That's what I mean though - I like stories, I just don't like too much chit chat and options. I just don't think those kind of games keep me interested for very long.
I should add I wouldn't say it was a bad game - not at all - just the type of game that eventually makes me sigh when I have to interact with NPCs
Since you already own the first two games, I'm not sure what you were expecting. Deep story and branching dialogue are key elements and widely touted as strengths of the series. It seems like your experience is akin to buying a Forza game if you don't like cars or racing.
In my first post on this thread I said
I was into it for a bit...can't remember why I gave up on it - but it was a pretty solid space shooter iirc
It was only playing Horizon Zero Dawn recently that something clicked (with chatting to NPCs) that made me think. I re-loaded the first one last night to make sure I wasn't making it.
And I likely bought the second one without recalling why I gave up on the first one. And that was back in the day when Steam didn't do refunds.
It's the mechanic of "I'll select that option to talk to the NPC" and then you find yourself not talking but with 4 other options...which could lead to more. I actually think it's not necessarily the amount of chat - but how it's presented.
You get 4 options to talk to an NPC. Selecting one of those provides another 3 options and selecting one of them might provide even more. It's about not knowing you are going down a rabbit hole until you start down it - and importantly not knowing when the NPC chat will end - on
each strand.
I think it's similar to that feeling the Army used to put you through when they took you out on a run. You'd do 5 miles and on the last mile you knew you were heading back to camp...but they would take you down a different road which meant you were going back to camp. They'd probably do that again until you'd done 10 miles or more.
It was mentally fatiguing.