This all changed a few weeks ago when I booted up Horizon Zero Dawn in New Game+. If I can’t pound plastic to win, I pound the pavement to find another challenge. When battle requires more than one button (maybe two, if we’re talking ranged combat), there’s a good chance I may never finish.
If there’s a tool that needs to be used in a specific fight, you can count on the fact that I’m going to ignore it unless victory is impossible without it. For people who fight like me, gaming “strategy”-if it can be called that-is purely a mix of adrenaline, panic, and anxiety.
But for button-mashers, these carefully crafted systems are all but useless.
