Re-Reviewing GBA OFFICIAL Reviews from 2017

https://gbatemp.net/review/horizon-zero-dawn.561/
https://gbatemp.net/review/the-legend-of-zelda-breath-of-the-wild.564/

THIS IS JUST A RANT AND I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE IM GOING WITH THIS

this is in regards to two official reviews from three years ago and my opinion. the games in review are Zelda Breath of the Wild and Horizon Zero Dawn which both released around March 2017. Both games were 'in competition' with one another because of release date and perceived 'console wars'. Horizon recieved a 8.5 and Zelda recieved a 7... WHAT THE EFF WERE THE REVIEWERS PLAYING? were they playing the game or were they reviewing the games and giving score based on perceived head to head comparisons?

Since 2017 there hasnt been a decent major ps4 released beside SpiderMan. Since 2017 there has been many great major Nintendo releases since Zelda. Now its the year 2020 and these gbatemp official reviews suck hard. Zelda is still one of the best games ever made, everyone still loves it. Horizon Zero Dawn is still one of the best ps4 games and everyone has forgotten about it and nobody plays it. Im beginning to think many many many many people only played Horizon because they were longing to play Zelda (sadly) but only owned a ps4 because the switch was frequently sold out immediately for a good year. Which could have led to an inflation of scores for its reviews.

I finally played Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition in 2020. IT SUCKS. The graphics are okay but besides the graphics its hard to say this game had anything else going for it. The controls are a bit janky especially having to aim with the right thumb stick instead of motion controls. The camera and fov(field of view) is pretty bad too. Its also incredibly repetitive. Its a GREAT PS4 experience but shouldnt be compared with Zelda and should be compared with something like The Witcher 3. In that battle the Witcher beats out Horizon too.

Jumping back to Zelda. Even though this game offers less in terms of interaction and graphics i would still say its better. Sure it has its flaws too (in hindsight), empty world, uninspiring Boss fights, weak side quests. But the game never got boring. If I felt done I could climb hyrule castle and end the game. Can't do that in Horizon, i played through it and dont remember too much from it, nothing stood out besides beginning and end and it felt like a chore. Zelda would have to compare to something like Metal Gear Solid 5 and i would say zelda beats mgsv.

These two reviews suck. Theyre sucky reviews. I dont know where Im going with it but... have you played anything better than Horizon or Zelda since 2017? There arent many that can top these two games. One gets a 8.5 the other a 7, laughable.

So i bought Horizon Complete for $20 last holiday (dec 2019), and tried to sell it for $10, NOBODY WANTED IT. When i listed it for $5, people wanted it for $2. Laughable. I ended up just giving away the game for free to some stranger.

When I sold my copy of Zelda at the same time period, i listed it for $40 and it was gone the same day...

Do people even know what Horizon Zero Dawn is anymore or what. Im getting the feeling it only got a lot of hype because it was released in the same time window as Zelda and people had to compensate with Horizon instead.

This was just a random rant. thanks for reading people
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Comments

AkiraKurusu
I also think Breath of the Wild's score of 7 is wrong.
In my opinion, it's far too high - it's worthy of only a 3 or 4.

Breath of the Wild has no direction or focus, unlike "normal" Legend of Zelda games. The player is thrown into yet another open-world with no direction as to what to do first, and is forced to contend with the stupid and inherently-frustrating weapon and shield fragility and limited stamina systems no other Legend of Zelda game has (aside from Skyward Sword, which had shield fragility - aside from the late-game Hylian Shield - and much more limited stamina). All those Sanctuary places look the same too, leading to tedium.

I got Breath of the Wild for Christmas, tried it for a few hours (WITH mods that eliminated fragility and stamina), and couldn't stand it. I found Twilight Princess and The Wind Waker much more compelling, and they're only available on the Wii U (and GameCube)! Not to mention Link's Awakening, which is a much better Switch LoZ game.

As for Horizon: Zero Dawn...never played it. Don't like female PCs - never have - so that, along with how it's yet another open-world game, put me off.
 
DANTENDO
So you've never then pld a tomb raider game - so hav you come across a game wher man and women has to be pld to finish and you just giv up soon as control a female lol
 
Chary
When it comes to reviewers, everyone has a distinct bias. It's unavoidable. I've learned that, since I first joined the magstaff.

What you should realize, as well, is that if your personal scores don't align with a given reviewer, that just means you have different tastes. Tom is notorious for being critical of games. That's not a bad thing. That's not a good thing. It just is a trait of his reviews.

Horizon Zero Dawn was an okay game. Maybe an 8 or so. It was pretty, it had an interesting world, and it went for a cool retro-future aesthetic. It was a very neat game. But just because you have a bow and can run around an open world doesn't mean it was a Zelda clone, nor does it mean people were playing it as a way to compensate for not playing BOTW. It's its own thing. I actually had a lot of fun playing HZD with my boyfriend, but most of that admittedly came from watching him cause insane glitches and bugs and jank.

BOTW is a completely different beast. It does so many things right, especially the small stuff. But it does have flaws--the weapon degradation, the lack of dungeons, the repetitive shrines, performance drops, blood moons, Ubisoft tower climbing, etc. Whether or not these flaws bring down the overall game experience is up to the player. I can't honestly agree with Tom's review after playing through BOTW all the way, personally, but I can respect it.

A "sucky review" wouldn't be able to back up the writer's thoughts.

Open world games are hard to get right. You have to carefully construct each part of the world to keep the player's interest while avoiding reusing certain aspects and details that provide a lasting experience. Nintendo, in my eyes, failed this part. The open-world may look good, but it's simply too repetitive to truly want to explore every inch.
Click to expand...

The first thing I’m going to say is it’s pretty. While not the best-looking game in the world, Breath of the Wild has a certain aesthetic that works hand-in-hand with the Zelda franchise and produces a fairly gorgeous setting. The next thing I’m going to say is…that it’s a terrible open world. The biggest problem is that it’s just so empty and lifeless. Practically nothing is going on in at least 80+% of the entire map, it’s just empty hills, plains, and mountains with the occasional enemy encampment, a Stable/outpost thing, and filler-content shrines (which I’ll hit on later). Now, I get that it’s basically a post-apocalyptic world that Ganon has nearly dominated, but if you’re going to make a map that’s “bigger than Skyrim”, you have to actually fill it with things that are different and actually interesting.
Click to expand...

He's able to point at the flaws he finds with the game, and explain why they're bad enough to drop the game from the percieved 10/10s that it was getting from others at the time.

tldr: people have their own thoughts and opinions and we all should respect each other
 
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DANTENDO
Yes I respect anyone's view on a game we are all born different but when I see 3s and 4s flying about for a mario or zelda game you hav to question do ther parents work for Sony or Microsoft lol let's all be realistic someone may hav faults with the game they don't like but should also look at the plus points and I'm pretty sure a 6 is a true opinion as thts pretty average in gaming terms - 3 or 4 is just hatred lol
 
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