Duncan Moran

There are two things i think this game should be rated based on: The gameplay and the story. HZD (Horizon: Zero Dawn) was a magnificent game with a refreshing new kind of combat gameplay never before seen, married with a wonderful mystery that slowly became unraveled with each mission. HFW (Horizon: Forbidden West) is everything Zero Dawn was, and more. The gameplay has been evolved, with various skill trees to fit every play style, new weapons, new machines, new mechanics (pullcaser, glider, climbing, new mounts,etc.) If you liked playing HZD, you’ll like HFW no doubt. The one thing that’s keeping this from being 5 stars is the story. In classic Horizon fashion, the story is a fun rewarding crawl where each story mission/main quest slowly pieces together the mystery of the game, and does a fantastic job of storytelling similar to how they did it in HZD. That is, until the last 4 missions. I’ll try to avoid major spoilers, but the quest name for the 4th to last story may be spoilers, so be warned!! - - - The story of HFW is fantastic until the main quest “Faro’s Tomb.” At this point, the story just becomes exposition. I don’t mind the horrific twist about Faro’s fate, but this entire mission is just us getting told what’s going on, and that continues for the next 4 missions. Gemini is a fun quest, and has a cool twist which i thought was interesting, and although the talk we have with a certain character at a certain location afterwards is just exposition, it’s still interesting. I just wish it was tied into the gameplay rather than a dialogue. The last few missions are fine, but the last mission, in my opinion, was pretty lame. The gameplay is alright, the final boss was kind of cool but it just became a battle of attrition at a certain point. The twist villains plans are revealed, in, yet again, more exposition, and this is where i really got turned off: It just becomes sequel bait as Aloy finds out that the “REAL bad guy is yet to come!!” and “the REAL threat isn’t even here yet!!” and the entire goal of the entire story is just cast to the wayside. It’s so obvious that they’re just setting the story up for the next DLC. Nothing that we really set out to do at the beginning of the game gets solved at the end. In my opinion, the very worst part of this whole thing is that afterwards, the vast majority of characters you can open dialogue with that you had befriended to the home base area, are all gone. And those that are still there just say things and don’t open the dialogue menu. I was really disappointed with this, I was saving the dialogue options until after the story mission was over, only to find out they’ve all left. The story was so fun and so enjoyable for the majority of it, so for that it gets 4 stars because the finale wasn’t great. TLDR: HFW’s gameplay is truly a refreshing, surprising, enjoyable evolution of the first games, keeping everything you like and adding so much more to love. The story encaptured me just like Zero Dawn’s, and despite an ending that i felt was a kind of flimsy, it’s still a very interesting and intriguing story with plenty of twists and turns to keep you on your toes.

ive never played League of Legends, and i had a my doubts going into watching this show, but WHEW boy was i proved wrong. Netflix spends the majority of their budget pumping out garbage original one after another, but this show really is a diamond in the rough. It’s dark, gritty, and has a feel to it no show i’ve ever seen nas. The animation is spectacular, all the scenes in the world are vibrant and breathtaking. The plot is surprisingly interesting; the politics of the world take a front seat in the shows focus and it really holds you. It does a great job of separating “Topside” (where all the rich people live) and the criminal underworld where everyone else is forced to live a life of crime because of how Topside has isolated themselves. The show does a splendid job of blending the two worlds, as they fall into chaos. The only ONLY reason i give 4/5 stars is very occasionally the dialogue can be kind of cringe-y. Like, someone was thinking “How can we make this conversation as provocative and appealing as possible?” but they get points for trying. This show truly is what i think an “adult animation” should be; adult themes, adult story, with a visually pleasing animation style. Seriously, even if you don’t know League of Legends, watch this show, it’s got nothing to do with the game and is a fantastic wild ride like nothing you’ve seen before.