Horizon Forbidden West is the long-awaited sequel to the critically-acclaimed Horizon Zero Dawn and was confirmed during Sony’s PS5 games reveal in June. Coming exclusively to PS5, Horizon Forbidden West continues Aloy’s story, and takes her to America’s wild frontier, with a trailer that heavily suggests we’ll be spending a good portion of the game underwater.
After Horizon Zero Dawn sold over 10 million copies on PS4, a sequel always seemed like a dead cert. Now, Guerrilla Games is returning to this fictional universe to give us another fancy technical showcase on PS5. Ashley Burch will return as Aloy in this entry, while the trailer also teases the return of Sylens (Lance Reddick) from the first game.
Here’s what we know about Horizon Forbidden West on PS5 so far, including its release date, trailer and more.
[UPDATE: Guerrilla Games has confirmed Horizon Forbidden West will release for PS5 in 2021. Read on to find out more.]
Cut to the chase
- What is it? The sequel to the critically-acclaimed Horizon Zero Dawn
- When will it release? 2021
- What platforms will it be available on? Exclusively PS5
Horizon Forbidden West release date
While the Horizon Forbidden West release date was notably absent from its announcement trailer, developer Guerrilla Games has since released a dev diary video (which you can watch above) confirming that the Horizon Zero Dawn sequel will release exclusively for PS5 in 2021.
Horizon Forbidden West trailer: first look at the PS5 exclusive
Sony and Guerrilla Games revealed the first Horizon Forbidden West trailer at the PS5 games reveal event on June 11. The above trailer offers a three-minute glimpse at the kinds of varied landscapes you’ll explore in the second game, and which machines you can expect to fight (mammoths and alligators, by the looks of it).
We also get the sense that Horizon Forbidden West will be heavy on underwater gameplay, based on how much of a big deal the trailer makes of Aloy using her scuba gear at the 1:40 mark above, and the shots of underwater ruined cities.
The Horizon sequel looks amazing, though it’s hard to tell just how much of what’s above is gameplay.
Horizon Forbidden West screenshots: here’s what the game looks like
We’ve put every official Horizon Forbidden West screenshot into the gallery below, so you can see what the game looks like outside of the trailer.
Horizon Forbidden West story: what do we know?
The trailer hints a lot at the kinds of enemies Aloy will be facing in the next game, but not much else is known about the game’s overarching story apart from the American setting.
Still, this is the official description of the game from the Horizon Forbidden West trailer. “Horizon Forbidden West continues Aloy’s story as she moves west to a far-future America to brave a majestic, but dangerous frontier where she’ll face awe-inspiring machines and mysterious new threats.”
Horizon Forbidden West news and rumors
We’ve compiled all the latest Horizon Fordbiden West news and rumors below for your perusal:
Virtually no loading screens
During a dev diary video from Guerrilla Games, Horizon Forbidden West game director Mathijs de Jonge explained how the sequel with utilize the PS5’s super-fast SSD.
“With the PS5’s SSD, there will be virtually no loading screens,” Jonge said in the video. “In an open-world game like Horizon Forbidden West, if you open up the map and fast travel from one end to the other, or restart from a checkpoint, it will be super fast. When you boot up the game, you’re right there in the action.”
