Horizon: Zero Dawn takes place 1000 years after the fall of mankind

Oh Horizon: Zero Dawn, when will you just release so that I can lose hours of my life to exploring your world and figuring out all your secrets? I know it’s coming next year, hopefully, and that’s great, but I’m just so intrigued by the world that they’ve created. Hearing the guys talk about it at E3, it felt like something truly new. At least, I hope so. More people talked to the developers at Tokyo Game Show and got some new details.

Lowyat.net spent some time with the guys from Guerrilla Games during TGS and got a scarce few new details. Still, every bit counts:

Horizon Zero Dawn almost looks to be just another open world RPG, albeit with robotic dinosaurs roaming around. However, developer Guerilla Games has finally demoed gameplay from the game; which shows a promising game involving a mecha T-rex with leg mounted mortars and lasers for teeth.

The story of Horizon takes place on the planet Earth, some 1000 years after the fall of mankind. Guerilla stopped short of providing any additional details about the world, saying that discovery the history forms part of the narrative. All that is known is that humanity is no longer the dominant species and lives in small tribes. At the centre of the story is a machine hunter by the name of Aloy.

I like the look of the game – that’s part of what makes it so different. This isn’t your typical post-apocalyptic looking game. Instead, it go so far into the post-post-apocalypse to feel like a strange fantasy sci-fi future. I like the idea of exploring our present as the ancient past in a game – it’s an intriguing idea that makes me wonder what we would be remembered for as a civilization.

In most open world RPGs, the world feels incredibly daunting in the beginning, but as you progress it begins to feel like an easy playground. However, Horizon doesn’t seem to let up on players:

Horizon has character customisation elements and a crafting system. Guerilla’s twist is that they are setting enemy encounters to always work against the protagonist. Aloy will constantly be outnumbered or outgunned, and must use a variety of cunning tricks and traps to defeat enemies. This was demonstrated during a closed door session which set Aloy against a Thunderjaw; which happens to be a Tyrannosaur-like monstrosity armed with mortars and lasers. Sadly, we were not allowed to take pictures of the demonstration.

A T-Rex with mortars and lasers? Shut up and take my pre-order!

Last Updated: September 18, 2015