If last night's E3 2015 press conference from Sony had been a normal one, we'd probably be all cooing over Horizon: Zero Dawn right now. Sadly for Guerrilla Games, its new intellectual property got overshadowed somewhat by bigger announcements – but take nothing away from the title, as it looks absolutely extraordinary.
The game's set in a lush open world where "nature has reclaimed the ruins of a forgotten civilization". In this mysterious landscape, mankind is no longer the dominant species – machines are. You'll play as a character named Aloy, a young woman from a tribal community intent on learning more about the world around her – and hunting down the aforementioned foes.
In addition to boasting plenty of exploration, it sounds like the title's going to have a hint of Monster Hunter to it; managing director Hermen Hulst points out on the PlayStation Blog that you'll need to learn the behaviour of different enemies, and also use stealth and the environment to your advantage in battle.
The title's due out in 2016, and will surely allay fears that Sony is no longer investing in interesting first-party games. After many years of being on the cusp of a breakthrough with Killzone, this could be Guerrilla Games' big breakout hit.
[source blog.eu.playstation.com]
Comments (24)
I bloody love the art direction in this!
@get2sammyb I feel sorry for GG that this had to be announced on a night that meant more to me for obvious reasons with announcements of games I have loved playing and wanted to play virtually most of my life! However, this and Uncharted 4 show that the PS4 and Sony have some tremendously talented first party teams and I cannot wait for Horizon and Uncharted 4
Keep the RPG's coming... Hands down my favorite genre of games.
@Splat Agreed!
Game of the century. 11/10 superb
Really liked the art and gameplay, never liked Killzone, but this looks more like a adventure game and it's on Third Person which is a plus for me.
This was probably my favorite part of their conference.
I did not expect to see such an amazing new IP exclusive to PS4 like this. I expected only the trailer but then when the view came into 3rd person I became increasingly ecstatic. During the gameplay I was shouting "damn" & "wow" the entire time.
For me this was only overshadowed by Uncharted 4 in Sonys briefing but in all honesty U4 overshadowed probably all the E3 games shown for me. I know I may have sounded critical of the other 'exclusives' but this was the one reveal that stood out above all others from all briefings.
Its reveal was exciting and interesting and had U4 not closed the briefing, the one game that left a big impression on me and would have been the 'stand out' game of Sony's E3. For one reason or another, the other exclusives had no interest to me and the 3rd Party games had been revealed before in some capacity. As a result the only 2 games (specifically on PS4) that were revealed and pretty much guaranteed a purchase was U4 and this - I know things may change between now and release of course but as it stands now, Horizon is very high on my wanted list - higher than any other exclusive on any platform - apart from U4
@BAMozzy Uncharted 4 just looked ridiculous. Naughty Dog are INSANE.
This is possibly my favourite new reveal of all E3 2015. Looks brilliant and I like the story so far...
This looks STUNNING I was a bit sad tho that she killed that AMAZING looking Robot-Dinosaur thingy because it looked so f**king COOL
I literally could feel my bank account draining as I watched last night. I had to stop after ffvii for fear of going broke
Seriously though here is hoping this doesn't turn out like the order.
I was thinking @get2sammyb & Co had forgotten about this. Looks most intriguing. I have no doubt either that the graphical quality shown was legit, Shadowfall was also announced with gameplay footage & looked superb upon release
Like the article says, this could be GG breakthrough game. They've been given the freedom to do their own thing so let's hope it works out well for them.
I'm really into this, but everything in my life right now is being drowned out by people singing "Sep-e-roth" in my head over and over and over again.
As a huge RPG fan, I'm a bit concerned about how absolutely zero RPG elements were shown or even hinted at. No skills, experience points, dialogue other than Uncharted-style banter; the setting's certainly worthy of an RPG, though.
One thing, if you read into it a bit, that's occurred to me is that while it may very well be like MH, it can't really do the crafting thing that Capcom's series does - or at least not to the same degree. That game is all about taking the bones and skin from your prey and crafting various equipment, this doesn't seem to be applicable when your enemies are all robots.
Sure they could tie bits of metal to themselves but that'd look pretty silly and clashes with their caveman aesthetic. Plus, they've already defeated many of these creatures before and still they're dressed in rags. Their houses are also wooden cabins, not like the ribcage of a mecha t-rex or whatever. Yet I did notice her bow was metal and looked quite sci-fi, so perhaps the weapons are upgraded that way.
So yeah, at the moment this seems like a flavourful 3rd-person-shooter with "gun" upgrades rather than anything remotely RPGish. Doesn't mean it can't be a great game, but I'm just a bit disappointed since I went into it expecting an RPG.
I think @get2sammyb knows what I'm gonna say.
So I'll say it anyway. Too. Much. AWE. SOME.
@Matroska Herman Hulst himself said they didn't show much in the demo. So you came to that conclusion by 3 minutes of gameplay ?
@Neolit Oh female protagonist and 3rd person. Tomb Raider ripoff !
@get2sammyb Insane and Ridiculous in an AWESOME way. I loved the Mountain combat demo that we had already seen but this was EPIC in a crazy and exciting way....
Horizon though has so much intrigue and potential. It mixes the neanderthal tribe type human element with futuristic robots. It opens a world of possibility and story. What caused human kind to be in this way, what apocalyptic event? Where did the Robots come from? Who built them? So many questions that I can't wait to play and find out.
A Lot of the other games (from all briefings), you almost have an idea of the back story, what's going on and what the outcome will be. As a new IP it was certainly the biggest and most intriguing to me. I can't begin to explain how much this reveal appealed to me and why I am more excited by it than pretty much every other game and certainly more than the sequels/franchises etc
@Dohv Well they had 3 minutes to showcase the game. Let's say you showcased an actual RPG such as FFVII in that time, with actual gameplay. You would inevitably see people using spells or skills, maybe he'd open the menu and show the materia screen. You'd see Cloud gain experience and reach level 7 right at the start.
It's one thing for Fallout 4 to not focus on that too much since it's been established as an RPG for about 20 years or so. Even then, they heavily focused on the crafting system and they've since shown a shot of the character creation screen. I'm just saying that if they hadn't claimed it was an RPG, no one would ever assume it was. You'd assume it was a TPS.
Man - I just watched this again and then IGN's rewind breakdown and it looks stunning and Awesome....
The concept is daft but the game itself looks really good, if its an RPG even better
this and Uncharted are my top two games right now that i am looking forward too. this looked awesome!
Tap here to load 24 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...