Horizon: Zero Dawn
Probably one of the most impressive games demonstrated at this year’s E3 ( Electronic Entertainment Expo) in the United States, Horizon: Zero Dawn also made an appearance at TGS.
At a closed- door press demo we got to see a pre- alpha build of a level being played live while Mark Norris, senior producer for Guerrilla Games, was on hand to answer questions.
For anyone that missed the E3 announcement, Horizon is a single- player open- world game that’s set in what Norris calls a “post- postapocalyptic world”.
The apocalypse happened some 1,000 years ago and in that time nature has once again reclaimed much of the world and it’s lush with greenery, unlike the desolate world of
Fallout.
Whatever is left of the human race is now split into tribes with little or no technology at hand. However, unlike in the Stone Age, the world is populated by machines that have evolved into a variety of autonomous dinosaur- like creatures.
According to Norris, why they look the way they do is one of the many mysteries you’ll unravel as you play through the game.
While the game is still in the early stages of development, the live demo revealed a few interesting tidbits. For one thing, Norris promises that whatever areas you see in the game will be explorable.
You harvest loot by trapping and killing the mechanical dinosaurs. The game will allow players to hunt in a variety of ways and reward those that use strategy and tactical combat, like setting traps and using a mix of longand short- range weapons.
We’ve also learned that Horizon will be mostly a single- player experience and there will not be a synchronous multiplayer mode.
Norris said Guerrilla Games is looking into introducing some form of asynchronous multiplayer, but it’s still too early for the company to make any announcements.
From our time watching the live demo, the game looked good even in its pre- alpha state. Norris is optimistic that it will see daylight some time next year, but knowing how complex creating an open- world title can be, we think that it will more likely make an appearance in early 2017.
But that’s just our opinion.