Sony and Guerrilla Games’ upcoming Horizon: Zero Dawn looks excellent- and it would easily have been the best game showcased at E3 this year if a certain other game hadn’t stolen its limelight with a hell of a showing at the last possible minute. Regardless, Horizon loos wonderful- in a lot of ways, it is surprising that this is a game being made by Guerrilla Games, a studio who have so far been known for their technical chops, but who have rarely managed to come through where it actually matters- game design.
And yet, the more we hear about Horizon, the more impressed we get. It seems as though Guerrilla really have put in a lot of thought into the game, and every aspect about it. For instance, in a recent post-E3 recap livestream, Producer Dave Gomes gave us some more details about Horizon– and they make the game sound like a thoroughly well thought out, uncharacteristically deep RPG.
For instance, Gomes pointed out that players don’t have to engage machines in combat and take them down to secure resources and loot- if they want to (and if they can manage it!) they can just as easily knock down resources from machines without ever aggro’ing the machine. Doing so too often also changes the machines’ attack patterns, as they adjust to stimulus from you.
In other news, it appears as though outfits will not be strictly cosmetic in this game, but instead, will function like gear and armor does in other RPGs, providing stats and status boosts (or hits) It actually sounds as though the game, which Gomes assured listeners would have a lot of content, will be a very well thought out deep and nuanced RPG- and since RPGs are my favorite kind of game, I personally can’t wait to play this, which appears to be an uncharacteristically great take on the genre.
Horizon: Zero Dawn will launch exclusively on the PS4 in February 2017.
