Triple Click - Triple Play: Horizon Forbidden West

Episode Date: February 24, 2022

Robot... dinosaurs!!! Kirk, Jason, and Maddy take out their best bows and prepare to go on a hunt for big machines in Horizon Forbidden West, a new open-world game for the PlayStation that rules. They talk about how things have (and haven't) changed from the first game, the big, beautiful world, and the good and bad of Forbidden West's story.One More Thing: Kirk: ELDEN RINGMaddy: PeacemakerJason: ELDEN RINGLinks:Horizon Forbidden West score by Joris de Man, Niels van der Leest & Oleksa Lozowchuk“Do You Wanna Taste It?” by Wig Wam from Non Stop Rock ‘n Roll, 2010Support Triple Click: http://maximumfun.org/joinBuy a Triple Click t-shirt: https://topatoco.com/collections/maximum-fun/products/maxf-tc-tclogo-shJoin the Triple Click Discord: http://discord.gg/tripleclickpodTriple Click Ethics Policy: https://maximumfun.org/triple-click-ethics-policy/ Happy MaxFunDrive! Right now is the best time to start a membership to support your favorite shows. Learn more and join at https://maximumfun.org/jointripleclick 🚀  SUPPORT TRIPLE CLICK:Join Maximum Fun | Buy TC Merch💬 JOIN THE TRIPLE CLICK DISCORD🎮 Triple Click Ethics Policy📱 SOCIALS | @tripleclickpodInstagram | YouTube | TikTok | Twitch

It was a night like this, 40 million years ago. I lit a cigarette, picked up a monkey skull to go, and I fought the dinosaur, that robot dinosaur. Welcome to triple click, where we boom, boom, the Ackalaka to Boom. This week we're talking about yet another huge new game, the PlayStation's new open world robot fighting extravaganza horizon, horizon forbidden west. If you've ever dreamed of writing a tame robot velociraptor, I have good news for you. I'm Kirk Hamilton. I'm Maddie Myers. And I'm Jason Shire.

Hello. Hi there. It's us. It's us again. Hello, my friends. Wandering through the open worlds of video games. It's really true. We're just, we're in the trenches now.

Shooting robot dinosaurs. Oh, gosh. It's just a video game of Poloosa 2022 right now. It really is. It's just me trying to remember which controls or for which video game every time I turn around. I'm crouching, I'm jumping. Which button dodges, which button slows time. Drinking a health potion when I don't want to be.

That's what's going on with me. It's really nuts. I wonder how people out there are dealing with it, like, trying to decide what to play, especially if you have the same, if you have taste in games where you like open world games and you like RPGs and stuff. That is actually going to be an interesting topic that we will talk about on next week's episode, trying to synthesize this whole thing. It's a little teaser for next week. For this week, though, we're talking about yet another huge video game. This is it. We're in the middle of the huge video game month that we've all been waiting for, which is very exciting. We're very excited. And we're excited about this

show in general. It's an exciting time in a triple click. In triple clickdom. So thank you all so much to everybody who's a member and makes it possible for us to have these exciting times and share these exciting times together. If you want to support us making this show, if you're listening and you're getting some good video game information from the three of us. You're deciding what to play, maybe. Yeah, if we're helping you make some decisions and you value that, you want to maybe buy us all a coffee, like one coffee for the three of us. You can go like a really big cup. We're good. Yeah, we'll get a Eventi Americano and we'll pass it around. Event, we'll pour it into little cups and share in a hygienic way.

Go to Maximumfund.org slash join. That's how you become a member. And you can support our lovely network and you can support our show. And you also will get bonus episodes that we record every month. Our most recent one was on the wonderful and very intense showtime show yellow jackets. But we have talked about games. We've talked about TV shows. We've talked about just random stuff.

Who knows what we might talk about next. But maximum fun.org slash join is where you want to go. to sign up to become a member and thanks so much to everyone who is a member. Okay, let's get on with it. We've got yet another huge video game to talk about on this episode, and I'm going to give us a little bit of backstory here

before we get into it. Dramatic Kirk intro. Horizon Forbidden West is a new PlayStation-exclusive narrative-focused open-world game by the Dutch studio Gorilla Games. It's a sequel to their 2017 surprise hit Horizon Zero Dawn which I describe as a surprise only because the brightly colored open world game was such a departure from the studio's previous work on the Kill Zone series of sci-fi first-person military shooters. In contrast, Horizon Zero Dawn was more of a hybrid of Monster Hunter and The Witcher 3, featuring a massive open-world map, loads of spoken dialogue, and fleshed-out side quests, uncharted-esque third-person platforming and, of course, plenty of intense protracted battles with towering robot dinosaurs.

In Forbidden West, players once again take control of Aloy, a young woman making her way in a bizarre post-apocalyptic North America, blooming with strange wildlife and overrun with massive mechanical beasts. Those beasts take familiar forms from massive deer and bears all the way to straight-up robo-raptors and tech-teranosaurus. Humans robbed of the generations of knowledge that allowed the development of these technological wonders have reverted to odd tribal affiliations, often worshipping the machines as gods and basing their group identities on other misunderstood artifacts of the old world. Outcast from a young age, Aelo was always a bit different.

As a child, she discovered an old world augmented reality device called a focus, which allowed her to scan the world around her and learn the truth of what was really going on. This all happened in the first game. At the end of the first game, Ailey had uncovered the story of mankind's downfall, the reason there were so many robot machines everywhere,

and the complicated truth of her own destiny. She'd also halted an attempt by the rampaging AI Hades to rise up and destroy all humans, and then, in the Frozen Wilds, DLC, she stopped the rogue AI Hephaestus from basically doing the same thing. Even with those AIs out of the way, the world is succumbing to a red blight that if allowed to grow unchecked, she knows will wipe out all life on Earth. Burdened with that knowledge, Aloi sets off from her home in the ruins of Colorado

toward the coast of California into the forbidden west in search of a cure. You can tell that Kirk doesn't write about video games for a living anymore because he has to funnel it into the podcast. This is what he does. Just eventually the whole podcast will just be. like an hour-long review of the game. So a few just nuts and bolts, disclosures, et cetera. All three of us

have been playing early copies of the game that we received from Sony. I think we're all playing on PlayStation 5. Maddie has played 15 or so hours. She's up to Aloys' arrival at her home base in the Rockies. Jason's played more like 30 hours. He's up to her arrival in the ruins of San Francisco. I've played for 53 hours. I actually finished the

story and a bunch of side stuff. So there's a lot left for me to do, but I've finished the whole story. And just a note on spoilers. We're going to be playing a pretty light on spoilers from most of this conversation, then at some point we'll give a warning, and we'll talk a little bit more about some of the specifics of the story, some revelations in the kind of first act. Early stuff, though, just the first act. Yeah, not the ending or anything like that. Just sort of some stuff that you might want to see unspoiled if you haven't played that much of the game yet.

All right, let's get into it. Jason, let's start with you. I know we've talked about this on the show before, but what do you think? Yeah, let me give some initial. Well, so first of all, I just want to say, I think I've said this before in the show, but I'll repeat it anyway. Your point about Killzone got me thinking about this once again. I don't think we give enough credit to guerrilla games because there are so many stories about these companies that have done something for a while and then

try to switch gears and try to do too much stuff at once and it just winds up all falling flat. Like the people who made the Witcher and then The Witcher 2 and then the Witcher 3 switching from third person fantasy to first person sci-fi and it just kind of falling apart. The people who made a bunch of RPGs

switching to like an online shooter called Anthem and that falling apart. So often that is the story. A studio just like completely pivots, tries to do something totally new, new genre, new tools, new camera perspective, and it just is mediocre. Gorilla Games really just like went from this first person grim dark kill zone series to third person action RPG of Horizon. And like right out of the gate, they just completely like destroyed it. They just killed it. Yeah, it's a really cool transition, especially having played a fair chunk of Killzone Shadowfall, which I believe was displeased.

disappointing sales-wise. That's the last one they did before Horizon. But did, you could see it had these open areas and it had all these ideas and these interesting mechanics that it was a, it was like a kind of boring first-person shooter, but it was like, okay, so the people who wound up having these ideas for Horizon were having ideas in Kill Zone as well. They had some glimpses, yeah. So onto Horizon Forbidden West. So I love it. I think it rules. It's gorgeous. It still feels great to shoot arrows at robot dinosaurs. I do think that like for the promises they made ahead of the game and kind of the the idea of like the glide wing and the grappling hook I expected it to feel a little bit different to kind of traverse around

the world but it feels very much the same as the first one in pretty much every way like there's some new skill trees and everything's more pretty and the animations are better and everything is just like bigger and better and more gorgeous but it's still very much like the first one and I don't think that's a bad thing necessarily but I think like when I'm thinking about like the games of this year and the innovative gameplay experiences are like new new things that I got to see and experience this won't be one of them because this is just like more aloy and man I love having more ali because it's fun as hell I mentioned this last week about in my one more thing um that feeling where I think you bleeped it out where uh I was going around and shooting that one

specific robot in a big arena and just like the tension of like of like planting traps and running around and dodging and it's just so good it's like so well executed So yeah, I think it rules. One thing, we can get into this later, but I don't really care that much about the story, but we can get into the whys of that later. But overall, I think it rules. Nice. Maddie, we haven't heard from you as much about this game. What do you think of it so far?

I also find it very enjoyable for exactly the same reasons as I did the first game, but it does feel in a lot of places stronger to me, especially for my play style, which I really appreciate. I know just from the interviews the developers have done that they've really thought about, like, players complaining that stealth wasn't very good in the first game. They've really polished that up. I feel like it's a lot more satisfying now. You can do some Assassin's Creed style insta kills of people.

If you sneak up on them properly, you're fighting human combatants sometimes, so you sometimes actually need to do that. But you can also be very clever about fighting in a variety of ways, which I really like. I think I talked before about how often I use the melee weapon in this game, the spear that Aloi has, which is sort of an untraditional way to play compared to most other people who seem to rely a lot on the sort of ranged rogue archer experience that is just never a character class I choose in anything. I always want to be a tank.

So all of my upgrades are related to tanking. I love that the melee weapon has unlockable combos, and it's like very fighting game. And they're kind of silly and don't quite feel like they work in the this game, but I don't care because I'm having a lot of fun with them and really just enjoying that they've included that for players like me who don't really like just being a rogue. And so just the fact that they've included all those different skill trees is super fun and has made combat a lot more interesting to me personally, even though, and that's saying something because I already really enjoyed it a lot. I already thought it was really strong in the first game. But like Jason, I sort of

struggled with the story. I won't reveal what it is, but there are some act one reveal. that helped me a lot, like grounded me a lot and made me more invested. But up to that point, I was struggling. It's to say nothing of Ashley Birch's performances, Aloy, I think she's incredible. I think that Aloy as a character has become a lot more complicated. She's kind of grumpy in this game with very good reason most of the time, and I think that's fun to see.

I like her being challenged by other people and seeing that play out. But I do think that this game, it has some problems, that I guess we can get to when we talk about the story. But just to kind of keep it broad, I would say that the strongest parts of the game and the parts that make it absolutely worth it are just that the combat is so incredibly fun. And this game is flipping gorgeous. Like, you can just take screenshot after screenshot and swimming looks amazing. You can swim underwater and the light is beautiful and just, I don't know.

It looks freaking great on the PS5, folks. It feels like a tech demo except that it's an entire game. And it's, Moe, chef's kiss. It's gorgeous. Yeah, I really like it. I really liked it overall. I think I actually really do like the story in taken in total. And I like it in part because... Well, you've beaten it, so you have an advantage over us there. I do a little bit. And I'll be curious what the two of you think once you finish it.

It's not the kind of thing where when you get to the end, it's like, oh, okay, I see what they were going for. It's not like Station 11, to pick a recent example where I got to the end and was like, oh, all right, now I like. glad I suck with that story. It is like, you know, it develops as it goes, but it reaches a point about halfway through where I was just really, there were a lot of characters I really liked. There were a couple of really wonderful story segments, one in the desert. It's the Poseidon segment. It's just this delightful, really well done.

You can almost take it as a vertical slice at a narrative design seminar or something. And just be like, this is how you do it. This is how you introduce great NBC's and like a really fun contained story with a killer story payoff and like fun exploration and the whole thing that plays out in the course of like 90 minutes. And the game does that enough times that it's really impressive. Like I found that as much as I was having fun with the combat and, you know, the sort of fleshed out stuff, I do like all the new melee, you know, the melee moves they give you, they turn you into a little bit more of a well-rounded kind of character.

If you want to be, yeah. Or you can really specialize if you want too, which is cool. Eventually you'll unlock every, like I just have every single upgrade unlocked. It's very generous with upgrade points. You don't really have to pick a build exactly. But with your weapons, you kind of can pick a specialization. And one cool thing it does that I haven't quite mastered. So maybe this is a mark against it is if you hit an enemy a bunch of times, you charge up your staff.

And then you hit them with a charged staff and it puts this like glowing weak point on them that then if you shoot it with your bow, it explodes. Which is such an amazing idea that I've just. It's the best. But I can't quite, I can never quite stick the thing on the way I want to even though I've played so much. So that might be a me problem, but it might be a little too complicated. Does that work on robots? I've only used that on humans. Does it work on robots too?

It does, yeah. Oh, yeah. And there have actually been a couple fights where I happen to stick one onto a big robot right at the end of its health bar and, like, kill it by hitting that thing and it blows up. And it's very satisfying. But just to complete my sort of overall impressions, I really like the characters and the acting in this game. I agree that Aloy is quite prickly at the beginning of the game. And it even says in my notes, it says, is Eloy kind of an asshole for not just, showing people her focus and explaining what's going on.

And I wrote that like when I was an hour in. And then I have this. Yeah, but then she does. Then she does. That's the whole story. Well, I have this very funny rejoinder to myself that especially by the end of the game. I mean, that is the story of the game is like Ayloy realizing that she needs to let people in and like help sort of enlighten her friends.

And Aloy herself has that moment, I think, along with you, the player. Like, as she's getting frustrated with Varl at first and like the first guy who's hanging about and like asking her all these questions about the nature of the world and the robots and so on. And then she sort of opens up everyone's eyes by giving them all smartphones, which I don't know about that is a lesson, but hey, it's what Horizon is doing. Well, it's smartphones and it's also access to Wikipedia. And if you had never learned a single thing about the world, then suddenly you could just read the history of everything. And there's a lot of that in this game. And that's the thing I like about it, is ultimately

it's a game that is a huge budget. I mean, the amount of acting, the amount of writing, the amount of performance capture is just bananas. Every single NPC conversation, as far as I can tell, is, like, bespoke in terms of animation and performance. So it's, and a lot of the acting is good. I mean, it's like 90% good acting, even incidental characters. So it's just all this writing and all this storytelling.

And it's so fun. It's such a, like, inventive, funky world, this robot world that was invented by this machine algorithm. It's the kind of thing that, like, compared to so many other games that are like big man stories or dad's stories or sad feeling stories, this has a lot of emotion, but it's more like a really high budget kind of TV series. Like, it just has this great energy. I'm like this. I'd love to see more games with this kind of polish and budget thrown at that kind of thing. I really like it.

I do actually like the story and the characters quite a bit over. And I know you're recommending all the side quests, so I've been playing those two. And there are some side quests that despite this, like, there's a hot tip for all you gamers out there, just because they're called side quest doesn't mean you shouldn't still do them. And specifically the quest that are labeled side quest, because there are roughly six billion other categories of side quests that are called like contracts and errands. And the fact that the menu divides each of these different types of story chunk into different titles is deeply overwhelming to look at from a player perspective. But it's useful because you know you don't have to do the errands as much as the sidecloth. You don't have to do anything.

So, yes. It's the main story missions are obviously the main story. But story like or side quests as they're marked, side missions. Those basically are story missions. They are. They are for like major characters and they really flesh out the world. And reveal a lot of information and backstory about the main quest to the point where I was surprised that they weren't marked as main quest points at various stages in the first 15 hours

that I've played. There are some that feel main. And errands are basically what would be called a side quest. That's really just you meet someone and they want you to get some flowers. And it winds up being a cool little story, but it's like more standalone and less related to the main story. So, okay. So here's kind of the problem.

I've been trying to put a finger on why the story isn't doing it for me and why I keep bouncing off and like wanting to skip dialogue and stuff. And I think it's a couple of things. And I think the biggest one is that there's just too many different like disparate fragments. And to your point, Kirk, You have all these little short stories and stuff, which are awesome.

And I also really dug that Poseidon thing. And it's especially like it's such a showcase for like the new motion capture and animation and how amazing everything is done. But like you'll go 10 hours without even hearing from silence. And then it'll be like, oh yeah, silence is in this game. Or like you'll get back to base and you'll have 10 characters waiting for you there. There are so many different plot threads all happening at once. And it is just so hard to connect.

with most of them for me. It was just very difficult for me to actually care about all of these characters who are hanging out in your base because the game does this Mass Effect style thing where you have this base and you can keep having conversations with people. And I don't remember who half of them are, the other half, like, have just the most boring personalities imaginable that I'm just like, man, I really just am so totally, I want to just go out and shoot robot dinosaurs. And usually when it comes to games, I'm like a story first person.

But in this game, I just have so little interest in this story, maybe because there's no real mystery and tension the way there was in the first game where it's like the mystery of this world. And so maybe there's just nothing there for me. But even to me, like the stuff that we kind of got to with the first act break, even that stuff isn't just, just does not compel me enough to make me want to feel like, oh, man, I have to see this story through because it just feels so all over the place for me. I mean, what's hard about it? And I talked about this a bit when I was playing the first game. with you guys the first time around, is that what's so great about that game, and I would say also for Britain West, is the parts of it that are about our world, the world we know, because those pieces of it are naturally grounded for all of us. Like we can recognize the Elon Musk tendencies of Ted Farrow,

who's the villain, but he's a villain in the past. He's already long dead, and we know that as soon as we ever hear about him. Like, that's not a big reveal. It's like, oh, he's way, way in the past, and he's this inventor, and we already know that he's like a narcissist who, a megalomaniac, I guess I should say. And like that villainy is something we can recognize in our own lives

as compared to having to learn from the ground up, like, okay, here's the sun king, here's the sundum, here's all of their lengthy politics. That's all completely invented for the game. It continues in Forbidden West. Here's this other tribe. The Utturo, I think, is one of them. And like, here's all of their politics.

It's like the Tenat. Yeah, like you're starting from zero with all of those. And yes, when you get to know individual characters, there's some that I like and that I'm excited to get to know more as the game goes along. But it's not, it's, you have no groundwork. And I feel like part of that is because this game is created in such a way that every single person in this world has no knowledge of our world. Like, they're learning about it as though it's unfamiliar to them.

And like, that's funny to us. But they've created their own. entire other world that's wildly unfamiliar to us the player. And that can be kind of weird to enter into. Like, I experience that a lot where I'm playing this, where I'm like, this isn't like anything I've ever known. And I'm not sure people would act like this. And but I have no way of proving that because this is a complete fictional society based on a situation that's never happened to humans. So I have no way of knowing how anybody would react. And that means that I, when I sometimes have criticisms where I'm like, well, would people really do this? I like don't know if it's fair or not.

Like, I ran into that a lot with the first game, too, where I was like, would people worship machines, like, there are religion or not? And that happens a lot in Forbidden West, too, where I'm like, there really aren't any more scientist characters? Like, why are there so many characters who are so religious and so traditional? But I don't know. I haven't beaten the game yet. So maybe there's going to be more scientist characters later on. There are. I mean, some highlights of the story involve characters who aren't just like warriors or politicians. Like there are characters who are artists and who are scientists. And there are wrinkles introduced to the paradigm as it stands.

I think that it was an interesting challenge that they had, that the first game had this great mystery, this great trick that it pulled, where it revealed who Eloy was, what happened, why the world ended, why the machines were here. And it answered all those questions in this really satisfying way that was so surprising and tied everything together, even while the weakest part of it was in the first game,

certainly the like Sundom politics and the new, you know, whatever, like leader of that kingdom trying to make up for the atrocities of the past. And it was all a little, like who really cares? I'm way more interested in the end of the world and the robots eating a pack of dolphins or whatever it was that one incredible audio log that you listened to in the first game. I think overall that they did a way better job of focusing the story in the present day than I was expecting. That's in part because they just really go for it over and over again with like. like introducing new ideas and new concepts and like new groups of people. And like they really like are experimenting with new ideas in a way that's like, we're not just going to do what the first game did in the present day

without a past storyline to back it up. I think the characters, I don't agree, Jason, with like, or I don't feel the same way, I suppose, about the characters in your base, particularly. I really came to like all of them. There's a ton of dialogue with them. And it is like there is a lot of just sitting there watching people talk in this game. which isn't the most engaging thing in the world. But I really just sort of enjoyed the writing and kind of liked it.

Like I came to think of them all as characters. So I did come to like them. I think maybe I'm just out in the headspace when I play this game for that sort of game. Like when I play something like Disco Elysium or like Divinity Origilsson too, I'm willing to like sit through reams of dialogue and like actually make an investment and care about these characters. But I don't know. Something about this game just doesn't make me care.

Maybe it's, I don't know what it is. I have no idea. The combat is too good. It's just that you want to keep fighting. No, it really is. It's like as I'm talking to people, I'm just like skip, skip, I just want to go shoot more robot dinosaurs. I kind of get that.

Right, like the problem in Mass Effect 2 would have been, if Mass Effect 2 was more fun, you would have been like, I don't. But it's like Mass Effect is that fun, so you're okay with just talking to Garris for six hours. Exactly. But I think there's something also to what you were saying, Maddie. I think the world building in this game is really interesting because it's so entirely artificial. Because the world is artificial, there has to be a term for this in, like, writing workshops where you create a fictional world that is itself artificial. The Matrix is an example of this, and this is an example where this world was completely wiped out.

And then these AI subroutines and Gaia, this AI program, like, repopulated the Earth and terraformed the whole thing. And everything in it is a result of, like, slightly malfunctioning computers. So because of that, the whole world is crazy. Like there's just like the same raccoon over and over again, like everywhere. But that's because the raccoons are like 3D printed raccoons that some robot is just like making. Yeah, they're all clones. It's like almost everything is a clone of something that came before from this sort of Noah's Ark scenario. And it's also like in addition to that, all of the humans walking around each have different pieces of information.

Like you'll find a society where people have one kind of relationship with the machines based on the machines in their area and how they behave. And then you like find another one where they feel completely differently or use them in a different way. And like that informs everything about how they live. And they're like, no, we're experts in these machines. And like, how dare you, Aloy claim that you know more than we do about this? And that's fascinating too to like as a creative writing idea of just having to make up coal cloth entire societies that have literally no influence from any societies that we know at all. Or they're not supposed to anyway, you know?

And I would say like there is a kind of shallowness as a result to each of these individual cultures that you meet. because they're kind of like each one of them is, it's like a single biome planet in no man sky. Like each one of them is like a single idea culture, right? Yeah, like all the forge metalworkers all say buy the forge and their god is a forge basically. And they like beer and they like foraging. They love forging. The Tanakhth are really a really funny one. There's like an actually kind of an amazing joke at the heart of Tanakh cultural identity that I won't spoil because it's like a thing you learn in the story.

And if you're not paying attention, you can kind of just, it can. kind of pass you by, but once you get a sense for like what they mean when they talk about the 10 and like their whole sort of religion, it's a trip. It's like a really weird idea, you know, interesting to play with. But it all has this kind of Lego blocks of people feeling. And I think this game gets away with it and it's because this whole world is artificial and everything in it is artificial. And I also think that because the performances are good enough, like because the actors are good and the writing is good, it gets away from how it feels it felt to me at the beginning, where like, A. Loa almost is like a Connecticut Yankee and King

Arthur's court. Like, she feels, she's like the one rational thinking modern human being among these just, these like comically ridiculous people who are all wearing these costumes that just look ridiculous. And like, this is my boomstick. And all the peasants are staring at her dumbfounded. Yes. Yes. It has big army of darkness. So that goes away over the course of the game. And eventually, she really has like made serious, like, relationships and friendships with all of these people. It comes through enough to make me just go with it, like the fact that this world is so kind of artificial on that level.

I think to that point, by the way, it has made me uncomfortable that Eloy is this, like, white hero coming in and so many of the characters who need her help are black. And it's just like white savior one after that. I am by no means an expert on like talking about race and critiquing race. But like I just really like it feels like it's hammered over that. had like, hello, Eloy, white woman who is a superhero. Here are some black people who need saving. And just that felt so weird to me.

And Aloy played by a woman who is half Asian herself. So like, I'm always thinking about that in those white savior moment. But the character is not. But the character is not. No, I know. I know. I mean, it's like it still looks the way that it looks. The other piece of that, Jason, that, I mean, I talked about this was Zero

Dawn 2. Just the way that religion is portrayed in this game is also similar to me, where it's like, there is an amazing atheist YouTube video vibe to some of Aloy's monologues that, like, I do still find funny, but it makes me feel a little bit oily as an atheist to play the game because it's so indulgent. Like, it absolutely indulges in like a specific fantasy of like, no, let me just prove it to you. Okay, science is real. Let me like just give you this little magical device. And as soon as you spend eight hours with it, you're going to realize I'm right. And like the other characters, like not all of them have that experience.

Some of them really dislike Aloy. and that's always refreshing to me. But there are characters who... Yeah. Yeah. And A, like, it's really mad when she has to transport a little bottle of honey and it, like, gets really weird on Twitter. But that's not really a side quest.

That would be hilarious, actually. But you know what I'm saying, though? Like, there are characters who are like, wow, Elo, you really changed my life by telling me about Wikipedia. And, like, that part of it, it is a fantasy. Like, it is, it does play to a specific kind of intellectual fan. that I think a lot of nerds, and I'm talking about myself here, have of like, now if I could just explain very carefully to you, you would understand why it doesn't make any sense for you

to believe in X or Y, like, climate change is real or whatever. Pick your poison, you know? Like, this game is like, you know, if you're frustrated with anti-vaxxers or whatever, you can play this game and it'll scratch a certain kind of itch there. Yeah, there's definitely, there's like an aspect of this game, too, that just echoes the sort of false mythology around colonization, right? And you just can't get away from it. The, like, westward expansion as we teach these tribes, the truth of the world, because they're all so ignorant.

And, like, I would say that overall, like, the game's world and the reason for different people's ignorance is, like, justified by the fiction. And it backs it up. But it's kind of there. It's like, I've been thinking about a way to describe that thing, like, that sort of discomfort. And to me, it's like, I would call it the weird smell in the restaurant where you're at a restaurant and you're being served and the food is good and you're having a nice conversation and

the whole thing is fine but there's kind of a weird smell and like sometimes you notice it and you're like oh what's that and then you're like oh well this food is good and it's fine and then you go back to eating and you're like oh these people are so great but hmm that's kind of weird smell and it's like a smell that will be differently distracting and troubling for different people most of the time I'm like whatever I'm enjoying my food occasionally the weird smell in the restaurant is like more noticeable and I'm like this is like in the actual context in which this game and this were written and created. This is a weird smell in a restaurant.

Like, this smells a little off. Yeah. And like the fact that as you explore more and more of the world, you learn how to hack into the machines and take them over. Like, there's a very literal aspect of, like, hacking into the world and bending it to your will, that the game rewards, and it makes that very satisfying. But you're also saving the world by removing the horrific climate change and, like, cleaning it up.

And the other piece of it, and I mean, maybe this is where we, like, take a little break and talk about the act one thing, but I'll keep it vague for now. The game skirts some of those criticisms by introducing a secondary level of like what I would call white savior elitist big bads that are above even you in terms of like how elitist they are so that you can feel like they're the really bad ones so that you don't have to feel like a lawyer is. And that is a trick that works. And like as soon as I saw that, I was like, all right, I really hate those guys. I'm here for it video game. I'm ready to hate these guys.

Like, you got me. They're like the ultimate colonizers, basically. It's like, oh, you think Eloy's a colonist. Wait till you meet. Super colonists, you know? So, yeah, we'll talk about them in a second. And I do want to acknowledge that there are specifically to the Uttaru and their religion. They worship the robots.

And, like, Aloid does have a whole storyline where she, like, comes to recognize that their religion is important to them in a way that matters beyond the technical correctness or incorrectness or her knowledge. Right. And that is like an important side plot. You just really disappointed Richard Dawkins. Yes. So I do want to say that happens. Well, you made me happy because I'm still at the point of that storyline where I'm like,

Aoi's being a little bit of a dick and I want her to get her come up in. Which is a, I think it's just an important thing to keep in mind. And also, I think it's okay that Aloy's a dick. I don't want people to think I'm criticizing the game for the same. at all. I actually think that rules. She has a character. I think it's great to have, especially a female character who's allowed to have perceptible

invisible flaws, that owns. Like, thank God we're at this level now where Aloi can be a bit of a dick. Like, I love that actually. And she can be like intelligent but not always emotionally intelligent. And also not always write about things and sometimes she thinks she has all the information and isn't

willing to listen to other people who have more. And silence can also be a bit of a dick and he's a really interesting character. for that reason. Or a lot of a dick. Sounds is a huge dick. I love silence. He's a big thing. Lance Redding. Let's make a marker here. We're going to talk about the story illusion that we've all been kind of, or the story development that we've all been kind of alluding to. This is just a first act thing. We're not going to talk with the ending or anything because Maddie and Jason

haven't even seen it. Yeah, I'm only 15 hours then. But we're going to get into those specifics. So skip ahead. I'll leave a spot for me to say the timestamp for one more thing. But this is going to be just those kind of first act spoilers from here on out. And the timestamp for one more thing is 45 minutes and 25 seconds. And there's going to be a spoiler right after this. So I'm going to give you some extra time to skip ahead to 4525. This is your extra time to avoid the spoiler. Okay, skip ahead if you want to miss it.

Okay, the spoiler is coming now. Okay, so there's space people that show up. I liked this twist. I did not expect the spacecraft. that you learn about to have actually managed to take off. I didn't even guess that. Nope, me neither. I was completely surprised by it.

And when you first meet those guys, I didn't think they were from space. My actual prediction of them, and I almost DM this to you, Kirk, because I was so certain of the prediction. Because I was like, I'm just going to tell Kirk where I am, and here's how I'm going to describe it.

I was going to tell you that I had met people who had gotten access to Apollo, because that was what I assumed was true of them, was that they were just regular Earth people and hadn't found this space or anything. I assumed that at first, too. They had just gotten access to Apollo and that they had been developing incredible technology

for the past however long in some sort of, you know, Bay Area elitist enclave. And like now they had six shields and like armor. Yeah, they had a startup. And they also like hoarded all the technology for themselves. And now they had also created this clone or whatever. And they were using her. And I was like, oh, that's really fun. But then the secondary reveal, I also thought was even better the fact that they were

secretly from this other. spacecraft and coming back. So to me, that reveal actually changes the nature, like the overall theme, at least as I read it of the story, because it isn't, I actually don't see them as like the worst colonizers. They're kind of portrayed that way at first, but the more you learn about them, the more it's like, they left. Like, they're the people, they're the rich people right now who are like seesteading. They're the Peter Thiel's of the world, the billionaires who are like, fuck this, these robots are going to kill everyone. Let's get out of here. You better bleep out that name so we don't get a suit.

Hey man, isn't he in a C-setting? I think he would be the first to acknowledge. I think he would be flattered by the comparison based on these characters. Yeah, he'd be like, hell yeah, I'm just like those guys on the spaceship. He's like, yeah, I have an impervious shield. Don't even try. They're badasses.

I have no evidence of that. I think that that's really interesting because it stops being about, like, can we like expand West and like enlighten these people and it becomes about we all need to work together to like fix the planet. It's like a really unsubtle climate change story.

It is. Yeah. When your villains are people who've left, I actually kind of think that that's interesting or that's at least a little less familiar. It's in the end the theme is a very interesting theme about staying or leaving and that winds up being this like big theme of the story that I, in a way that is actually really cool just given that so many of us are like, oh my God, I want off of the earth like we're so fucked.

in the end, we are all stuck here and we need to work together. And, like, again, this is, like, TV show level stuff. It's, like, just kind of a fun, light story, really. But I like that that's the sort of thematic underpinning of the whole story. And I think that that's cool. And really, like, that they introduced something that was so surprising so early on that I was just like, oh, shit. Okay, like, so there's, like, way more going on in this story than I thought there was going to be. Mm-hmm.

If anything, I wish it had come in a little earlier, because I felt like the tease of like Aloy's parentage and like Elizabeth Sobeck and stuff was introduced early enough in Horizon Zero Dawn that I was like, okay, I'm interested. I want to know what's going to happen. Whereas in this game, it really took me a while of being like, all right, how, am I going to have to care about errand and just errand? Like, I can only talk to that guy so many times. He's a little awkward. Like I, but he does seem like a real guy. Well, so, Jason, what did you think? Are you still not, you're further than I am, but you seem a little bit less charmed by the overall themes. that's the it's it's kind of what I was saying before where it's just like one too many plot threads

because you'll be going at all these different areas so essentially the the um the the crux the structure after this um and i don't know if it remains this way for the rest of the game but the structure at least for the up until where i'm at is you have to go and get these components so you have to go and get ather and beside and and then uh each of those is its own kind of little vignette and then there are a couple interludes as you get back and stuff but like for the most part the game is throwing tons of different stories at you and you'll go these hours and hours breaks between like different parts of each story so like it'll be 10 hours before you hear from Angela Bassett again or it'll be like five hours before you even see one of the space dudes again and they do have them

come back like in some capacity but like still I mean Carrie Ann Moss shows up in that one scene and I haven't seen her again and I'm like 30 hours into the game and I've only seen her once so like there's it's just throwing so much at you that I just had a hard time. I'm like gripping onto any one component. And I don't know. I mean, I'll finish the game and maybe my perspective on the story will change after that. But at least for now, it just feels very scattered to me. It's a big game.

It's like a pacing thing, right? A pacing thing with open world games that they can run into, especially a game this huge. I mean, the story is just very long on its own and there's so much to do. Especially Kirk, when you've told me like a dozen times to do all the side quests. And I'm like, oh man, I do all the side quests. Yeah, what's up with Kirk? Well, you're kind of, because the story is really this like almost a collection of short stories or novels or something like it, it really has this huge pace. Well, that's the thing.

Well, that's kind of what I don't like about it. Yeah, well, I don't like that as a collection. Because, like, I really just like, I started doing one quest, one of the characters where I met her somewhere and it was just like, let's go kill some robots. And I was just like, I forget who you are because I haven't seen you in 15 hours. And I just do not care what you're trying to have me do. And because of that, because you have this giant checklist of things to complete, it's just very hard. At least for me, again, speaking personally, it was very hard for me to get invested in anyone. Right.

Because the way that I played this game was like, I was paying pretty close attention. By the way, it's surprising how much this story ties into the first game and how many characters were in the first game. That part is a real challenge. And when people have asked me if they should play this, I've been like, honestly, it wouldn't hurt if you played the first game first, like on easy. There are recap videos. You don't have to at all. but I do feel like it helps emotionally because you're like, oh, sweet, it's Petra. Like, there's something to that.

But anyway, go on. I think at the very least people should watch a recap video of which there are many and they're great. I mean, that for sure. Like, you definitely want to know what's the deal with Hephaestus? What's the deal with Hades? Like, who are these people? But it's what I found in doing all of the side missions and errands and other things, it's that I, there's actually a lot of sort of interesting interlocking script work going on

where you'll have a conversation with someone and if you've finished the side quest for them or if you finished a related side quest to that area or they know somebody, like there'll just be a line or two of dialogue about the person that they saw passed through as they were leaving after you did the thing together. And then they'll show up later in like, you know, in another town

and be like, hey, it's nice to see you. Like, let's chat for a second and you can just go talk to them and they'll sort of tell you what's happened since you helped them out. And it becomes this like really rich, complex tapestry of like characters all interacting like along this storyline.

How do you remember them all? How do you remember them all? They do a pretty good job of reminding you. And then there are somewhere I'm like, oh, I did I help you? But I don't know. I was just kind of, they're more memorable in this game

than in the first game. They're not as memorable as like the best Mass Effect characters, but far more so. So at the beginning of the game when you're in Meridian, I'm sorry, it's gonna sound like I'm just like

shitting on this game, but I really do like it. But like at the beginning of the game, you're at Meridian. And it's like, here are all the characters from the first game that you remember.

and you have to say by you. I was like, no idea who you are, no idea who you are. I just did not in a single person. It feels very much like, I guess the best comparison would be like a big ass epic fantasy novel where you really have to just like sink into it like the first book of Game of Thrones without having ever read it before. Yeah, like if G.R. Martin ever finishes the next book, we're all going to be reading it and be like, wait. And then you have to remember, but it's like, you're just starting into it and you have to remember like 200 characters at once. And like you can get really invested if you really take the time and immerse yourself in it the way that it sounds like you did, Kirk, but if you're just on the right headspace or if you're

like, or if the pacing feels soft because you spend so much time just hunting robot dinosaurs in between each chapter, then you just kind of lose the thread. And that's kind of what happened to me. But the game rules. I really like it despite that. And I'm going to finish it. Yeah. Yeah. That opening section is definitely a little bit of, whoa, wait, who are you again? Bing! Kirk from the future here, just wanted to say that if you are playing the game and you're having this feeling, there's actually a pretty great thing in Alois' Notebook under the characters section where it explains who each character is, just really briefly, and it can be very helpful if you're forgetting some of who's who.

Okay, back to the show. Bing! Even on its own terms as a sequel of this story, I do, you know, I don't know. It is like reading a book with a lot of characters, like a big, thick-ass fantasy book with a lot of stuff going on where, yeah, when you pay attention and really remember, okay, wait, Aeomir and Aowin and Erdrin is the emperor of this place. Okay, but they have like a different lineage.

And you flip to the beginning of the book, and there's like a family tree and like a little map and stuff. But this, and this, and I'm exaggerating. This is not that complicated. It's like someone will be like, oh, like I needed your help to find my brother who was trying to like find his calling in the wilds and was killed. And then later he'll be like, well, we buried my brother. And I'm so glad, you know, I'm following in his footsteps and I'm going to become a musician. And you're like, okay, I remember that guy.

Like it was the musician's brother. Like, I don't know. Like it's not that hard to keep track of it. Well, of course you would remember that. You're like, oh, I'm a musician too. Hey, nice. Yes. That's the only reason I remember.

That's the only sidewise Kirk remembers at all, actually. He's just been making it up for the other stuff. Kirk, do you play games and just look for the musicians the whole time? And he's like, oh, hey, it's my thing. I'm like, bored, bored, where's the musician? It's the only way he can get immersed is if you play an instrument in the game. That would actually be sick if you played an instrument in this game. Well, there could be a hunting horn.

This game does have a little bit of Monster Hunter. Next one, Horizon 3. So there's a lot more to say about this game. I think at some point we're going to do a beans cast, because I'm assuming the two of you will probably finish. Yeah, we're going to beat it. So it might not be for a little bit. And Jason won't remember any of the story, but I will.

It's true. Jason will be like, here's a story of a dinosaur fought and then they'll talk about that. Hey, there's some of those dinosaur fights are frigging epic sagas on their own. No, I do remember. It's funny Maddie. I do remember that bat fight that I talked about last week. I remember that and like vividly better than any story. All right.

Well, we'll come back to it at that point somewhere down the road. I'm excited. I'm excited to finish it, I should say. Yeah. It's a great game. I really do like it. I hope you both finish it. But all right, let's take a break. And then we'll be back for one more thing. Hi, I'm Janet Varnie. And just like you, I survived high school. And we're not alone. On my podcast, the JV Club, I invite some of my friends to share the highs and lows of their teen years. Like moments with Aisha Tyler. But when you're a kid, the stakes are just pretty low. Go to school, try not to get in trouble, get laid. Jamila Jamil. I will.

watched television probably every waking hour during that time and I was shit faced on medicine. And Dave Holmes. We talked and talked and then everybody left. It was just us too and I was like, I love you. Learn how you two can be a functioning adult after the drama and heartbreak of high school. Every week on the JV Club with Janet Farney, find it on maximum fun. Or wherever you get your podcasts. This is a judgment-free show. We have wasted this world. Our magic put a storm in the sky that has rendered the surface of our planet unenhanized. But beneath the surface, well, that's another story entirely. In a city built leagues below the apocalypse, survivors of the storm forge paths through a strange

new world. Some seek salvation for their homeland above. Others seek to chart the vast undersea expanse outside the city's walls. And others still seek, what else? Fortune and glory. Dive into the Ethersea, the latest campaign from the Adventure Zone, every other Thursday on maximum fun.org or wherever you listen to podcasts. And we're back for one more thing. Yet again, Jason and I have decided to double up our one more things, which means that Maddie gets to have her own.

And really, I mean, yet again, Maddie has also played the one more thing. I know, I know. I get to just coast. I get to coast on YouTube. It's a weird one. And I'm the only one making a real recommendation. Just kidding. You guys are too.

That's true. And actually, and your One More Thing is what my One More Thing was going to be. If My One More Thing wasn't what it is, did everyone follow that? Riveniting stuff of me. I like less than half of you, half as much as you deserve. We're all watching and playing the same things. Just like some characters in My One More Thing. So I watched All of Peacemaker, season one. It is a DC Comics extended universe. What do they call it? I don't know. I think that might be what they call it.

I don't know. I, listen, here's the thing about the DC E. it's weird. There's a lot of weird stuff in there. I'm really excited about that Robert Pattinson Batman movie. I'm real pumped about it. I love how weird it is. It is so not oversaturated in the way that Marvel has become.

And I say that as a huge Marvel fan. People know I've read a lot of Marvel comics and I still do and I'm not really a DC person so much. I like some, but I don't know, Peacemaker. I had to look up his lore on the internet. I didn't know anything about this guy. And I enjoyed the heck out of this show. really enjoyed the suicide squad, which is where this character was introduced. He's played by

John Sina, who I'm also a big fan of, like as a person. I think he's a cool guy. I really like him. He seems like a cool guy. He also personally advocated to make peacemaker a bisexual character. So that's another extra bonus win in my book. That was his decision, not core to the character in the comics. But it is on the show. So this is a show. It's made by James Gunn, who has a very distinctive style. And I feel like DC just let James Gunn do James Gunn stuff. And I think that's really sweet as well. Peacemaker is not a character who's super well known even for the DC stands. And the villains in this show are basically like an alien race that's like the Borg.

They like take over people's brains. I guess I won't spoil how they do it, but it's horrifying. They're not a collective though. They're each individual actors. You're not like the Borg in that way. They do each have individual emotions. Although at first it doesn't necessarily seem that way. It seems as though they're all aliens working together to like create pod.

people essentially. And they're kind of like... Classic alien invasion. Yeah, which is pretty scary, actually, because at least in this show, once somebody's taken over by an alien, they are gone. They're dead. They, there's no coming back. Yeah, it's like Starro, very storrow.

Yeah, yeah. Suicide Squad. And so the stakes are very high, but this is also a comedy because it's a James Gunn show. And I just, I don't know. I feel like I'm not always into James Gunn, but John Cena is so good as peacemaker and good it making him just seem like a guy, like just a regular guy who also has superpowers and, like, had this terrifying upbringing. His dad is a literal white supremacist.

Like, no bones about it. His dad is a Nazi, a neo-Nazi. And peacemaker's backstory in the comics, I looked this up. His dad was also a white supremacist, although they combined that character in the comics with a different white supremacist character to kind of, just combine all the white supremacist into one really, really scary dad. for Peacemaker to have as his adversarial dad. And so, yeah, this is a father-son story.

So I guess it's shocking that I'm recommending it. But I don't know. I really, really liked it. And I don't know why. It's just something about John Cena's pure undiluted charisma as he's fighting these aliens. And there's a great ensemble cast of other characters, but a lot of it is entirely John Cena's shoulders.

He carries a lot of the gravitas and also the comedy of this show. And I think he's really rad. But you liked it, too, What did you think? Yeah, I loved it. Emily and I both loved it. This was like an unexpected winner in our house. And I agree with you about the weirdness of the DC universe,

just as Marvel has become so slick and sort of, it's not even predictable. Yeah, and so everything connects to everything, and it's all part of the same world. And DC is like, I don't know, maybe this is canon. You never know what you're going to get. And like, this show is so fun. Totally agree. Cina is good because he can play vulnerable. He's just, as far as like beefcake, ridiculous actors go,

we also just recently watched Reacher, which actually was. surprisingly good on Amazon. And also stars a big, chunky dude. Like, there's kind of a new, like, the 80s-style Schwarzenegger kind of actor that's kind of back in. Which is very much, like, there's a lot of 80s vibes and like hair metal, glam. Like, that is John Cena's characters true love in peacemaker. And I think it works. That's sort of, like, feminized masculinity is what he's worshipping. Yes. And there's a lot. And that's like made text in the story. Yes. So just, I really liked it as well and think he's great. And it's your one more thing.

So I'll just really quickly say, I think Freddie Stroma, who plays Vigilante is, like, shockingly great. Like, he's a great character as, like, essentially a sociopath. He is a sociopath, like, canonically. And hilarious. Yes. And hilarious. Is a character named Vigilante?

Yes. His superhero name is Vigilante. He's almost like Deadpool, but it's like if Deadpool were a real guy and, like, how fucking scary that would be. Right. If you, like, met a guy who was anything like that. You would hate him and be like, shut up, dude. pool that wasn't trying so hard.

That just sounds like Roershark and watch what. No, no, no, no. No. No. But also, vigilante feels like a guy who would be really into Roershawk. Yes, he would just think he was just like that guy. In a very uncomplicated way. He's just a very uncomplicated guy who likes killing people.

Anyways, he's really good. And then the eagle is incredible. His eagle is like the greatest part of the whole show. Oh, my God. I'm obsessed with the eagle. I want to do some research on that eagle, like the effects that they did. I don't know how they did it. I look so good.

Like this eagle, I love the eagle. Like the eagle is a full-blown character. It is a literal eagle, except it's a nod. It's like, Defoe a puppet. I don't know how they did it. I don't know how they did it. I don't either. I'm obsessed with that eagle.

There's some CG, some puppetry. Emily describes it as what if, imagine he had the best dog ever, but instead of a dog, it was an eagle. And that's great. And then the opening credit sequence and the song that plays, it's just incredible. It's like my favorite opening credits ever.

Emily, I've been learning the dances. The dance moves are this like mix of like powerlifting, like weightlifting pose. and like hand motion and like Talvik thrust and it's this rigid thing and the whole cast dances and it's one of the best credit sequences ever and it gets us so pumped for the show.

Anyways, it's such a good show. I loved it. Everyone should try it. It's really funny and good. Yeah, anyway, what have you guys got? So all of us have been playing Eldon Ring too and let's just think of this is we're going to just give some quick impressions

because we don't have a lot of time and this is a tease for the next two weeks really. Next week we're going to be talking about open world games. I thought you were going to say the next two months. Kind of. I mean, like, so we're going to be talking open world games next week, which is going to be all three of these games we've just played, synthesizing them. I'm sure we'll talk a lot about Eldon Ring then.

And then in two weeks, we're going to do our triple play after we've all played a lot. Because this is a huge game. There's so much stuff in it. But yeah, we've all played different amounts. We're all playing early press copies. Jesus. This game rules, and I don't know. Like, I almost, I want to play it, not talk about it.

Jason, go ahead. Jason's played the most out of the three of us. Yeah, I've played like 40 hours in the past week and a half. Yeah. Wow. It is astonishingly good. It's really good. It is one of the best games I've ever played.

I almost want to just leave it at that. I wrote a Blubert article that I'll be links. That I can link in the show notes. But yeah, I mean, this game is just like everything. Like, it's rare for your game to get this much hype and then live up to the hype somehow. But this game has done it. And it's just like it's my favorite of the From software games I've played by far. It's like it feels like they've taken.

It's the first game I've seen that it's really taken the Breath of Wild formula and almost like improved it, like iterated on it and done some really cool things that Breath of the Wild doesn't do. And then you combine that with like souls caliber, bloodborne caliber level design and combat design. And it's just like, holy shit. Yeah, and comedy and like weirdness. Yeah. Like you'll be, you'll like get into these.

I almost, I don't want to give it any examples, but like you're into these like, surreal encounters and hilarious troughs and hilarious moments. It's just like bizarre dialogue where you're like that happens around here? Okay. Yeah I found I was worried. Okay so this game because it's so much more accessible than previous Souls games like there's a tutorial

and it actually makes sense. Well there are always tutorials but like this has like you can set waypoints on a map and like fast travel and like there's so much stuff that is like built to help the player so I was kind of worried that it wouldn't be as like esoteric but of course then I like stumble upon this place and it's a locked door and you go outside the door and you check the

note and it just says seek three wise beasts that's a good one yeah i did that that's this is a souls game for sure um so people who like um i don't know i mean i guess i'm not the most hardcore souls players but i think people who are like worried that it'll be too accessible and dumbed down i think will not be disappointed i just love it to death i mean we'll we'll get more into this once people have a chance to play it but like for now if you're on the fence and if you're wondering like uh you want you want to know should you check this game out it will probably be the best thing you play this year it just certainly what am i like oh my god it's it's it feels like an all-time great yeah it's really good it um i mean it's definitely a from game still and i think it's not it doesn't have the kind of broad

appeal the breath of the wild does like it's not a physics based climbing like platforming game no i'm not going to have my wife play this game yeah but it's as as from games go it's kind of like the err text of of from like it's so many things feel familiar if you've played their games, but to me at least, the huge thing has been that there's an open world connecting involved. So you just have this great release valve where it can be very tense and it can be that kind of intense experience of like, oh, God, I'm so far into this level and I don't know how I'm going to backtrack and I am like out of health flasks and I just really don't want to die and have to come all this way again and that kind of excitement. And then you kind of maybe

you finally make it to the next checkpoint. And then you're like, all right, I'm going to go into this huge open world and just like look around and find stuff for a few hours and then come back. And like having that ability is just amazing. Like it's like I like from bosses and there are some great bosses so far. But the bosses are always my least favorite part because they can feel like you're kind of gated and you're like stuck and you have to beat them where I love the exploration. And this game is like, okay, well, let's just totally have so much exploration that you can always go do in between boss fights. And that to me alone is just like incredible. And yeah, we'll talk a lot more, especially about the open world next week.

And I'm just excited to talk to more people about this game. And I'm just excited to play more of it. I'm, like, so hooked on it at this point. Yeah, it's pretty awesome. I've been texting with so many people. And it's just like, once in a while, like, I'll just be texting with people. And I'll be like, whoa, I kind of, am I going crazy? Or like, is this one of the best games I've ever played?

And people will just be like, yeah, like, yeah. Yeah, it is. That's funny. You just need a little confirmation. Yeah. I was saying this to you guys before the record started. But I feel like this game is definitely. for people who played 10 hours of various from soft games and never beat them and just want one.

It's not easier. It's more just that it guides you a little more at the beginning. Like the tutorial makes a lot of sense. I say this is someone who has been playing Dark Souls 1 and that game super doesn't hold your hand like ever and doesn't tell you where to go at all. Not that Eldon Ring necessarily does, but there are some things about it that are just so quality of life compared to Dark Souls 1. Like the fact that you can fast enough. travel and like basically kill mobs wherever you want to collect ruins, which is this version of souls. You don't get to collect as many souls like per kill in this game. That's part of how they make it a little trickier. But the fact that it's easier to grind helps in my view. You can

just fast travel to a merchant. You have a freaking horse. It's way easier to run away if you want to run away from stuff when you have a horse. Like those aspects of the game, again, I wouldn't say it makes it easier because the bosses are going to be hard no matter what and there's no way around that really, except for there is because you can always co-op with people. Which case, then I did, and it ruled. And so I do kind of feel like this game has mastered or sort of refined a lot of the things that make a Souls game a Souls game or a From Soft game while introducing just quality of life, open world shit.

Like, I feel like Dark Souls 1 is an open world game. It just doesn't have any of the quality of life stuff that Open World games normally have. So it just feels like, well, I got to run all the way back to the freaking black. blacksmith because my shield is broken now. And like, I don't have to do that in Elton Ring. The fast travel is really just such a change. And it's that specifically that you can just pop open your map and just fast travel from any

points if you're not in combat. It's great. We'll definitely talk about it more next week. Until then, though, that's it. We did our episode. There's more video games to play. And I'll see both of you next week. See you both next week.

Bye. Triple Click is produced by Jason Schreier, Maddie Myers, and me, Kirk Hamilton. it and mix the show and also wrote our theme music. Our show art is by Tom DJ. Some of the games and products we talked about on this episode may have been sent to us for free for review consideration. You can find a link to our ethics policy in the show notes.

Triple Click is a proud member of the Maximum Fun podcast network, and if you like our show, we hope you'll consider supporting us by becoming a member at Maximumfund.org slash join. Find us on Twitter at Triple ClickPod. Send email the triple click at maximum fun.org and find a link to our Discord in the show notes. Thanks for

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