Project Zero Dawn, and the Fall of Humanity Explained | Horizon Zero Dawn Lore

[@EckhartsLadder]

Thanks for watching guys! I'd really like to start doing one non-Halo or Star Wars video a week. If you're down for that, make sure to 'like' videos like this or last week's Doom breakdown.

[@gavinmccraw4969]

EckhartsLadder that was beautiful lore telling

[@co2blast996]

Honestly that'd be great. I love these one-off or so sci-fi videos

[@spiny-2000]

The covenant vs the yuzzhan vong.

[@thundershock_326]

Doom Breakdown?

[@Blitzkrieg23]

Can chariot machines could be hacked by a Halo AI???

[@WingsOfFreedom07]

Faro's greatest sin wasn't the creation of the Faro Plauge. That was his greatest mistake. An extinction-level mistake, but not intentional. But when he erased Apollo.... man my blood was boiling when I heard that part.

[@micahhearn4429]

Zsolt Farkas That is the most horrible crime in the game

[@destrylett1619]

@@micahhearn4429 or that they never made a back up

[@micahhearn4429]

destry lett there are theories out there that the DNA coded version of apollo is still out there

[@destrylett1619]

@@micahhearn4429 well that dont seem very smart being that if its lost then the people will have no knowledge on how to regain it

[@devilgames2217]

Same

[@caffeinepuppy]

The most impressive thing to me is that this story absolutely was developed backwards from “let’s make a game where you hunt robot dinosaurs with a bow and arrow.”

[@F4Wildcat]

and the best thing is, in the end it all made sense When you start horizon, you are like= wtf? This is awesome but wtf? And then slowly...you learn...And begin to unravel the story

[@harshabandreddi2632]

Koinu The story is one of the best I have ever experienced, I’m eagerly waiting the sequel to see how events unfold, the writers are genius.

[@Nimbus3690]

That's usually how stories are developed. Off of an interesting premise.

[@MaxHohenstaufen]

Some of the best plots come about in this way. Tolkien created some languages and went on to think, how can I make this any believable? Let's create a background story to it. And then there was all the ages of middle earth, from the creation of the world by Iru Iluvatar to return of the king.

[@apictureoffunction]

@@F4Wildcat I remember in the early hours of the game, I thought the map made NO sense. How could there be a tropical jungle complete with vines and palm trees in the middle of what used to be the southwestern US? I was pretty damn impressed when I learned the absurdly varied environments were the result of terraforming not going quite as planned, and therefore resulting in a bunch of different biomes developing in close proximity to one another. Even IF it's not technically possible, it was an explanation that definitely seemed to make a lot of sense for a fictional scifi story

[@hienis]

When it was revealed that Ted Faro confessed in front of all the Alphas that he destroyed Apollo and then suffocated them all, I thought "This is probably the worst TED Talk ever!"

[@curtismahon9948]

I hate that joke but I'm liking your comment anyway

[@jameswatsonatheistgamer]

Lol. Most ted talks are gold. This one not so much.

[@jameswatsonatheistgamer]

Also his ted talk ruined the atmosphere. Literally.

[@KoeSeer]

I killed Apollo. Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

[@jameswatsonatheistgamer]

@@KoeSeer He literally killed everyone with his speech and he brought the house down.

[@verothacamaro]

Probably one of my favorite plots of any game. It’s really the stuff of nightmares.

[@devontejefferson6520]

Vero Tabares agreed like why biomass WTF and the bad thing it was all because of a glitch who would take such a risk

[@EliyanBrize]

I loved how the story of the plague unfolded before you in the game. It made it all that much more haunting when you realized what the recordings were about to tell you, not to mention how real it all felt. Wonderful execution of storytelling.

[@craigharvey-gurr337]

devonte jefferson Why In God’s name would they think of creating machines that converts biomass into fuel?

[@DrakeAurum]

@@craigharvey-gurr337 As I recall, the biomass-conversion tech was actually an offshoot of Elizabet Sobek's earlier terraforming robots project that reversed global warming and pollution. They were designed to absorb harmful pollutants and convert them to useful materials. Ted Faro co-opted the tech and basically just stripped out any limitations, so it would absorb any useful biomass and use it to repair and refuel.

[@Judicius]

Classic tale of solving one problem and creating a new one. For example, there are people who are trying to figure out how to convert Water into clean, cheap fuel. If they succeed though, after only a few thousand years we would dangerously deplete the earths water supply. Which is a problem. Could be fixed by dropping ice asteroids onto the earth, which also creates an obvious problem.

[@CollinBuckman]

> extremely powerful > pretty much unable to be hacked > can use biomass to fuel itself > capable of self-repair and self-replication FFS what were these guys thinking

[@micahhearn4429]

Collin Buckman $$$

[@devontejefferson6520]

We’ve got have MONEY

[@benjamin1359870]

Creating something alive ? i mean human have all of these quality(ok maybe not extremely powerful), and we are not unstoppable, the idea is good and make a good plot, but none of those characteristic make you unbeatable, or make nuke ineffective against you, yeah they are still a chance a machine survive, but to make a copy of itself, it would need what 48 ? hour 24 hour ?, on paper it is an impressive exponential growth but that type of growth will quicly hit a limit a limit of some sort and be detectable, and you just have to nuke again and send death patrol to kill the survivor, that's manageable.

[@micahhearn4429]

Except that their were multiple haurus machines. It would have been very difficult to nuke them all at once, not to mention destructive for the planet.

[@mariobadia4553]

Could the flood beat them?

[@thealaskanbascan6277]

The reason why this game is so good, is because you discover the details of the fall humanity at the same time with Aloy. Both gamer and Aloy are equally shocked.

[@lost2weeks245]

Yeah and it's even more relateable when you looks exactly like her

[@JJsiN84]

Searching for answers was one of my biggest driving force as well. Such a great game.

[@logan317b]

And so much environmental storytelling, we are told the story but also shown it, and every bit of it is viewed from the perspective of Aloy.

[@jerrya17]

10000% FACTS

[@crazybabuskaman3923]

This game is genuinely one of the best I've ever played. And I've played alot of games.

[@SolidusGabriel]

Horizon's story was one of the best I have ever had the pleasure to follow. The way the game exposed us to the backstory was great. I really loved discovering archive footage as I progressed throughout the game.

[@EckhartsLadder]

One of the only games where I've read and listened to every log I found

[@benwilson1663]

Agreed. One of my favorite games. Beats up GOW and The Last of Us.

[@Psyrus88]

It's Terminator...

[@withalittlehelpfrom3]

The twists reminded me of The Good Place a lot-every one makes you view the world differently!

[@vemprite5698]

@@benwilson1663 dont know about that but its definitely up there

[@shadyxlr]

Honestly the scope of how much information Ted destroyed escapes my mind. Thousands of years of history destroyed by this one man. Damn never hated a fictional character as much as this guy.

[@alex-ragnarson3482]

Thousand of years ? Millions of years, i would say. Not only the history of mankind, but the Earth history too

[@dazzaMusic]

He basically pressed the reset button because he didn’t want anyone to know he ended the world, incredible level of ignorance.

[@raymondjones7423]

"Damn never hated a fictional character as much as this guy" Eren Jeager: Allow me to introduce myself

[@goldillux]

@@raymondjones7423 no

[@santiagomartin221]

Heretic

[@silenthero2795]

Ted Faro took the word, "Delete my browser history" TOO SERIOUSLY.

[@youngmasterzhi]

Not even Doctor Who would go THAT far!

[@STRIDER_503]

Maybe it's because he didn't want the next generation to recognize that it was his doings that leaded to the extinction. A sin too great for anyone to carry.

[@youngmasterzhi]

@@TonightTheMusicSeemsSoLoudd *OOPS, too late!* GASP, _Ohhh mmmyyyyyy_

[@funkyfreak97]

Ya, I hate Ted Faro. First, he destroyed the world, then, he destroyed the 2nd world's hope at a full recovery with the knowledge to NOT pull a Ted Faro. Without him, the damn cult would have likely never happened.

[@MrTopHat42]

Did the literal definition of delete my browser history by deleting all of history

[@demiRaziel]

Honest confession, never have I felt so much rage and anger towards a fictional character as i have for Ted Faro. I mean, goddamn. The man who destroyed the world. Twice.

[@mcd3424]

When the bastard deleted our entire history I wanted to choke the fictional life out of him.

[@devontejefferson6520]

basogoreng to use biomass as fuel knowing their could be a risk of destruction the funny thing was it started because of a glitch a simple glitch

[@massaweed420]

I really dislike his character as well. The ending when he deleted the historical files and killed all the alpha's from Zero Dawn was infuriating. And he acts so damn sad all the time like he did nothing wrong and there was nothing he could do...

[@TheEventHorizon909]

basogoreng Grey Goo FTW. JUSTMONIKAJUSTMONIKAJUSTMONIKA

[@MrMilkyCoco]

I think he did it because he didnt want anyone to remember him as an asshole ...the asshole who killed the world.

[@gcircle]

"ignore 100 years of science fiction" Self-replicating machines that can feed on biomass? Nah, what could possibly go wrong?

[@TheMatthew001]

see when they said can consume biomass i was like seems like a reasonable if not terrify idea. then they said "self replicating" and i was like whoa do you want the world to die?

[@natchu96]

They're pretty much bigger, faster, stronger, and multiply more quickly than actual biological life...except they aren't biological themselves so the entire biosphere was pretty much doomed the moment anything went wrong with their programming. And there's no such thing as a bug free program.

[@saulw6270]

eggnogui I mean that’s what we are and what cancer is they are jus the machine versions

[@natchu96]

King Saul well at least we're still somewhat recyclable when buried...anything these machines eat just gets burned into pollution...

[@rolan4dezwinz381]

eggnogui I mean a lot of science fiction is garbage. You shouldn’t let a fictional story dictate how life goes irl. Then you have not jobs thinking self driving cars will take over the world.

[@KoeSeer]

to all future generation who will see this video in 2050: PLEASE DO NOT LET SOMEONE MAKE A SELF REPLICATING, BIOMASS EATING, HACK PROOF ROBOTS WITH PERFECT AI. Let this video game be an example.

[@brendanlauren3800]

The biomass eating part is already a reality.

[@terrainvictus1210]

@@brendanlauren3800 just remove the self replicating part

[@Rule-be6lw]

Too late I may have Accidentally 100% percent sort use the blueprints to make a robot waifu. Don’t worry she’s harmless and only eats biomass twice a month.

[@jasonburks6644]

Don’t create perfect beings to serve you. We are imperfect, so there will be a problem with it

[@Rule-be6lw]

Mark the man Music don’t worry she’s not perfect i Designed her not to be so she’ll always evolve trust me this isn’t my first Rodeo.

[@DakotaScott42]

Part of me hopes that Ted Faro is still alive thanks to some of those life extension techniques Sylens was talking about just so Aloy can run that bastard through with her spear.

[@elirchi9214]

I hope this happens in Forbidden West, or the sequel after that.

[@bthsr7113]

I'd settle for desecrating his grave.

[@anthonywestover5326]

I would pay good money to be able to kick his @$$ as Aloy.

[@lewismartin3430]

who do you think sent the signal that made hades go AWOL

[@Johninadelaide2022]

It would be neat if Aloy could pee on his grave, then dig up the corpse and pee on that

[@TheAngryHippie]

One of the best video games of all time.

[@bejisan1]

For me it lacked a little je-ne-sais-quoi. Maybe more meaningful quests. More fleshed out npcs. The map was so huge and empty it felt like a chore to unlock campfires. And some places had 0 quest givers only 1 npc, thinking about the shadow carja "harbour" to the left, xhere you find the doctor. What a waste I thought, creating a cool "town" with nothing but 1 merchant like every others.

[@hariman7727]

bejisan1 personally, I find the whole plot trite and cliche. "Oh look, mankind has suffered hubris related apocalypse, and now you're the poor dejected soul living in the aftermath of those stupid morons who let technology run rampant and save the world from ourselves blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. That's almost as overdone as a jrpg with a plot can be summed up as "your religion is a hollow lie!". Edited to correct autocorrect. :P

[@deejnutz2068]

@@hariman7727 though the premise is cliche the execution was near flawless. When you don't simplify it down as you have it creates an experience that's not only believable, but enjoyable. Plus... Robot dinosaurs. Can't call that cliche.

[@shadowlord9607]

I couldn't agree more and there's no doubt that when the sequel comes will be even better!

[@ScegfOd_]

@@hariman7727 I bet you call everything cliche'd and trite

[@finecastleie]

Ted Faro is like one of those bosses that you want to kill so badly because he irritates the hell out of you, only for you to find out that he is dead and you want to hunt and kill something else to fulfil that void.

[@mfakhri1205]

yeah, maybe that's why I've killed almost 20 Thunderjaws

[@ELiT3Griefer]

SPOILERS: He's kinda dead lmao

[@Keycil]

Which makes it even worse that we get blueballed in the sequel. The people who've played it know.

[@Geneva_suggestions]

​@ELiT3Griefer nuh uh

[@rohann1310]

Elizabeth literally saved earth twice, once as herself and once as Aloy

[@R7_Studio]

Is not said specifically if it her child or clone. But when in some point of the game they talk about cloning technology in one of the recordings. And the DNA match said 99.9% a offspring will only have a 50% match with both of their parents.

[@Weromano]

she started in her first life and finished her destiny in her second!

[@eekenny]

@@flynnturner747 What are you talking? Aloy had 2 Mother, a dead woman and a machine LOL

[@nooneknowsme276]

@A yilmaz aloy is a clone of Elizabeth made by Gaia

[@babymetalenjoyer]

@@eekenny ~Sylens

[@MikeMessiah]

Fun fact: The story/narrative director is the same guy who wrote Fall Out New Vegas. See people, talent matters. (edit: Name of writer is John Gonzalez)

[@luckylucs95]

WOW! I didn't know that! That's why the story is so fucking delicious.

[@strangeclouds7]

@@luckylucs95 Is it?

[@michaelellams9105]

Yes it is a great story.

[@SilentechoJ11]

F*ck I knew I was feeling those vibes

[@sendmemes5714]

he learned out of his mistakes

[@samueljones3851]

The scariest part is that this feels as if something we could actually be facing in 50 years, it’s not like a zombie plague where you read the lore and think “this could never happen.”.

[@jivansinghtoor]

We are going into age of A.I and robotics. Art imitates reality, so the probably of something like this happening is pretty high.

[@TheNefastor]

I played this game on the 3090 I normally use to... learn Tensorflow. That story kinda gave me pause.

[@zeehero7280]

Only if people are dumb enough to invent world consuming AI thinking it'll be the best thing ever.

[@2hot2handle65]

@@jivansinghtoor No, you're perfectly safe on the AI count. Don't worry. Sentient, thinking AIs like the Faro Swarm are impossible, rest assured. The global warming part you should worry about it.

[@2hot2handle65]

@@TheNefastor lolol then you should know the limits of deep learning.

[@danielvictor3262]

I love Faro's portrayal this guy is literally what CEOs are

[@jebes909090]

The bleakest backstory I've experienced in a video game. When the full weight of it hit me, I felt a strange mix of horror, depression and hopelessness. It's just an incredible story.

[@Tobi_237]

Same...by the time I beat this game a month or so ago, I was annoyed with myself for having missed out on such an original sci fi tale for so long. I preordered it digitally, but when it released it immediately went into my backlog. However, when I saw the Forbidden West reveal for PS5 I was like “nah I gotta beat the first game now”. Zero Dawn is MY game of the generation, such ambition in the game’s scope, such ingenuity in the lore and originality in its design. Guerrilla games and WW studios really outdid themselves.

[@mihaitha]

Playing this game was an end to end "WTF?!?" adventure for me. I was left speechless every time a piece of backstory was revealed. At every step I tried to put the puzzle pieces together and deduce what had happened. Every single time I was proven wrong. I never thought for a second that the story would be so complex and unpredictable.

[@f.p.2010]

what about Bloodborne?

[@jebes909090]

@@f.p.2010 never played bloodborne

[@jebes909090]

@tvercetti1 mass effect was bleak but there was still hope. Horizon zero dawn is BARELY and pyrric victory. *Spoilers* Earth was sterilized of all life. Even bacteria and its atmosphere was gone. It was essentially as dead as the moon. All humans died eventually and only when the machines were hacked did more humans get grown by gaia. Not to mention faro destroying the one archive and killing everyone there.

[@Egobyte83]

I love how the two types of machines, the beasts and the FARO swarm, look very distinct from each other. The FARO swarm is gritty, dark and somewhat crude, signifying older tech whilst still being advanced tech for the time, while the beasts of Aloy's present day are sleek, shiny and look highly futuristic, signifying their messianic role in the project of Zero Dawn. Just details like that shine through and you realize that the devs were really paying attention to what they were doing.

[@ShadeSlayer1911]

The beasts are also based off of animals.

[@craigzinn05]

This game's story is SO GOOD. For one whole month I was hooked onto this game and was my first ever game that i got a platinum trophy for. The lore is just so amazing. Horizon: Zero Dawn had it all. Graphics. Gameplay mechanics. Great protagonist. All wrapped up one amazing story.

[@zero0creativity]

damn a platinum trophy? congrats man!

[@mattbrown3380]

As I recall in one part of the game Ted Faro yells at the designers of the security system for not including a back door, even though firmly opted against including one

[@kreiyu]

lol yeah. only after the glitch happened did he care about a back door.

[@Prokerboss]

To be fair his company worked as military based and they sell their machines to militarise around the world so obviously they don’t want a back door that could be exploited in battle

[@Weromano]

@@Prokerboss But the arguments for a backdoor clearly outweigh those against it… as can be seen in the game.

[@charlesajones77]

I was impressed that they were able to take such an absurd concept and reverse engineer a surprisingly plausible back story for how things ended up this way.

[@ShadeSlayer1911]

I was repeatedly impressed with how much thought they put into Zero Dawn. They could have stopped at "preserve DNA and information for reseeding the planet with life and humanity in the future." But the amount of details in the plan was just astounding. How GAIA was created, her function, her subfunctions, how she operates, the APOLO project, how they planned to raise future humans, how GAIA is supposed to terraform the planet, the flaws with the project, etc. Even HADES' existence, which might have a questionable reason in a different story, has a very logical reason from an ecological standpoint (somewhat).

[@DarkJediHunter117]

Horizon: Zero Dawn must have at least won an award for "Absolute Worst Case Robot Apocalypse Scenario", because nothing - and I mean NOTHING - I've seen before even comes close to the hellstorm that led to Zero Dawn (The Reapers don't count. They're extraterrestrial).

[@Omega4Productions]

Even still, the Reapers could be defeated. The Faro Swarm is literally invincible. They can never be stopped. They're an incurable plague. An enemy who can only be defeated by simply keeping them asleep.

[@thomasscroggs3080]

The tRPG Splicers goes one step further. In addition to self replicating robots (though they are technically more Terminator style, from the beginning of the first movie) they also infected humanity with a nano-plague that causes anything they handle that is made out of metal to attack them. No guns, no tools, no armor, no vehicles. It took alien intervention with advanced biotech to even give humans a chance. And human are still so hilariously outgunned that the setting equivalent to Hades could crush them in an instant if it hadn't thrown a snit and decided not to until the other AIs specifically asked it to.

[@gracecalis5421]

Operation Enduring Victory makes it even more fucked up. Like, billions of people, women, men, young, and old, take up arms and throw themselves at the enemy knowing FULL well that they're simply cannon fodder to buy time for Zero Dawn. Like.... not even WarHammer 40k has that levels of fucked up (to my knowledge).

[@TheVenerablBloodWulf]

@@gracecalis5421 death korps of krieg

[@gracecalis5421]

@@TheVenerablBloodWulf Yeah but to my knowledge, they're military. Enduring Victory basically just gave civilians guns and told them to "buy us some time".

[@liliththesolarexalted2206]

We need a prequel FPS game where you play a militia soldier or regular soldier fighting the swarm and trying to hold them off long enough for Zero Dawn to finish. The ending can be similar to Halo Reach where your last mission is just to survive as long as you can, but inevitably you will fall.

[@chrisk7607]

Lilith Mitchell that would be interesting

[@Dramatic_Gaming]

Horizon: Zero Day. And you could make the final level be where you play as Doctor Sobeck and have to go out to seal up the Alpha Facility.

[@ShadowLynx777]

I mean they're working on a sequel, but a prequel like that would be epic.

[@joshuapaulson9116]

Maybe the Killzone series will lead into this...but probably not.

[@ShadowLynx777]

@@joshuapaulson9116 Killzone has aliens. So probably no connection between the 2 games

[@AndromedaKai]

I avoided spoilers like the plague, and when I found out what happened to humanity and what the goal of the project was, I cried like a baby 😢

[@theunbeatable6598]

Haha, like a "plague" Faro plague

[@robertgronewold3326]

Yeah, you start out and you think that it must have been some machine uprising, and then when you get the details and realize that the AI's were basically good and that it was a CEO who destroyed everything, my god, it hit HARD.

[@Derekloffin]

This story was probably my favorite video game story ever at this point, which has some stiff competition. When I started I was so ready to tear apart their premise and logic and bit by bit I was cut off until by the end I was floored. It was awesome!

[@verothacamaro]

Derekloffin the twist is so well hidden!

[@garudalead]

By far the best single player game ive played this year that i feel didnt get the attention it deserved, thanks eckhart

[@pedromoreira6218]

It was a runner up for game of the year only being beat by zelda botw

[@dusanbursac5012]

I just still can't imagine that Zelda won for game of a year. When that was over nothing was heard about Zelda but some people were making videos about Horizon. Zelda didn't deserve it at all ...

[@andresitobiiz9417]

God of war ps4 is better

[@alexanderjosefsson4729]

It was a ps4 exklusive so

[@user-yk7dc9hu2k]

It was amazing. These days I have trouble actually finishing games either because I don't really care about the story or I don't want the gameplay to end. But this game and God of War had me on the edge of my seat the whole time and I REALLY wanted to complete them

[@dekai7992]

I've played the game many times and watched many analyses and summaries about Project Zero Dawn. And still it never fails to give me goosebumps. It's so high-concept, so tragic, so hopeful, so humanist. It's an incredible piece of writing and fed to you, as the player, so incredibly well.

[@zeddddd2846]

I'm fine admitting i cried during this game. it was so well done and beautiful

[@tomvanhuffelen4032]

the flowers has finished me

[@chucklytell]

The emotional highs and lows in Horizon are incredible, Guerilla really knocked it out of the park

[@StarOfArtemis]

oh yeah. I shamelessly broke down in tears at several points in this game.

[@crazybabuskaman3923]

Spoilers. When Aloy went to the place where Sobeck was laying in her armour and the audio was playing had me in tears. Paired with the incredible soundtrack. When she turned her focus on and showed what she looked like hundreds of years ago was just. UGH. I cried like a baby. I can't WAIT for the second one. One of the main reasons I'm buying a ps5. So I can experience games like this.

[@StarOfArtemis]

@@crazybabuskaman3923 no kidding. Absolute masterpiece of a game.

[@DeMoraJS]

I just want to mention that there indeed exists a copy of APOLLO that was spared from Ted Faro's stupidity. It is mentioned at some point that a copy of APOLLO was also installed in the colony ship that was launched out of Earth prior to the completion of Zero Dawn, which is thought to have been destroyed. I think the devs are going to use this plot device for a possible sequel, perhaps long into a possible 3rd game? The fate of the ship is hinted and rumored, but never with absolute certainty. It is possible the ship survived whatever problem they encountered and would be heading back to Earth at some point, carrying with it a set of very advanced humans. Honestly HZD is one of the best games I've played in a while, with an amazing story and characters, it definitely deserves a sequel if not an entire series.

[@matt_1984_]

the ship wouldn't have to survive, just its build of Apollo to be a future plot point

[@chad8460]

I hope they don't stop after Forbidden West...

[@tgs7515]

@@chad8460 Supposedly the head writer wants to make it a trilogy, so we'll see!

[@MrMirco003]

And the ship comes down maybe thats what we see in the forbidden west trailer with the red things in the sky

[@KhanhDinh291]

Space-dino-alien here we come

[@markkevindelatorre6635]

This game gave me the chills I never had with any game. The story, gameplay, and mechanics are brilliant!

[@tomwwabo9246]

I highly anticipate Horizon Forbidden West. When unravelling the story of Nier:Automata that also geave me chills, awesome story highly recommend it.

[@PrincessTwilightdash]

@@tomwwabo9246 because it talks about what happen to the old world

[@TheNefastor]

The Cyberpunk 2077 main story and some of the side quests are on that level. Though you need an intel PC and nVidia GPU if you want to experience it without immersion-breaking bugs. Or wait until they finish patching it.

[@OPrincessXJasmineO]

You might want to try SOMA

[@Mondkuh]

@@OPrincessXJasmineO SOMA is sooooo gooood !!!!

[@lokisg3]

GAIA should have call KRATOS protocol to deal the rogue HEDES program.

[@Derpy-qg9hn]

Humour aside, that'd defeat the point of HADES; HADES' entire purpose is to be GAIA's reset button, since the rest of GAIA's protocols are strictly productive in nature, thus meaning that, in the approximate words of Travis Tate, she was "too sweet and kind" to start over from scratch. HADES was supposed to recognize when it was time to restart, and thus would, regardless of GAIA's own wishes, proceed to wipe the slate clean so that she could start over again. As for why HADES went rogue in the first place; in an event that the tribesmen named "the derangement", GAIA's protocols were severed from herself due to some mysterious outer signal, essentially turning them all into rogue AIs that only work towards their own goals, in conflict with the others, rather than in close cooperation under GAIA's moderation. GAIA's own creators could never have predicted this event, and so didn't install any failsafes for it.. and even if they did know it could happen, going by what I've said above, would it really be a good idea to do so?

[@TheFilthyCringer]

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[@Greatsaint2000]

@@TheFilthyCringer it wil be done my lord....

[@nyxican6295]

Maybe the next sequel HADES will create a Kratos, followed by Kratos going rogue and killing Hades and Ted :D

[@eyoshinthemaximum]

Laurence Barnes a man of binary I see

[@massaweed420]

This game really surprised me. I was absolutely NOT expecting as in depth of a plot as Horizon provided, I really hope they put out a sequel. Plus the smooth gameplay and immensity of the map area just made Horizon easily make my top 10, possibly top 5 all time video games.

[@sly1024]

YESS! kzbin.info/www/bejne/haHJpoSrob97iJo

[@arthurbrandonnielsen]

Things that I think would be cool to have in the future of the franchise: - It's hinted that while GAIA's main core was destroyed, she could be restored from backup facilities. I'd like to see Aloy reactivate GAIA so that they can adventure together. - Aloy finding an intact APOLO archive

[@n4mel3ssw0lf8]

we could be doing all or most of that in Forbidsen West!

[@arthurbrandonnielsen]

@@n4mel3ssw0lf8 We can only hope

[@n4mel3ssw0lf8]

@@arthurbrandonnielsen yes

[@euuIgor]

Well you were right, she did found a backup of Gaia and now they got an copy of Apollo

[@josejosefino7361]

Who the hell gave Ted the power to mess with Gaia?!?! Dude shouldn’t even have been allowed in the lobby. Pay the bill and sit in the corner. Think about your life choices.

[@MrBALAKUMARA]

He would have bribed others by using his position's power

[@InsomniacDoggo]

Gotta realize that despite being a coward and an asshole, Ted was brilliant, almost as brilliant as Sobek, but misguided. He wasnt given willing access to GAIA, he took control, making his own clearance level Omega and locking out the Alphas so they couldnt do anything while he deleted Apollo (Which honestly should have been named Prometheus, in my opinion.)

[@josejosefino7361]

Felicity Thorson i forgot he too was a genius. Still no wifi for that asshat. Just pexiglass cage and water. Maybe week old bread if he earns it.

[@InsomniacDoggo]

@@josejosefino7361 Unfortunately he was vital to the Zero Dawn project as much as any of the researchers.

[@IgorSunderhus]

I find it funny how people were PAID for zero dawn xD Like, what good is money in Elysium?

[@hamza073073]

Man this game in general is so underrated , I mean I started the game with a meh feeling but when the story started to unravel hoooooly shit , really a brilliant story telling and an original idea for post-apocalyptic world cause I'm really fed up with zombies .

[@GrandSupremeDaddyo]

As much as I enjoyed Aloy's story in Horizon, the fall of humanity was the real star of the show. For a game about robot dinosaurs they really managed to make the sci-fi feel real.

[@flightlesslord2688]

Oh hell yes. This is probably one if my favourite games ever... might play it again... And this is the part of the story that hugely intrigues me

[@HugoStiglitz88]

I can't believe they started with the idea of stone age humans with robot dinosaurs and after the fact, created one of the best stories in the history of gaming. Simply incredible

[@lukeskywalkerthe2nd773]

Horizon Zero Dawn is so awesome! And I love this lore video on it! I hope we get another one someday! :)

[@OrenTubing]

Definitely will be a sequel. Some say it will launch as a ps5 exclusive. Cant wait to fight Hades metal devil

[@dingodyno9016]

@@OrenTubing one can only hope

[@DHUTCH911]

Absolutely brilliant summary or such a story with such depth. Thank you!

[@bajkotamas1610]

I truly hope we get a sequel to this game, i wanna see Aloy again:D as an adult!

[@stonedsimian2871]

They are making HZD 2

[@user-vh6gs7kn8o]

Loved Horizon zero dawns lore, made for one of the most compelling worlds of any game. Glad you're covering it!

[@Ephideltrance]

I so agree, normally I find rouge AI stories so cliche but this one was so grand in scope, so all encompassing, it really left me speechless. It is also the human aspect of it- the coming together not to stop the rouge machines but to ensure that humanity can survive in the future, that was pretty unique Of course the betrayal and so on also only added to the depth of this rich story.

[@soorigal9781]

Conspiracy theory the ship that was launched into outer space was not destroyed.

[@retrorevolutions4590]

maybe they sent the signal to trigger hades

[@jeremycollins7442]

This is what I think. They’ve come back to reclaim the world

[@retrorevolutions4590]

@@jeremycollins7442 you never acctually find out what happens to ted faro from what i know im sure after playing 100% of this game he must have cloned himself like elizibet or cryogenically frozen himself or something sylens talks of findjng where the signal came from i assume he has something to do with it

[@nmbreleven]

@@retrorevolutions4590 what are you trying to say?

[@alexdabruh]

The Cheetah likely he clone himself, or went for a cryogenic sleep.

[@rafaellago172]

Underrated game with a solid plot. I hope Guerrilla doesn't give up on this franchise anytime soon. They should get a good writer and novelize the hell out of Sobeck's story for starters.

[@elirchi9214]

Oh hell yes. Hell to the goddamn y e s

[@gioosmena6248]

Part 2 confirmed!!

[@rafaellago172]

@@gioosmena6248 And it looks sweeeet!

[@accelerator8558]

Horizon forbident west in coming

[@eurosn7322]

Only two times in my gaming career have i felt such sense of dread and hopelessness. One of them is the revelation that Gaia is destroyed while Hades has yet to fulfill his purpouse,the other one is Sovereigns reveal on Virmire from ME1

[@IGonnaBeFather]

Totally agree with you, buddy. I also have to throw the ending of Assassin's Creed 2 there as far as shocking plot twists go

[@molotovgod]

Hellblade as well as Nier Automata do the job as well

[@TrenElZombie]

Are you new? XD

[@venomous8lue263]

This story was just brilliant, this needs to be made into a series by someone who will do it justice!

[@blueskystoicism]

Someone like James Cameron I guess

[@RicoX-17]

I agree with you, it really is! And Idk if you heard the great news, but they're gonna do a HZD tv series! 😎

[@theobscured_one]

@@RicoX-17 On Netflix…. 😬

[@Mslm29]

When Ally found the body of Elizabeth, I just can't 😭💙

[@chucklytell]

Gaia is like QUERY and I'm thinking "not now, my eyes are leaking" lol

[@jhonejay1426]

?

[@wheat9829]

I played horizon zero dawn and understood what happened but i'm going to watch this anyway since you make good content.

[@97Multiphantom]

Same here

[@animeking6536]

Same here

[@izelochoa-read4005]

Same.

[@michaeloconnor5480]

This game did a phenomenal job at positioning my mindset literally in the end days of the earth. I felt like I got to know characters that had long since died, the hopelessness of that dying world I literally could visualize it all (which im assuming was the point) but I dunno I just found this game did an amazing job with what is basically, it's own lore. Fuckin great game. I'm late to the party only just finished it.

[@GustavoGplay]

This gotta be one of, if not the best world ending stories ever told. So many details and such a creative way of depcting an apocalypse

[@DialgaMarine3]

I think a Killzone-like shooter about the fall of mankind and earth to the machines, prior to Project Zero Dawn, would be pretty badass.

[@darknez09240]

yo good idea actually they can create a prequel of horizon zero dawn, with futuristic open world setting, advanced technology and explaining how it all went down, it might be hard to think the story out but it is possible, maybe we can play as elisabet sobek

[@itspure7152]

a game showing a story of people fighting during enduring victory. that would be great

[@azariukuabdululu2484]

Yeah I would like that too, but with an open world and gameplay mechanic as horizon!

[@colivas8414]

It could be like Reach, in which you know the end, but could have a plot that helps with Enduring Victory or with the creation of Gaia. Great comment!

[@mushroompoet]

I totally agree, but I would be worried about the reception because a lot of people don't like games where they don't "win". (Cause the world would end no matter what you do)

[@diamondtron01]

Makes my chest hurt thinking how "dead" that world ended up. Feel like curling up in a ball 😥

[@nielsjensen4185]

It ended up looking like Mars only brown instead of red.

[@grandadmiralthrawn92]

You know, I really think that there should be a novel of the events of H:ZD that are spoken about in the holographic records in the game. One that would focus on Elisabet Sobek and Ted Faro and showing how the machines got out of control, as well as the development of Zero Dawn. Kinda like the Mass Effect novels, in that they don't get into the larger story since the player's differs, depending on the choices made.

[@tomasgomez9925]

A movie would be awesome. “Project Zero Dawn”. I see it…!!!

[@Joel-bh5xd]

It has a great plot, although c’mon... self replicating machines that can use biomass as fuel? Someone would’ve thought this was a recipe for disaster.

[@Capsuleer7]

In game you can find a voice recording of an engineer under Faro pointing this out specifically only for Faro to brush him off. It's a blink and you'll miss it line however.

[@allnamesaretakenful]

We've seen humans do the stupidest things to achieve their goals, and whistleblowers silenced. The plot is too close to our reality. No matter how much people warn, Corporations will doom us all.

[@Dramatic_Gaming]

The whole point is that Ted is too dumb to think that """""his""""" designs could ever backfire. Multiple people in-game repeatedly pointed out to him that the ideas were dumb (Doctor Sobeck chief among them) and he refused to listen to them, arguing his robots couldn't ever be hacked. It's also why he was so arrogant that he never had a backdoor programmed into them. In fairness, though, the programming *was* advanced enough that it took hundreds of years for the world's smartest supercomputer to crack, so they were functionally unhackable. Doesn't negate the fact that killbots consuming biomass as fuel and being able to self-replicate had to have violated more than a few ethics or human rights policies.

[@self-satisfiedsmirk5544]

@@Dramatic_Gaming No. Biomass is literally anything that is biological in nature. While the machines may have been able to convert human beings into energy and raw materials to aid in the construction of more units, they weren't intended for that purpose. To argue that the conversion function poses ethical concerns and may even violate human rights would be like arguing that automobiles pose such issues because some humans are killed in automobile related instances. Actually, you'd have more ground to argue against the use of cars due to pollution, which has much more consistent short-term and long-term impacts on human life. The fact is, unless this hypothetical Von Neumann device specifically target humans, there's no real ethical concerns to be had. Now, these devices are still incredibly dangerous. There's no way (at least, I'd hope) that such devices would ever be allowed to be developed, let alone used, on Earth, especially if humanity is still confined to a single planet. But, Von Neumann devices may very well be how humanity explores the galaxy, as well as terraforms and colonizes other planets.

[@Dramatic_Gaming]

It's not just humans being a problem. Animals, forests, and farmlands would be devastated by these things. Not to mention that, barring humans, they didn't really stop to consider what they ate. There's one example (even in the video) of them eating a pod of endangered dolphins. Whole swathes of lands could be rendered useless by a swarm coming through, and that's before they all went rogue.

[@QuantumS1ngularity]

This game's story is just... words can't describe how good it is. The hopelessness and the dread when you listen to the holograms, Aloy's longing to uncover not only her own past, but the history of the world, the pure bliss which is the ignorance of the tribes. All bundled up together with an astonishing soundtrack which perfectly underlines every single emotion. But perhaps the one thing that makes everything so great is that it feels completely natural, real and familiar. If we continue the same path we are walking atm with AI and robotics, extinction like this is assured. Everyone who played that game probably subconsciously realises this and that's why it sticks so close to everyone's heart.

[@Dillpickle1997]

Easily one of the best stories in video game history hands down.

[@justinkim3517]

you are pretty much my only source of knowledge when it comes to halo and other science fiction.

[@justinkim3517]

oh damn, this is my first comment and i got highlighted.

[@josealfaroable]

Look up the templin institute

[@Kmwildride]

I loved HZD, such a breath of fresh air

[@lordinquisitorpeter8221]

Not W40k do. That goes to W40K theories

[@serafinalig.]

Have you ever checked out Hidden Experia? He also covers Halo lore. He knows pretty much everything about halo.

[@WhyIsThisVisible]

Just finished this game for the first time and had no spoilers. Absolutely floored by the story. I never expected a game about fighting robot dinosaurs with a bow and arrow would have one of the most gripping stories I've ever had in gaming. Very excited for Forbidden West now.

[@theexurian1079]

Hope you enjoyed it and the sequel!

[@MaxHohenstaufen]

When I started playing this I was like "wtf?" It is very satisfying to learn the story as you play.

[@Dramatic_Gaming]

"Never before have I needed something so badly and not known until I had it." Seriously, Horizon seems like a perfect fit for you to talk about, and I'd love to see Faro/Haephestus robots fight some other factions. Maybe even a video specifically about Ted Faro and Elisabet *SOBECK,* mainly because I honestly feel that Ted is one of the most despicable villains ever in a game. He thinks he's the smartest guy in the room when he's really just an idiot with deep pockets, nearly brings about the extinction of humanity *TWICE* through his own stupidity and accidents, and would rather condemn the world the Dark Ages than admit he made a mistake.

[@canadianbluepants9446]

theres a difference between a super villain thats wants to destroy the earth and another that doesnt even think hes a villain of any sort

[@angguaa]

yeah. typical arrogant man. I hated him so much during the game... Poor Elizabeth!

[@spencer03-g46]

I dont know how anyone else feels but he kind of reminds me of handsome jack from borderlands 2 because hes convinced hes the hero and refuses to admit hes the villain.

[@FnD4212]

I don't to label Ted Faro as villain. You give him too much credit.

[@Dramatic_Gaming]

He chose to stop developing green technology in favor of war machines, pushed the development of their most dangerous features, sold weapons to warring factions and corporate warlords, hid the existence of the Chariot Glitch until it was too late for the sake of PR, then deleted APOLLO and killed the Alphas so nobody would know he caused the apocalypse. Even if you want to argue that the Faro Plague wasn't his fault, he created the situation that allowed it to happen, and his war machines were responsible for the suffering and death of millions long before the first swarm went rogue. And that's before you get into what he did to APOLLO and the Alphas, which is hard to view as anything *but* evil.

[@Strongest_Yapper]

"I SAID STOP TRYING TO ACCESS THE GOD DAMN SYSTEM " - Ted faro

[@vik5592]

Please do more video on this game! This game is absolutely amazing

[@devontejefferson6520]

This lore pissed me off some things just aren’t meant to be made self replicating unhackable biomass fueled robots it’s the perfect love child of Ultron and Skynet

[@syzorst]

Skynet and Ultron are like babies compared to what the Swarm did.

[@TrenElZombie]

All machines by default are hackable

[@Deekilledyou]

@@TrenElZombie Most people use the term unhackable for things that can be hacked but it would take so long to do so it would be pointless or too long by the time it's cracked. In there case it took a supercomputer constantly working 60 years to crack it and all life was long dead by then.

[@Matty002]

i honestly really liked the premise but i had to stop playing the game because some of the ways the world ends up makes zero sense and was just infuriating. like sure make them speak english ok but how did people with non american accents get to what is supposed to be colorado? theres no planes, and ppl who spoke those ways were extinct

[@syzorst]

@Nothing To See Here Sorry but what the swarm did dwarfs anything that Skynet and Ultron has done. Skynet was defeated by a rag tag team of rebels and Ultron just had a few hundred bodies. The Swarm literally wiped out all life on Earth in just 15 months. Skynet couldn't defeat the resistance in a 20 year war.

[@thisismark6125]

1 million self repairing, practically invincible killing machines Girl with stick and bow: is this a challenge?

[@nielsjensen4185]

The originals were. These are far less invulnerable or self-repairing. GAIA learned that creating such things was bad so she never did.

[@cyberzangoose16]

You force people to hit show more to play up the joke as if it's actually something worth reading.

[@crazybabuskaman3923]

The machines in current Horizon zero dawn that Aloy fights are probably at the WEAKEST stage they have ever been. Imagine that, they are still extremely powerful, but imagine when 1000 years prior, the fireclaw alone was said to destroy entire cities with its fire and molten abilities, not to mention the Metal Devil, which could genuinely strip continets apart in days. Fucking insane man. I love this game.

[@Petra999]

@@cyberzangoose16 lmao yeah

[@kalamies.]

Aloy doesn't fight the Faro plague machines other than Corruptors and Deathbringers. And even those two are the weaker machines from it. We never fight Horus titans.

[@europanzer3929]

I swear, anyone that starts working on robotics should be obligated to watch Terminator 2.

[@otherbarry3744]

This story is so compelling. I’ve played the game multiple times now and every time this stills floors me. Guerrilla did such an amazing job making the characters relatable and the acting was just superb. Cannot wait for HZD 2.

[@jocax188723]

The scariest thing about this story is when I took a step back and asked myself "Are there people in the world today morally bankrupt enough to build the Faro swarm?" Then "Are there people I can name that would do what Ted did and do something equivalent to erasing all human knowledge just to satisfy his own petty idea of legacy?" The fact that the answer to both questions is resoundingly "yes" scares me more than I'm comfortable admitting.

[@peoplez129]

This is why you don't vote Democrat.

[@JohnnyNumber11]

@@peoplez129 1. Not every guy on the internet is american. 2. LOL

[@Tony333Aye]

@@JohnnyNumber11 he’s right doe. And America literally matters to the entire world since it’s the most powerful country on earth and decides for the world basically, whether you like it or not.

[@normalgirls1]

@@Tony333Aye Yeah but most people just focus on their own country's politics. Laws and regulations don't make themselves lol and it's not like the entire world pays attention to us politics so heavily unless it's a house of cards episode. It'll take a lot of effort converting 50% of us population into republicans.

[@rabbakahn]

@@peoplez129 What?

[@thomaszhang3101]

The plot is so toxic - it gives you great hope in the form of a better future, only to hurt you deeper by shattering that dream.

[@TrenElZombie]

How? It worked

[@brandonpersaud5634]

@@TrenElZombie I think he's talking about enduring victory which gave people hope but was never intended to accomplish anything other then delay the robots

[@klidthelid8361]

Brandon Persaud Nah I’m pretty sure he is talking about how the Programs were supposed to restart the world and humanity was going to reach its previous heights, but what everything went to shit and now humans are cave men and a rogue AI is trying to destroy the planet (with little people can do about it) while the only AI that could help died trying

[@mariateresadelgadolorente2813]

How. Is. A. Fucking. Plot. Toxic.???

[@Mgl1206]

roigo xd read the comment above

[@TrueUnderDawgGaming]

I wish Hades was more like the Reapers in Mass Effect, instead of just an bland AI. Especially since he is called very intelligent multiples times. It would have been fun to hear him utter philosophical reasons for why life had to end.

[@nicolite8477]

He’s not really an A.I. He’s a subsystem to an A.I.

[@lewismartin3430]

he's so corroded damaged and fragmented that he probably can't maintain a personality. but that doesn't mean he's not intelligent.

[@sharangcool]

@@VeganAncientDragonKnight which is pretty fucked up, cause what kills Gaia is Gaia, its like your anti-bodies suddenly decide that the body is the infection and starts destroying your organs :O

[@zekonja90]

@@VeganAncientDragonKnight Signal woke them and turned them into A.I.'s.

[@Jwhipification]

I was late to the Mass Effect series, but it captivated me till Andromeda shit the bed. Those Reapers , and the idea of them scared the shit out of me.

[@revurius_the_eldritch9983]

Imagine though, in 40 to 50 years this could potentially happen.

[@thegamelabgaming7556]

Humans are not stupid enough to make self replicating robots that can use bio fuel I hope

[@revurius_the_eldritch9983]

@@thegamelabgaming7556 well, never know... With how this year has gone so far, just about anything could happen

[@AdelizaNera]

@@thegamelabgaming7556 greed is a powerful thing

[@pappo666]

@@thegamelabgaming7556 oh trust me humans are that stupid, Humans usually dont learn from their misstakes hence why history has a tendancy to repeat it self plus they will just need the opportunity to make money on it i mean even today we have people choosing god over health care, people who ignore the corona pandemic and goes out to party, besides at the moment smart home systems are getting more common and they always try to make the AI better and better they might not code the self replication or biomass fuel but that could easily be a side effect of a smarter AI. But i still think that something like this is only a question of time and that someone will be stupid enough to do it

[@jonjon3829]

ill be 70 to 80 then, if I survive that long, so I don't really care what happens with the planet afterwards.

[@treestone95]

This is one of the best stories in a single game I've played. Great video man.

[@Hunter_IRL]

Just competed my first play through. Can’t explain just how much I loved this story and main character. One of, if not the best story driven games I’ve ever played.

[@FLUXXEUS]

Just got the game thanks to it being free... Ted is easily one of the best villains I've seen in gaming. He is a great example of the human condition, I was devastated when I saw him literally kill knowledge and culture in one blow, I hate him 😂

[@ShadowLynx777]

One of the best games of the generation. At the start the story was ok, but it picked up like an absolute beast all the way to the end.

[@Swaggmire215]

God did it ever

[@mihaitha]

One thing you should mention: the source of Sobek's clone, the Lightkeeper protocol. It was a program that was dropped in its infancy, during the development of Zero Dawn, which planned to propagate the knowledge and abilities of the Alphas through time, by use of clones. Basically, each of the 10 Alphas would have a clone of themselves created, which they would raise and train as their successor. This process would repeat every time one of the Alphas reached a certain age. As a result, the genetic material of each Alpha was stored, and cloning appliances were set in place, under the control of Gaia. The program was however discontinued as none of the Alphas deemed it a ethical endeavor. It however set up the possibility for Gaia to create an Alpha, a task she undertook as soon as the subroutines broke free.

[@Teku-Izing]

I love this game, highly recommend.

[@adrielfester6819]

This is, by far, one of the best stories I've ever known (and the DLC's story is absolutely incredible too) As soon as I finished this masterpieceit went to my top list And congratulations for the video, I've forgotten some parts of the story and you covered everyhting so well There are so many theories in my head that I think it could make like 3 or 4 sequels lol Can't wait for Forbidden West

[@DoReMi123acb]

Saw this video on my recommends and just decided to watch it on a whim. OMG! I am floored! This game has not only some of the best graphics I have ever seen, but the lore, story, characterization, and setting are just AWESOME! Seriously, this is some of the heaviest and thought-provoking and emotional-laden sci-fi material I have ever come across. Plus, it genuinely has made me afraid of Artificial Intelligence.

[@trvth1s]

Artificial intelligence did not cause the faro plague. A glitch caused the plague. Not once in the game do they mention an AI as the cause of the plague.

[@nikolajsteffensen6578]

dear god how does one not realize that making a self replicating machine. with atleast a modicum of intelligence. that EATS LIVING THINGS?! MIGHT BE A BAD IDEA!

[@Batou3]

Nikolaj Steffensen greedy and ignorance will doom us all.

[@HubiKoshi]

Sadly Horizon Zero Dawn is a cautionary tale for what WE are doing right now. Automation of military which is already happening (semi-autonomous armed drones), creating AIs. Sci-fi has been warning us about that stuff for decades and yet here we are charging over the cliff despite all the warnings.

[@cpt.honklerof3rdkekistania400]

DAARPA (Military research arm of US government) has a robot that can function off of bio mass. Its name?.....EATR

[@HubiKoshi]

@b king About that en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energetically_Autonomous_Tactical_Robot#Fuel_sources

[@ra-kn8gf]

@@HubiKoshi 😬

[@thatguywesmaranan]

"what could go wrong?" - every advanced AI developer in scifi -

[@irishspartanstudios]

"They are unstoppable!" In The Distance: Isn't there a red button for a f***ing reason!?

[@steal_your_soul]

The sheer Storytelling of this game is beyond anything I have ever seen... This game is in the same line of quality of Hideo Kojima games :) I LOVED playing it over and over

[@thorsal6208]

I went to this game only knowing that i will fighting against robot dinosaur kinda thing. And when i start exploring the map and goes to the city ruins, i was like, "Wait, is that a car? And is that a traffic light?" and so i realize that it's actually the future. And after finishing the game, learning about the project zero dawn, GAIA and everything, it becomes one of the best gaming experiences I've ever had.

[@GamerNurseGale]

I agree with everyone here. Out of all the villains I've seen in fiction, Ted Faro is right up there with whatever high-degree adjectives the dictionary can come up with to describe him. His sense of self-preservation is so much so, I can't believe he even exists.

[@NoeAnton]

This is one of those games that hit me hard in the gut. I have been a programmer for nearly 20 years. As Technology moves forward and creates amazing things for humanity, so is the reality of making a mistake like this and it terrifies me.

[@frederickquintos9464]

horizon zero dawn has a really good story line

[@TheLiamis]

It has a lot to expand upon.

[@matchesburn]

LOL, no. The story/plot of Horizon: Zero Dawn is terrible and the weakest part of the game.

[@notablegoat]

Thanks Fred

[@benwilson1663]

@@matchesburn Your opinion. It's amazing in my opinion and obliterates most games.

[@asianhavoc1872]

@@matchesburn 😂😂🤦‍♂️Stooopid Hooman

[@TSyoyo]

Project enduring victory always gave me the feels in this game.. really made me imagine what that would be like to live through to the end but most of the all the horrible burden of the truth put on the man who decided it and told the people what had to be told.. its mind blowing trying to fathom what something like that would be like.. god i love this game so much

[@XenoAlbedo]

I remember slowly uncovering the backstory for the first time and thinking how damn terrifying they made their spin on the robot apocalypse trope.

[@robertagu5533]

So... this universe basically had it's own skynet episode.. except this one acts like an actual cancer.. shoulda included AT BARE MINIMUM a kill code that kills ALL of them at once immediately that the machines couldn't do anything about but even was programmed to ignore or even submit too. Stuff like that.

[@Dramatic_Gaming]

The robots did have kill codes. Each swarm was also only semi-autonomous, still responding to commands from their controllers. The problem was that Ted was so arrogant about his robots being unhackable that he never programmed a back door into their codes, so once the chain of command was broken there was no way to issue those kill codes. That's partly the reason why Gaia was made: to make the centuries of calculations necessary to brute-force their programming and issue a kill code.

[@robertagu5533]

Sucks to be in that universe.. Humans were basically screwed then. Seems the plan while this was going on was to basically send the last of humanity on a suicide mission and go out in a blaze of glory doin what damage they could with what had left and then hopefully a new generation of I guess lucky locked away descendents or clones pops up to restart things centuries later sounds like.. since the machines wrecked the very atmosphere and planet entirely do much Teraforming from the assumption the planet was gonna be a lifeless and barren rock ball anyways I'd just armed and blown up EVERY remaining nuke aimed at all the worst machine strongholds then... might as well they seemed apparently doomed either way

[@Dramatic_Gaming]

@@robertagu5533 Going full on *SPOILERS* here: As the video stated, the goal was never to actually win or do as much damage as possible. Just to survive long enough for the Zero Dawn facilities to be built and then outlast them. Once the Faro robots ran out of biomass to use as fuel, they all shut down, which gave Gaia plenty of time to fulfill her programming. HEPHAESTUS would design new machines to help repair the planet (all the robots you fight in the game are actually the terraforming units), with AETHER and POSEIDON leading the air and water clean-up. Then ARTEMIS and DEMETER would begin re-seeding plant and animal life. Finally, ELUTHIA and APOLLO would begin breeding & teaching a new generation of humanity from preserved genetic data. The only pre-Zero Day humans inside the bunkers were the staff necessary to put the finishing touches on and ensure that Gaia functioned correctly, and they were all sterilized to preventwasted resources (pregnancies). Had everything gone to plan, humanity would have had a clean slate to start over from, as well as the knowledge to do better.

[@JurzGarz]

@Dramatic_Gaming I admit, I’ve never quite understood why people couldn’t survive in the bunkers over multiple generations. I mean, you have the technology to terraform a planet, but not to create a sustainable underground food resource for a century?

[@Dramatic_Gaming]

@@JurzGarz My guess is that it came down to logistics. The Zero Dawn team had less than 18 months before Zero Day, and all the facilities had to be completely isolated (a small gap of an inch in a port was enough of a risk that Dr. Sobeck sacrificed herself to seal it). Hydroponics is also very water and nutrient intensive, in a time when the planet was being reduced to a toxic, barren rock and potable water was at a premium. And to cap it all off, even if they could make all those facilities be self-contained, it's doubtful rhat they'd be able to maintain a viable population for several centuries since it took GAIA over 500 years to get the planet back to a habitable state.

[@DoctorGnash]

I just beat this game last night. I picked it up on the epic games store since it was on sale and finally ported to PC. What an unbelievable masterpiece. I feel so foolish I did not play this sooner. The story just sucked me in and I wanted to know more and more about the lore of it all. A game's story hasnt consumed me this hard in a long time. Can't wait for Forbidden West.

[@AndreyNaranjo]

anyone here who works on IT knows that the most impresive thing about the entire story is that Zero Dawn Project had no delays on its development

[@QuantumAscension1]

God, this game is so awesome!

[@richardwhite3521]

This is the best summary I’ve found. But nothing beats playing through the game and being floored by the sheer scope of the story as you slowly discover it, one recording at a time.

[@opromlie2272]

I think its a bit different from most of the comments here but here me out: The creators of GAIA were quite literally picturing not a “rebirth” of humanity, but a “continuation.” The people who emerged from the Cradles were meant to continue humanity as it was before the Swarm: better educated, hopefully more aware, but the same culture and society and humanity of the ‘Old Ones.’ That was pretty explicitly Zero Dawn’s goal. They didn’t “want” the Nora or Carja or Oseram; they didn’t imagine it. The society of the past had issues. Ted (like I said earlier) was a terrible person, but a product of their societies and time. Terrorism was a huge problem, as was war, corporations as nations, and the implied inequality and wealth crisises we see in many datapoints. The Cradle/APOLLO kids would have been given a thorough liberal education and taught the mistakes of the past, but at the same time they were imagined to be very much a continuation of that past. Instead, without APOLLO, not only did humans miss obtaining technology, they lost their intended history. Humanity fractured into new, unplanned and unimagined social and cultural groups. They created religions, but also created art and architecture and fashion that would not have existed, period, in a “humanity 2” model. They avoided some of “old humanities” flaws and introduced new ones. It’s unquestionable that without APOLLO, human society is not what it was intended to be, not advanced in planned ways, religious and reactionary and ignorant. But it’s also diverse, creative, and unique. It’s hard to compare the two outcomes, because to have one automatically erases the other. With APOLLO, there would be no Carja or Tenakth. Without APOLLO, there is no continuation of humanity as it once was. I think that if Samina (Alpha of APOLLO) could see society as it turned out without APOLLO, she’d be fascinated but that also doesn’t mean she doesn’t regret APOLLO’s loss. I don’t think you can really pick one over the other, because both versions of humanity have strengths and flaws… but they’re also both completely, mutually incompatible. All I can say is I dont know if it was good or bad because in the end we get this beautiful and fascinating world Aloy lives in. :) Ps: and no this is not an attempt to defend Faro or anything, hate that guy

[@fishsmellbad1862]

I can't believe I overlooked this game for so long. I mean I don't have a ps4 so I never really paid any attention to it the last few years but I just recently got it on steam and holy shit... It's one of the best games I have ever played. Honestly it might even make me buy a ps5 for the sequel.

[@victorhojgaard1769]

Sounds like Something that could happen in real life.

[@wolfpacrule]

Keep the trumptards in office and yes we will likely see some sort of apocalypse in our life time.

[@vladvah77]

@@wolfpacrule Or the joebidens...fuck all politicians!!!!

[@bebomac5]

“SOBECK”, not Sodeck.

[@orlandojehle4240]

Had to scroll way too far down for this comment. Although the video is put together nicely other than that.

[@jdlee4358]

@@orlandojehle4240 PUT SOME RESPECT ON HER DAMN NAME

[@DemianCorvus]

Despite not having villainous intent, I consider Ted Faro to be the greatest villain of all times. The guy caused total extinction on Earth and then ruined humanity's future by destroying Apollo. And what's worst: everything he did was because he thought it was for the better in its moment, and that's a kind of villain that's realistic to a fault, because that's how tragedies occur in real life.