28 May, 2021
0During today’s State of Play broadcast, Sony dedicated the stream to Horizon Forbidden West. Forbidden West is the upcoming sequel to 2017’s sprawling open world action-adventure Horizon Zero Dawn, developed by Guerilla Games and published by Sony. The Horizon series stars Aloy, a hunter in a post-apocalyptic world filled with metropolitan ruins, tribes and villages in place of cities, and perilous foes out in the untamed wild. Predatory machines roam the land, while dangerous tribes threaten Aloy’s way of life. In Horizon Forbidden West, Aloy journeys across treacherous, uncharted lands, searching for answers surrounding a deadly blight ravaging the world.
The beautiful new gameplay footage shows 14 minutes of of Horizon Forbidden West, where Aloy and her friend Erend run into rebel members of a foreign tribe. Aloy has brand new weapons to utilize, giving the player more freedom to choose how they want to take down enemies. Spears, bows with specialized ammo, grenades, and more will be available this time around, all of which can be upgraded during the player’s journey. She also has new tools to help her traverse the environment, getting around much quicker than she could before. Aloy uses a new Pullcaster to quickly climb the terrain, a Diving Mask for underwater swimming, and a Shieldwing for landing safely from high jumps.
The general improvements from Horizon Zero Dawn are more than noticeable. Horizon Forbidden West features smoother character animations, photorealistic lighting, and an overall elevation to the first game’s stellar, intense combat. Anyone who enjoyed the first game will likely find more to love with the sequel. While we didn’t get a definitive release date for Aloy’s new adventure, it’s still great to see how things are coming along.
With E3 2021 fast-approaching, Sony has no plans to attend the event. These State of Play streams are part of a broader effort for the PlayStation brand to have its own announcements on its own time. We didn’t see PlayStation at the last E3, and we won’t see them again this year. It’s not clear if Sony intends on skipping every single E3 from now on. But we can expect to see more State of Play announcements and showcases for the foreseeable future.
Sony and Guerilla Games hope to launch Horizon Forbidden West sometime in 2021.
