Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds Story Analysis - A Sign of Things to Come

the frozen wilds horizon zero dawn's first and only dlc expansion was released on november 7 2017 a little over eight months after the release of the base game it was received favorably by critics citing it as a wonderful addition to an already exceptional game with its narrative and new ensemble of characters sharing the stage as its stars alongside the new beautiful bomb in which it's set on top of that is a marked improvement in its presentation both in its side quests activities and character interactions as well as introducing a host of new incredibly dangerous machines as mentioned in the last video i will almost exclusively be focusing on the frozen wild's narrative elements in this video only mentioning gameplay when and where it's applicable appropriate or unavoidable as it pertains to the story given that its story is considerably shorter being only a dlc after all i hope to go into far more detail than i did in the zero dawn video while staying far more succinct only time will tell if i'm successful in this a few housekeeping eyes will want to go before we dive into this the frozen wallet is set concurrently with the main story of zero dawn becoming available after you reach day tower the proverbial starter act 2. that said though zerodon has a hard ending instead of sending you back to the main menu it simply sends you back to the start of the second to last main story mission meaning you are under no obligation to finish the frozen walls before you in effect finish the main game like any uncompleted side quests and activities it will be waiting for you with that in mind know that for this video i played the frozen wilds after i completed the main story as has been the case on all my previous playthroughs before this there's a few reasons for this firstly i find the dlc works best narratively with the full knowledge of the main story at your disposal for reference secondly the frozen wilds is incredibly difficult by comparison to the main game with a recommended starting level of 30 though i would wait until you're at least level 40 plus unless you're on a new game plus run there's also a third reason but i'm going to save that for later in the video where i believe it'll make more sense i recommend watching the zero dawn video before this one as i will be referring to it quite a bit with that said spoilers for all of the frozen wilds summer zero dawn as well as cut scenes from the forbidden west now wrap yourself in your warmest clothes and grab a hot cup of joe as we follow eloy on her journey into the frozen wilds i can't wait i can't wait i can't wait [Music] we begin the frozen wallets by speaking to one of three npcs all of whom are marked by a brand new quest marker that appears once you reach day tower and start act 2 of the main story one of them an asura nindo tour can be found right away in day tower the others are ravid a young carja noble win we can find along the way of broken stones outside meridian and yariki a banuk woman serving as envoy to sun king of odds court though only because no other branuk would accept the role though providing different perspectives they all more or less similarly describe the region in which the frozen wallets takes place known as the cut as well as the situation currently unfolding in the region new machines are running rampant far more dangerous than what's found in the south afflicted by some curse or malevolent spirit or miasma as robin wood said to court and the evil miasma who knows what those ten-dwelling savages consider evil or are my asthma i just want to hunt though no number is given it's inferred that a great many banuk have been killed as a result though altura and eureka insist against it eloy is immediately interested and decides to head north and investigate beginning the climb just north of the graveyard we receive a call over our focus what are you doing clearly still spying through her focus silence is less than impressed by alloy's decision to galavan northward claiming the nuke have nothing to offer but useless mysticism what he says is largely dependent on what stage of the main story you're on but the gist is largely the same as is aloy's response surprise you're still checking up on me i thought you had moved on you might have encountered the banuk on a few occasions in the base game either out in the open world or during a select few side quests among them are some shamans as is tradition among the banuk they've threaded blue cables through their skin so as to contain the blue light of the machines in their bodies the nuke religion being centered around this blue light silence for some unknown reason has done this as well which makes his opposition to ayla going north as well as this early response to eloy's noted observation of his threaded cables all the more interesting touchy eventually we come across a frozen pawn and is here that we come face to face with a scorcher one of the new machines we were warned about earlier it's also marked as demonic wrapped in purple glowing cables not unlike the red corruption placed on machines by hades a comparison that eloi can even make a little later on though already damaged the scorcher can still be quite a challenge proving that what alloy heard earlier about these new machines was no joke once the scorcher is out of the way we continue up the mountain path approaching what appears to be some sort of outpost we receive a rather ominous welcome [Music] okay that's a welcome i guess it's here as we pass through the mountains cavernous passage that we receive our official welcome to the frozen wilds [Music] once through the passage where we're greeted by some rather assertive banuk we see that there may be a lot more wrong in the cut than just what we've been told if you speak to yariki before making the trek north she'll mention a mountain that burns day and night as we can see that's quite the understatement the mountain belching so much black smoke and crackling with so much lightning that it would put mount doom to shame it's also here that we lay our eyes on our new snowbound playground for the first time this is the aforementioned cut located south of the banuk homeland of banur once considered an integral part of banur itself it was left ruined and severely depopulated by the red rate the cards are laying it to waste on more than one occasion thanks in no small part due to its proximity to the sundom it's from the war that the region got its name the land having been cut away by the carja invaders what's left is a sword of no man's land where the banu maintain their traditional authority but outlanders particularly awesome traders and some rather brazen karja hunters are free to come and go as they please so long as they don't step on banuk toes this has often been the source of some tension but as being a tribe that tends to keep to themselves most banuks simply leave them be and vice versa the cut status as a no man's land is further compounded by just how harsh it is the region is bound in a sort of forever winter locked in snow and ice gripped by sub-freezing temperatures which is more likely to kill the unprepared well before any machine does it's in this sort of environment that the banu thrive for as we'll discuss later their entire culture is based around the art of survival of prevailing ace any and all challenges or die trying what better place to do so than in a land so harsh as the cut continuing along we quickly enter song's edge the largest settlement in the cut though calling it a settlement is a bit of a stretch for it's nothing more than a smattering of tense which is in keeping with the banuk's semi-nomadic lifestyle aloy spots a plume of smoke rising from within the village and we head to investigate following the path snaking through the village we noticed that the entire populace is moving in the same direction suggesting that something is about to go down it's here that we're introduced to bergrin an awesome trader based in song zed who you might have heard mentioned indirectly by altur if he spoke to him to start the dlc he's our first point of contact in the area where we can learn more about the banuk and the present situation unfolding in the cut before we can do that however we're treated to a cinematic the big something is in fact a sort of funeral for a large number banuk recently killed during some clash that we haven't learned about yet though given what we learned about the dangerous machines and evil spirits it can be assumed that their deaths are tied to that as bergeron tells it the banuk usually burned their dead but not this time around with alloy correctly suggesting that this is because the bodies couldn't be recovered instead the banuc have created effigies for which some shamans call upon a tree of glinthogs to swoop down and take away into the sky which is meant to represent their fallen kinsmen being taken to the revered blue light it's here that we're introduced to aratok a banuk chieftain who calls upon the gathered hunters to join him in taking up arms against the daemon that's frenzying the machines in the cut this old but confirms how it is that the slain banuk were killed while giving us a name for the curse that we've been told about the daemon aratak's call is met with uproarious support which draws a wry remark from berggren had friends use the machines machines that wiped out their best and what do they want to do go back up there fools now we can speak at link with bergen who gives us the lowdown on the situation the cut as well some in-depth information in various optional dialogue paths as he tells it a shaman named arya showed up to song's edge one day going on about a spirit and damon residing on thunder's drum the mountain belching smoke and lightning in turn aritak marched their wear act the term for a banu clan up to the mountain to face the daemon and lost half of the wherex hunters in the process following this disaster oraya inexplicably vanished at which point bergen had hoped old talk of spirits and the daemon would go with her instead as we just saw aratok is gearing his hunters up for another foray into thunder's drum against all conceivable common sense at least according to bergrind like most ostrom bergeron considers any and all superstitious talk to be nonsense though even he recognizes that the machines are becoming more dangerous given the hard to miss signs it could be because of the damon or it could be because they all got indigestion for all i know despite bergen's insistence otherwise ayo is determined to find out what this demon is and its connections to the machines and their behavior this means she has to find arya though all that anyone knows is that she was last seen heading to the ice rasps the mountain range that forms the western border of the cut it's here bergen suggests seeking out her apprentice naltuk who has gone to investigate rumors of a new machine and some sort of mysterious structure possibly connected to the daemon with this information we can head off to find no tooth but not before having the chance to speak with boss man aratak himself and try to get a new perspective on things i say try because as berger puts it he isn't one for much talking well i guess that's it then good i prefer deeds to words right we do learn a few things though such as that aratak was born and raised in the cut and that he led the defense of the region in the red raids we also get bit more depth on the banuk particularly their belief that there's no worse fate than turning down a challenge even with the risks being so great the risk of what death it would be a worse vader bauer hits the challenge and say too much following the river north we eventually find naltuk who's watching that it's the new structure we heard about a short bit ago some sort of tower surrounded by machines bearing the same purple glow as the scorcher we fought earlier according to naltuk these machines belong to the daemon which has them guarding these towers that are dotted across the cut the towers send out a wave like pulse that can repair these machines making it necessary to disable them before engaging on top of this the pulse can zap your shields if you're wearing the shield weaver armor as well as render your mount inoperable halo immediately asked to know where arreya is but as at the banu quay naltook refuses to say saying only that she goes where shaman's tread a roundabout way of saying that she's gone where outlanders such as aloy are welcome seeing only one way forward ailoy offers to help stop the damage spread by disabling the tower though only under the expectation that no2 gives her the answers she needs there are two ways of disabling these towers either destroying it by shooting an exposed vent or overriding it causing the tower to send out an electrical shock wave that briefly disables any nearby machines once the tower and the machines are dealt with ailoy returns to naltuk who's more than a little awestruck by what he's just seen realizing that she should probably in fact meteor raya and vice versa he informs us that she's gone somewhere beyond the ice rafts taking a trail called the shaman's path to speak to the voice of the blue light going into retreat beyond the shrine at its end we can also ask about what happened at thunder's drum altook wasn't there but he saw a ray in aratok arguing bitterly just before she disappeared into the mountains suggesting that there's more to array's disappearance than might first appear ascending the ice wraps we find the beginning of the shaman's path nestled deep in the mountains its entrance lit up with the same fluorescent blue glowing crystal stuff that we saw in the caverns leading to the cut earlier entering the cave we begin to traverse the path and search for area the best way i can describe the shaman's path is that it's the dlc's take on the proving and its immediate aftermath from the base game of course gameplay wise they couldn't be more different but i find their narrative placements rather similar they both come after some time spent setting up their stories coupled with taking some time to get herself settled within our new environs they also have conclusions to add further meaning to already pre-established plot points or raising new questions that push their stories along they also at one point or another present a secondary threat or antagonist working in tandem with the main antagonist which we may or may not already have rudimentary knowledge of the path starts in the aforementioned ice caves with the option of using markers to point us in the right direction where markers aren't present there are wind chimes to emit just enough sound for alloys focus to pick up and follow for such a linear section it's quite easy to get lost sometimes and i still find myself having to stop and think for a second before getting myself readjusted and back on the right path considering as i just mentioned there aren't markers every time there's a convergence of caves the wind chimes are rather welcome aid eventually we make it back outside but not before duking it out with two demonic stalkers a sign of the daemon's influence has tainted what can be assumed to be an incredibly holy site for the banuk the next portion of the path offers new challenges in the form of raising and lowering bridges made so by waterfalls there isn't anything very noteworthy about them it's all just a matter of timing your jumps and crossing when the bridges are in the right position after the last bridge the weather takes considerable turn for the worst the sun blotted out by dark clouds snowfall increasing exponentially it's shortly after during a nearly failed jump by ayla that we catch our first glimpse of yet another new machine bearing the trappings of demonic possession only adding further credence to everything we've heard regarding the damon's power and influence definitely something new out here and i don't think it's friendly further along the path and up a cliff wall we find a campfire and a bunch of chests full of crafting supplies and potions a not-so-subtle suggestion that we might be getting into a bit of a ruckus if the demonic tower ahead wasn't enough of a hint jumping down into the valley we quickly come face to face with the very machine we caught a glimpse of earlier a frost claw a very new very dangerous machine akin to an enormous bear capable of crushing melee attacks as well as ranged attacks making use of as his name would suggest ice we can either sneak past and continue along the path or take the frost claw on and see how we fare with this new mechanical beast the tower does complicate things a bit what with its ability to repair so it'd be wise to quickly take it out first before handling frost claw once we've either taken out the frost claw or snuck past him we finally arrive at the shrine at the end of the path where we can take a piece of blue gleam just as now took suggested prior to setting off to find ora blue gleam is the frozen wild's new form of currency used alongside mental shards to buy the best armor weapons and treasure boxes in the dlc earned by either finding it out in the world or by completing side quests and activities it also holds some religious value to the banuk who believe it to be the revered blue light frozen by the cold upon being released from dead machines in reality however it's just frozen machine fluid hush a shaman secrets are not spoken aloud that said given its importance both culturally and in terms of trait it's rather strange it isn't given much more depth beyond this aforementioned bit of lore which you can only learn of in an optional conversation path from altook in fact i don't even think it's brought up again after this safer when aloy takes a piece at the aforementioned shrine beyond the shrines and enters to some old world ruins deep in the mountain where orea has gone to once inside we begin to come across a series of data points which begin to tell a story of their own they introduced us to a couple key characters in this side story kenny chao anita sandoval and dodger blevins of these three blevins is the least important but he comes off often enough to be worth mentioning the emergency supply order try reading it this time okay you sh weasels don't want me calling my people in slc together along with many more staff they worked on a project known as firebreak back in the 2040s these ruins as well as others across the cut being a part of it what firebreak is remains a mystery though what's mentioned and seen suggests that it was a massive undertaking we also learned that kenny and anita were romantically involved which i think was meant to make us more emotionally invested in this pre-feral plague subplot but compared to what we learned later on in the story it kind of falls flat it's also here that we learned that some data points in the frozen world are both audio and text-based they open with a short snippet of audio which is then expanded on by a chunk of text frankly i'm not a fan of this i won't go so far as to call it terrible just that i'm glad that it wasn't carried over into forbidden west the frozen walls can be best described as being a sort of test bed for gorillas developers to try new and different things particularly in its narrative and cinematic design with the added benefit of having feedback on the base game at their disposal while the vast majority of the changes are very welcome improvements the dual audio tech style of a data point isn't these data points are interesting but given that players will have been preconditioned by the base game to believe that audio data points are just that they won't either be bothered to open up the menu and read the text or won't even realize that there's text to be read their only announcement being a pop-up once the audio is finished while the audio stamp is offer enough to convey what's being presented the text portions provide so much more information that if you miss it you may be left confused by just what the hell is going on while the immediate story involving aloy isn't affected by this thank god if you're even remotely interested in this old world subplot then you run the risk of being rather confused by the end of it along the way we come across the dlc's first puzzle door but these aren't like the ones found in the base game whereas in the base game you merely turn dials to match the required pattern to get through here you turn dials on the floor to change the flow of light until it reaches the required endpoint i don't have much to say about them except that despite what i said in the zero dawn video about disliking puzzles in games i actually found these ones to be rather enjoyable and i find it a bit of a shame that they aren't brought back and forbidden west once we're through the door and complete a quick platforming section we're back outside considerably higher up than we were before clamoring over some scaffolding we reach another door that takes us back inside the mountain eventually we find a ray in a large chamber working on some sort of mural at the far end speaking to some unseen entity begging that is speak to her while eloy cautiously approaches from the other side when she turns and spots eloise she's immediately shocked and perhaps a little perturbed since the wave was supposed to be blocked done so by someone she calls the spirit alloy points to the floor puzzle at the center of the chamber referring to the one we used earlier and offers to show arraya howe i could show you yes show me please once we solve the puzzle we're immediately greeted by the aforementioned spirit though it's clear that it's far from what the banuk believe it to be it quickly calls for rhea asking for her help but as quickly as it appears it's overtaken by another entity the daemon the spirit attempts to fight back but is overwhelmed by the daemon who quickly severs the transmission despite being rather brief we learned some important details in this scene that the spirit and the demon are in fact very real though clearly not in the mystical sense as the nuke belief that the daemon has trapped the spirit in its clutches somehow and that the spirit and arya seem to know each other hurray is floored by what she's just seen quickly viewing aloy as a revelation as well as latching onto the idea that they could together free the spirit from the daemon's clutches aloy pumps the brakes a bit given that in her mind despite having many questions she still hasn't learned a damn thing with reya more than willing to answer what she can as just mentioned array has some sort of relationship with the spirit one that dates back to the red raids arreya was on the run from the karja who had scattered her werack cut off and alone she took refuge in the mountain when she couldn't get the raiders off her tail inside she heard the spirit who helped her escape by locking the way in the same door we unlocked earlier with the carja taken care of the spirit asked to ray for help saying that she was hurt and needed fixing in the chamber were the necessary parts the spirit asking orea to bring them to thunder's drum where it resided there the spirits showed area how to repair it thus beginning what area calls their communion so began our communion she returned to this beer many times the two keeping each other company with arya eventually bearing her soul to it while the spirit according to her just listened never once judging her arreya refers to the spirit as a lost soul stranded by the fading of the blue light caused by the growing anger of the machines which we know as the derangement it's here that the daemon enters the equation as arya tells it the spirit told her that it was under attack by this malevolent entity that it needed its power to do what it willed what that is is unknown only that the spear was desperate to shed itself the damage shackles even if it meant being destroyed in the process i say was because according to oraia the spirit told her that five years ago in fact the quick blip of the spirit we saw only moments earlier was the first time she had heard its voice in those five years that's because due to the ongoing war with the car just she was taken prisoner as he tried to reach aratok only returning to the cut well after the liberation upon her return she and eritak gathered to wear nuke hunters to march on thunder's drum and face the daemon the result of this showdown was the very funeral we saw when we first arrived at song's edge unable to agree on what to do next correa returned to the very chamber we're in now in the hopes of hearing the spirit again which she did thanks to eloy a lloyd resolves that the only way to truly figure out what's going on is to obviously go to thunder's drum but oreo makes it clear that it's not possible and not just because the daemon has turned it into a fortress as chieftain arata controls the past to the mountain and has forbidden access to it eloy suggests offhandily that they should just get a new chieftain with arraya suggesting that there would be those who would agree it's then that she gets an idea challenge our talk ayo is automatically against the idea but when arreya states rather plainly that it's the only way they'll be able to get to the mountain she reluctantly accepts i can't believe i'm agreeing to this herreya stipulates that to earn the right to challenge aerotalks she must gain the wherex attention before listing off ways that can be done as well as presenting aloy with a new weapon from here we can set off and make our name in the cut but i'd be remiss if i didn't mention that we can also ask area about silence you can actually first ask bergen about him when you first meet him but all he's heard is rumors and whispers that tree sounds like some boogeyman suggesting that he's a well-known entity among the banu when we ask goria she states he swore into an oath of secrecy on the matter by the conclave a group of the most important banuk shamans that meet in banure from time to time but does infer that science is indeed very powerful even if he is shrouded in constant secrecy alloy is persistent but orea is steadfast in her silence and thus the matter is dropped at least for the time being for now we have some banuk tune press exiting the mountain onto the platform overlooking the cut we can begin to plot our next move pondering all the while on what we and aloy have gotten ourselves into from array on the mountain we have a few options on how to get the whereax attention though this task may seem daunting at first made more so by the litany of markers on screen as we exit the mountain you don't have to do all of them to progress the quest needing only to complete two of them these are reactivating a tall neck frozen nice doing so by recovering some components scavenged by well scavengers allowing us to override and reveal the surrounding land clearing out a bandit camp led by an ostrom pyromaniac named olgrad who stole a weapon from an ostrom tinker named varga who just so happens to be bergeron's daughter you're both how do i put it dead women no no no no no independent winning at the hunting grounds far to the north which are run by lalvic an older banuk woman who insisted it was they who started them not the karja so who was the first we were and the car just stole it from you that's right and finally gathering pigments for the painter sakuli a friend of a reyes who resides on the scaffolding overlooking song's edge the end result being a massive mural featuring aloy on the cliff face though they appear like busywork and you could argue that one of them certainly is i'd argue that this is mostly acceptable because it works at pushing to explore the cut discovering new places people and even quests they also provide ample world building and storytelling in certain respects the tallneck for example isn't just a set piece he was knocked over in a storm then encased in ice when it was unable to get up again we also find numerous dead banuka around his base suggesting that they were defending it from the ravenous scavengers we come across some of whom are under demonic possession once you've completed two of these objectives you return to song's edge where eloise laser spirit eratoch's feet initiating her challenge the work you this must be a joke it is not a joke eratuck it's here that array appears to back her claim meaning that eratok has no choice but to accept though only one woman leadership of whereax is shared between chiefs and shamans and so being the latter array's voice carries enough weight to force eretak's hand it's here we learn that eritak and ray's disagreement isn't so cut and dried because they're siblings brother and sister this is a little more complicated than i thought no it's simple you will meet me at the frost figures and i'll put a quick into this mockery aloy is none too pleased by this revelation is quick to confront derail on the matter arreya reasons that she didn't think she'd have to also adding that she didn't want elo to think their journey was merely an extension of their family squabble she's also rather surprised that aratak even brought it up particularly in front of a stranger usually being a man of few words i prefer deeds to words aloy seems to accept this explanation but does reprimand array for her secrecy stating that if they're going to succeed they need to be straight with each other aurea recognizing that she underestimated eloy promises not to make the same mistake again and sets off for the frost figures frankly i find the whole brother-sister angle to fall rather flat my guess is that the writers were trying to recontextualize their relationship and subsequent quarrel in a more emotional and meaningful way and yet it fails to do either anyone with siblings younger or older can tell you that such arguments are often though not always part and parcel of such relationships and so it is supposed to be a huge moment in the story doesn't survive first contact beyond the follow-up conversation with arreya it's only later that it holds any real emotional weight but by then the dlc story is pretty much over by that stage and thus loses any potential meaning it might have had despite the writers gently driving this plot point home at several points after its initial reveal heading for the frost figures we find arataka and area overlooking a small valley it's here that we learn the full details of the challenge essentially it's a race to see who can hunt machines the fastest doing so over three stages split up by platforming sections all while being observed by members of the werack at the end of each section are balloons that must be launched into the sky after completing them to mark their progress the third stage is where both hunters compete directly with one another with the first to launch the final balloon declared the winner either taking or retaining the title of chief sounds simple enough right except for one teensy-weensy detail as challenger eloy's path will be considerably harder should any one of her balloons be launched after aaron talks he wins and retains the title of chieftain before things get underway aratok calls eloy off to the side to have a private word to convince her to withdraw stressing that she quite simply isn't banuk that she cannot begin to understand the responsibilities of being a chieftain and that he won't risk arrey's life again aloy refuses of course fully recognizing that there's no other way to gain access to the mountain otherwise which draws air attacks ire quickly snuffed out by area though this scene isn't all that important to the wider narrative i have to highlight eloy's comportment here she was never shy about challenging those in positions of authority in the base game either make no mistake about that but not like she does here with aratok staring him down with a steely demeanor calmly but coldly refusing to back down displaying an attitude that i doubt even the hardiest manuk would dare show him you have to remember aratok is an immensely skilled hunter and hardened warrior a veteran of the red race a wearack chieftain whose name and legend carries an immense amount of weight and respect amongst his people with an imposing physical presence to match and yet here's alloy an outlander straight up refusing to be cowed by it then we'd better get on with this this could explain air attacks anger at the end taken aback by a response unused to being challenged in such a way there's also another possibility one that i'll get into later when i speak about him and array in more depth before we start the challenge i want to highlight arguably the biggest improvement the dlc has over the base game by now you may have already noticed the vastly improved animations both in dialogue sequences and scripted cutscenes while i think the scripted cutscenes in the base game get a bit of a bad rap the criticism surrounding the animations and dialogue sections particularly in facial animations and lip syncing are more than valid the frozen wild shows an astounding level of improvement in this area both in its main story and side quests dialogue sequences are still a little bit static in their implementation but are given so much more life with these new animations that you barely notice it this night and day improvement in the animations is my mystery third reason as to why i recommend you finish the base game before starting the frozen wilds because it can be quite jarring going from this to this then back to this dialogue delivery is also vastly improved that's not to say the voice performances in the base game were bad most were either very good or excellent just that there's such a better flow to conversations in the dlc my guess is that while most voice lines for each character were recorded separately for the base game the dlc saw more group recording sessions allowing the performers to better play off one another in their respective scenes this subtle change coupled with the improved animations and greater use of motion capture gives the frozen walls a wonderful cinematic quality that makes an already very good set of stories all the better at arrey's orders aloy and aratok take their places and wait for the shaman to get the call to start now though earlier i said the shaman's path is closer to it in terms of narrative placement and setup this challenge is far more similar to the proving in terms of gameplay though even here there are considerable differences for one this challenge is considerably longer what with the multiple stages i mentioned only a short while ago you may have also seen that there's a timer at the top of the screen adding a further amount of tension to the race this tension can be felt right from the first climbing section up to the first stage as there's multiple ways forward and you may accidentally take the long way up this can have a huge effect on how much time you'll have to complete the subsequent hunting section with you either having just enough time to be clinical about it or having to frantically kill the machines as quickly as possible this process is then repeated for the second stage though the clock mercifully resets upon starting it finishing the second stage we work our way down into the valley just as the storm begins to kick up and limit visibility if you're like me you'll immediately see this as a bad home and begin to think that shit's about to hit the fan taking a final slip wire aeloy lands in the valley at the same time as aerotalk and just as the final balloon is blown away in the storm as almost expected and as pointed out by aratok something clearly isn't right that something is not one not two 3 demonic frost claws so begins one of the more aggressively [ __ ] combat encounters in the dlc just in case you had somehow forgotten how difficult this dlc is especially when going up against these monstrosities yet this encounter isn't even the worst offender in this category the biggest ones coming later don't you worry great just what i need keeping in line with all that this fight is suitably chaotic though you do have aerotalk to give you a hand dealing some decent damage while being a pretty good distraction allowing you to get some shots in or at least focus all your attention on one of the frost claws for a bit after finishing off the not so carrying care bears aeli and airtalk finally have a chance to catch their breath just as the storm ever so conveniently begins to clear array and some of the other bonuccine arrived with one of them named ruatuk declaring the competition void since it never truly finished much to aeloy's visible frustration speaking of ruatuk we see her in another banuk named signutai speaking to arataka on a couple of occasions first after the funeral in song's edge then again later on still looking to him for orders despite alloy now being cheeked in and quickly leaving when she comes to speak to him this suggests that they're utterly loyal to aratak and are either subconsciously still seeing him as their chieftain or simply refusing to recognize alloy i bring this up because ruatuk is real quick to bring up the fact that the competition was cut short and that there can be no result perhaps in the hopes of all but guaranteeing eritak remains where chieftain eric though has other ideas you saw what she did [Music] she defeated the machines not i it is proven she is the better hunter we are banuk survive prevail what else matters [Music] my blood is in your teeth [Music] i take my place behind you on the hunt [Music] array swiftly declares the way to thunder's drum close to all but aloy and herself followed by aratak asking to go with them we get a brief moment where array appears to try and supersede eloy who quickly puts her foot down and inserts her authority granting eritak's request in the process only if you do as i say i find her rey's mannerism interesting here ever since we've met her in a rick street she's harped on about both of them going to thunder's drum presumably as equals or at least with aeloy having some nominal leadership after displaying her capabilities yet as soon as the weight of the mountain is clear she tries to assert some authority over the matter this could very easily be her looking to keep her brother in check but i'm not so sure earlier in an optional side conversation oreo bemoans how by keeping her from the mountain aratok was keeping her from her destiny by now it's no secret both in the dlc and in the base game that banuk shamans don't always see things through the fabric of reality but this line followed by this moment after the challenge suggests that aurea may see this more as a personal quest than a truly collaborative effort i don't think this is intentional on a rails part she mentions in that same earlier conversation that she prefers the company's spirits and herself not other people and as a result has a constant set of blinders on this single minus of hers could have been an interesting spin on the story hadn't been explored in more depth but unfortunately isn't with that said and done a rae and the other banuk set off with her telling aylor to meet them on a camp at the base of the mountain a place called long notch when she's ready setting the stage for freeing the spirit as well as for the final confrontation with the daemon chieftain [Music] [Music] [Music] in the frost claw fracas we can head straight to long notch and thunderstrum beyond but i consider the time between to be the best opportunity to complete the dlc side quests of which there are quite a few nope not all gildan i won't get into the nuts and bolts of them in short they carry over many of the base game's best qualities while like everything else in the dlc benefiting greatly from the vast improvements on the technical side improved animations dialogue delivery greater use of motion capture etc what a strange thing it is to be old to stare backward and see such distance but to stare forward at a looming wall given the sharper focus of the dlc all of them revolve around the banuc directly or indirectly it's through these quests that we learned quite a bit about bennu culture as well as glaring flaws which call into question the efficacy of the banuc mindset in this fast changing increasingly hostile world for this section we'll be looking at one side quest in particular that begs to question the most important pillars of the new culture and whether they can be sustained an outlander huh towards the north of the cut is a camp known as keener's rock where wearack knows the white teeth have taken up temporary residence a renowned group of warriors well known among the banuk they have come south from banur to test any hunters that wish to join them or run with them as they put it earlier i mentioned that the word werack is the banuk term for clan but that in truth is an inaccuracy one that i've intentionally withheld up until now clans traditionally are formed based on blood and familial ties but not wearax no one is born into one and a hunter must instead join one by way of a test the manner of which is set by the presiding chieftain with this in mind wherex are in a roundabout way more akin to sports teams of our modern world hunters can leave a warehack of their own volition or in the case of criminal lacks be exiled from the wearack wherex are also in practice meritocracies and a hunter's rank is determined based on having the proficiency of a particular skill especially something that the wearer can make active use of as well as whether or not they have earned the respect of the warehack itself for the white teeth their test is a trial bar ordeal to survive four days and four nights on a glacier in a region called the knife trail surviving on only what they can scrounge up from the landing machines and even the latter can only be harvested for weapons metal to fashion weapons the rest is forbidden each hunter is also expected to survive on their own to refuse help from others or offer help to others with only two possible outcomes at the end survival or death when ailoy meets the white teeth two hunters still haven't returned however the wearack has no intention of going out to search for them reasoning that it's all part of the trial if they're worthy to run with the white teeth they'll return if not the wherewick will simply mark their attempt and move on trusting that the glacier's runoff will carry the bodies out eventually eloy is rather disgusted by this and resolves to go and find them herself despite the chieftains stating that they won't accept her aid because survival is sacred nonetheless aloy heads for the glacier already we can begin to see a glaring issue in the new culture and it derives from those three words survival is sacred of course this mentality when viewed through the lens of banuk history as well as the lands they traditionally inhabit isn't without cost that part isn't hard to see the problem is that it's morphed into this quasi-religious mindset that has come to trump even the most basic courtesies such as helping or accepting help from others in times of need or even just looking for fellow hunters that have gone missing while this quest merely focuses on this aspect as it pertains to the white teeth it's a single-minded disposition that is manifested across most of the tribe as the banuk see it a hunter who cannot survive on their own who can't fend for themselves is a burden one that must be cast off another layer to this one that feeds off the survivalist aspect and will rear its ugly frozen head a little later in this quest is the banuc obsession with prevailing over any and all challenges and never backing down from one seeing it as shameful to do so even when death is practically certain this has almost bred a sense of fatalism among most banuk who see death as merely a byproduct of this lifestyle an honorable and for any hunter who stayed true to the ways of the tribe now this aspect isn't exactly unique to the banuk in this world but in their case it feels rather excessive all of that puts the banuk in a bit more precarious position than other tribes when the derangement is brought into the equation the results of eretox failed assault against the dame and already shows that this near fatalistic attitude towards challenges and survival could very well be the tribe's downfall if it doesn't go through a drastic overhaul of its entire culture now i'm not going to pretend like this is a simple fix that you can just change an entire tribe overnight i mean look at the nora in the base game it took them suffering a string of tragedies including being on the brink of annihilation followed soon after by alloys and passion chastisement to finally bring about a complete and total cultural shift for the banuc it would be far more difficult and complicated given their incredibly stubborn nature because they have no central governing authority to guide them the tribe only being held together by shared laws and customs judging by most banuk we've met change doesn't look to be coming anytime soon despite the many glaring signs that their way of life isn't sustainable in the face of the growing machine threat reaching the base of the glacier we find one of the missing hunters a young woman named decree after helping her take out her lance hortons and their accompanying watchers we immediately find that she's not like other banuk who else would join me on this path i've taken which path would that be away from tradition away from the werack it's before she can go into greater detail she and eloy become surrounded by a pack of demonic scrappers drawn in by the many machine carcasses midway through the subsequent fight a flock of glinthawks also arrive but eventually eloy and akrie take care of them all now we have a chance to speak with a cree biola county is more than capable of returning to the white teeth having completed their trial yet she remains because the second hunter mylene broke her leg while descending the glacier she and her crib have been friends all their lives but now their friendship has been severely tested mylen refusing any and all help as per the rules of the test akri offered food and medicine but mylen refused all of it keeping a cree at a distance now with the wherewick about to leave it's become paramount to a creed that milan get back to them for joining the white teeth is everything to her for a cree we'll get to that following a query up the glacier we find milan in a small ice cave unconscious and surrounded by a trio of long legs engaging the mechanized big birds were soon attacked by more demonic scrappers followed by a demonic scorcher to round off this combat section with the machines out of the way alloying a creek can finally check on milan aloy immediately begins to put on the splint decree made from mylen's leg stopping midway through and checking her temperature it's here that milan awakens and immediately begins to chastise a cree it's here that aeloy gives mylen an ultimatum five which would you rather keep my lin your leg or your pride because i think you're gonna have to choose swallowing her pride even if for just a moment milan allows aeloy to finish with the splint she gets up and begins to shamble away refusing any help in doing so accrue calls after her hoping that she can forgive her one day which leads to the following scene i never accepted your help it's the where act you should ask for forgiveness i didn't care about the werack and so the truth of it all is laid bare acree didn't share in my lens dream of joining the white teeth but still went ahead and risked her life in the trial to ensure that mylen her best and only friend would with aeloy's help she succeeded but clearly at a personal cost so determined to join the white teeth perhaps valiant tradition or their lifelong friendship mylene refused all of her help seeing their friendship as a burden an affront to the values of the where actually so long to be a part of unaware that a creed didn't share the same goal it was only at the end at accrey's words i didn't care about the wear act did she finally come to this realization even as she suddenly drenched with guilt there's nothing more that she can do except carry on down the glacier their friendship whatever was left of it by then had been irrevocably severed eloy attempts to console a cree but she won't be moved her whole world shattering before her eyes she resolves to go her own way away from the wear act those who led milan to die and perhaps even away from the tribe entirely when aoli asked what to tell the where she says to tell them that she fell and that milan endured with that alloy leaves a creek on the glacier returning to kenya's rock we go and speak with the white teeth chieftain my lane has returned as well and the chief didn't ask if alloy has anything to say about it his tone rather off-putting making him more unlikable than he already was halo and milan look at one another for a moment milan undoubtedly concerned that eloy might tell the chieftain that she had a hand in her coming back which would disqualify her from joining the wearack you get a choice in how you respond but the overall gist of all of them is the same by the rules of the ordeal and the laws of the banuk she endured four days and four nights on the glacier just as was asked of her as such my line is accepted into the white teeth on the subject of a cree aeloy complies with her wish and informs them that she fell with even milan recognizing what she means going along with the lie so ends the quest but we have a chance to speak with milan before we leave and it's here that i have to wonder if she truly learned anything despite fully understanding what a cree said back on the glacier she hobbled away she continues to justify her actions stating that the law of survival wouldn't allow a korean alloy to risk their lives to save her all because of mistakes she made hence her demeanor towards a cree this harkens back to a point i made earlier about the banuk that among other factors their stubbornness could be a major obstacle against making any meaningful cultural change it is possible that she's trying to justify it all more to herself than aylo here but given what we just learned and discussed i can't be sure look i like the banuk as a tribe and i hope they return to the series at some point but there's anything i've learned from this quest and the dlc as a whole is that they're the least prepared for what's coming down the road there's no denying the ravering skill but their quasi-religious overvaluation of the law of survival and prevailing overall challenges coupled with their lack of unity beyond a shared culture and set of laws is more than a little concerning to me throughout the series we see other tribes take steps to adapt to this ever-changing world willingly or by alloy's forced intervention and yet the banuks seem to almost take pride in going against this grain even if it's to their own detriment here's hoping that change happens before it's too late [Music] it's now time to ascend thunder's drum to free the spirit and face the daemon arriving at longnecks we can find aratok speaking to the two banuka mentioned earlier while array is further up at the entrance into the mountain waiting for eloy to give the go-ahead here we have a chance to stock up before making the trek as well as speak to both aratak and urea to learn more about their complicated relationship as mentioned earlier both were heavily involved in the red raids with aratok defending the cut against card to raiders while array was captured and taken to meridian and chains but not to be sacrificed or made into simple slave labor one of the shaman's responsibilities in aware ack is to track and stun machines with this knowledge in mind the karja made a point of capturing banuk shamans so they could use them to capture machines that would later be unleashed in their sun ranks as part of their blood sacrifices as zeratok sees it due to the horror she undoubtedly witnessed and the shame she suffered as a result of her forced participation in it not all of arya came back that she was changed by the experience for this reason he's fiercely protective of her so adamant about not letting her return to thunder's drum after the first expedition failed this protectiveness is the other possible reason i mentioned earlier that could explain why he gets so furious with eloy when she refuses to withdraw her challenge because her possible victory would mean that a rail would be able to return to thunder's drum away from his protection a justified concern because well here we are about to do exactly that area doesn't agree with his assessment claiming the cards didn't change her but sharpened her focus to hone in on what's important that being the spirit most of all though she does admit to thinking about aratak worrying for him while she was in captivity much in the same way he sees her area sees eritak greatly changed by the raids the carnage and stress of war leaving him emotionally hardened more so than usual despite enduring numerous wounds he instead complains that life with her is harder and to her credits she can see to this point recognizing that she hasn't exactly made it easy for him i think this is also a way to suggest that she knows aratak only wants to protect her just that both of them have failed to help one another understand clearly and concisely their motivations partly because arraya by her own admission earlier isn't good at judging people and reckon that aratak wouldn't entirely get it thus didn't explain her motivations beyond i need to go to the mountain and help the spirit it's here that i want to talk about another aspect of the frozen wilds that's done incredibly well and how it relates to these two and that's the topic of characters piggybacking off the points i made earlier about the improved animations and cutscenes and dialogue sections as well as dialogue delivery i want to acknowledge the brilliance of the characters in the dlc both in their presentation and their writing something that even alloy benefits from greatly tell me bergrind are you worried about their well-being or your purse strings a man can worry about two things forbidden west has received heaps and heaps of well-deserved praise in all those areas and the frozen wild is where they were practiced and mostly perfected making the dlc with a generous application of hindsight a preview for what was to come in the sequel i love most of the characters in the base game don't get me wrong but due to their vastly improved presentation i find myself more connected with the dlc side characters and find the dialogue they provide more interesting and engaging my hope is that a few of them make a return to the series at some point more specifically cree who we've already met and hilarious ostrom delver named gildan who we meet in another side quest hell i'll even throw the shaman and juke in there as well admittedly this is entirely personal since his return would make zero narrative sense but i can't help but love the guy all you have to do for him is find animal figurines scattered throughout the cut and returned them to their assigned pedestals in a room museum he set up as some sort of shrine yet i find his infectious and humble love for naturalism as well as his uninformed yet often hilarious hypotheses about these animals to be so goddamn endearing and wholesome i just want to wrap him up and protect him from any and all danger on god if anything ever happens to him there will be hell to pay all of this to say the characters in the frozen wilds are excellent thanks to the improvements we've already gone over making them more engaging and interesting as a result unfortunately the same can't be said for these two this must be a joke it is not a joke aratak despite being the dlc's main supporting cast eritak and rare are just not that compelling of characters granted this is entirely subjective but i find their entire arc to fall rather flat which is unfortunate since we spend so much time with them i have to be fair and state that their performances are just as good as the rest in the dlc and they get enough depth to not ruin the narrative just not enough to make me really give a [ __ ] this could simply be down to the story's short run time and in this aspect i can't fault the writers as they would have had to have been very particular about what details to include and what to omit conversely though there are many other side characters with far less screen time that come off as far more interesting and gauging so much so that i would have preferred to hang out with them over these two i'd argue this is largely down to the brother sister plot point failing to be compelling when it was first revealed for reasons already went over earlier in chapter 2 and because it forms the basis for all of their interactions with the rest of the story without getting more interesting we get inklings of something better when we speak to them in and around long notch but it never reaches the levels that might have salvaged their place in the story again this could just be due to the sort of run time the writers had to work with with that in mind this might have been fixed and i must stress might have by there being at least one more quest before we head to thunder's drum where there could have been a deeper exploration of their relationship perhaps harkening back to a time from before the red raids from before the derangement even unfortunately what we have is all we got just to be clear i really like the frozen wild story particularly with how it builds on lore already established in the base game than further adding to an already very solid foundation with new lore however this is all in spite of its two most important yet most uninteresting side characters i can only imagine how much better would have been if the opposite of that last point was true guess we'll never know now before we move on we need to talk about silence again it's in this conversation with oreya that we can ask her again about him using aloy's new authority as chieftain to hopefully get some answers orrey is hesitant but eventually relents recognizing that eloy's past dealings with him justifies her need to know according to array a silence came to bonor from the far north as a young shaman or at least claiming to be one from a remote warehack known as the owl's watch who vouched for him when asked to confirm exceptionally intelligent and knowledgeable about the machines and with the desire to share his knowledge he was quick to gain the trust of the conclave who meet once a year a place called the maelstrom their most sacred meeting place he eventually gained an invitation to attend granting him the knowledge of the maunstrom this would unfortunately prove to be a grave error for when they gathered again the following year they found the mounds from have been looted of all its priceless old-world relics silence having cut through ice and metal to steal them before vanishing into thin air the conclave resolved to send hunters after him but none never returned they also checked back with the owl's watch but all who had vouched for him were gone some even began to doubt he was with nuke at all in the end every member of the conclave took a vow to never speak of it with the reyes recounting being the first time since then if you finish the base game prior to starting the dlc then none of this is overly surprising only furthering the fact that he's one massive douche canoe particularly when said alongside his involvement with hades in the eclipse if you haven't then this will come as the moment you learn the length silence will go to acquire knowledge arreya ends the conversation warning alloys to never lower her guard around him even if she can match or perhaps better him guard i'll keep that in mind hurry up thanks we've come to the moment of truth time to ascend the mountain but how as you can see both on the way to area and in the cinematic the way is blocked by a massive wall of ice with no real way up or around it eratoxin reveals the solution shattering a section of the wall uncovering an old world vent array not took then blows smoke from the nearby braziers into the vent which causes this to happen [Music] [Applause] [Music] the amazing in case you haven't already guessed the giant wall of ice is in fact the exterior of a massive old world facility frozen over and by blowing smoke into the vent they activated the emergency exit function opening the way into the mountain a need in clever detail that i think is often overlooked i too can call upon the power of the old ones entering the facility we can already see that is nothing like the old world ruins in the base game this is the heart of the fire break project though we don't know that yet array instead saying that the spirit referred to it as a fortress to defend mankind against an unknown threat we also find our first audio data point left by kenny chao returning to the facility in 2064 for the first time in years he's come back at anita's request who wants to find a way to suspend operations for some time though she isn't forthcoming on why by the sound of her voice kenny deduces that it's something terrifying that something is of course the feral plague given that it was still in its early stages this wasn't exactly public knowledge at that time so this does raise questions as to how anita would know about it there is an answer to this but it isn't given until much later and never with 100 certainty climbing over a wall we come across our first demonic machines dispelling any fleeting hopes that we might have had a nice easy john through the facility taking care of those we exit into a large open area dominated by what appears to be enormous generator heat coil looking things scorchers in a behemoth patrol this area aratok pointing out the banu corpses they had to leave behind the last time oreya then points out a second path up a flight of stairs and a round there are also machines there but also plenty of cover and tall grass giving us a stealthy option full disclosure i've never taken aerotox path so i can't say what the differences are between the two herrey's path is pretty simple though requires a lot of patience to do stealthily and can quickly devolve into a chaotic fracas with scrappers watchers stalkers and a long leg should you be caught regardless once you're through this area you're given a reprieve from the machines we also find another data point from kenny chow where he mentions that he can reduce the power draw so that fire breaks cooling system could be masked by the caldera wait what called dara you're telling me this facility's building around a volcano what the [ __ ] boys shut up ugh okay chances are i didn't flee with my horribly fake shock and surprise that said i think it's high time we talk about what project fire break really is because it's around this time that the pieces begin to fall into place so the full truth won't be revealed until towards the very end like almost all locations in the horizon series the region of the cut is set in a real life place in this case it's yellowstone national park in the state of wyoming in the park is the yellowstone caldera a massive super volcano that in our present timeline last erupted around 640 000 years ago in fact apart from occasional stirrings it hasn't risen from its slumber in roughly 70 000 years those scientists aren't convinced that there will be another catastrophic eruption akin to the ones in the distant past there is still the probability that it can happen though it's approximated to be only 1 in 730 000. in horizon's timeline however the caldera threatened to become unstable and wipe out much of the world in the 2040s possibly due to massive environmental upheaval in the 2030s and needed to be subdued at all costs this is where project firebreak enters the equation funded personally by ted farrow using technology that according to the horizon wiki was innovated by elizabeth sobeck all this led to the construction of the sprawling underground facility inside the mountain that the banuk know as thunder's drum the purpose of the project was to basically keep the caldera stable and stop it from exploding and causing a mass extinction event that could span the globe howe was never revealed though given the massive heat coil looking things we saw earlier which are in fact according to the horizon wiki geothermal energy taps it can be hypothesized that the system merely draws vast quantities of heat off the caldera not allowing it to build up and pressurize so how is this place still running almost a thousand years later the answer to that lies in the following conference room overlooking a large open area with a cauldron door on the far side we watch a hologram where kenny and anita with their unseen colleagues celebrate firebreak's successful launch we're then introduced to cyan who urea immediately recognizes as the spirit though she isn't entirely sure eloy is quick to realize what cyan might be an a.i though to what degree is unclear as of yet after heading down into the open area and taking care of the demonic machines present we inspect the cauldron door if you remember from zero dawn cauldrons were built by gaia to construct the machines with that in mind you're probably thinking that finding a cauldron inside a mountain isn't all that unusual except this cauldron door wasn't there before at least not while array was there prior to her capture the door was only discovered after the first expedition got as far as it making it a very new construct nonetheless we approached the door stepping past the corpse of the banuk that the first expedition had to leave behind and proceed to open it like any other door except just as we're in the process of doing so the daemon locks us out and unleashes a possessed thunderjaw oh joy taking care of the thunderjaw whose disc launchers you can't use once they're shot off for some goddamn reason we try the door again this time unhindered opening the door reveals yet more of the facility and a horrifying sight much of the facility has been overrun by strange purple glowing cables and wires products of the daemon's corruption array is visibly distraught by this and laments that the original path of the spirit cyan is lost to them alloy results to find a new path and leads the trio onward much of the original facility has been turned into a cauldron designated epsilon with only trace amounts of the original construct left usually in the form of pathways connecting sections together like cauldrons in the base game alloy has to navigate epsilon by solving environmental puzzles forming bridges starting off vents and taking down machines that get in your way the biggest difference of course is that you have aerotalk and array with you with much of the platforming sections revolving around finding a way to get them across certain gaps they also help in combat and while not the best it's certainly welcome along the way we come across a couple of the sections of the facility i just mentioned those mostly untouched by the daemon in these sections we come across holographic messages left by cyan which alloy can access using the master override though both are important the first one offers probably the biggest revelation of the entire dlc that the daemon is in fact hephaestus guys sub-function responsible for aiding the construction of the cauldrons as well as designing and building the machines meant to aid terraforming operations so how the hell did it end up taking over fire break and capturing cyan if we remember from zero dawn olive guy's sub-functions became chaotic self-aware ais when the mysterious signal woke them then got free when hades dissolved their code shackles where hephaestus went after this isn't revealed here but it eventually took control of cyan in the facility with it reconfiguring it to build hostile machines the message is then cut off when the daemon festus recaptures it the second message suggests that due to instabilities caused by hephaestus's reconfiguration that there may be a way to destroy compromised elements of the facility while preserving most of the backup stabilization because even in these dire straits the last thing anyone wants is an ancient super volcano exploding all of a sudden truth be told it might have actually made hades this plan of a second fair plague a bit easier but i digress i'd say get to the point no nonsense i like it interspersed with science messages are more data points from kenny chow where he postulates how he's going to mask cyan and by extension fire break then realizing through the news that the feral plague is what anita is trying to hide it from though with added dread that if such an action is necessary that no one is going to survive except for cyan there's one last data point from kenny before we reach the facilities control center his final chat with anita followed by his lamenting of missed opportunities and deepest regrets revolving around his relationship with her despite what i said earlier about this whole old world romantic subplot falling flat i'll admit that i'm touched by this data point every time i find it largely due to just how well it's written even if i forget about it mere moments later there's also one more interesting tidbit that can easily be missed here and that's anita asking for some of science confidential log pertaining to emotional responses which have been kept secret because cyan was designed to have emotions and empathy which had been outlawed at the time of its creation why did she need that log you may ask because she was working on another ai one that just might save the world from the pharaoh plague i'll let you think about that one for a bit following this data point the control center comes into view overrun by hephaestus infestation while the malevolent ai spouts orders in a very creepy computerized voice [Music] in the control center we find cyan completely wrapped up by hephaestus cables while beyond is the cauldron's core protected by some sort of shield approaching cyan we activate the dlc's final floor puzzle a fairly complicated one and by far the best of them all once the puzzle is solved cyan is briefly released from her imprisonment allowing a raid to speak to it for the first time in years it informs the trio that hephaestus is building thousands of hundred killers such as the frost claw and that several of them have already been released to stop this much of the facility must be destroyed with cyan directing them to the core just as hephaestus recaptures it knowing hephaestus will throw everything it has into defending the corps air attack asks already to go and save herself though he already knows that this isn't going to happen i would ask you to let aloy and i do what must be done and save yourself but i already know the answer approaching the core we find that the shield is being powered by one of the fastest towers overriding the tower sends out a shockwave that eliminates the shield around the core as well as the cables holding it this prompts the cord to retreat into the floor and were greeted by this [ __ ] a fire claw the frost claw's bigger and better cousin so begins the final boss battle of the dlc i hate this fight and i dread it every time i get here but not because it's poorly rigged or bugged or anything of that nature but because fire clutch is so goddamn aggressive that half the fight is simply trying to create separation to get any meaningful shots in making it infinitely worse than the fight with those three frost claws we talked about earlier much of the fire claw's abilities and move sets are exactly similar to its ice throwing brethren just instead it uses fire and does not considerably more damage adding to this hephaestus will call in more machines throughout the fight throwing more gasoline on an already raging bonfire bullshittery but wait there's more when you knock the fireclaw's health down to half then again at a quarter ephesus conjures up a tower to repair it unless you have to try and destroy them before they can repair the fire claw oh while pyromaniac winnie the pooh lights your ass on fire oh bother granted my complaints here are highly subjective because while i hate it i can acknowledge that others will feel differently especially when compared to the final fights with helis and hades also the dopamine hit you get when you finally walk the fire claw is pretty unreal once the fire claw is rightfully sent to hell i'm sorry i honestly hate them so much the cauldron car pops up from the floor and alloy proceeds to override it just like she has in every other cauldron prior hephaestus however has one last trick up its sleeve sending on a shock wave that immobilizes alloy it's then that area makes a fateful decision [Music] area don't spirit sion please help me restraints destroyed core access attained i am initiating a chain reaction that will destroy the compromised elements of this facility in order to maintain caldera stabilization i must now transfer my command functions to the auxiliary data center orea i'm free you must escape my sister cyan is finally free but at the terrible cost of array's life aratok is of course distraught by this his worst fear coming to pass unfortunately he has little time to grieve as science chain reaction begins to destroy the facility forcing him and alloys to make a hasty exit though it does take some persuasion from aeloy to get him to leave array behind [Music] survive prevail you are banuk what else matters [Music] [Music] let's go let's go [Music] what follows is a lengthy but pretty epic cutscene aylo and eritak making their escape on one of the cultures carriers halo almost falls off but is saved by air attack who then helps her get back on the carrier before conjuring a bomb out of nowhere at halo's request with the bomb alloy damages some robot arm thing which then redirects the carrier through a crag in the mountainside the carrier then somehow forgets how to fly sending a loin airtight flying down the mountainside chased by an avalanche that kind of appears out of nowhere the avalanche eventually gulfs the whole screen and we get a shortcut to black when we return we find them at the base of the mountain alive but unconscious somehow not vary by the avalanche but we'll just ignore that when they come to they're slow to get up no doubt exhausted and aching from their tumble aratak then asks what happened to cyan to which ayloid remembers it mentioning that it transferred itself to an auxiliary center which he postulates as a ray's retreat at the end of the shaman's path they agreed to meet there airtalk going on ahead and no doubt needing some time to be alone returning to arrey's retreat we find our talking conversation with cyan walking in just as cyan replaced its last recorded conversation with arya just before she was captured five years earlier i will speak of this to my brother aratak is strong at the battle of the frozen ghosts he took three karja arrows and still came back to camp carrying a wounded scout never was i so happy to see him we're so proud so you see if anything can be done to defend you he will give it all he has eloise here that's enough for now [Music] we can resume any time you like our attack if you want to hear her voice again [Music] come closer eloy we have much to discuss with aerotalk outside we have a chance to speak at link with cyan about a varied range of topics depending where you're at in the main story most of these conversation options might not be available but once you learn about them you can come back to cyan and ask about them given that at this stage it's a literal window into the old world albeit a limited one the most important ones as it pertains to the story are found on the main dialogue wheel with the second wheel being those aforementioned discoverable topics we learned that cyan is indeed a fully fledged ai though not to the same degree as gaia whereas gaia was designed to have a full range of emotions cyans are limited though it doesn't appear to be that way after it awoke from its slumber it was alone for centuries and struggled to cope until arreya came along and repaired her just as arreya described when we first met her in that time of solitude she optimized fire break spreading the load across backup systems which means that despite the destruction of the main facility it will continue to work as planned with scion predicting the caldera will remain stable for at least another 3 300 years so we've got a little time yes we then come to the topic of hephaestus and ask if it was destroyed with the cauldron the answer unfortunately is a blunt no for one simple reason it was never there to begin with it had infiltrated and captured cyan from a remote location one that couldn't be traced it did so through a discrete direct network connection request which cyan eagerly accepted having been in isolation for so long instead it was flooded with malicious code with one a malware daemon managing to bypass its defenses enslave it to hephaestus network overriding its core programming it forced cyan to follow its instructions even though they violated her most important directives if you've completed the main story aylo can explain to cyan where her festus came from that of zero dawn what its original purpose was and how it got free we could then ask the question as to why keeps building killer machines and scion hypothesizes that due to continued hunting of machines by human tribes it's building dangerous machines to protect the machines that are in theory keeping humans alive through their work on the terraforming system now you're probably thinking this doesn't make much sense since the terraforming system isn't properly working since guy's destruction that's true but you have to remember her sub-functions including a festus are self-aware but as we'll learn in forbidden west they're not in human terms mentally stable as a festus sees it in its crazed state it's only doing what it's programmed to do it's now time for us to go but before we do cyan has one more manner to discuss that of aratok and the rest of the banuk zai predicts he'll bring some of his people with him to show them cyan it has no desire to contradict the banuk's world view and spiritual beliefs leaving much out from her conversations with herrea aloy immediately recognizes this as cyan asking if it should lie to the banuk which in turn brings us to a flashpoint here we can decide whether science should be straight up be gentle about it or just trust its own judgment i picked the last option with eloy summing it up best i trust your judgment cyan you were cautious with arya you had to be you didn't know what had happened to the world so keep doing what you think is best as long as you ditch the superstition eventually as the banuk believe i am a supernatural entity i cannot predict how they will react just answer what they do ask the best you can the truth will come out i see i will follow your advice leaving cyan behind we head back outside to check on aerotalk they share a moment together overlooking the cut where aratak openly admits that regardless of eloy's intervention or not he wouldn't have been able to protect orea suggesting that he let her down choosing the hard option eloy counters this saying that he helped her find her purpose with this in mind arataka expresses pride in her despite the end result i'm proud of her there remains one more matter that of the chieftain sea halo of course can't stay nor can the wherewick follow as sachsee relinquishes the title back to aratok in a very alloy fashion no fluff no ceremony just here it's yours erato graciously accepts seeing himself as becoming wiser through their shared experience he then sets off back down the mountain leaving aeloy to reflect on all that has happened it's then that silence makes an unexpected call it's nothing really special at first just a quick rehash of everything that we've learned throughout the dlc with both concluding that hephaestus like hades has to be stopped it gets rather interesting however and only if you pressed rey about it before going into the mountain when eloi brings up silence's past dealings with the conclave you could stop right there having made a point of keeping his past a secret silence is quite disturbed that a part of it was brought to light and is quick to warn ailoy not to push the matter further haloid doesn't knowing that she isn't going to get more out of him and thus their conversation is abruptly ended which in turn brings the story of the frozen wilds to an end i think it was over before it began catch up with you down the trail [Music] all told the story of the frozen walls is a wonderful addition to an already excellent game and i strongly recommend it to anyone who might be on the fence about it it perfectly builds on already established themes and lore while presenting it in a manner vastly improved from the base game while on top of that giving us even more to chew on despite my criticisms i think it's flown a little bit under the radar as an example of what a dlc of this scale should be particularly narrative wise it's no witcher 3's blood and wine or hearts of stone but it's definitely worthy of standing alongside them in the conversation of best dlc expansions in the last decade with its improved presentation writing and strong cast of characters it further solidifies an already strong narrative foundation set by the base game while providing a glimpse of what could be expected from a sequel which would in turn become horizon forbidden west where its own game it would be worthy of standing shoulder to shoulder with either of them [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Adam the Chuck

Views: 24,878

Keywords: Horizon Zero Dawn, The Frozen Wilds, Guerrilla Games, Playstation, Critique, Analysis, Video Games

Id: x3098rccJPo

Length: 73min 12sec (4392 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 14 2022