Finished up the main story last night and went back and read through the spoiler comments. I agree with most of the comments in this thread in one way or another. I think I agree a little more with R_R_X on his assessments. I also stand by my sentiments that I didn't have many issues with Ashly/Aloy's delivery. Something I want to bring up to defend my point... Aloy is (initially) very isolated literally and emotionally, very goal driven, "No time, gotta save the word, gotta save the world". You can say, "Well, she was more emotive in the first game, she felt very one note and emotionless in her delivery in this one."
And I would say, "Yes, exactly!". That's right in line with the story. She is shutting herself off from her emotions, from others, in order to hit her goal. Fix the planet, save the world. "Everything is on me, no time for relationships, no time for emotions, it's all up to me, just like Elisabet!"
Tilda even says that about Elisabet and why they had issues with their relationship. Aloy is going down that same path. But then as you guys know, and the point of the game, she sees the value in her friends and her relationships. She sees how important they are, and she starts to open up. You talk about Rost a little bit with Varl and you see that emotion start to come out. You have the drink with Erend and she's actually laughing and smiling. I don't really think Ashly's delivery was the issue, I think a lot people are missing the nuance of her mindset and how cold she should come across.
Also, you know, to differentiate her from Beta. Like we all kinda agree on. Which, by the way, awesome difference in voice work for both of them. When they had scenes together I never got confused or annoyed at their voices being identical. The delivery was very consistently different.
I absolutely loved this game and feel genuinely bad that it came out at the same time as Elden Ring. So many people **** on it and said, "oh it's another open world game with the same formulaic gameplay as a million other open world games." And while I agree with some of that criticism, the atmosphere, the story, the beauty and uniqueness of the world and the quality overall was fantastic. Plus, they released a game that wasn't a broken mess at release. Which, in today's market, should absolutely be commended. And yet, it was overlooked for people to say it was boring, unimaginative, and formulaic. Sucks.
Onto a few gripes I had with the game... Number 1 being, holy crap, Aloy, you don't have to talk through every single action and puzzle in the game. I know I should glide to get to the other platform. I know I should use a crate to get up high. I don't need dialogue to walk me through the entire game. Make that a toggle, or a setting when playing on the Story difficulty. Number 2, the melee combat, while it has improved, was pretty frustrating and didn't work for me. Especially some of the melee pits, or the fight with the enduring. Number 3, regarding the story...
I didn't love how 0 to 100 that Tilda went. She was so on board with helping us, and then within the span of 5 seconds is trying to beat us until submission. I get that she's manipulative and got her entire wealth with espionage, but draw out the scene a little bit, build up to it. She just was like, "You're coming with me, RIGHT NOW. Oh no? TIME FOR DEATH."
Then she just kinda immediately died. I was hoping she'd roll out of her machine pod and we'd had some additional dialogue, maybe she's left in a sort of paralyzed/vegetative state trying to recover back at the base... Leave it open ended. Having her in the next game would have been really interesting and add some complexity to everything.
I hope there's more to her death, cause that really cheapened that ending for me.
But other than that, I was fine with the storyline, and I like the direction for the next game. Speaking of which...
I 100% agree that in the next game we'll play as Beta. It's the perfect way to explain away her lack of armor and weapons and abilities. Allow you to develop your build again, while still going through a full Horizon game.
Nemesis will obviously be the final villain of the next game. I do wonder though, wasn't it specifically trying to kill the Zenith's? What reasoning does it have to go after the rest of humanity at this point?