Quick caveat: I had a blast with Horizon Zero Dawn. Easily among the top games I've played the generation and technically in a league of its own. However...



I hopped back into TW3 this weekend (an old NG+ save) and immediately I knew what that game lacked and what GG needs to nail in the next game: a sense of camaraderie.



Let me explain...



The save game booted me straight into Midcopse (which is where I guess I left it) and straight away I was like 'ah, this is where Keira Metz was hiding out' and no sooner had I remembered her name than I remember climbing the Tower of Mice on Fyke Isle and everything that happened later in Kaer Morhen.



In fact, as I bounced from village to village getting a feel for things again, I realised that every place seemed to be associated with certain characters or events. I passed through Blackbough and remembered the Pellar and his stupid goat, Crow's Perch and all the shit that happened there... literally on a straight run between Midcopse and Novigrad I encountered dozens of little communities and each of them triggered some memory that made me smile.



Then I thought back on HZD and realised I couldn't make the same associations with it's communities: 'Mother's Rise, Mother's Crown Mother's Crade... which one had the mountain and which one had the high look out?" I realised most places didn't really resonate for me with a particular story for me.



I thought more carefully about certain HZD characters - the quest with Sona stood at first and Erend's side quest too, but as cool as those characters were, their stories didn't feel as connected to the world or Aloy's as those that I'd encountered in TW3 and they didn't linger in my memory the same way.



To contrast that with Kiera Metz: not really a huge role in the story but that whole adventure left me with such a strong sense of her character, her personality, her history and her place within the wild. She was unpredictable and complex and she lead me a merry quest that kept me busy for hours.



And then it hit me: every character in TW3 seems to have some farcical tale associated with them and what makes them memorable are not just the deep serious bits (of which there are many) but the moments of levity; the comic turns and the romantic encounters.



When the credits first closed on TW3 I remember a sense of longing for those characters that had now vanished because they felt like more than props in a story - they felt almost like friends.



And that's what I think HZD really lacks. As strong as the writing and plotting is, it's so self-serious for so much of the time, that you never really build that common kinship with others, you can feel solidarity with their struggles and their losses, but they rarely ever make you smile or laugh or roll your eyes or grin.



This is kind of rambling anyway - I just wanted to get my thoughts down, because this was bugging me.



Anyone else have a similar experience or am I talking total rubbish?