Horizon Zero Dawn

Horizon Zero Dawn is an upcoming action role-playing video game developed by Guerrilla Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment exclusively for the PlayStation 4.

The plot revolves around Aloy, a hunter and archer who lives in a world overrun by robots. Having been cloistered her whole life, she sets out to discover the dangers that kept her sheltered for so long. The character makes use of ranged, melee weapons and stealth tactics to combat the mechanised creatures whose remains can also be looted for resources. A skill tree is turned to for gameplay improvements. The game features an open world environment for Aloy to explore, divided into tribes that hold side quests to accomplish while the main story guides her throughout the whole world.

Development of Horizon Zero Dawn began in 2011. Mathijs de Jonge, the director, considered it “the most risky” idea of those that were pitched. The concept explores the contrast between the beauty and danger of the world. Guerrilla Games emphasises trial and error as the basis for playing the game, choosing not to implement a tutorial. The game engine, Decima, was previously engineered for Killzone Shadow Fall and altered for Horizon Zero Dawn, the first intellectual property developed by Guerrilla Games since Killzone in 2004, and also the studio’s first attempt at developing a role-playing game.