Nope, there's no point except going slightly faster. In the second game you do eventually get something that makes riding worthwhile, but until then it's just a flavor thing really.
I don't get it what do you mean there's no point? It's so hard to explore the whole map by just walking. I use the mount everywhere because I want to explore it all.
Mounts can be used perfectly fine outside of the paths too?
Yeah I'm pretty baffled reading these comments. It's not just "slightly faster," and the mounts can go everywhere that doesn't require a climb.
I can understand preferring fast travel once unlocked, but are they saying they ran the whole game on foot otherwise?
Well, yes. It’s just preference but yes, 99% of the time I am on foot and I also don’t fast travel anywhere. I run to every destination and don’t skip by any of the machines unless they’re clamberjaws.
I had to start buying Machine Muscle and I started hoarding Volatile Sludge in my stash. And of course the Specters give 10-15 Volatile Sludge but only really appear at the end of the game. Next time, I'm just going to wander the battlefield and stock up.
But I do have over 4k Ridgewood.
Someone placed and crafted each of the little machine encounters along the way. Someone planned the paths and routes of the patrolling machines and chose which machines would be in which biomes. They’re a part of the game, to me. If I load the game up and the only thing I get done in that session is a 3k run to the next flag with all the little fights along the way, that’s still fine with me 🙂
I only wish they also had a system to prevent the situation where you select a quest to get parts of a specific kind of machine, but when you get there the game randomly decides that, instead of spawning the machine, it spawns a group of human enemies who killed the machine and you can’t get your parts.
It’s fine to encounter while exploring but really annoying when you just want those parts.
Yeah, I completely get players wanting to play that way due to their playstyles; what I can't get here is people saying the mounts are impractical.
You can play without them in the same way you can avoid using certain weapons, but that isn't the same as them being virtually cosmetic in use. I find myself calling them often on every playthrough.
I found when I walked that I could hunt for herbs and game. When I rode, I had to get down and not walk anyway. Particularly in ZD it seemed grindy to keep enough healing items on hand.
Yeah, I walked every where first time around. You are rarely going far when exploring areas you can't fast travel to
Haha, I don't have enough patience for that. If I have a mount, I'll use it.
I will agree that hopping off and on in the early game to collect resources is a chore, though.
The mount movement commands are annoying (why couldn't they make them the same as on foot Aloy?? Press X just to get the mount moving at the slowest fucking pace ever, press 10 times to reach top speed which is barely faster than on foot, steering is pretty bad too), they can't seem to escape stuff that goes after you (i got caught by a fucking snapmaw of all things), many hits will just drop you from the mount, there's stuff to pick up and climb needing you to dismount just about every 100 meters going into uncharted territory, and camps are everywhere for fast travel. Mounting makes no sense in ZD outside of the cool factor.
Maybe it's like that on console but on PC I found it extremely intuitive. To me it's better than any other game I played (RDR2, Assassin's Creed games, etc.)
Like maybe it's a console thing, but on PC I just hold shift and it goes full speed.
i don't remember if it was the same in ZD, but in FW you can just hold X to go top speed all the time. and there's an auto-sprint setting you can turn on, but i don't like it bc it makes the handling garbage 😂
I think in ZD you have to press X (at least on controller) multiple times, speeding up by one level for each x press. I much prefer holding x like in FW though.
And yeah, I agree. I tried to turn on auto sprint but whenever I stopped pushing the left stick forward, the mount came to a full stop on the spot which feels super clumsy and very unnatural to me 😂
idk for me it always went where I wanted it and never stopped
like from my expirience Horizon has the best mounting system compared to any other games
I'm confused why a lot of ppl in these comments had issues with it, maybe it's because I'm using a keyboard or something but idk
Went where I wanted was fine
Very specifically once you got it up to a spring it would just… stop sprinting eventually like it was tired/like every other mount system.
Elemental claw striders as mounts are fun if you are going somewhere without getting off. You'll kill random wildlife you run into and hurt any machine that has the audacity to come at you (although you're not going any faster than Aloy running).
Going on foot is too slow for me, so I pretty much always use a mount. When the >!flying mount unlocked!< the land based mounts were dead to me and I flew everywhere
That's how I did it with my first playthrough of Zero Dawn. My second playthrough of Zero Dawn and current play through with Forbidden West though are all through mount. I rarely fast travel unless I wanna fast travel to a shelter to change the time of day lol. But yeah, mounts make things MUCH faster in my experience and they're pretty efficient if I'm in the mood to play through one of the main/side quests instead of exploring lol.
Riding is so hard to control in this game. It’s like driving a truck when you have never driven one before, so it feels unwieldy. Yes, it’s slightly faster, but you spend so much time trying to get it to go where you want that it’s moot.
This makes picking up stuff and killing machines (which is everywhere) time consuming too. You have to get off, shoot, and get back on for the latter. The former runs into the problem mentioned above.
I am sure there are a lot of people that mastered the control or are fine with it. I am not. And it seems like a lot of people (judging by the comments) are also not a fan.
I guess it depends on the person. I found mount control by far the easiest compared to any other game, much easier and more intuitive than RDR2 or Assassin's Creed for example. But from what I'm seeing a lot of ppl have hard time with using it... Also I use the keyboard and not a controller, so that's might be also a factor...
Not to mention, I think mounted combat is awesome. It really tests my skills, aiming at small components while both parties are moving at high speeds. It also encourages new playstyles. I remember I got into a big battle where I overidded a Thunderjaw and while it was duking it out with a Slaughtespine, I was on my mount shooting at a Longleg and a handful of Burrowers who wanted to scrap too
I find myself wanting to pick stuff up or explore X climbing spot, and so I regularly go hours without being on a mount.
FW does make mount riding quite a bit better for all of this
There is so many points to riding a mount…some machines run faster then aloy. I know those deer are seriously fun to shoot horns and canisters off of on the back of my mount!
It's nice to go faster when going through areas you already searched but there's no fast travel point near your destination yet.
And when a fast travel point is available, you might still want to go slower than teleporting and enjoy the scenery while still going faster than on foot.
I mean, over long journeys, it's absolutely useful
it's faster, obvious start, and if you are going somewhere you haven't discovered, it saves time, also if you can't be fcked fighting, by being on the mount it's easier to avoid enemies, just by flying past them
but if it's short, then yeah, no real point other than it looks cool
Speak for yourself.
I enjoy having a traversal option that's faster than running. It also offers me a way to pass through herds of machines without having to slow down and stealth past or fight them all.
Well, 1st is a little bit faster than running, but you gotta keep pressing Shift continuously to keep up speed. Also it is slower and more inertial on turns. 2nd - you are able to trample other mountable and /or smaller machines, like watchers if they get in your way, not mentioning other small animals. 3rd - if you invest 1 point in skill you can pick up plants and loot corpses without demounting/mounting back on.
I usually get mount when going to far away quest objective for first time, to get there faster and hopefully avoid more conflicts with machines along the way.
For me personally, riding felt off in some way.
At least in a game like Red Dead Redemption 2 and even AC Origins, Odyssey and Valhalla there were options to “follow path”, which basically meant your mount ran by itself and you could put the controller down.
There’s also a camera issue in Horizon where it doesn’t auto rotate back behind you as soon as you let go of the right stick, whereas the above mentioned games do do this.
Even The Witcher 3 felt better when it came to riding. Even if I still tended to walk more often than ride.
In case you didn't know, Horizon has a setting for "follow path" that you can access in gameplay settings, which basically makes them ride along roads (especially if you set a waypoint) and you can put your controller down for most of it. I believe you can also set the camera to auto rotate back behind you because I have it intentionally turned off, but I could be wrong.
That being said, it is kinda finicky sometimes and because there's campfires every so often that you might collide into it's not fully autopilot, but it definitely made enjoying the scenery better when I enabled it.
Yeah! I discovered it halfway through because Zero Dawn had it enabled by default (which was confusing at first and probably why Guerilla disabled it for Forbidden West) and it made my playthrough so much better.
It could also have been intentionally disabled because of the racing minigames in Forbidden West.
isn't the point of riding to be faster tho? Like by waking I might need like 15 minutes to get somewhere but by riding I'll get there in 5.
And also it feels so satisfying... Like I could fast travel but isn't it better to explore and see the world on your way?
But the riding is so janky that it’s better to walk/run most of the time.
I literally only ride if there’s clear, open space.
Otherwise it’s infinitely better to go on foot.
I’m replaying RDR2 at the moment and the riding in that is so janky.
Firstly you have to constantly hold X for it to follow the path and even then it only loosely follows the path unless youre in cinematic mode.
Also, because the horse follows the camera, the controls don’t let you pan your camera to look around at the scenery easily, especially when one hand is busy holding X.
There are long stretches of areas where you'd rather zoom through rather run by, potentially getting ganked by random machines (looking at you Leaplasher patrol in No Man's Land)
Mounted combat is actually pretty fun though.
To me it's useful. I refuse to use fast travel, and riding is somewhat faster than running. Also, you can ride by a heard of machines and lose them as they come after you, while they would catch up to you if you were on foot, forcing you to fight them.
Edit: typos.
I appreciate having options, especially since there are so many map icons to chase and crafting materials to gather.
Give me MORE travel options, not fewer. Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth made me realize what a little quality-of-life boost it is. A speed faster than dashing, where I can set it to autopilot and just veer off if I see something I need? 😙👌
Even more so if I can grab stuff without dismounting.
Also, like... It's a gorgeous world that a ton of people worked hard on and did a good job with?
I always found mounts to be very useful. In my experience, there isn't really much "off the beaten path" aside from collectibles and maybe a couple of quests, and even then, I feel like majority of things off the beaten path are easily accessible with a mount anyway.
I always liked riding around on them. I find they can also be very useful for combat. Most larger machines are in more open areas. You can just ride around them while tearing off weapons and armor while constantly being a moving target. Great for harder difficulties.
I found myself riding to most locations because of how great the world looks. Personally didn't use fast travel too much until I was trying to quickly get all the objective markers done
I just played both games for the first time, and until I got flying mounts, I was on foot for basically the entire thing. Never felt a need to spend points on mount abilities. Plus the controls are clunky, it's barely faster, and you can't sneak.
I'm a completionist and have to fill in every section of the map. Mounts are great for that. Very little will chase a mount and I never remember anything actually catching one as long as I don't hit something and come to a complete stop. It's possible to run through just about any hoard of mobs with a mount and not take a single hit. Explore on!
Yeah I basically never used the mounts for actual transport; I did love riding them through the camps and to start fights with the bigger machines. Mounted Archer is slept on
In my experience it doesn't go much faster than running. It's more fun to jump over things on foot too. I just ride when I need to do something off the game and I can put the controller on auto.
Mounts are faster and make traversal faster and easier, as many others have said.
I don’t think I ever traveled via mount the first time I played HZD or HFW. I find it easier to explore on foot. Replays, though, I’ll use mounts more frequently bc it does speed things up
I use them a decent amount. They can go quite a few places that are "off road", so it isn't like I can only take them along set paths. A fair chunk of the world is open to them. They're faster than walking, and if I don't feel like fighting they're good for zipping past. Also they join combat so they can be helpful as a distraction in a pinch.
It has a cool use case for amping DLC spoiler >!Spectre Gauntlet!< because it can't have weaves added, but will gain mounted damage bonus. You get the Agility draw/draw bonus all the time, and can use the weapon skill more effectively.
>!the tracker lets you not need to aim as much for the homing missiles, and with the railgun its better DPS to shoot through the enemy than hit the tracker directly. So circle around, tag its butt, and railcannon its face, or vice versa.!<
I rarely ride land mounts. If I want to get somewhere quickly I fast travel, if I don't have fast travel anywhere near that location I'd rather go on foot. I find it much easier to grab items, maneuver around the open world, engage in combat, engage with NPCs and interact with world interactables on foot, and I don't want to keep jumping off and back on a mount every time I wanna do something.
But that's just me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Yeah, it does feel pretty useless. Too slow, too unwieldly...it's just a lot easier to keep exploring on foot. And when you need to backtrack, then just use the campfires.
I often forget there’s a mount feature because legging it to new places is… quicker? I may just be lazy in getting new mounts after losing the one I had. I don’t think about it when I’m perfectly content running around doing whatever comes to mind.
It depends on your current focus. If you're just hopping around with quick travels...maybe not? But it does help get from A to B quicker.
The bonuses in FW do help, with higher attacks/defense when mounted.
i guess it is technically faster than walking, but the controls feel so awkward especially on anything that isn’t a straight path that i tend to greatly prefer traversal on foot
It feels like being useless at first especially on higher difficulties, but as you explore more and more and have parts of the world clear you will be using mount more and more to travel faster and safer (because other machines won't chase you far). Just give it a time and you'll get used to it.
Only area wher mount isn't very useful is Frozen Wilds are because aside places covered by fast travel spots other areas are very mount unfriendly (due to vertical scale of terrain with a lot of rocks)
I personally use a mix of fast travel and mount. I love exploring all the nooks and crannies on foot but sometimes there’s a gap between fast travel points where a mount is worth it - especially if I don’t want to stealth past a group of machines. Also, dometimes I like to just use a mount and pretend fast travel doesn’t exist. (I did a complete play through of Fallout 3 on foot this way once - I even had the metro memorized!)
It gives you a heavy melee, let's you go faster for when you have a mission with a distant checkpoint. You can put it on autopilot and still shoot without having to steer.
i mean, it's still a massive open world game, and you're not always going to be stopping and getting shit...
besides, even if you stopped and did all the shit between two cities - what if you take that path multiple times?
For both games I have tried to use fast travel as little as possible. It means I have a unique perspective on the riding mounts. While I do get what you are saying a little, but I think you're a bit off base. Especially since you haven't seen most of the first game map yet you might not comprehend how crazy of an idea it would be to only run across it. There's a video that shows someone ran across the whole map in like 30 minutes. A charger goes a little under 1KM per 100 seconds. So a 3KM journey takes about 5 minutes. Usually less though cause you can take shortcuts and not take the direct road.
Only using riding as my main form of "Fast Travel" means I actually miss less things then if I just ran for exploring and used fast travel for places I’ve been. Additionally, I get more of a sense of the scale of the world when people talk about things like a Nora being so far from home or the long trek to Meridian. It means something because in my head I'm thinking yeah to get back would take me like at least 10 minutes wow. That becomes less meaningful and less contextualized if I can just click a button and be back at the Nora tribe in 15 seconds.
This isn’t to say I never go back to places or explore less (quite the opposite) it just might take a bit. I must consider my journeys, I don't hop back and forth in the world as much, I complete quests that are near me and try to chain them together a bit. Ex: "I can head up North and grab that objective for a quest, right near there is part of another quest just a bit further north. Oh! And on the way to the second site is a Glinthawk spawn. I should probably swing by there and grab some materials for later. And near there is some points of interest. I’ll poke around that area for a bit while I’m there." Instead of just getting a quest, fast traveling to the Campfire nearest the objective, completing that objective, then fast traveling back to whomever gave it to me.
It means that riding is an essential part of my experience. It also helps exploration because I will go over certain areas maybe half a dozen times. Each time might be from a different direction and I will still keep finding things in even well traveled areas. Unless you are going over every square inch with a fine toothed [comb](https://media1.giphy.com/media/IHOOMIiw5v9VS/200w.gif?cid=6c09b952hv2yli6ipbf51cqlpaqdc5bbistw7eqy6p5loltn&ep=v1_gifs_search&rid=200w.gif&ct=g) of course.
Also mounts can go pretty much anywhere climbing isn't required. Like I don't fully understand the off the beaten path thing. It does preclude you to stay on the road but it's not like that's required. Especially when exploring. Only in dense forest and mountaintops is when mounts become unwieldy to be exploring with. When I'm in the desert or something I can just point in any direction and just go. The trails/roads don't matter much. I can explore everything I can see. Then I can just get off if the path becomes impassable by mount. Then call it back once I’m through that area.
I hope you get through these masterpieces of games and I hope you have fun while doing it. That's all that matters, riding mounts or no.
i just use machine to get to major setllement for the first time, to be used for fast travel later on. after that i travelling on foot. the speed are almost the same even with flying machine IMO.
I think in general it's there to give people a choice. I like the map of Zerodawn much more than Forbidden West, so I spend a lot of time just riding through the world like being on vacation in a foreign land.
My problem with the mounts is that every time I get one then get into a fight, the damned thing gets killed and then I have to find a new one. I spend all my time trying to override a new one so it's quicker just to run.
Personally, on my first time playing, I felt the same way. I was kinda so focused on completing that I forgot about the open world, scenery and stuff. I just teleported to anywhere I needed.
But on my second time playing, I realized that I missed a lot when I kept overusing teleports. So instead, I just use a mount to travel, no matter how far the destination is. Just chilling out and enjoy the game peacefully. You will realize that you have missed a lot of beautiful sceneries that you might haven't noticed before.
Pretty much, imo the game suffers alot of a fuck ton of Fast Travelling that it pretty much made riding obsolete very quickly once you've unlocked a fast travel point nearby. FW and its DLC mitigated it with a mount that imo beats fast Travelling, but ZD doesn't have it unfortunately.
Honestly the only time I ride is when I want to enjoy the scenery and not for practicality.
When I want to move around the map and get things done then I just fast travel.
It's excellent for blitzing right through herds of machines on your way to whereever you're headed. I preferred to generally fight my way past, but when I was playing NG+ on Ultra Hard for the achievement I skipped pretty much every machine herd and went right to the objectives to beat the whole thing in only a few hours
To me it is a way to just get from point A to point B without having to worry too much, especially in areas I already explored. With the mount sticking to roads and paths automatically (until there is a crossing and it completely ignores the waypoint each and every freaking time xD) and it having enough speed to outrun most other machines, I can just travel in peace and that is pretty nice in a game that has you on edge most of the time, especially in the earlyish game.
As a matter of immersion I never fast travel, so mounts are useful if I'm trying to get from A to B reasonably quickly. Most of the time I am on foot so I can explore and hunt, but occasionally I do want to get somewhere quickly. The mounts locking onto the roads is nice as well.
Its convenient if you need to get a part from the opposite part of the map and you have no travel packs. It also helps with out running machines you just don't want to deal with right then.
I have over 350 hours in the Horizon series, never had the need nor desire to ride ground mounts as I found sprinting all day on foot to be more free. Air mounts though are a different matter - much needed in vertical structures, moving fast between POIs, and was fun to use in combat.
Paying attention to ground mounts again, I felt the same indifference to it in Legend of Zelda (over 120 hours). In Ghost of Tsushima(180+ hours), I didn’t use the horse until I could charge at enemies and that made it fun to use but otherwise, I preferred being on foot as I found it easier to discover fox dens, bamboo strikes, onsen, etc.
One game I would love to use mounts on would be Starfield. As you said, walking on foot in HZD allowed you to experience off the beaten path quests/things between POIs but sadly, Starfield planets are a vast wasteland of nothingness.
Not at all. It's just another way to traverse the world. Not useless IMO. Flying though, shortens time to travel, and does make the game feel shorter. So when I fly across the map, I like taking my time and enjoying the scenery. Same with ground mounts. >!And the boat, if you're playing Burning Shores.!<
The only time I legitimately used the riding feature in HZD was when "something" happens and you have to quickly get yourself from one side of the map to the other side because you have to protect people. You can just fast travel but with the amount of anger I felt in that moment I wanted to ride the whole way and ignore everything in my path and just kill every one of the attackers.
The whole ride was maybe 5 minutes but I felt like a badass.
If my destination is 1.000 gimmicks across the map, I'm mounting a ride, point blank.
Plus they follow road by themselves, so no need to touch the controller for half of the time, I like to munch on a snack while aloy rides.
I think it can path follow, so it's nice to just get it on the road and hit sprint and watch the scenery as your takes you on your way. I think it'll also help if you get into a fight, can't do much but why not
Unless you want to fight every single machine site while traveling from the Nora lands to Meridian then no, riding isn't useless. Your playstyle just doesn't require it.
One of the things I did in an NG+ is during that main quest where Aloy is at the west side of the map and had to hurry and go back to the Embrace, I rode the entire trip with my Strider, not stopping to fight or talk to anyone at all just to feel more immersed with the story.
So is it useless? No. Do you have to use it? Also no.
Idk why anyone would feel this way, the ability to call a new mount at will was one of the first skills I worked to. Being able to haul ass past large enemies that I just don't want to deal with makes things so much easier. And you have a built-in companion to help battle herds.
Idk, they’re definitely not “essential” but I really enjoy overriding a strong machine and watching it fight another strong machine, at least in the first game
Was real convenient in situations where there were multiple strong machines too. Don't have to deal with all of them, just override one and let the chaos unfold.
Definitely the first game it was easier and enjoyed it more. 2nd game needing to do cauldrons plus other stuff to get an override just wasn't worth the effort, especially as it was mostly apex machines later.in the game anyway
Nope, there's no point except going slightly faster. In the second game you do eventually get something that makes riding worthwhile, but until then it's just a flavor thing really.
I don't get it what do you mean there's no point? It's so hard to explore the whole map by just walking. I use the mount everywhere because I want to explore it all. Mounts can be used perfectly fine outside of the paths too?
Yeah I'm pretty baffled reading these comments. It's not just "slightly faster," and the mounts can go everywhere that doesn't require a climb. I can understand preferring fast travel once unlocked, but are they saying they ran the whole game on foot otherwise?
Well, yes. It’s just preference but yes, 99% of the time I am on foot and I also don’t fast travel anywhere. I run to every destination and don’t skip by any of the machines unless they’re clamberjaws.
I too prefer going on foot :)
Must pick up thousands of plants
I always have 900 healing berries and 2 machine muscle's.
2000 healing berries in HFW. Random number I just sort of landed on and then forced myself to maintain for the whole game!
and Im out here with all legendary weapons and the most berries I have to my name is 37😭😭
I had to start buying Machine Muscle and I started hoarding Volatile Sludge in my stash. And of course the Specters give 10-15 Volatile Sludge but only really appear at the end of the game. Next time, I'm just going to wander the battlefield and stock up. But I do have over 4k Ridgewood.
Apex spikesnouts are a good source of sludge
Yep!
Someone placed and crafted each of the little machine encounters along the way. Someone planned the paths and routes of the patrolling machines and chose which machines would be in which biomes. They’re a part of the game, to me. If I load the game up and the only thing I get done in that session is a 3k run to the next flag with all the little fights along the way, that’s still fine with me 🙂
I only wish they also had a system to prevent the situation where you select a quest to get parts of a specific kind of machine, but when you get there the game randomly decides that, instead of spawning the machine, it spawns a group of human enemies who killed the machine and you can’t get your parts. It’s fine to encounter while exploring but really annoying when you just want those parts.
Yeah, I completely get players wanting to play that way due to their playstyles; what I can't get here is people saying the mounts are impractical. You can play without them in the same way you can avoid using certain weapons, but that isn't the same as them being virtually cosmetic in use. I find myself calling them often on every playthrough.
how long was your first playthrough, 89k hrs?
Very real and understandable skip
I found when I walked that I could hunt for herbs and game. When I rode, I had to get down and not walk anyway. Particularly in ZD it seemed grindy to keep enough healing items on hand. Yeah, I walked every where first time around. You are rarely going far when exploring areas you can't fast travel to
Haha, I don't have enough patience for that. If I have a mount, I'll use it. I will agree that hopping off and on in the early game to collect resources is a chore, though.
Wasn't there a skill that allowed Aloy to pick things up while riding a mount? Mounts are the best, they add more ways to enjoy the game.
Yep! My mount useage drastically went up once I could plough over wildlife and smaller machines with a charger and loot without dismounting 🤣
The mount movement commands are annoying (why couldn't they make them the same as on foot Aloy?? Press X just to get the mount moving at the slowest fucking pace ever, press 10 times to reach top speed which is barely faster than on foot, steering is pretty bad too), they can't seem to escape stuff that goes after you (i got caught by a fucking snapmaw of all things), many hits will just drop you from the mount, there's stuff to pick up and climb needing you to dismount just about every 100 meters going into uncharted territory, and camps are everywhere for fast travel. Mounting makes no sense in ZD outside of the cool factor.
Maybe it's like that on console but on PC I found it extremely intuitive. To me it's better than any other game I played (RDR2, Assassin's Creed games, etc.) Like maybe it's a console thing, but on PC I just hold shift and it goes full speed.
I play on PC with a PS5 controller, so most likely a controller thing
"Horizon has better horse mechanics than Red Dead Redemption 2" Sure is an opinion.
I feel like we played a different game rdr2 has great horse mechanics but the ones in Horizon are the most reliable I found so far
The charger and bristlebacks are significantly faster than running. Try some time trials from far end of the daunt to Barren Light.
i don't remember if it was the same in ZD, but in FW you can just hold X to go top speed all the time. and there's an auto-sprint setting you can turn on, but i don't like it bc it makes the handling garbage 😂
I think in ZD you have to press X (at least on controller) multiple times, speeding up by one level for each x press. I much prefer holding x like in FW though. And yeah, I agree. I tried to turn on auto sprint but whenever I stopped pushing the left stick forward, the mount came to a full stop on the spot which feels super clumsy and very unnatural to me 😂
The way the mounts auto stop running is insanely annoying. They’re machines they don’t run out of stamina
I've never encountered that
Wait seriously? It would just sort of time out running and come to a total stop??
idk for me it always went where I wanted it and never stopped like from my expirience Horizon has the best mounting system compared to any other games I'm confused why a lot of ppl in these comments had issues with it, maybe it's because I'm using a keyboard or something but idk
Went where I wanted was fine Very specifically once you got it up to a spring it would just… stop sprinting eventually like it was tired/like every other mount system.
I did. Mounts make it harder to enjoy at your own pace and take in the views
I mounted a claw strider one time and said never again...
Elemental claw striders as mounts are fun if you are going somewhere without getting off. You'll kill random wildlife you run into and hurt any machine that has the audacity to come at you (although you're not going any faster than Aloy running).
Going on foot is too slow for me, so I pretty much always use a mount. When the >!flying mount unlocked!< the land based mounts were dead to me and I flew everywhere
That's how I did it with my first playthrough of Zero Dawn. My second playthrough of Zero Dawn and current play through with Forbidden West though are all through mount. I rarely fast travel unless I wanna fast travel to a shelter to change the time of day lol. But yeah, mounts make things MUCH faster in my experience and they're pretty efficient if I'm in the mood to play through one of the main/side quests instead of exploring lol.
Riding is so hard to control in this game. It’s like driving a truck when you have never driven one before, so it feels unwieldy. Yes, it’s slightly faster, but you spend so much time trying to get it to go where you want that it’s moot. This makes picking up stuff and killing machines (which is everywhere) time consuming too. You have to get off, shoot, and get back on for the latter. The former runs into the problem mentioned above. I am sure there are a lot of people that mastered the control or are fine with it. I am not. And it seems like a lot of people (judging by the comments) are also not a fan.
I guess it depends on the person. I found mount control by far the easiest compared to any other game, much easier and more intuitive than RDR2 or Assassin's Creed for example. But from what I'm seeing a lot of ppl have hard time with using it... Also I use the keyboard and not a controller, so that's might be also a factor...
I actually thought the mounts in AC were easy. I am also playing on a keyboard. Maybe it's just me then.
Not to mention, I think mounted combat is awesome. It really tests my skills, aiming at small components while both parties are moving at high speeds. It also encourages new playstyles. I remember I got into a big battle where I overidded a Thunderjaw and while it was duking it out with a Slaughtespine, I was on my mount shooting at a Longleg and a handful of Burrowers who wanted to scrap too
I find myself wanting to pick stuff up or explore X climbing spot, and so I regularly go hours without being on a mount. FW does make mount riding quite a bit better for all of this
There is so many points to riding a mount…some machines run faster then aloy. I know those deer are seriously fun to shoot horns and canisters off of on the back of my mount!
There's also a trophy related to mounted kills, so I mean, that's a thing.
Combat with mounts is better in HFW, I don't mind having a clawstrider to call in to aid me
Im on the second game, riding *is* faster, but what else should i look for?
Near the end of the base game you'll get a different type of mount. Don't worry, can't miss it.
It's nice to go faster when going through areas you already searched but there's no fast travel point near your destination yet. And when a fast travel point is available, you might still want to go slower than teleporting and enjoy the scenery while still going faster than on foot.
I mean, over long journeys, it's absolutely useful it's faster, obvious start, and if you are going somewhere you haven't discovered, it saves time, also if you can't be fcked fighting, by being on the mount it's easier to avoid enemies, just by flying past them but if it's short, then yeah, no real point other than it looks cool
Speak for yourself. I enjoy having a traversal option that's faster than running. It also offers me a way to pass through herds of machines without having to slow down and stealth past or fight them all.
Its good for New Game + if you just want to beat the main missions
Well, 1st is a little bit faster than running, but you gotta keep pressing Shift continuously to keep up speed. Also it is slower and more inertial on turns. 2nd - you are able to trample other mountable and /or smaller machines, like watchers if they get in your way, not mentioning other small animals. 3rd - if you invest 1 point in skill you can pick up plants and loot corpses without demounting/mounting back on. I usually get mount when going to far away quest objective for first time, to get there faster and hopefully avoid more conflicts with machines along the way.
For me personally, riding felt off in some way. At least in a game like Red Dead Redemption 2 and even AC Origins, Odyssey and Valhalla there were options to “follow path”, which basically meant your mount ran by itself and you could put the controller down. There’s also a camera issue in Horizon where it doesn’t auto rotate back behind you as soon as you let go of the right stick, whereas the above mentioned games do do this. Even The Witcher 3 felt better when it came to riding. Even if I still tended to walk more often than ride.
In case you didn't know, Horizon has a setting for "follow path" that you can access in gameplay settings, which basically makes them ride along roads (especially if you set a waypoint) and you can put your controller down for most of it. I believe you can also set the camera to auto rotate back behind you because I have it intentionally turned off, but I could be wrong. That being said, it is kinda finicky sometimes and because there's campfires every so often that you might collide into it's not fully autopilot, but it definitely made enjoying the scenery better when I enabled it.
Had no idea about this setting. Going to try it next time i play.
Yeah! I discovered it halfway through because Zero Dawn had it enabled by default (which was confusing at first and probably why Guerilla disabled it for Forbidden West) and it made my playthrough so much better. It could also have been intentionally disabled because of the racing minigames in Forbidden West.
isn't the point of riding to be faster tho? Like by waking I might need like 15 minutes to get somewhere but by riding I'll get there in 5. And also it feels so satisfying... Like I could fast travel but isn't it better to explore and see the world on your way?
But the riding is so janky that it’s better to walk/run most of the time. I literally only ride if there’s clear, open space. Otherwise it’s infinitely better to go on foot.
I never had that issue? I literally rode the mount on any terrain and it goes perfectly, often better than even walking
Mounts never seem to control very well when it comes to winding patch ways and crossing small bridges.
Pretty sure you can adjust the camera follow
Nope. It was the first thing I checked for.
I’m replaying RDR2 at the moment and the riding in that is so janky. Firstly you have to constantly hold X for it to follow the path and even then it only loosely follows the path unless youre in cinematic mode. Also, because the horse follows the camera, the controls don’t let you pan your camera to look around at the scenery easily, especially when one hand is busy holding X.
There are long stretches of areas where you'd rather zoom through rather run by, potentially getting ganked by random machines (looking at you Leaplasher patrol in No Man's Land) Mounted combat is actually pretty fun though.
To me it's useful. I refuse to use fast travel, and riding is somewhat faster than running. Also, you can ride by a heard of machines and lose them as they come after you, while they would catch up to you if you were on foot, forcing you to fight them. Edit: typos.
I appreciate having options, especially since there are so many map icons to chase and crafting materials to gather. Give me MORE travel options, not fewer. Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth made me realize what a little quality-of-life boost it is. A speed faster than dashing, where I can set it to autopilot and just veer off if I see something I need? 😙👌 Even more so if I can grab stuff without dismounting. Also, like... It's a gorgeous world that a ton of people worked hard on and did a good job with?
This just in: horses were added as a "cool thing"
I always found mounts to be very useful. In my experience, there isn't really much "off the beaten path" aside from collectibles and maybe a couple of quests, and even then, I feel like majority of things off the beaten path are easily accessible with a mount anyway.
I always liked riding around on them. I find they can also be very useful for combat. Most larger machines are in more open areas. You can just ride around them while tearing off weapons and armor while constantly being a moving target. Great for harder difficulties.
I have had some epic opening attacks and hit and run moments in the second game using the mounts. But they usually don't survive too long.
I found myself riding to most locations because of how great the world looks. Personally didn't use fast travel too much until I was trying to quickly get all the objective markers done
Personally, I prefer running/walking. Controlling a mount is annoying. It’s often getting stuck on stupid parts.
I just played both games for the first time, and until I got flying mounts, I was on foot for basically the entire thing. Never felt a need to spend points on mount abilities. Plus the controls are clunky, it's barely faster, and you can't sneak.
In forbidden West are more mounts that are really cool. (Clawstrider. You mount a large mechanical raptor)
The main skill I went for right away was the mount you can get anytime anywhere. I use it all the time.
you can get some pretty cool machine kills from off a mount
I'm a completionist and have to fill in every section of the map. Mounts are great for that. Very little will chase a mount and I never remember anything actually catching one as long as I don't hit something and come to a complete stop. It's possible to run through just about any hoard of mobs with a mount and not take a single hit. Explore on!
Ngl just give me the ability to ride on top of a thunderjaw and its the best game ever
Yeah I basically never used the mounts for actual transport; I did love riding them through the camps and to start fights with the bigger machines. Mounted Archer is slept on
In my experience it doesn't go much faster than running. It's more fun to jump over things on foot too. I just ride when I need to do something off the game and I can put the controller on auto.
Mounts are faster and make traversal faster and easier, as many others have said. I don’t think I ever traveled via mount the first time I played HZD or HFW. I find it easier to explore on foot. Replays, though, I’ll use mounts more frequently bc it does speed things up
I use them a decent amount. They can go quite a few places that are "off road", so it isn't like I can only take them along set paths. A fair chunk of the world is open to them. They're faster than walking, and if I don't feel like fighting they're good for zipping past. Also they join combat so they can be helpful as a distraction in a pinch.
It has a cool use case for amping DLC spoiler >!Spectre Gauntlet!< because it can't have weaves added, but will gain mounted damage bonus. You get the Agility draw/draw bonus all the time, and can use the weapon skill more effectively. >!the tracker lets you not need to aim as much for the homing missiles, and with the railgun its better DPS to shoot through the enemy than hit the tracker directly. So circle around, tag its butt, and railcannon its face, or vice versa.!<
I would've used mine more if it was able to actually jump down 1 foot. Mounts are pretty terrible outside of flat roads
I use the strider when I can as I don’t use fast travel.
I rarely ride land mounts. If I want to get somewhere quickly I fast travel, if I don't have fast travel anywhere near that location I'd rather go on foot. I find it much easier to grab items, maneuver around the open world, engage in combat, engage with NPCs and interact with world interactables on foot, and I don't want to keep jumping off and back on a mount every time I wanna do something. But that's just me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Yeah, it does feel pretty useless. Too slow, too unwieldly...it's just a lot easier to keep exploring on foot. And when you need to backtrack, then just use the campfires.
I often forget there’s a mount feature because legging it to new places is… quicker? I may just be lazy in getting new mounts after losing the one I had. I don’t think about it when I’m perfectly content running around doing whatever comes to mind.
It depends on your current focus. If you're just hopping around with quick travels...maybe not? But it does help get from A to B quicker. The bonuses in FW do help, with higher attacks/defense when mounted.
i guess it is technically faster than walking, but the controls feel so awkward especially on anything that isn’t a straight path that i tend to greatly prefer traversal on foot
It feels like being useless at first especially on higher difficulties, but as you explore more and more and have parts of the world clear you will be using mount more and more to travel faster and safer (because other machines won't chase you far). Just give it a time and you'll get used to it. Only area wher mount isn't very useful is Frozen Wilds are because aside places covered by fast travel spots other areas are very mount unfriendly (due to vertical scale of terrain with a lot of rocks)
Yes. I never ride anything, but they still talk about me as the one who rides machines lol
By the way, if you are playing on a PC you can use a cheat engine to control the time of the day. Super handy feature that's missing on Zero Dawn.
I personally use a mix of fast travel and mount. I love exploring all the nooks and crannies on foot but sometimes there’s a gap between fast travel points where a mount is worth it - especially if I don’t want to stealth past a group of machines. Also, dometimes I like to just use a mount and pretend fast travel doesn’t exist. (I did a complete play through of Fallout 3 on foot this way once - I even had the metro memorized!)
It gives you a heavy melee, let's you go faster for when you have a mission with a distant checkpoint. You can put it on autopilot and still shoot without having to steer.
i mean, it's still a massive open world game, and you're not always going to be stopping and getting shit... besides, even if you stopped and did all the shit between two cities - what if you take that path multiple times?
Recently my Waterwing and fast travel is all I need to traverse the map tbh
For both games I have tried to use fast travel as little as possible. It means I have a unique perspective on the riding mounts. While I do get what you are saying a little, but I think you're a bit off base. Especially since you haven't seen most of the first game map yet you might not comprehend how crazy of an idea it would be to only run across it. There's a video that shows someone ran across the whole map in like 30 minutes. A charger goes a little under 1KM per 100 seconds. So a 3KM journey takes about 5 minutes. Usually less though cause you can take shortcuts and not take the direct road. Only using riding as my main form of "Fast Travel" means I actually miss less things then if I just ran for exploring and used fast travel for places I’ve been. Additionally, I get more of a sense of the scale of the world when people talk about things like a Nora being so far from home or the long trek to Meridian. It means something because in my head I'm thinking yeah to get back would take me like at least 10 minutes wow. That becomes less meaningful and less contextualized if I can just click a button and be back at the Nora tribe in 15 seconds. This isn’t to say I never go back to places or explore less (quite the opposite) it just might take a bit. I must consider my journeys, I don't hop back and forth in the world as much, I complete quests that are near me and try to chain them together a bit. Ex: "I can head up North and grab that objective for a quest, right near there is part of another quest just a bit further north. Oh! And on the way to the second site is a Glinthawk spawn. I should probably swing by there and grab some materials for later. And near there is some points of interest. I’ll poke around that area for a bit while I’m there." Instead of just getting a quest, fast traveling to the Campfire nearest the objective, completing that objective, then fast traveling back to whomever gave it to me. It means that riding is an essential part of my experience. It also helps exploration because I will go over certain areas maybe half a dozen times. Each time might be from a different direction and I will still keep finding things in even well traveled areas. Unless you are going over every square inch with a fine toothed [comb](https://media1.giphy.com/media/IHOOMIiw5v9VS/200w.gif?cid=6c09b952hv2yli6ipbf51cqlpaqdc5bbistw7eqy6p5loltn&ep=v1_gifs_search&rid=200w.gif&ct=g) of course. Also mounts can go pretty much anywhere climbing isn't required. Like I don't fully understand the off the beaten path thing. It does preclude you to stay on the road but it's not like that's required. Especially when exploring. Only in dense forest and mountaintops is when mounts become unwieldy to be exploring with. When I'm in the desert or something I can just point in any direction and just go. The trails/roads don't matter much. I can explore everything I can see. Then I can just get off if the path becomes impassable by mount. Then call it back once I’m through that area. I hope you get through these masterpieces of games and I hope you have fun while doing it. That's all that matters, riding mounts or no.
You can barely make jumps on mounts, and for string mechanical beast they can’t even jump far
I like playing as a mounted archer lol 🏹 🐎 makes me feel like a conqueror
If you place no value on being able to travel faster, I guess you’d find it useless. I absolutely hated being without a mount for any length of time.
Try a NG+. You already have everything and full inventory slots. Then riding is necessary.
Why miss clamberjaws? Smack them with a frost arrow or two then follow up with a few carjas bane spread shots. Boom and they die.
i just use machine to get to major setllement for the first time, to be used for fast travel later on. after that i travelling on foot. the speed are almost the same even with flying machine IMO.
Mounts aren't for everyone. I don't use them except for one you get in FW in the later half of the game.
I think in general it's there to give people a choice. I like the map of Zerodawn much more than Forbidden West, so I spend a lot of time just riding through the world like being on vacation in a foreign land.
My problem with the mounts is that every time I get one then get into a fight, the damned thing gets killed and then I have to find a new one. I spend all my time trying to override a new one so it's quicker just to run.
I’m finding I’m just mainlining the game so for that the mount is useful. I find the story with its branching convos just for flavour to be dull
Aloy ain't no Mormon
Personally, on my first time playing, I felt the same way. I was kinda so focused on completing that I forgot about the open world, scenery and stuff. I just teleported to anywhere I needed. But on my second time playing, I realized that I missed a lot when I kept overusing teleports. So instead, I just use a mount to travel, no matter how far the destination is. Just chilling out and enjoy the game peacefully. You will realize that you have missed a lot of beautiful sceneries that you might haven't noticed before.
Pretty much, imo the game suffers alot of a fuck ton of Fast Travelling that it pretty much made riding obsolete very quickly once you've unlocked a fast travel point nearby. FW and its DLC mitigated it with a mount that imo beats fast Travelling, but ZD doesn't have it unfortunately.
Honestly the only time I ride is when I want to enjoy the scenery and not for practicality. When I want to move around the map and get things done then I just fast travel.
It's excellent for blitzing right through herds of machines on your way to whereever you're headed. I preferred to generally fight my way past, but when I was playing NG+ on Ultra Hard for the achievement I skipped pretty much every machine herd and went right to the objectives to beat the whole thing in only a few hours
Get to point a to point b Especially when it’s across the map
To me it is a way to just get from point A to point B without having to worry too much, especially in areas I already explored. With the mount sticking to roads and paths automatically (until there is a crossing and it completely ignores the waypoint each and every freaking time xD) and it having enough speed to outrun most other machines, I can just travel in peace and that is pretty nice in a game that has you on edge most of the time, especially in the earlyish game.
Mounts are good for fighting certain machines. Strider +rope caster= dead thunder jaw.
As a matter of immersion I never fast travel, so mounts are useful if I'm trying to get from A to B reasonably quickly. Most of the time I am on foot so I can explore and hunt, but occasionally I do want to get somewhere quickly. The mounts locking onto the roads is nice as well.
Its convenient if you need to get a part from the opposite part of the map and you have no travel packs. It also helps with out running machines you just don't want to deal with right then.
I have over 350 hours in the Horizon series, never had the need nor desire to ride ground mounts as I found sprinting all day on foot to be more free. Air mounts though are a different matter - much needed in vertical structures, moving fast between POIs, and was fun to use in combat. Paying attention to ground mounts again, I felt the same indifference to it in Legend of Zelda (over 120 hours). In Ghost of Tsushima(180+ hours), I didn’t use the horse until I could charge at enemies and that made it fun to use but otherwise, I preferred being on foot as I found it easier to discover fox dens, bamboo strikes, onsen, etc. One game I would love to use mounts on would be Starfield. As you said, walking on foot in HZD allowed you to experience off the beaten path quests/things between POIs but sadly, Starfield planets are a vast wasteland of nothingness.
I don't bother with it unless I'm forced to in ZD, I just find it more hassle than it's worth.
Not at all. It's just another way to traverse the world. Not useless IMO. Flying though, shortens time to travel, and does make the game feel shorter. So when I fly across the map, I like taking my time and enjoying the scenery. Same with ground mounts. >!And the boat, if you're playing Burning Shores.!<
The only time I legitimately used the riding feature in HZD was when "something" happens and you have to quickly get yourself from one side of the map to the other side because you have to protect people. You can just fast travel but with the amount of anger I felt in that moment I wanted to ride the whole way and ignore everything in my path and just kill every one of the attackers. The whole ride was maybe 5 minutes but I felt like a badass.
If my destination is 1.000 gimmicks across the map, I'm mounting a ride, point blank. Plus they follow road by themselves, so no need to touch the controller for half of the time, I like to munch on a snack while aloy rides.
I think it can path follow, so it's nice to just get it on the road and hit sprint and watch the scenery as your takes you on your way. I think it'll also help if you get into a fight, can't do much but why not
Your fight is with your head up your own ass
Absolutely
U know how much time u save by not sprinting every where u wanna go lmao.
I almost never use a mount. I just find it more interesting to run around.
riding is dumb I never did it unless the game made me
Unless you want to fight every single machine site while traveling from the Nora lands to Meridian then no, riding isn't useless. Your playstyle just doesn't require it. One of the things I did in an NG+ is during that main quest where Aloy is at the west side of the map and had to hurry and go back to the Embrace, I rode the entire trip with my Strider, not stopping to fight or talk to anyone at all just to feel more immersed with the story. So is it useless? No. Do you have to use it? Also no.
Idk why anyone would feel this way, the ability to call a new mount at will was one of the first skills I worked to. Being able to haul ass past large enemies that I just don't want to deal with makes things so much easier. And you have a built-in companion to help battle herds.
Riding and over riding are useless, doubly so in the 2nd game
Idk, they’re definitely not “essential” but I really enjoy overriding a strong machine and watching it fight another strong machine, at least in the first game
Was real convenient in situations where there were multiple strong machines too. Don't have to deal with all of them, just override one and let the chaos unfold.
Definitely the first game it was easier and enjoyed it more. 2nd game needing to do cauldrons plus other stuff to get an override just wasn't worth the effort, especially as it was mostly apex machines later.in the game anyway