noah gives the most accurate and concise description of every Netflix Original Series I've ever heard.
I spend a lot of nights at home alone these days, and being able to turn on a playlist of your long videos and just chill with someone and feel like there's just a really nice "hanging out with a friend" vibe. Thank you for doing what you do Noah, it means a lot to me.
"This is an open world, sure, but I spent most of the game feeling trapped in a linear tube with a Netflix original series." Oof.
Huh. What are the odds of me reading that exactly at 49 minutes as he says that?
That was so savage lol
Looks like Days Gone 2 will be the last one then
Sounds like they took a bit too much inspiration from The Walking Dead. 14 episodes of waiting for 2 episodes of actual story development.
I don't know about Netflix's 'Another Life', but it's funny watching people try to convince themselves 'The Haunting of Hill House' was a great show. There's a reason most of these showrunners end up at Netflix. Good shows like 'Mindhunters' don't seem to get nearly as much press as garbage like 'The Bird Box". Maybe it's a gender thing the press latches on to....or, MAYBE IT IS !
Ahh thank you, was looking for a good reason to remain on this toilet for one more hour.
Fibre is your friend.
stretch your legs at 45 minutes in dude
I watched half the video on the shitty before mocing to a PC, I feel you lol.
Hemorrhoids guys, it ain't worth it.
Just came off the toilet for 30 minutes and nearly spat my coffee over the screen when I read this.
The Netflix drama issue you mentioned is rooted in the CW network shows (Arrow, Flash, Smallville, etc) Drama for the sake of drama to fill time.
Not quite. The CW shows tend to arc things out a bit differently. There is still plot progression, each episode has a arc to it even if the writing isn't that good (especially when it comes to the Flash as that show has the worst writing out of all of them). But the CW shows have a different problem. The Netflix drama issue is that they write the plot as if it were a two hour film and stretch it over 8-13 episodes. The issue the cw shows have is a lack of cohesive character arcs. I watched a interview of a writer on The Flash during season 2. He explained how the show was written.
He said the show runner with the other writers map out the basic bare bones plot of the season. Then each writer is given a episode to write. They are given free reign to do anything they want, emotionally and tonally, as long as they just add in some of the myth arc. Which means that instead of Barry and Iris having a specific character arc, they are just bounced around from writer to writer and change based on the writers ideas rather than it being driven by a specific character progression.
@@drakenfist yeah, this. Very different styles despite both having season-long arcs as a standard format.
@@TheSoulHarvester Not quite. There is a big difference. Because Netflix doesn't air on television, it can forgo the rules of television shows and focus completely on the serialized narrative. Whereas a network show sprinkles in the narrative with a episodic plot. . A CW show has to air on television. Which means ratings are a consideration. So it's styled in the specific format: each episode opens with the teaser, intended to hook the viewer and encourage them to keep going.
Then there is a intro and a first act. There are commerical's between the second and third act of a episode and each are intended to be so that if you watch one episode. You at least feel like you have gotten a story. there is somewhat a self contained narrative (which is usually the A story) and the B story (the main arc) is teased slowly.
So that means most shows that air on television follow the Buffy/Supernatural style format. Called the "Myth Arc". Because they air 22 episodes a season, they have the basic story stretched over a period of time. But they follow the main story tangentially, and sprinkle in a lot of it with episodic episodes, and every once a while have a mythology episode.
The Netflix series instead don't need to follow this rule as they are not on hooking the viewer on a weekly basis. They are about making sure the viewer stays. In a Netflix series, the entire 3 act structure of a episode is pretty much gone. There are no constraints so they can stretch things how they want it.
Let's take Iron Fist for example. The first couple episodes follow the same basic plot established in Arrow. That Danny was missing and he has come back. But in Arrow, Oliver knew exactly what his purpose or intention was. In Iron Fist, Danny is lost and confused. Doesn't know what to do. People don't believe who he is when he comes back.
So suddenly what would be the B plot in a network show. Becomes the A plot and instead of having one scene of Danny saying "Im danny" and one scene of people not believing him. They have about ten versions of the same scene and repeat it over a period of three episodes.
@@drakenfist You said "not quite" then just went into heaps of detail demonstrating my point, which was originally YOUR point, which was weird but ok.
@@TheSoulHarvester how so?. You say I did this and that without providing any examples.
"Days Gone, season three, is where it's at."
Gave me a hearty laugh.
Horizon Zero Dawn is up there with Mass Effect, Skyrim, Age of Empires II, and Rome: Total War among games that I’ve fallen in love with. Really a brilliant game in almost every respect: gameplay, world building, story, characters, graphics. Really hope whatever sequel they make keeps it up.
@I am tired of humanity Skyrim is not in the least barebones. If anything, its biggest flaw is that it's so huge and has so much content that a lot of it is unpolished.
@I am tired of humanity Quantity can be quality in this case.
No way... Tell me that you're trolling... 😐
@Dr Perun we are on the opposite spectrum then - I love to play as a woman when given the option in games.
Being a male it's nice to follow in the pace of the other side for perspective shift
@Dr Perun why though?😅
Oh, the "blowtorch the club logo off someone's back" is an episode of Sons of Anarchy.
Seeing the vantage for Colorado Springs in Horizon and immediately recognizing the building at the center was certainly a moment. Is this how New Yorkers feel the first time they see NYC in a piece of media?
New Yorkers don't feel anything, anything but malice.
That’s how I felt watching the gameplay reveal for the last of us and going “wait I recognize that bridge!” just before realizing that level took place in Pittsburgh
Not really. New York is a popular place depicted in fictional media. Though I thought it was sick to see my apartment building in Spider-Man lol
Fun fact: a lot of time the "New York" presented in media is actually a re-skinned toronto
@@colorsred2771 just like actual ny
Did Noah mention or is he aware that one of Horizon Zero Dawn's writers is the writer for Fallout New Vegas?
Really? Didnt know that. Maybe I should finish Horizon.
Well that would explain a lot about the setting.
Apparently, HZD wants you to forget you're playing as the main character.
@Jacob Locklear J I N G L E J A N G L E
that's not how writing for a big project like this works.
This is an old video, but I remember exploring the banuk(snow mountains) area and finding a circle cut into the mountains, after half an hour of lore speculation I found out that it was from the dev tool of map creation
It was a mistake, I was so invested in the world that I just accepted a clear mistake as intended
Thats where the black choppers come from, damn bastards have been hiding the the mountains the whole time. Godammit O'brian!!! Where the hell is my bike!!?
i subscribed 2 weeks ago binged your content. im so glad the algorithm brought me here
All hail the algorithm.
So you are doing literally nothing at all? How can you binge watch all of his videos, many hours long, in two weeks?
@ My comment says I binged his content, not ALL his content. Besides stop projecting sheesh
I just love looking at Horizon, be it playing, or watching gameplay. Absolutely, breathtakingly gorgeous.
Yeah, especially the water effects and the clothes on characters and...😒
Noah, I hope you're doing well. The 100k people subscribed to you (including myself) are subscribed not because of what you don't make, but because of what you do. Whatever you make, I'm confident It'll be well worth the time you put into it.
You read my mind. I feel the same. Noah is our video game review savior. He puts a bullet in the toxic community that gaming is often associated with.
He is pure professionalism and doesn’t need to rely on being super loud, obnoxious and man child behavior...
That’s right, I’m looking at you Angry Joe.
Stop relying on another to think for you.
@@charlesthoreson4162 Tf you talking about Charlie?
@@Kane.JimLahey. Arrogant people literally believe that "learning about the world and other people's views about it" is basically Mind Slavery.
Your dissection of Zero Dawn was sublime.
you deserve more recognition man. these videos are incredible
luke long he’s a national treasure
Is that sleeping Shaq as your profile picture?
Hey I heard of you, you're famous!
I'd kind of forgotten Noah talked about video games.
I was all strapped in to see a three-hour video about old military facilities in the Pacific Northwest or something.
I wouldn't have minded too much tbh.
Hey just wanted how cool I think your cold openings are. A lot of people make video essays and while your writing is very good, the 'irl' cold opening sets you apart! Keep it up!
HZD is, in my opinion, the absolute apotheosis of this kind of game design. It takes all the tropes and polishes them to a mirror sheen. Thanks for your take! You articulated a lot of what I find so compelling about it.
The AI that dreams of dinosaurs threw me in a fit of random crying
We're not so different, us and them.
The part with GAIA reminiscing about all the lost megafauna in the QEE and the ending with the conversation about motherhood were two swift gut punches.
Sorry, I'd rather fight a zombie horde, than mechanical dinosaurs.
@@erich5686 No need to apologize? Room for both.
@@erich5686 there’s a million games you can fight a zombie horde in, but only one you can fight mechanical dinosaurs
"Not only do I know him, I know all his shit's just seeds and stems anyway." Not only do I know one of these guys, but I'm totally incorporating that shit into my vernacular.
I’m playing through Horizon for the first time at the moment. I’m absolutely blown away by the presentation and world. I regret sleeping on it.
Great video Noah!
For me "Horizon: Zero Dawn" perfectly encapsulates the strength of Sony's studios. It's a game that doesn't really innovate in any way, but more curates ideas and mechanics from other games, see's what works and doesn't work about them, and distills it into a game that functions as kind of a "best of-compilation".
This is basically my review of PS5 Spider-Man 2
"Deacon is just like a biker dude, he's a dude, he's got a bike, biker dude" poetry
Looking forward to the 6 hour analysis of the souls series
Is that an actual thing that's coming?
Check out matthewmatosis he’s got a 6 hour one :)
there is enough of those already one of the best things about Noah is the unique games he looks at.
Lol
🎯
That zipper analogy at around the 6:40 minute mark was really good.
Seems like ages since I watched this channel when I found him earlier this year. I think his fallout 76 in a related video when all the drama was happening. It’s a shame long video analysis people upload so rarely, there is actually a point to the videos to reflect and kind of connect the content in your mind to get a better understanding. Also to discover significance you don’t pick up on when u go thru a game.
This made my sunday morning way, WAY better. Thank you! I would have loved it if you did a series review of the three "Metro" games. They may be your cup of tea, maybe.
gotta say that sentence about painting a warhammer figure is so strangely wholesome to me as I was actively in the process of assembling a set of WW2 minifigures and that sentence just summoned a huge smile to my face and I dont fully know why, but still I will thank you for the smile and for the great video
Your Warhammer comment really clicked for me, love the stuff myself, got a few half finished armies and never thought you'd mention it, thanks Noah, made me feel cozy and related to in a way that was just what I needed
It makes me way happier than it should to hear that he's playing console games for the first time.
My fingers are crossed for him to finish the Call of Duty campaign series by playing Big Red One, Finest Hour, etc.
Paused the video at "His shit is all seeds and stems anyways" and gave this video a giant like; fantastic wordplay sir.
I needed to clean up my apartment before quiet hours. During the Horizon bit, I figured I was gonna keep watching until the gameplay summary ends and the story recap begins, go run the vacuum cleaner, then come back and finish the video.
The shift between the two segments was so fluent and seamless I didn't even notice it was there. Well done, Sir. As always.
Console? So a thorough look at Red Dead Redemption is possible...
Not just possible, he's confirmed he's working on it. He got an old Xbox 360 and the PS4 to play the games and talked about it on his Patreon.
@@silver6kraid Dear god those reviews are going to be longer than one of Dutch's plans. I can't wait!!
So excited :D
@@silver6kraid Oh fuck, I'm getting turned on now.
@@silver6kraid thanks for the heads up, I was about to start begging in the comments of his other videos
Oh man! An hour long new Noah video on a weekend?
Hallelujah! Noel you’re a saint brother!!!
Thanks 😊
"Not only have we met, but I know all his shit is just seeds and stems anyway"
Gotem
I'm not gonna lie, it took me until the day after to realize when he meant - all I had to do was remember high school. It came to me. lol
Omg I was dying. I think we all know one of our /dads friends who is like that. 😆
Noah, why do you look like you belong in Days Gone? Are you going to become a biker now?
Lol but seriously, great video.
Noah would be a way cooler protagonist for Days Gone. For one thing, it'd be actually amazing if he never stopped talking
Fniff
I’d never get any gameplay done though, I’d just be listening to Noah. Still seems worth it though
Nah man, he's just a hippie sadly.
I feel like he'd be worried the first time someone handed him a gun.
@@nicolausteslaus he actually looks like a woman at her 35+
Your uploads fill me with joy. I was surprised at what Days Gone got right - they were able to pull things off that games normally fuck up, and the things that games normally have no problem with they managed to fuck up. It's essentially a composite game - with features and mechanics ripped almost brazenly from games like Mad Max, and basically every other open world adventure game of the past few years - the narrative is often just too damn convenient and when the plot started to unravel, and I realized the major motivating force behind both the main character and the story itself was his pining over his dead wife, I began to see Deacon not as a brooding widower like the devs intended but as a heartbroken teenage dealing with his first breakup.
YET - despite these bad tidings Sam Witwer's performance - particularly his speaking pattern and mannerisms - and a good bit of the dialogue won me over and made me see Deacon as genuinely likable. I thought for sure I'd despise Sarah but I found her to be a genuine character, and I thought all of the camps and factions were important in establishing how different people cope with the recently-fallen society, how some were better at it than others and how the normal societal trappings and dynamics have shifted. I found the world-building to be the most compelling about the entire game. I found myself inching closer to study an infected swarm as it drank and splashed around in a nearby lake - I love how they made them more than shuffling zombies, they build shelters, they (kind of) wash and drink water and shit all over themselves which is a detail something that all other games of this type avoid. Likewise they didn't shy away from the prospect of infected animals and how they behave in this world, most other games of this type don't do that, either. It honestly replaced the cordyceps infection from Last of Us as my favorite video game 'zombie virus'. I loved all of the little research sequences, I wanted to learn more about this infection. That aspect alone kept me playing the game and dicking around in this open world. I hope they have a chance to build upon this fantastic foundation in a sequel - though I feel the decision to make it exclusive to the Playstation lacks all fucking business sense whatsoever, nobody is going to buy a Playstation to play this fucking game and it CERTAINLY doesn't function well as a tech demo for the hardware. I know the studio is technically part of Sony, but c'mon. Why shoot yourself in the foot?
I think the best part of the game was that section at Lost Lake and if the entire game revolved around Deacon learning to rejoin 'society' (Lost Lake) and use his talents and strengths to improve it I would've much preferred that.
Don't know about Zero Dawn, but pretty much all Noah said about Days Gone checks out: Deacon gets on your nerves (like, dude, chill, wtf), the scenery is so beautiful it makes me want to move there, the storyline is formulaic but some of the characters are pretty well written and the love story is earnest af. I loved my horde killing, bike driving, scenery taking in time with this game and it also scratched my Daryl Dixon cosplay itch. Cheers!
I haven't listened to this on in some time and never commented apparently which I like to try to do for the Algorithmness. Once again, you did a fantastic job picking up the slack that most other "reviewers" and players either didn't bother doing, or more likely couldn't put into words. Granted, I have to played these games as I am and have been strictly only Nintendo Console and PC my whole life as a "Gamer". However, I know that much of what you described has never been pointed out by any other professional reviewers or people I know that have relyed their experiences personally. I only inquired as thw chances of PC ports were a possibility in the future at the time and I was curious as to of they would be worth it. As many focus on performance, your dive into narrative and overall feeling of the games makes for a much deeper understanding of the games before or even after I play them. It's good to know if it performs like crap, but knowing if the story is interesting enough to overcome those shortcomings or if the amazing performance is overshadowed by the junk story etc. is extremely helpful. If not just entertaining to hear about. Especially with your fantastic writing abilities. Anyway, back to work. Thanks again for a fantastic essay and wonderful distraction from "life"!
Now that Horizon’s sequel has released and in doing so, introduced an entire new wild level of sci fi to the world, im definitely curious to hear Noah’s thoughts on the franchise in 2023.
1:14:33 wow you really did move Oregon. After you were done with the names did you chop down that tree with the side of your hand
Underrated comment.
As usual, Noah nails what I loved about Horizon: Zero Dawn, and what I find completely unappealing about Days Gone - two conceptually similar games in which the difference is completely in the execution. Horizon offers a depth of imagination and world-building and an ease of gameplay, while Days Gone (even down to its title) just seems lazy and uninspired in so many ways.
Excellent video, Noah, as always!
I will say that the 'world' and setting of Days Gone is very well thought-out. It's what they gave us to do in that world (and the sequel bait which - in me - inspired the opposite feeling) which leaves so much to be desired. I could honestly give less than a complete shit about 'mutants with guns' - give me some good characters, give me some bad guys that're good characters, make me feel like I'm not wasting my time. That is all I ask, game. Spare me the mutants with guns.
@@fuzzydunlop7928 what about a good character thats a mutant with a gun?
But Days Gone is actually better
@@cobra29935 fallout?
Always the best from you🔋🔋🔋🔋Your videos will always be special to me, Noah.
32:05 So true! This is not the first apocalypse to have happened there. Not the first time something destroyed the biosphere. It would have been so good to integrate into the themes of the narrative.
Half the joy of your videos is seeing how much your personal style has changed. Loved the analyses! Can't wait to see what you decide to cover next.
Horizon Zero Dawn was a great game overshadowed by coming out within weeks of both NieR Automata and LoZ Breath of the Wild.
I disagree. It easy outsold Nier 2 due to selling over 10 million copies despite being a single console exclusive. BotW sold 15 mil. btw. All 3 are good games. I honestly don´t know which is better as all had unique flaws.
@@residentgrigo4701 I'm not talking about sales. I'm talking about presence in video game discourse and analysis.
I remember the press being very ambivalent on Horizon. While they all loved how gorgeous it was and how cool the robot dinosaurs were and how they liked Aloy, I saw a ton of people describe it as "just another 60-hour open world game". I don't really know what happened, but despite there being even more open-world games coming out now than back then, open-world fatigue seems to somehow have diminished in the gaming public. Which is incredibly weird, if you think how little has changed in the open-world games since then.
It wasn’t overshadowed for PS4 players. Sure for the overall gaming community it wasn’t as big, but it still sold very well, got great reviews, and developed a sizable fanbase.
Zelda and NieR also both had the advantage of being pre-established brands: Zelda has been one of the biggest franchises in gaming for decades, while NieR is a cult classic very well-known by the “artistic games” online community. Horizon was not only an original IP, but it didn’t even have that much popular buzz leading up to it.
After getting more comfortable with a controller I’d really love if you gave Bloodborne another shot. There is so much there I think you’d adore.
Bloodborne kinda requires you to be way more than comfortable with a controller :D I can dance around Thunderjaws with only Hunter and War bows on Ultra Hard, but some of the bosses in Bloodborne still give me some trouble.
I just found this guy’s channel with his excellent Death Stranding critique and now there’s nothing I want to see more on UA-cam than his take on my favorite game in the Soulsborne series, and by logical extension one of my favorite games of all time.
You're a national treasure. Please keep making such charming and insightful videos.
Funnily, I got the push notification for this while out camping near La Pine. Couldn’t watch it until now, but glad I did. 👍
Man, I love your channel. Great work as always Noah.
i dunno why, but i enjoyed my time in days gone way more than I have in HZD, the setting of both games are just beautiful but days gone feels kinda cozy, it saddens me that it'll not get a sequel
I think I was the only person that liked Deacon constantly muttering. It felt like how I deal with anxiety inducing situations. Like he sounded like me playing horror games. "Oh no fuck you fuck that and abso-fucking-lutely fuck this."
Laughed out loud at the mention of Another Life. I've been considering getting rid of netflix but I watched Another Life. Your description of it is very accurate. It did not convince me to keep netflix.
It's very generous to say that Another Life had any character development or good sci-fi. It had neither. I watched all of it out of morbid curiosity, to see how dumb it can get and boy it got dumb towards the end. Dumber than I could've imagined.
New video from this great man. Keep on the good work!
Was keen when I heard you purchased a console! Great work as ever. Would love a red dead one down the line
I have no doubt it's int he cards, he's such a Western kinda guy.
i loved your 'newbie' take on zero dawn so much that i broke my rule and watched this entirely despite having not finished the game - loved the video, love the game, still feel the sense of wonder, still playing the game. thanks noah :)
I believe Adventure Time has a similar synergy between sci-fi and fantasy in the way you describe Horizon.
your new look reminds me of david foster wallace
!!!!!! Yes.! 2 uploads in such a short time. These videos are my favorite ways to while away my evenings or mornings before work.
19:29 is, for my money, the best and most effective bit of 'character' in the history of games up to this point. The facial animation and modeling just *perfectly* captures Aloy's childish sense of wonder.
Wow, the facial animation on the bride @ 47:32 is incredible. I thought Noah had put actually fmv of a real woman. That was the first time a game ever fooled me.
Edit: the facial art and animation looks great on everyone in days gone. The environment looks good too but lots of designers do realistic environments though
Noah I really love this review. I went to college in Utah and had a very similar eureka moment where my location immediately snapped into place with all the implications.
I will always love and remember that feeling.
Noah adjusting to controller use and understanding the joys of it is so cute. There are many virtues to PC/mouse+kb and certainly many games that feel better with it (I don't want to start some console v PC war....) but there are some games that just feel RIGHT with a gamepad.
Your odd history with games in which you never touched a console make your videos so interesting. You’re not doing 3 hour videos on Zelda like everyone else, and even now when you pick console games they are odd choices. No one else was gonna do a days gone video, because who gives a shit. And yet it’s super interesting. Even horizon zero dawn is a cool and weird choice , especially from the perspective of someone who somehow has not played console games in seemingly decades of being a gamer.
A Red Dead video from you would be SO incredible!
He's big into westerns so I have no doubt he'll do an entire Red Dead Retrospective from Revolver up.
And another workday is complete with an analysis of two video games that I don't have time at home to play. Thanks again, Noah. You look as if Days Gone took a number on you.
Thank you for the video Noah! I was considering getting days gone but I do not like open world games that hand hold and drip feed content. I did love horizon zero dawns free roam and hunting for fun. Keep up the great work :)
Waiting for the "Days Gone Wild" DLC.
_Days Gone with the Wind._
_Days Gone in 60 seconds_
Concluded by, 'Days Gone But Not Forgotten'.
Days Gone Girl
'Days Gone for Dinner, BRB'
I appreciate the Warhammer 40k minis shout out
I ended up liking Days Gone more than Zero Dawn. I didn't play either until they released on PC, as I haven't owned a playstation since PS2. I felt more connected to the Days Gone story, it seemed more realistic. Not in terms of zombies and robotic animals. But world building and characters. Days Gone characters felt natural. Not only that I felt connected to the cast via experience with them. My teens had so much Sam Witwer content. The Force Unleashed games, The Mist horror film, Doomdays in Smallville, and Battlestar.
Courtnee Draper whom played Sarah starred in a Disney tv show I watched as a kid called "The jersey".
Debra Wilson whom voiced Addy, has been in a number of video games I played before I played Days Gone....and then there's Laura Bailey, whom voiced Lisa. Laura being one of my favorite voice actors. Having roles in childhood animes like Dragonball Z(She voiced kid Trunks), Lust in Fullmetal Alchemist, Maka in Soul Eater and many many more. As well as voicing numerous video game characters I loved.
Something about all the voice acting in Zero Dawn felt flat and uninspired. Lance did great, but its Lance....he always does great.
I also found myself not really caring for Zero Dawn's story in the end. At first I did, thought it was unique, cool take on post apocalypse. But during its third act, I kinda lost interest.
Days Gone story though i really enjoyed, but it might have more to do with how generally Zombie games usually don't have good stories.
if you feel more comfortable with a controller now, you really should give dark souls/bloodborne another try. they are both serious contenders for the title of best and most influential video games of the 21. century and i really think that, apart from their phenomenal gameplay, their atmosphere and themes would resonate with you.
Just playing Demon's, Dark1, and Bloodborne would suffice. 2 is like a different game all together and 3 is no better than bad fan fic imo.
This. Please Noah!!!
I totally passed over the open world fashion and now I’m playing god of war, red dead redemption, fallout 4, the Witcher and horizon at the same time.
Small tip for when you reach the Witcher 3: Dont force yourself to take on every single question mark on the map. In the prologue it's fine but later it's absolutely overwhelming how many of them are on the map.
It's not necessary to tackle them and you have a real chance of burning yourself out on the game if you focus too much on them.
Sincerely happy you uploaded sir.
I got really bored with Horizon zero dawn and never finished the story. Figuring out that I was in Colorado when I saw the church of the air force academy was one of the coolest moments I've ever had though.
for all of days gone's many many many faults, i thoroughly enjoyed its mechanics, setting, and overall tone. i love that it said basically said "everyone knows what the beginning of a zombie apocalypse looks like, let's skip it and start in the middle"
as much as i love the walking dead comics, they would have been drastically improved if they skipped all the early shane/farm bullshit that we've all seen a thousand times before, and started with them finding the prison. that's the moment that the comics start to break new ground. what does trying to build a society in the apocalypse actually look like? what kind of places would you try and grow roots? how do you turn an ideal place to defend into an ideal place to live? how do you deal with communities hostile to you? that's where the comic goes from being "normal zombie shit" into breaking new ground.
i liked that days gone took a similar approach, though it didn't bother to try to break new ground in the genre as the walking dead comics did, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. i just wish the plot didn't often feel meandering and lost.
The man is back. And great video as ever.
Days Gone being this super-realistic character-study about a gruffy biker-dude within an otherwise really trite and slow story is so wild to me that I can't stop thinking about it.
I love you Noah. I lose myself in your words. Your rhythm and insight enthralls me
On my (fifth, sixth?) rewatch of all your videos and they hold up so well. Thanks so much as always Noah.
Seventh (eighth, ninth?) rewatch now!
the concept of zombies taking a shit in the woods for the player to track only to come across a horde during the mating season is novel.
@Noah Caldwell-Gervais you remembered to write the spaces for timestamp in description but forgot to put the actual timestamps 😄
i did like days gone, but horizon absoluutly obviates it!
i swear horizon zero dawn is my favorite game!, i played it 7 times now and i am soooooo hyped for horizon forbidden west!
Something about the wording of 15:23 was just beautiful.
HZD has a better sci-fi story than most movies or TV series in recent years. The way the backstory is pieced together through audio, video and text logs, and then you understand how horrifying that apocalypse was, and what was the sacrifice needed for the solution to be developed just in time, it was gut punch.
Ya know what I'd love to hear? Noah's take on the witcher series. Happy to see a new video
@ Why?
Thank you for the excellent analysis and commentary. Like you, I played through Days Gone, I did enjoy it, but felt dissatisfied at the end and I couldn't put into words what about it was bugging me. I think your analysis is pretty spot-on.
That sequel bait pretty much assured that I wasn't buying a sequel. lol Left such a bad taste in my mouth.
You make excellent video game analysis videos!!
I also like that you are the only UA-cam out of thehundred or so different gaming channels I’m subscribed to, that take the time to thank your supporters at the end of your video
I can't remember how I found Noah's channel but gosh dang I can't think of a channel that is more specifically tailored to me.
Noah's videos and critiques are constantly head and shoulders above his peers. I feel the thing holding him back is the video production
Good video!
I think the comparison to television series is even more apt when you consider how tv is written.
Even in prestige shows its common for a head writer to write the first couple and the last couple of episode and let a room of writers take on the chapters in between. I imagine that a lot of the writing for sidequests andwhat not is handed to less experienced writers who are given the status quo of that sidequest as well as the general lore and tone of the show.
horizon has been in my backlog for a bit, guess I'm gonna finally have to get into it, you sold me good on it.
Get it, I knew nothing about the game except for its name. I bought it yesterday and its blown me away. If ur a new tomb raider fan even better. It's dirt cheap on the store now for complete edition.
@@chrishutchinson3858 yeah I got the complete edition and played through the intro but let it slide Indo the backlog.
@@nejinaji the intro is literally the worst part of the game. I was dying of boredom too. But then the lore and exploration keep you hooked all the way till the end
@@UnitedFeodor yeah i got that vibe but only a little. the one thing that kinda threw me off was that for some reason the early cutscenes (and only the early cutscenes, i watched my gf play a little further in the game) felt like they were filmed on a tv show set. no clue why the game gave me that feeling and why it disappeared right after, but i'm glad it disappeared regardless.
Love your work here. Good analysis as always.
Another great video. Man, i feel like im the only one who loved Days Gone! I have always been a narrative and dialogue first kind of guy when i play games, so it fits me. Maybe its because i grew up with several Deacons moving in and out of my life. And Noah, welcome to the area! Glad to have you.
Horizon has so much more it can do in the sequel.
There are other locations besides the actual ones we played in zero dawn.
And Sylens is an interesting character that I feel won't necessarily be the villain.
Personally horizon is my game of the generation. It felt complete and rewarding. I only hope the sequel doesn't go the way most sequels like Deus ex, dragon age, etc go.
The best content creator on any platform
I bet you notice the improvement of your writing and reading over the years but for me as a layman in that area it's hard to notice because every video by you I've watched till now is so easy to actually listen to in comparison to many other essays. They are not worse by any way but only you make me just intuitively focus on what you're reading/telling me without my head going: "dude, focus".
I almost never have to backtrack your videos.