Sony had its giant PlayStation 5 reveal event, and it announced a ton of games for the upcoming console.
While the company announced plenty of games, one stood out above the rest: Horizon Forbidden West. Horizon Zero Dawn was my favorite PlayStation 4 game, so anticipation levels for the Aloy's next adventure couldn't be higher!
While Sony has kept plenty of information about the game close to its chest, we do know a bit about what to expect from Horizon Forbidden West. Here are all of the details about what could be the most exciting game scheduled to come to the PS5.
1. Horizon Forbidden West Release Date
Unfortunately, Sony didn't announce when Horizon Forbidden West would release. However, in a video released after Sony's event, game director Mathijs de Jonge said that they're shooting for a 2021 release window.
As many expected, Horizon Forbidden West will not be a launch game for the PlayStation 5.
Like the original, this one will be a PlayStation exclusive, so Xbox fans won't be able to get their hands on the sequel to Horizon.
2. Horizon Forbidden West Price
The price wasn't announced yet, but we'd expect the game to sell for $60 for the standard edition of the game. As has been the case through most of the console generations, there will probably be collector's editions of the game that sell include digital and physical items, though nothing has been officially announced.
3. Horizon Forbidden West Developers
Just like the previously-released Horizon Zero Dawn, Guerrilla Games is making Horizon Forbidden West (Guerrilla is owned by Sony, making them a first-party developer). Sony Interactive Entertainment will handle the publishing duties.
Often, other developers contribute to large, AAA games, but we probably won't hear if any other teams outside of Guerrilla Games lend a hand on Horizon Forbidden West until it comes out and we get a look at the credits.
4. Horizon Forbidden West Story
Unfortunately, not a ton of information was announced about Horizon Forbidden West's story. However, if you watch the trailer closely, you can pull out some important pieces of information.
First of all, the game appears to continue the story of Aloy and the post-apocalyptic world in which she resides. Since she looks like she hasn't aged much since the original game, we can safely assume that this game takes place shortly after Horizon Zero Dawn. However, there's no guarantee, as there could be some sort of special time movement that happens to move time forward.
Sylens shows up in the trailer briefly. Without spoiling the end of Zero Dawn, he's a rather important character, and he definitely needs to be in the sequel.
The game also looks to feature some sort of murderous plant that's destroying wildlife in the world. Presumably, based on how heavily it's featured in the trailer, this will probably play an important part in the story of the game.
As far as location goes, we can safely assume that the game will take place in the western portion of the United States. In fact, a post on the PlayStation Blog says, "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."
It very well could take place around what used to be San Francisco, since we do see what looks like the remnants Golden Gate Bridge.
5. Horizon Forbidden West Gameplay
While the trailer doesn't spill the beans on the gameplay too much, we can assume that some aspects of Zero Dawn will transfer over to Horizon Forbidden West. We'll hunt machines, explore a large open world, and fight more traditional human enemies. There will probably be a mix of ranged and melee combat as well.
The wrinkle in the gameplay that we've seen already comes in the form of underwater exploration. It's brief, but we do see Aloy navigating some underwater terrain and we even see some mechanical alligators that could make for some interesting combat encounters.
There looks to be plenty of new enemies to fight, as well as lots of returning mechanical beasts from the first game.
While nothing has been announced yet, we'd speculate that the new Horizon game will feature leveling up and gear mechanics like the first one. This one of the things that made the game so fun and addicting, and we can't imagine Guerrilla Games would change that.
Outside of that, we'll have to wait until a longer gameplay demonstration is released to see what else the developers are adding to the gameplay, but we're definitely excited to see where it goes.