Spoilers and wild speculation on some story in Horizon: Forbidden West

Butch:

OK, I fear bean spilling, so I'll just say that I finally did at least part of the Sylens quest.  I'll just say I had a couple of conversations, and now I have to make a thingy. 

If you haven't done up to that, I shall say no more. 

Feminina:

The thingie that explodes the crystals? Been there, done that. Spent some time going back to explode crystals in other locations. Good times had by all. 

Butch:

Yes.  That.  Haven't built it yet. 

That was sure a thing with HADES, wasn't it? Informative.  Creepy as all hell.  Who are the masters?  What are they going to do with Horizon 9, after we've tracked down a rogue AI one at a time in each sequel?  (I kid, I kid.  I think.) 

Sylens does have a point that he is getting results while Aloy is not and...on that...I have some WILD

Hang on.  I just have to say that those "leap lashers" or whatever REALLY suck.  The reason I haven't made the thingy is that it took me the best part of FOREVER to shoot that thing off them.  Stupid things.  Just turn around and let me shoot you!

OK, had to get that off my chest.  Where was I?  Ah, yes. 

INTERNET SPECULATION!!!!

Remember way back when when we were playing ACV and we made the incredibly incorrect assumption that we, the player, were the only special one?  Even though we were playing in a game world where it was obvious gods talked to dudes, took us forever to figure out we weren't the only one. 

Well, here we are in a game world where manufactured genetic clones are a thing.  We are one, yes?  And we have been blithely assuming that we are the only one, yes? 

Well, have you noticed that Aloy takes every damn opportunity she can, upon seeing wreckage, finding data points, whatever, to mention Ted Faro?  Saying things like "So many people died for his arrogance" and "He thought he was doing the right thing," and shit? 

Well, what do we know on Ted Faro?  He was smart.  He craved knowledge.  He did, at first, have good intentions that got muddied by his own ambition.  He happily used and manipulated others to further his own aims.  His arrogance, his assumptions that he had all the answers, ended the world. 

Remind you of anyone?  

Why would Aloy be yammering so much about Ted Faro if the game wasn't telegraphing something? 

I know what you're thinking.  Why, if Sylens was a Ted Faro clone, would he not be able to just waltz through big gene locked doors himself?  Well, knowing Faro as we do, he likely tried the whole clone thing on himself FIRST.  He didn't get it quite right.  He got it close, but enough went wrong to make it so doors didn't work and he looked like Lance Reddick. 

I'm going all in on this, because the game ALSO made sure, in its opening sequence, that we got a good, memorable look at Travis Tate.  That was quite an introduction to a character who has been dead a thousand years.....unless he's here, too!

OK, I'm done.  What was your take on the HADES thing? 

Feminina:

It was creepy. And effective. Sylens gets results, all right.

And remember how we mentioned, not that long ago, that Aloy seemed awfully confident the spaceship blew up when we hadn't seen clear evidence of that, and so maybe it didn't? (I feel like there was some mention of a failed space program in HZD, but even if so...she seemed unduly confident that there couldn't have been survivors, a follow-up program, etc.) 

If people survived on a spaceship, they would likely have the technology to send override codes, etc. to GAIA. Could be called 'masters.' 

And yes, it is interesting that we saw Travis Tate so clearly when--as far as we know--he's long ago lost to history, and also that Aloy keeps talking about Ted Faro, whom as far as I recall (not that I recall the first game with absolute clarity, so I could be wrong) we have never seen despite his huge role in the apocalypse and who, as you say, we have no way to be sure did not look just like Lance Riddick. Which is a good way to look, so you'd think they might have shown it to us before if it wouldn't have been a major spoiler. 

If we run into a Travis Tate clone and Sylens turns out to be Faro, props to you. 

The leaplashers are jerks. Everything that won't stay still for me to shoot parts off it is a jerk. I love Aloy's helpful comments about shooting things off machines, when she should know very well my aim isn't that good unless the machines will stand still for a damn minute.

Butch:

I know!  A SPECIFIC part on a fast machine that I can't KILL first before leisurely plucking off the part is just plain mean, game.  Took me FOREVER, and I'm thinking "DUDE! I want the thingy that blasts crystals so I can immediately abandon the whole save the world thing and unblock passages!  I don't want to wait until tomorrow!"

"Memory corrupted....." It just repeating that at the end of every dialog was very well done.  And it talking over the "master" there, all "You will go extinct..." 

Could be that ship!  You know this, don't you? 

So, like something out of Wall-E?  They're up there waiting to come home? 

You know this, don't you? 

Feminina:

I do know SOMETHING, as certain stuff happens a step further along in the story, but not a lot. Much remains mysterious, and I'm not very far ahead of you. I'm also speculating about a lot of things. 

But not about machines being jerks. Some of these machines are real jerks.

Butch:

Many are.  I forgot how much I hated glinthawks.  

Much of that follow the path bit (that is, the bits I wasn't wandering off gathering berries and swimming into the lake towards a beacon I realized I could get to without drowning.....which I know you totally did, too) was me getting spotted, running away, further down the path, getting the question mark, sighing with relief at avoiding whatever it was that was trying to kill me, only to realize I was in some other herd of awful.  Rinse, repeat. 

I want whatever machine repellant that merchant has on. 

Ironically, the one pack of baddies I managed to successfully avoid where the leaplashers that I had to go kill anyway.  Ah, well.  At least I had the plant for the thingy already. 

Feminina:

Yeah, didn't we get some kind of harpoon thing we could use to shoot wires at glinthawks, in the first one? I remember tying them down and rushing to attack them before they broke free. I need that thing now. Until I get it, I avoid glinthawks. 

And yeah, things are closer together than they seem on the map, so I'm always stumbling into some cluster of machines I thought was way farther away in the general direction I'm going, but it turns out to be 30 feet from me.

Stealth. I am stealthy like an assassin, except when I thought you were a mile away and I blundered right into the middle of your grazing/scrapping ground.

Butch:

HA!  Yes.  "I shall sneak up on you once I get five feet away from you....." 

I got that stealth valor boost, and I keep forgetting I have it.  I have a few more, too.  I think, now that I think about it, that I have one that helps me knock components off machines. 

Hmm.  Remembering that last night would have been good.  

OMG WHAT A T SHIRT!!!!!

Oh!  Forgot to mention, rumor lady gave me a quest (helping out...someone, I forget) and told me about the cauldron!  Which...was already on my map because of the tallneck.  But hey!  Thanks, lady!  

It says level 18 and I'm level 14 so I haven't gone near it, but there it is!

Oh, and isn't the harpoon the "ropecaster?"  I saw a dude selling one, couple times I think, but I've always passed on it as it's mad expensive. 

Feminina:

That sounds right! Yeah, I can't afford expensive things yet. I'm still in the "I only use stuff I find lying around" stage. I'm sure I'll have money eventually.

I can't remember what level I am. Not high enough that going on the level 22 archeology quest seemed like a good idea, but high enough that I did complete that cauldron (although it was a tough slog, I will not lie). I do remember that the listed difficulty levels were often wildly disconnected from our experience in the last one, though, so probably I SHOULD go do the archeology quest.

I keep accidentally turning on the Valor stealth after something has already seen me. Turns out it doesn't make you vanish into thin air if they already knew where you were. Be sure to make a note of that point, I'm sure it will serve you well. 

Butch:

HA!  That would be great if it did.  "I am so brave you cannot see me anymore!" 

Very true about levels of quests not always being in sync with actual difficulty in the last one.  Still, I have found that, so far, I haven't encountered a quest that's easier than the game says it is.  Harder?  You bet!  Not easier.  Yet. 

Maybe it's my armor.  I have a few sets, and they all seem to only do a couple of things, and damned if I can tell the difference.  What's the difference between "melee" damage and "impact" damage?  All I know is I'm guessing which machine does what, and, from what I can tell, each machine fucks me up no matter what. 

Feminina:

Yeah, me too. My calculation so far is roughly "Machines do damage. Damage hurts me."

I can sometimes manage to make use of the info about what one of them is weak to, but that's about it. We'll get better, probably. The game is still young. We have hundreds and hundreds of campfires to discover and blocked pathways to unblock (preferably with explosions). 

Butch:

It is.  

I mean, I assume that, if I'm on fire, then armor with some protection against fire would be good.  But when it comes to the myriad number of ways you can get knocked on your ass?  Hell if I know. 

Feminina:

Armor with protection against fire...hm...yes, that might come in handy if I ever remembered to change my armor...maybe I will do that before I go back to the GIANT ROBOT DINOSAUR I spent all of last night's game time fighting.

Butch:

Shit….all night?  Is that a have to fight or can it wait? 

Feminina:

It was only about 45 minutes, because I was sucking at games and wasn't in the mood to keep dying for longer than that. You'll have to do it at some point, but not for a while. I could have put it off for a while longer...maybe should have. But I'm filled with renewed energy and enthusiasm for tonight. I almost had it a couple of times, I know it can be done.

Butch:

Shit you didn't even beat it? 

Shit.  

You know how I so adore such fights.  

Feminina:

Just put on your fire-resistant armor the way I'm going to do now that I remembered it exists. You'll be fine.

Butch:

Can't wait.  Cannot. Wait. 

I'm still going to have trouble with the do re mi shit.  

Feminina:

But tuneful oddities aside, as you said a while back, I did like the way Varl and Vo are getting together. Very sweet. I like them together. And I actually kind of liked the singing...the idea of government by chorus is an interesting one.

Butch:

Varl and Zo are pretty great.  It's so rare that a game has people flirting and having romantic lives that don't involve the player.  As much as I like flirting, this is a nice touch.  Adds some realism to the bananas.