Ubisoft Could Learn a Lot From Horizon Zero Dawn

It's no secret that the Ubisoft formula is getting old. If they really want to succeed with open world game design, Horizon Zero Dawn should be their benchmark and this is why.

[ApocalypseShadow]

Correction: Horizon Zero Dawn and Ghost of Tsushima. Just excellent games open world or not. You can see the developer's effort.

Ubisoft just needs to stop the copy and paste and reskin. Gamers are more than aware of it now. Which is why I stopped buying their regular games. Their only original efforts were in VR. Same as EA and Activision. No one wants yearly copy and paste. I'm not spending money on that.

[alb1899]

No one?
Don't you know how many people plays every day Warzone and for how long?
Activision makes games that are attractive for too much people.
Don't you understand that SONY makes more money from COD than almost all their franchise?
What are you talking about?
If you don't like something don't talk for others.

[Flawlessmic]

Cod Makes a ton of money and a ton of people play it. Doesnt change the fact the games are stale and need some time on the bench.

Unless ur saying the yearly releases are masterpieces lol

Thats all the op was saying that ubisoft ea and activision really need to pick uo there game and stol giving us yearly releases that are basically the same.

Sales dont mean something is great game.

Its like me saying do you know how many people buy and play fifa every year so that some how makes the yearly releases amazing when there not

[alb1899]

Im not a COD player but how can I say that they are wrong and that no one wants to play something that almost everyone is enjoying?

[alb1899]

Imagine how wrong Activision is that SONY pay to them to have marketing exclusivity for those every year COD and had 250millions plus of profit every year.

[Flawlessmic]

I play cod with my freinds and we play cause its something for us to play together, we say the same thing the games arent grest but because we play together its fun.

There not really many alternstives funninky enough in fps shooters.

Its just become a standard thing to buy cod.

Like i ssid sales dont mean these games are masterpieces, its just like fifa, its what people know and feel comfortable with.

Not sure why ur getting so defensive, prrtty much everyone will agree cod could be better even if they love cod games.

I mean the reviews for the last few years shows the game have been just above average.

Im sure u only own an xbox hence the defensive stance but chill nithing wrong with saying the games can and should be better

[alb1899]

I don't own just an XBOX but I see the excitement of my friends when a new COD is out and is a must buy.
You said that there isn't many alternatives and it is because it is the best in what it does

[Flawlessmic]

Thats not saying much when the competition is battlefield lol

[northpaws]

@alb1899

You are trying so hard to justify the 68 billions purchase.

By your logic, Candy Crush is a better game than Halo.

[Silly gameAr]

@DEEHULK8
Both you and alb1899 are xbox fans, so of course you're going to try to act like COD is the greatest thing ever now that Microsoft hawked Activision. It's funny how you're going after people, and saying you predicted that people would downplay, when you're just as predictable trying to act like Microsoft are the kings of gaming because they can spend money.

[Realms]

FIFA sells more than COD has that made EA make the game better no. The same with COD in many ways it's stale AF and Activision loved microtransactions so no popular doesn't mean good.

[Knightofelemia]

@alb1899

COD is nothing more but rehashed shit that is released yearly no different then an EA sports game same shit wash, rinse, repeat. Sony's games are different nothing is rehashed or on the same cycle of wash, rinse, repeat.

[ApocalypseShadow]

You're trying too hard. And we all know why. I really don't care how much they make. Yearly releases are stale. Flaw gets what I mean.

I'd take one Ghost of Tsushima or one Horizon Zero Dawn over all the COD games you buy every year. You might enjoy plain Ramen. I'd rather a soup that was simmering over time until it was ready to eat full of vegetables and seasoning.

I'd bet you're standing in line right NOW at Gamestop ready to buy the next one that doesn't release until months from now. How dedicated of you. Hope you have a line reliever. You must buy iPhone or Android every year as well. There's a name for that. Same name as those little flying machines that you can control through the air.

[DEEHULK88]

Northpaws and ApocalypseShadow you are trying hard to downplay the 68 billion dollar purchase, but that's going to be hard when COD is the No.1 and No.2 best selling game of the year again. It outsells all of the one week wonder exclusives and it doesn't matter if it's Spiderman, GOW or Horizon, so please don't pretend like it's not a factor. We all saw this"I don't care about COD" coming right after the purchase.

[Crows90]

Right cuz people have never said how stale and crappy cods are before the purchase.

The narrative surrounding CoD is the same today as it was before the purchase. Games are yearly trash releases that depend heavily on monetization and constant leveling up mechanics to give you that kick of dopamine. Everyone agrees they sell a lot of copies...primarily to casuals. Wouldn't be surprised if the majority of cod players never heard of Dishonored or Prey...probably not even half life.
So yeah casuals can drive any game to success no matter how shite it is.

The games are barely any good...although I do enjoy the campaigns myself...some of them anyways.

[-Foxtrot]

Is this going to be the excuse now? Any criticism against Call of Duty or any other game from Activision is going to be people "downplaying" the deal over some fanboy bullshit

People have been calling out Call of Duty for years along with other shitty Activision/Blizzard decisions way before Microsoft bought them. People's opinions are not going to change and why should it.

[DEEHULK88]

Foxtrot people have also been buying it, do the small majority of people calling them out goes to deaf ears. COD was the number 1 and 2 selling game of the year, so the loud minority is trying to be the majority, but stats are saying otherwise especially on Playstation.

[ApocalypseShadow]

You must buy Madden as well like clock work because it's such an amazing game....EVERY YEAR. That's some dedication.

I guess if my watch breaks, I can use your timely purchase every year to keep time. There's always a pulsar or Old Faithful at Yellowstone National Park. But you seem to be more accurate to keep time by.

I'd rather buy one Horizon or Ghost that took *TIME* to make.

[Magog]

Every dev could learn a lot from Horizon Zero Dawn. It's the best action game I've ever played and Forbidden West looks to improve on it in every way!

[jznrpg]

Ubisoft could learn from anyone besides the other cookie cutter companies . They pump out same games just a little bigger like other companies who pump out yearly games with MTs and whatever and it’s tiring . Casuals don’t mind and buy it up so that’s all that matters to them , just like CoD , Sports games, EA Activision retread stuff . I just don’t buy those games , never will . People are hyped about the Activision Blizzard acquisition but those are the games I avoid so I don’t care one bit . Good for you if you like milked money maker franchises

[DankSinatra]

Honestly, unless forbidden west improves its open world formula then it would just fall into the Ubisoft games cycle. Same for ghost of Tsushima. While they’re new and fresh IP, they’re basic as hell. Open world’s seriously need to ditch the open world formula that Ubisoft laid out years ago.

[Flawlessmic]

Horizon & GOT were brillant games, much better than ubisoft blaoted games with uninteresting storys that u barebly get half way through before u stop playing.

Can improvements be made 100% and forbidden west is looking stellar and have no doubts GOT 2 will be the same.

Definitely didnt deserve to be compared to ubisoft games

[DankSinatra]

I mean, their open worlds are literally carbon copies of a Ubisoft formula. So they’re pretty comparable. Is the combat and story much more interesting than Ubisoft games? Absolutely. But their open worlds serve no purpose other than shoveling bloat and uninspired side quests that mimics a Ubisoft game exactly, from loads of fetch quests to land markers to towers and unnecessary collectibles. So they definitely can be compared due to them copying the Ubisoft open world formula like 90% of open world games do. I really wish open world games would get away from this style of bloat.

[Crows90]

Open worlds from Ubisoft are the same pretty much from start to finish.

Open worlds from other developers evolve overtime during play. Even something like dying light 1 adds additional traversal and enemies in a significant way. Ubisoft just throws you an extra armored enemy.

Not all open worlds are created equal.

Ubisoft side content is boring throughout almost the entire game. Other open worlds have much more interesting side content. Ghost so Tsushima did not have bloat side content. It was all interesting and cool.

[DankSinatra]

Dying light is an exceptionally great game that to me doesn’t fall into the Ubisoft cycle as bad. Hence why I said 90% in my reply to a separate user above. Others like Horizon and Ghost of Tsushima do.

I never said they’re created equal, i said they follow what Ubisoft created years ago, which is bloating their games with meaningless side content such as:
Meaningless collectibles
Towers/Land markers
Fetch quests/copy and pasted quests
Copy and pasted mini games loaded throughout the map

Ghost of Tsushima literally had the same side activities over and over. You gave no example to say otherwise except “it’s not like that, it was cool and interesting”. Because I played through the game and the expansion, and yes, the side activities are copy and pasted which is bloat such as:
Towers
Fetch quests/copy and pasted side quests
The copy and pasted mini games throughout the entire map
Meaningless collectibles

Like I told the other person, these games have better story and combat but barrow too much from Ubisoft to the point that you could absolutely think Ubisoft made it. I really wish developers would shy away from this bloat and try unique stuff with their open worlds and seriously stop with the copy and paste side contents. Make everything unique for once.

[RabbitFly]

Yea. I think they, Horizon in particular, stand quite a bit above ubisoft tired offerinfs. But it annoys me quite a bit when people refuse to acknowledge that these games almost purely copies Ubisoft's formula without adding anything New.

The reason these other games are better has nothing to do with open world design. Characters and story maybe. New ip freshness probably. They both, Horizon and Ghost, also have better combat imo.

I think Spider-man is the ubisoft copy to look to for progression. It's tiered aproach to the map icon whackamole didn't aleviate all the problems, but it certainly helped make it feel more enjoyable to me, and connect it more to the progression of the story. Still more or less the same design.

[Crows90]

So now you're Contradicting yourself.

Dying light had the same repetitive type of content throughout....and yet you actually considered it above Ubisoft crap.

You must think it's better only because it's first person because there really isn't any other reason why you wouldn't have it fall with the others.

[ApocalypseShadow]

Yes. He's contradicting himself. I think he knows or should know. We can target any game and say that feature or gameplay was in another game before. He forgets that there won't be any new type of gameplay in games. Just a new twist on what came before. Developers just improve on what's there with their own take and hopefully it's fun. Like Guerrilla did with Horizon.

It's like Johnson and Johnson and Pfizer. Both are trying to solve a problem. It's just that one company did a better job at a solution. The other one saves lives but might kill some women with blood clots.

I think I'd go for the one with better quality. I took Pfizer. It's better quality.

[DankSinatra]

I didn’t consider it above anything, I said that I don’t think it falls into the cycle as bad. As in a personal opinion. I never said it didn’t. You’re making an assumption based on you’re own view trying to make me seem like I’m putting a game on a pedestal because I attacked your precious games that you guys put on pedestals.

[porkChop]

Horizon uses the Ubi formula though. The game is clearly better than what Ubi puts out, but it isn't wildly different. I think if Ubi wants to really improve they need to take inspiration from something unfamiliar to what they're already doing. Elder Scrolls, The Witcher 3, GTA, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, Saints Row, hell even Uncharted. Every one of those games has unique elements that Ubi can pull inspiration from to really shake things up.

[darkrider]

Ubisoft isn't on the same league. ForbBiden west is so far ahead that is scary. The perfect game to show how amazing next Gen is. Get ready to be blown away. Also better have a good TV.

[Binarycode]

I wouldn't let a Ubisoft game into my gaming Environment even if was growing out of my ass.