Adventures in Horizon Forbidden West's Side Quests: Part 3

Continuing my study of side quests in Horizon: Forbidden West, I think I've discovered a semi-kinda-sorta weakness in a quest's fundamental design. After playing through it, I took the time to watch several other videos posted on YouTube. I've come to the conclusion that it's not exactly a flaw in the quest's presentation. More of a miscommunication. I'll quickly go through the recap and then get into the narrative snag. 

Side Quest #6: Signals of the Sun

Summary:

Once again, we need a call to adventure that will pull Aloy from her primary mission. A dead body and a callous soldier fit the bill. Aloy finds a young man who's fallen off a cliff. A local village guard tells Aloy he has no sympathy for the climber for his foolishness, and the same goes for his companion somewhere still up on the cliffs. Given this knowledge, Aloy cannot turn her back on the hapless stranded climber.

Horizon: Outdoor Recreation Victims Unit

Aloy climbs the rocks and spots the climber, who is injured and hemmed in by a group of machines. The player can sneak or fight through them and get to the climber, who introduces herself as Raynah. Raynah is after a lens used to focus sunlight into a signal beam in a nearby tower. There are six of these in the local area. Raynah explains that her father designed the towers and the lenses have sentimental value, adding a little emotional connection to the quest if the player needed more than purely mercenary incentives to engage with the mission. I appreciate the nuances like that because it helps me feel like going on these little errands is still consistent with Aloy's character.

Aloy climbs the nearby tower, gets the lens, and returns it to Raynah. Raynah then gives Aloy a reward of 15 shards and a few other items. She tells Aloy to find her in the village anytime she comes across lenses. Aloy can earn 15 shards for each lens and, upon delivering all lenses, receive a special reward.

Notable Notes:

The quest is pretty straightforward but is unique from the others in two ways. It's the first instance which gives the player a motivation to backtrack. Getting cooking materials for Milduf technically required backtracking, but in this case if the player hasn't explored every nook and cranny of the map, then they'll have to double back nearly to where they entered. In that regard, the geographic path the quest takes goes against the grain of Aloy's primary mission right now. I've played farther ahead and one thing I've been very happy about with other side quests is how well they run parallel to the main storyline. 

The Tangled Web of the Game's First Branching Narrative:

The bigger deal about what makes this unique is that it's the first quest in which the player's actions in the game heretofore have an impact on story beats. How Raynah responds to Aloy is dependent on whether the player has already discovered any of the signal towers in the local area and collected their lenses. The overarching story here has versatile potential to either be the beginning of a new "errand-style" quest, the resolution of an ongoing mystery, or a little bit of both. 

With all that said, here's the snag. I've created a flowchart to better exhibit the issue I found. Starting from the discovery of the guard lugging the dead climber around, here's the quest's progression:

It's a straight shot until we meet Raynah. Upon encountering her, the designers realized there were some potential player-created variations. What if the player has already scoured the map in search of data logs, artifacts, or other lore tokens? They've probably found some lenses. So, Raynah has to address that possibility in order to maintain consistency. It would be natural for Aloy's possession of lenses to come up in conversation. Therefore, if the player has collected at least one lens, Aloy mentions as much during their conversation. We have a dialogue branch, as diagrammed below:

Raynah pays 15 shards per lens Aloy already has. Raynah then pays Aloy an additional 15 shards and a few other goodies for retrieving the one in the nearby tower. Afterward, she tells Aloy that, should she collect more, to bring them to the town. At that point, a quest prompt appears on the screen explicitly telling the player that the quest is complete. The player receives XP and rewards. 

Now come complications. I'll lay it out in writing and then hopefully make it clear in the diagrams below. There are some scenarios to deal with:

SCENARIO 1) If Aloy had ZERO lenses to give Rayna and the player is only now aware that others exist somewhere on the map, then they'll receive notification of a new "errand" quest, which is to retrieve all the lenses and take them to Raynah in town.

SCENARIO 2) If Aloy gave Raynah SOME lenses, then there remain a few to collect. That's still covered in the errand requirements. 

But what about players like me, who have crawled all over the map like an archaeologist and created...

SCENARIO 3) Aloy gives Raynah ALL the lenses? 

It's clear from some variations in when and how Raynah's dialogue is presented that the development team was aware this was a possibility. But I don't think they caught everything. In my experience, I noticed something odd about Raynah's farewell on the clifftop. I gave her ALL the lenses. But in her parting shot, she still told me to "come see her in town" if I found any more. Why would I do that? I asked myself. I don't have anything more to give you. 

I've mapped it out below to highlight the oddity.

I only found out later by accident that Raynah DOES go back to the village. She flagged me down while running around. I might not have spotted her otherwise. Upon engaging with her, she gave me a final reward, which surprised me. It was a totally chance encounter. Based on the messaging that the quest was complete, and having no indication that an errand mission ever existed, I had no reason to seek her out. I could just have easily gone through the entire game without ever collecting the final reward. 

And that's why, in my case, it's more of a miscommunication than a design flaw. Raynah DOES technically tell you to come see her, but then the game sort of overwrites that message by saying "congrats, you're done!" 

I completed the quest before the first patch was released, though none of the patch notes I read indicate anything has changed with this side quest as of 1.08. I watched several videos of other players completing the quest while already in possession of all the lenses. In their case, Raynah immediately announces on the clifftop that she'll leave the area and go back to her home. If you have to complete the errand, she doesn't speak that dialogue until she's in the village. So far, I'm the only instance I know of getting a "hybrid" message, in which you hand over all the lenses but Raynah still waits for you in the village.

I would love to know if other players who give Raynah all the lenses at the cliff still find her in the village, and if she gives them any additional rewards. Assuming I'm not the only one who's had the experience, I find it interesting that the presentation of cues to the player make it ambiguous as to whether they should seek Raynah out in the village. 

At any rate, this was the first instance I came across in which the quest's narrative had to be flexible in response to potential scenarios created by the player. It's a great demonstration of how players can be granted control over outcomes and story beats, and highlights the power of games as interactive fiction. There weren't too many instances like this in Zero Dawn, and seeing one so early in Forbidden West makes me hopeful for many, many more throughout. 

Adventures in Horizon Forbidden West's Side Quests: Part 2

Continuing my journey through the Forbidden West, I remain impressed with the way the team at Guerilla synthesized worldbuilding, main line story, and character development in the quick little detours off the beaten path. I'll jump right into it.

Side Quest #4: "The Twilight Path"

The quest sets up an unscrupulous business owner named Tolland against a group of refugees who follow the Shadow Carja religion. They're basically squatting on an area full of salvage that Tolland wants to recover. He's willing to send a goon squad in to intimidate or even kill the Shadow Carja to get them to move. Aloy decides to intervene.

Again, it's a solid inciting incident that is convincing enough to pull Aloy from her main quest. I also loved how the refugees are Shadow Carja, which is a direct reference to the story from the last game. On the one hand, it's great to see that this game is a continuation of a broader story and consequences from the last game's events are playing out in the world beyond Aloy's experience. On the other hand, now that I think about it, people who didn't play the first game probably paused so they could hit Google up for the backstory here. While inconvenient to those players, it's a creative choice I agree with because the overall world is richer for it. Nobody would expect to jump into Season 2 of a show without lacking context, so that's a hit the uninitiated player has to take.

Aloy is not having it with religion this time around.

The quest's progression involves Aloy fighting off a group of goons attacking the refugees. She then tries to talk the refugees into leaving before they're murdered. They won't go until their prophet returns from a mountaintop. Aloy climbs up to retrieve the prophet.

Once up the mountain, Aloy must fight through some machines to find the prophet. He's been wounded during the climb and after encountering the machines. He asks Aloy to retrieve an artifact from a local tower. Ironically, it's the very artifact that Tolland was eager to salvage. Getting it is a simple matter of some more climbing. 

Aloy returns to the prophet with the artifact, only for him to die of his wounds. Aloy returns to the refugees with the artifact, which they can then use to purchase supplies and land to live on. Tolland is angry but doesn't dare mess with Aloy. 

Overall, it's a mission of mercy that's become a trademark of Aloy's character in both games. It's well-executed. However, I also notice another element of her character bubble to the surface during the quest's storyline -- Aloy's disdain for religious fervor. 

Aloy makes it clear she believes the only sensible choice is for the refugees to move on for their own safety. She doesn't hesitate to express her frustration at every turn when the refugees insist on waiting for their prophet, or when the prophet refuses medical care or help because he must wait on his god's message. This isn't the first time we've seen Aloy having no time for spiritual nonsense, but this case is unique. In most of her interactions with NPCs, the player gets a moment to choose a dialogue path. They can select a response that is either philosophical, passionate, or hard-nosed, to emphasize one of Aloy's character traits. That option never appears in this quest. Aloy doesn't try to appeal to the prophet's higher theological mindset or empathize with his belief that he must complete a sacred mission. She goes straight to criticizing him for blind faith. 

The team doesn't make Aloy totally heartless. She has a true moment of reflection upon finding the prophet has died. Is she finally forced to empathize a bit, or does she regret being so harsh to a dying man? It's left for the player to interpret, and for that reason and the way it's executed, it stands out to me as one of the best side quests in either Horizon game so far. 

I get that Aloy is more in tune with the realities of her world and knows most of what's in the religious scriptures is B.S., but I think it's telling about what the writers decided to do with the character by drawing a hard line in the sand on her principles regarding spiritual leaders. I'm eager to see how it plays out.

Adventures in Horizon Forbidden West's Side Quests: Part 1

I've become fascinated with the art of the side quest ever since listening to John Ingold's presentation at GDC in which he offered the encounter approach to open-world storytelling. I got addicted to Horizon Zero Dawn the moment I arrived at the in-game ruins of my alma mater at the U.S. Air Force Academy. It hit me like watching Charlton Heston discover the Statue of Liberty at the end of the original Planet of the Apes. After that, I was totally sucked into the task of finding out what had happened. I was more interested in exploring the world of HZD and completing any side quest that would reveal its secrets than I was in finishing the main storyline. Knowing I had high hopes for similar entertainment value in the sequel and that I'd be investing a lot of time into it, I decided to at least get some academic value out of it. So, after watching Narrative Director John Gonzalez's interview with Noclip and Leszek Szczepanski's talk on Building Non-Linear Narratives in HZD, I set out to play the game and... take notes on the side. 

As of this writing, I've only just left "The Daunt," which is the first region of the world map after the tutorial level and opening story elements. The area had a total of seven side quests. For clarity's sake, while the game menu has categories for "errands," "jobs," "challenges," and as-yet-undiscovered mission profiles, I refer to any task that sends you off to do anything for any reason a side quest. 

I found it notable that Guerilla's narrative team created a major challenge for themselves with the way they opened the game. Aloy is literally in a race against time to save the world. So intent is she on this task that she repeatedly takes extraordinary risks in gameplay, deliberately abandons friends during cinematics, and expresses a level of impatience that is palpably out of character during cut scenes. It's a masterful reintroduction to a character who has grown and matured since the last game, and not entirely in positive ways. All of this sets an unmistakable tone for the game's storylines with high drama. The problem is that the gravity of the situation is so tremendous that it's almost unimaginable that Aloy would stray off the main quest path. 

Their solutions are, with few exceptions, superb. Relying on Aloy's selflessness and compassion, she is excused from her life-or-death mission to engage in other life-or-death circumstances. A quick rundown: 

Side Quest #1: "Deep Trouble"

The closest side quest to your entry point. It's a very straightforward intro to the world, with a meaningful backstory that builds on issues within the Daunt. An explosion in a mine has caused a flood, leaving two miners trapped. Aloy goes in and finds the miners. To free them, she must blow some charges to let the water out. Aloy sneaks by or defeats several machines to get to the charges, blows them, and frees the miners. She gets some physical rewards and a bit of backstory about the miners' situation. It informs later side stories down the trail. All in all, the gameplay is fun and the tidbits of information telling you Aloy can expect complications are juicy. 

Side Quest #2: "A Dash of Courage"

Aloy arrives at the town of Chainscrape. There are plenty of quests here. I picked this one as the second because it's the one exception to an otherwise excellent array of side quests, and for that reason I just want to get it out of the way and go back to good stuff. 

The cook in the tavern is being bullied by what passes for the local mafia. He asks Aloy to get him a few cooking ingredients and a special piece of scrap metal so he can cook her a meal. Aloy agrees and goes to a machine area, whereupon she fights the machines and retrieves the scrap. The cook prepares a tasty dish for her and she gets a free food item to boost health and abilities. 

I get it that food is a new mechanic in Forbidden West and it needed to be introduced at some point, but this whole quest just didn't fit. It's not believable that Aloy would break from her primary mission to help a cook. And the cutscene of the cook actually preparing the meal breaks from the tone and feel of the game. Just in terms of story, Aloy needed a more compelling reason to go on the quest. 

Since Aloy needs to help the locals prepare for peace talks with hostile tribes in order to gain safe passage through the forbidden west, I would have tied the cook's purpose to preparing a banquet for the meeting. As it stands, this one stood out as the most non sequitur storyline.

Side Quest #3 "The Bristlebacks"

The business at the mine is a valuable foreshadowing of internecine troubles in the town. The local mafia boss who maintains he's "just an honest businessman" is trying to squeeze the appointed mayor for land concessions. It looks like he might get them after a group of extremely dangerous machines unexpectedly infest the Daunt. Aloy agrees to kill the machines. Along the way, she discovers that the machines likely got into the Daunt through a mineshaft that was illegally blasted. It looks like the mafia boss got greedy, bored too deep into the mine, and let the machines in by accident. That can't be made certain until Aloy finds the other end of the tunnel, but the tunnel isn't accessible.

At this point, the quest goes on hold! I've never seen that before, and it's a neat trick. It really demonstrates how committed Guerilla is to the game's story. "Sorry, gratifying your desire for XP and loot must be delayed so that this plot can develop a little more." The underlying thesis, and I think it's one that games are too often afraid to assert, is that the story is a reward of its own that has value equal to or greater than loot or even player advancement. 

I don't begrudge Horizon's narrative team for that. As I continue to move forward with both the main storyline and the side quests, I find they constantly vindicate themselves by delivering on those story beats. Good things come to those who wait.