The rumors are true. Guerilla Games have officially revealed Horizon: Forbidden West for the PlayStation 5. It will continue Aloy’s story as she moves west to a far-future America, braving a majestic, but dangerous frontier where she will face awe-inspiring machines and mysterious new threats. While the trailer was very thin on in-engine gameplay, it shows Aloy encountering new areas, including deep underwater ruins and vast deserts, facing off against large robotic elephants and turtles. Horizon: Forbidden West seems to be more of what fans loved about the original while moving characters forward on their journeys through this fascinating new world.
Horizon: Forbidden West is the sequel to the critically acclaimed Horizon Zero Dawn. It originally launched on the PlayStation 4 in February of 2017 and was the first original IP developer Guerilla Games had made since 2004. It was an open-world action game where you had to use everything at your disposal to take down animal-like machines as they attacked you, using a combination of weapon crafting, stealth, archery, and melee combat. It impressed players both players and critics at the time for its amazingly realized creativity and its imaginative portrayal of a new world and beloved new characters, released at a time where people were craving something exciting and new.
The game was also a technical achievement, showcasing the power of Guerilla's own Decima engine, the same technology used to create other beautifully realized projects like Death Stranding. In terms of action, Horizon: Zero Dawn was also hailed for its adrenaline-pumping fights against large robotic enemies the size of dinosaurs, mixing together primitive-feeling medieval combat against outrageous sci-fi looking enemies, giving the entire experience it's own unique identity. It received an impressive expansion, titled The Frozen Wilds, in November of that same year and was a massive sales success on PlayStation 4, selling north of 10 million copies as of 2019.
