that smiiiiile

this time without gross plurk compression

gasp

look at them

OH THESE ARE SO CUTE???

mackens pogonophile I LOVE HER SO she's my girl

white girl summer off the shits

is all I've done in horizon is fight things 20-29 lvls higher than me, take souvenir photos and name every machine friend I make? yes.

is that not the correct way to play

what's the name of your raptor baby

(raptor's name is Sizzlers, I do not take criticism thank u)

SIZZLERS

LAUGHTER

wow i love sizzlers

blisters pogonophile

bretons chokes in real time

my wife

she's perfect and everything, end of story

she's so lovely

GORGEOUS ohhhh look at her

i love this oh my god

that raptor was beach body ready

Kitnkat valyria puts a frame around her face forever and ever she's just GOOD

yes good

same vibe

not to be gay on main but jfc the bloodflow mottling on her skin tho

game: you can't go here
me: I will go here right now and you cannot stop me

it did stop me

ok that's it no more glamor shots of 1 feral wife

forever radiating the 'I will hit u' + 'I'm not listening to u' + 'I can punch through a concrete wall' energy we all crave deeply

b a b e

sizzler also a great name

i wanna play forbidden weeeeest

other neat non-spoiler stuff: whoever thought to use tracks in this game for specific machines is a genius (I assume it was Oleksa Lozowchu, but it might've not been the composer directly) because it is so. CLEVER. IT IS SO CLEVER. hearing a theme at a muted distance and going

I encountered one specific machine WAY earlier than I should have so when I was doing a quest and heard it spooling up as I put stuff in place, chills instantly ran up my spine like

circuitry haha thank u

guffaw

mackens I WANT you to play Forbidden West

also the cleverness of layering themes?? this track for when the team is Plotting Whatever Comes at this timestamp rolls DIRECTLY INTO AN ALTERNATE/UNDERLAY OF THIS THEME LIKE WTF THAT IS SO SMART??? HFW Slaughterspine Theme

the fact that the music is relaying data

absolutely smart and cool

(also fun fact about the Slaughterspine theme that again is SO GODDAMN SMART: when it charges up its ultimate attack, the track in game will actively 'skip' in real time to the spool-up portion of the song)

(C O O L)

it's definitely got its flaws and I'm not anywhere near done, like I said I'm just punching things 20+ levels higher than me like an Victorian Gentleman in a Rick Yancey book but some things are so lovingly done (also, do recommend doing all ur cauldrons early and going machinist, it rules)

if it ever stops being $70 wheezes youtube is sufficing for now

i was listening to an abient soundtrack for it yesterdaya nd it's so beautiful

yeah the price is steep

how is the climbing? it looks like its a lot smoother than in ZD

it is! a lot of the mechanics are smooth, like for climbing or swimming you can usually just hold a direction and she will Go (even up or down, and especially while swimming, etc; don't even bother using other buttons like square, directional is infinitely better)

also combat is clunky UNTIL you level up and get better weapons and upgrade them, so I focused on melee first when I used my skill points, then a little archery for stamina (and I like sniping/shooting) then fully went for machines and did every single tallneck/cauldron to unlock combat buddies

after that it's a breeze (ok I still get smashed in sometimes, but it's fun is the thing)

there's a lot more focus on combos, too, so you can freeze an enemy and then detonate it with a shattering blow to deal ridiculous damage

(where if you don't do that stuff or set the game to an easier difficulty— which is valid— I think some fights can feel a little brick wall-ish and not fun, but not impossible)

oh, and this is present me speaking to future you, but get the spike thrower from the machine skill tree as early as you possibly can, it's a free 1-hit kill on some enemies at low levels

love all this