As we approach the new release date of Horizon Forbidden West, developer Guerrilla Games is sharing loads of information on the wildly anticipated sequel.
Yesterday, Principal Machine Designer Blake Politeski talked about the new machines due to be added in Horizon Forbidden West. They’ll be more mobile and deadlier overall, but Aloy will also have plenty of ways to study their behaviors and use them to her advantage.
We’re expanding this catalog further with Horizon Forbidden West. For example, we knew we wanted a slightly bigger flying machine than the Glinthawk, which resulted in the Sunwing – but it needed a place and a role in the world. We studied various flying reptiles and primitive birds for inspiration, and came up with the concept of their wings collecting solar energy during sunny weather. This in turn created an interesting gameplay dynamic: Sunwings will be vulnerable when they are harvesting solar power, but are also more alert to potential predators when they are idle.
A lot of machines have various weapons and behaviors that can be used to create an advantage. This is not just in shooting off components and using them, but some machines might have some more passive states during which the player can sneak towards them. For example, if a machine is digging for resources in the ground, it’ll create a lot of dust – Aloy can use this as a visual cover to get closer.
The machines in Horizon Forbidden West are more mobile in almost every way you can imagine – jumping, swimming, clinging to surfaces… Because of this, Aloy will need to keep up with them, so there’s new movement mechanics to help her out. We’re also focusing more on Aloy’s ability to survey and plan an encounter before engaging, as well as her ability to escape if things don’t go as planned.
Horizon Forbidden West, previously planned for a late 2021 launch, is now scheduled to hit PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 on February 18th, 2022. A PC release is also eventually possible given the Horizon Zero Dawn port, though it may take a while to materialize.
