It has been a long time coming. Horizon Forbidden West was first announced last year alongside news releases for the PlayStation 5. The Horizon: Zero Dawn sequel looks to up the robot dinosaur action with protagonist Aloy headed for the west coast of what once was the United States.
The initial reveal showcased stunning vistas, a derelict Golden Gate Bridge, and a plethora of new enemies to encounter.
While that first trailer did not show much in the way of gameplay, fans do not have to wait any longer to see the game in action.
HORIZON FORBIDDEN WEST'S COMING OUT PARTY
As a part of the Horizon State of Play, the first look at gameplay was revealed for the upcoming PlayStation exclusive Horizon Forbidden West.
The near fifteen-minute snippet showcased the game's hero Aloy traversing an overgrown coastal landscape using a new grappling hook and glider, riding a small raptor-like mount, and a climactic battle with a mecha-mammoth.
AHOY ALOY!
Many fans would agree this was a mesmerizing debut for Forbidden West. The Horizon Zero Dawn sequel looks to be taking what made the first game so excellent, polishing up what was there and iterating upon it.
While it's always exciting to get new and impressive enemy encounters in debuts like this, what impressed most was the improved traversal. A large contingent of gamers loved the first game but thought it felt it did feel a little restrictive compared to something like Breath of the Wild, which launched on the same day as Zero Dawn.
With this game, the team at Guerilla opened up the movement options with the added grappling hook and a glider that looks like it was pulled straight out of BOTW.
Another point to highlight from the fourteen-minute gameplay showcase was the jaw-dropping graphical fidelity. Yes, Forbidden West is heading to both PS4 and PS5, but it seems like it is really going to be one of the first games to show just how powerful Sony's new white monolithic console can be.
In Aloy's tussle with the mechanized mammoth, the sand can be seen deforming with each of the massive creature's deadly blasts, the light defuses perfectly as it cuts through the water in the brief aquatic sequence, and even the detail on Aloy's character model has been improved. These are all visual flourishes that just could not be done to this extent on last-gen hardware.
One last major note from this State of Play was the lack of a concrete release date. Initially, this game was being teased as a 2021 title, but with each passing month, that becomes less and less likely.
Last summer, Sony had a similar showcase for Ghost of Tsushima at a similar time and ended the stream with a release date less than two months from that day. There is still plenty of time for Sony to pull something like that, but why not give even a little tease here and now?
Could this possibly mean that this game is further out than fans think? If that is the case, nobody could blame PlayStation for that. COVID-19 has thrown a wrench in everything, including gaming; so, while initially, it may have been thought that Guerilla was going to get Horizon out by this year's end, that may not be the case now.
It's just that this seems like Sony's next big game, so if this gets pushed back so probably does games like God of War: Ragnarok as well as whatever the console manufacturer has coming after that.
Though, judging from this brief glimpse of gameplay, Horizon Forbidden West will likely be the talk of the town whenever it does eventually hit digital and physical store shelves.