Sony’s first-party studios developed a number of iconic titles during the PlayStation 4 generation, including Insomniac Games’ Marvel’s Spider-ManGuerrilla games’ Horizon Zero Dawnand Santa Monica Studios god of war (2018). The PlayStation 5 has or will feature sequels that continue these now franchises. Horizon Forbidden West hit the shelves in February, and God of War Ragnarok is scheduled for release on November 9. Insomniac’s take on the web head is in a more interesting position.
After the success of Marvel’s Spider-Man in 2018, Insomniac released a handful of DLC expansions. It then announced one of the PS5’s launch titles in Spider-Man: Miles Morales, a spin-off about the titular second Harlem Spidey. This much shorter adventure starring a similar superhero with his own distinct powers ultimately served as a draft for the franchise’s true sequel Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, which is set to release sometime in 2023 at the time of writing with both Peter Parker and Miles Morales as main playable characters. The Horizon franchise could try a similar strategy for the undisclosed sequel to Horizon Forbidden Westt. Spoilers for Horizon Forbidden West forward.
A Brief History of the World of Horizon
The hatching of Horizon Zero Dawn 2017 marked a big departure for Guerrilla, which was best known for its sci-fi first-person shooter franchise kill zone. Of Horizon, the Netherlands-based studio spotlighted a post-apocalyptic America in which humanity was reduced to a series of smaller tribes ravaged by animal machines among the ruins of modern society. Players took on the role of Aloy, a young woman who becomes one of the most skilled fighters in the land to prove herself after being cast out by the Nora tribe at birth.
Aloy received a Focus in Zero Dawn‘s cold open, a universal old world smart device that allows her to better understand the machines, why they exist and how the planet was destroyed. Long story short, humanity’s attempt to undo the effects of climate change brought fame to business magnate Ted Faro, who then turned Faro Automated Solutions into military contracts that created a series of ‘Chariot’ war machines. . The company lost control of its machines, which were capable of absorbing biomass from all living matter, so scientist Elisabet Sobeck led Project Zero Dawn to reseed the Earth after its destruction.
Horizon Zero Dawn centers on Aloy learning about this past as she seeks revenge on the Eclipse cult that killed her father figure Rost, because it turns out the Eclipse is being manipulated by HADES: a mysteriously sentient subfunction of GAIA, the AI tasked with running Project Zero Dawn. Since the original purpose of HADES was a failsafe to wipe the slate clean in the event that unviable ecosystems were cultivated, the living target is a more twisted version of that destruction.
Horizon Forbidden West reveals a group of wealthy people called the Far Zeniths who managed to establish a colony outside the world as Project Zero Dawn raced to reach the finish line. The return of these near-divine beings who attained immortality drives Aloy harder than ever, forging a closer bond with those she shares knowledge of the ancient world. At the end of the adventure, however, it turned out that the Far Zeniths were on the run from a greater threat: Nemesis. Born from the mingled consciousness of a failed experiment with digital immortality, this AI turned evil when abandoned and now threatens to destroy the homeworld of its creators. It turns out to be the source of that mysterious signal that brought HADES and the other GAIA subfunctions to life.
Why Horizon Could Benefit From a Cast-Expanding Spin-Off
The existential threat of Nemesis is more than Aloy and her allies can handle alone, even after using the technological prowess of Aloy’s clone “sister” Beta and the warlike Tenakth tribe to defeat the Far Zeniths. Forbidden West ends with Aloy’s team spreading across the titular Forbidden West and beyond to recruit tribes for the great war to come.
There are rumors that Horizon Forbidden West DLC is in the works, which would make sense Zero Dawn also received the “Frozen Wilds” expansion. This DLC would likely keep Aloy as the perspective character, leaving room for one of the other protagonists to take the spotlight in a Miles Moralesstyle spin-off. The obvious choice for this would be Erend, a member of the Oseram tribe who serves as leader of the Carja Vanguard – and Aloy’s oldest, closest companion after Varl’s death. Like Miles Morales compared to Peter Parker, Erend proves to have similar combat abilities to Aloy when he teams up with her to fight Asera and the Sons of Prometheus. Still, his fighting style focuses more on melee attacks with a powerful warhammer, which would lend itself to a unique skill tree.
The rest of the supporting cast in Forbidden West could similarly star in a spin-off focused on their efforts to unite the world against Nemesis. Kotallo’s efforts to recruit the Tenakth of Zo and convince the agricultural Utaru can just as easily contain a story as completely shifting the perspective to characters like Sun-King Avad or Sunhawk Talanah from the Carja Hunter’s Lodge. Still, a spin-off with the most potential could follow the advanced Quen tribe across the Pacific, giving: Horizonworld a perspective outside America.
Like Spider-Man: Miles Moralesa Horizon spin-off centering one of Aloy’s companions could open the door to a third item with multiple protagonists. With a character like Erend in particular, Guerrilla could continue to expand the mechanics of the series by giving Aloy more range and trap-oriented abilities while the Oseram warrior dives deeper into melee combat. Guerrilla and recent PlayStation asset Firesprite will release a spin-off called Horizon: the call of the mountain for the PS VR2 headset, but it’s hard to say if his protagonist Ryas will be more than a virtual reality player insert when it comes to the next real-life sequel. Fans just have to wait and see what this franchise has in store.
Horizon Forbidden West is now available on PS4 and PS5.
0 Comments