Horizon Forbidden West, the sequel to Guerrilla Games’ Horizon Zero Dawn, was revealed at the PS5 reveal stream. Now we have a developer diary of sorts, as game director Mathijs de Jonge gives more insight at what the trailer was all about.
The title itself, Forbidden West, refers to the new region that starts from Utah, USA to the Pacific Ocean in the west. This will include new biomes as seen in the trailer, including underwater exploration- new for the sequel.
de Jonge also claims that thanks to the PS5’s SSD, there will be “virtually no loading times”. Horizon Zero Dawn has a lengthy initialisation loading each time you boot up the game fresh. This will not be the case for Horizon Forbidden West.
“When you boot up the game, you’re right there in the action,” he said.
We also now have names for the new machines (robo-creatures) coming to the game. The humongous cyber-turtle is called Shell-Snappers, found in the shores and swamps. The alligator-looking machines are Snapmaws, found in the waters. The pterodactyl-like birds called Sunwings. And the mammoth-like machine is called Tremor Tusk.
For Forbidden West, protagonist Aloy will be meeting new tribes, some hostile others peaceful. And there’s a new looming threat- a red blight that’s infecting the lands, starving the local fauna and tribes.
Finally, the video ends with a target of a 2021 release, something that was not mentioned in the reveal. So Forbidden West won’t be a launch title.
Fans of Aloy and the magical AirPod, or potential PS5 owners, will have something to look forward to next year. Horizon Forbidden West will be out sometime in 2021 for the PS5.