Horizon Zero Dawn - Humanity's final sunrise
PlayStation 4 exclusive
Horizon Zero Dawn was one of the E3 title reveals that had my screaming: "I want it. NOW!" When the trailer started rolling, my jaw hit the floor (we’ll just bypass the zombie jokes for now). The world looked alive even if it was a cutscene at first. Then the gameplay kicked in and my enthusiasm didn’t waiver. Here was a game that took a ‘post-post apocalyptic’ setting and made it disturbingly beautiful, with unique creatures (albeit still familiar) and a strong female lead in Aloy.
It’s not Killzone
Killzone developers Guerrilla Games have been working on Horizon Zero Dawn for four and a half years already, and are promising a third-person, seamless open-world, action RPG. If you can see it, you can visit it according to the developers, and it will all be done with no loading screens. And on top of that, the world will feature a dynamic day-night cycle and weather system, all using a modified Killzone Shadow Fall engine.
While the game has a future setting (not unlike Killzone), the weapons on offer are not the usual generic space-fare, but more reminiscent of the weapons our ‘forefathers’ used. Except they’re made from both natural materials and machines.
With a setting a 1,000 years from now, humanity is not the dominant species on the planet, but machines (or maybe more accurately dino-mechs) roam the world in herds and individually and it’s up to Aloy to find her way through it all to discover her place in the world. What exactly has brought about this shift in control has not been revealed yet, but I’m pretty willing to hedge my bet with a Terminator/Skynet rise of the machines… so it’s a safe bet that it’s humanity’s fault. Again.
As far as story details go, the game’s fact sheet simply says that you will “
embark on a compelling, emotional journey and unravel mysteries of tribal societies, ancient artifacts and advanced technologies that will determine the fate of this planet, and of life itself,” while the
PlayStation Blog says that Aloy will embark on a “
quest that will lead her to discover her own destiny.”
And if you’re wondering what Zero Dawn itself means, the game’s director Mathijs de Jonge
tweeted that the “meaning of "Zero Dawn" will be uncovered when you play”. I can only speculate that there will be no dawn on the horizon for humanity if Aloy fails. As always, it seems the weight of the world is on your shoulders…
The war machines
The early footage has revealed a handful of creatures inhabiting the planet – alongside a number of human tribes (of which Aloy’s is the ‘oldest’) – with more still to be revealed I’m sure.
The ‘Thunderjaw’ is the T-Rex of the world and according to
PlayStation Access comes in at 80 feet long and 30 feet high. In terms of pure nerd numbers, the creature is made up of 550,000 polygons and features over 67 different visual effects. On its armour alone, there are 93 different hit points with 12 spots available dealing three times damage, but if you’re keen to really hurt the beast, hitting the two cores will make the pain ten times more excruciating for Thunderjaw. The two cores represent the AI and power for the creature – or in our terms, the head (or brain. Yeah, still no zombie jokes) and heart.
While the Thunderjaw is the behemoth of the world, the ‘Watcher’ is the neighbourhood nosey parker. As the name suggests the Watcher is there to look for danger and warn the others of the potential danger. Taking them down quickly and quietly appears to be the key to a successful hunt.
A number of other creatures that can be spotted in the footage shown off to date, include a long-necked creature not unlike a Diplodocus (don’t worry I used the internet to get the name too), a herd of deer-like creatures and an angry bird that is not at all like an Angry Bird. In fact it looks frightening, and there is a part of me most likely to run away on our first encounter, because I’m not really a brave one like all of you.
(Not going to) Throw me a bone here
Guerrilla Games has made it clear that there will be no tutorial to handhold you at the beginning (or at any stage I assume) so some of the confrontations will not be a walk in the (Jurassic) park until you have learnt from your mistakes. Watching the gameplay shown at E3, there is also clearly a few approaches that can be taken in completing your missions (of which hunting appears to be just one mission type
according to Mathijs de Jonge). With the addition of ‘stealth grass’, the option to move silently is obviously encouraged, however, you won’t be able to stay unnoticed in the open.
Learning (again, on your own and not via tutorials) the weaknesses, attack patterns and the behaviour of the various creatures will also aid you in selecting the best tactic to use when taking down the creatures. Again, the footage and post-E3 coverage has revealed that weapons such as the tether cord will play a critical part in controlling larger creatures, while also being capable of controlling and killing a herd of smaller creatures. Other weapons shown off so far reveal that an up close and personal option is available along with a bow and the aforementioned tether cords. Again, I’d expect this arsenal to be expanded on and even upgradeable in the game, as it is clear that Aloy is a skilled hunter, and probably an expert survivalist too.
Killing the various creatures is key to the growth of your character (as it is in most RPGs generally), as many of the raw materials needed for weapon crafting can only be harvested from the ‘robo-dinos’ (heck, I’m still trying to figure out what they’re actually called). Weapons can be ‘quick crafted’ during battle even, so should you have collected the right mixture of natural and mechanical ingredients, an armour-piercing arrow will be yours quicker than you can say “bad Thunderjaw”.
Into the sunset
While much of what was revealed seemed quite refreshing, there’s still plenty that one could claim has been seen in other open-world survival games in recent times, but there’s still something about what has been shown off that leaves me filled with confidence in the final product which we will all have to wait until an undisclosed date in 2016 for…
I’m pretty excited about the game and for me it’s certainly one of the potential must-have PS4 exclusives in the new year.
What I’d be interested to know is do you see the same potential as I and many others did at E3? Or is Horizon Zero Dawn just a little like a cut and paste of some of the other open-world games that have been released recently… but with dino-mechs?
Halo 4 was dope
