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The Origins & World Of Horizon Zero Dawn - New Gameinformer Interview

V

Venture

Member
There's a terrific new interview from Gameinformer today. It's the most in-depth look at Horizon yet.

I'm not sure if that battle with the Thunderjaw is simply a demo example or if it's currently in place in the game. Can you say whether you would characterize that as a boss battle? Or would those kinds of encounters happen naturally, let's say, if you were just wandering around and got into the wrong situation?

de Jonge: These robots do roam around, and you can get into that situation, but the player would have to be at a high level to fight these, and have the right tools.

Norris: And you might run into that Thunderjaw at level six and that would be a bad time for you. [laughs] There are of course moments inside of the quests in which you'll have more scripted encounters. But 90 percent of this game takes place in the open world where you're running around and doing things. If you're in the wrong place at the wrong time, well...
Click to expand...

Can you talk about how players will approach the open world as far as getting objectives, missions, and things to do?

Norris: So there are obviously things that will have objectives and objective markers inside of the game, and another thing that we mentioned during the demo here is the exploration element. We want to drive exploration through having pick-ups that you'll find throughout the world that you can craft with or replenish your health. So, there will be reasons for you to explore this open world that are meta-game related, but there are also quests and a quest system in place that will deliver that story and give you specific places to go.
Click to expand...

de Jonge: The way we try to design it, is that in the beginning of the game the smaller robots are a challenge, but as you defeat those and level up, you will face more difficult machines but also still see the smaller ones walk around. You become more powerful than the smaller ones. You keep going up in ranks but it will take a lot of hours to completely be able to mow things down. In the end, that will probably be something we want to avoid. We always want to retain some level of challenge, because that's what the game is built around.

Norris: It's certainly not analogous to say the old Morrowind or Oblivion systems where everything levels with you, so you never feel a power differential, you will feel that power differential in our game. As Mathijs mentioned, that comes far more from I'm able to take on these bigger challenges that I wasn't able to take on earlier more than god-modeing through this super difficult thing at the beginning of the game that is now super easy. The world changes in Horzion, and it will probably continue to change as you play through.
Click to expand...

Is there anything you can say as far as the travel structure and how different humans relate to each other?

Norris: What we can't say is anything specific. What we can't say is the number of tribes or other specifics. What we can say is that the tribes are very different from one another. I can say that because as you saw in the press conference they are dressed differently. They look different from one another. You saw one with a majestic city. You saw one that is almost transient in a way. That is a critical part of the game. Aloy will come across those tribes and each of those tribes has their own unique and interesting story that you'll get into.
Click to expand...

Much more at the link.
 
T

TheSpaceBetween

Member
Sounds great from what they are saying. I'm always hesitant to play open world games though as they tend not to be built particularly well most of the time.
 
F

Foxix Von

Member
Wasn't necessarily a concern that popped into my mind but I'm extremely glad to hear that there's no level scaling.
 
L

Loudninja

Member
Does Aloy have skills you would upgrade?
de Jong: Absolutely. One of the core ideas for setting up the character is that, in a lot of games you get a selection of what player you are, a combat player or stealth player. In our game we wanted to keep that completely open for the player. You can mix and match and put it together in any way you want. Also during the game you can switch. So the different weapons we present, you can work with the weapon wheel and customize it, but also with the skill trees they are very open. As the player levels up, you get skill points, you get to spend them on the skill trees. There, you can go in all directions you want. You can really create your own custom character instead of having to go through this fixed path and not being able to switch things around.
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Very nice.
 
C

Capella

Member
We brought in John Gonzalez, who was the former lead writer on Fallout: New Vegas to be the pen to the story. But, the major elements of the story have remained even though John has put his touch on it. So the story, at least the foundational elements of it, have remained intact over the period. Of course, it's gotten better as very good writers have come on to the story to help us flesh that out.
Click to expand...

I know it's already been mentioned 100x that John Gonzalez is a writer for this game but it's still really encouraging to see him being credited for penning some of the story in the interview. I hope it's good!
 
K

kevin1025

Banned
One of the most surprising games of E3 keeps sounding better. I hope we don't have to wait till next fall for this one (but I imagine it'll be then).
 
N

Nightengale

Member
Cool.

Part of me was somewhat concerned that Guerilla was simply developing off the concept of what they wanted in a game, but not some a defined overarching core story before John Gonzalez came in. Great to know that even before then, there was a clear vision of what the world, universe and intended story was going to be like.

Nice to hear that there was definitely a core story element, and John is there simply to make sure it's far better than Guerilla's usual writing.
 
S

SocksAndShoes

Banned
I say this in every Horizon thread but this game is sounding better and better with each nugget of info that gets released. Hype is at maximum and holding.
 
R

Recidivus Crimen

Member
Great interview. It sounds like they are going the right direction with the difficulty aspect. It happens too many times in games where we become OP and the game becomes too easy.

Can't help but to feel more excited for this :)
 
T

The God

Member
Really hope we see more of this game before Paris Games Week.

Please, Guerrilla
feedme.png
 
K

Kolx

Member
Please let the execution be good. GG this is your chance to make history in this gen. Don't fuck it up.
 
S

StrongBlackVine

Banned
The only " bad" thing I take from this is they have only been working on the game with a full staff for about 1.5 years. If it releases next Fall that would give it almost 3 years which is a lot of time, but for a game of this scale and their first foray into this genre it might need more time. I hope it makes 2016 because it is my most anticipated game by far. I definitely don't want it rushed though because this should be something special.
 
U

unknownstranger

Member
mosdl said:
I wonder if this will be the big playable title at PSX this year (last year was The Order).
Click to expand...

I can't see a demo for an open world like this going well with the public. I think the press will get their hands on it either then or sometime before though. Uncharted 4 will be the big game everyone gets their hands-on at PSX.
 
N

Nightengale

Member
StrongBlackVine said:
The only " bad" thing I take from this is they have only been working on the game with a full staff for about 1.5 years. If it releases next Fall that would give it almost 3 years which is a lot of time, but for a game of this scale and their first foray into this genre it might need more time. I hope it makes 2016 because it is my most anticipated game by far. I definitely don't want it rushed though because this should be something special.
Click to expand...

Well, duh. The whole 4.5 years thing need to be taken in context. Preproduction takes time, especially even more so when it's a new genre.
 
I

Icyflamez96

Member
This is one of those games that i'm extremely interested in playing from the gameplay demo, yet it feels like I have to actually put in effort to pay attention to details and stuff on it. So I'll take advantage of that for as long as I can so I can go in as blind as possible. I'm out.
 
Surface of Me

Surface of Me

I'm not an NPC. And neither are we.
This + R&C are the only games that make me envious of PS4 owners.

Love that they say you can run into stuff that can wreck you, level scaling in open world RPGs needs to die in a fire.
 
D

Dimorphic

Member
I am very curious to see how Guerilla go crafting an open world. This seems to be as far away from Killzone as they could've gone outside of making a racing game haha.
 
G

GnawtyDog

Banned
You mentioned the crafting and some of the stuff you'll pick up. Is there anything you can say about the overall economy system? Will the worth of players' goods fluctuate at all?
de Jonge: The game is very much built around the economy of the role of resources. Players can go into merchants and sell resources. We also have traders that trade resources directly so you don't have to sell that stuff. How shops and merchants exactly work that's something we're still fleshing out.....................................................................................

I think that's also a bit of what makes it feel more unique. We have these robot components that we add on to the tribal, primitive ingredients and then add a bit of nature as well. Creates a very unique mix.
Click to expand...

Merchant shops and trading/selling confirmed.

Also liked the no-classes mention. Skill trees that branch out to suit different styles depending on your favorite weapons is nice.
 
A

Amir0x

Banned
I don't think I can actually get more excited for a game. A new IP, Monster Hunter inspiration, huge explorable world... RPG. I'm in heaven.
 
N

Nightengale

Member
The gameplay reveal was very, very strong.

Even if you take out all the other super appealing factors like open-world RPG, exploration, story. crafting, economy, etc, just the way it seemed to play really looked very fun and feels like something you'd go back and replay over and over to find the best/different ways to take down Thunderjaw.

Most RPGs tend to sell the RPG-ness of it out-the-gate, because that's often where it's strongest. While it's hard to tell how 'strong' the RPG aspect of Horizon will be for now (because it's their first attempt at it), just the fact that the core combat looks so good is very positive, and the things they're talking about the RPG aspects sound promising.

It really sounds like none of them are going into this new genre thinking themselves as rock star devs, but are instead really, really trying to be as humble about it as possible, recruiting RPG talent from other studios, getting the mindset and production approach right, and not trying to be all "don't worry, we got this." That was a big concern for me prior to the reveal, because developers, being human beings, could easily become misguided or have the wrong mindset/approach towards things.
 
B

Berserker976

Member
Norris: It's certainly not analogous to say the old Morrowind or Oblivion systems where everything levels with you, so you never feel a power differential, you will feel that power differential in our game. As Mathijs mentioned, that comes far more from I'm able to take on these bigger challenges that I wasn't able to take on earlier more than god-modeing through this super difficult thing at the beginning of the game that is now super easy. The world changes in Horzion, and it will probably continue to change as you play through.
Click to expand...

Hm. I'm hoping he just misspoke and meant to say Oblivion and Skyrim, because Morrowind absolutely did not have enemy scaling.
 
A

Alo0oy

Banned
Every time we hear new stuff about this game, it gets me even more hyped.

Come on Guerrilla, can you confirm a dialog tree?
 
C

Chris Kay

Neo Member
Amir0x said:
I am crossing my fingers so hard they nail the mechanics/controls. If they do, if they make it sufficiently complex enough to rival and surpass Monster Hunter technicalities, I'd never play another game again ;)
Click to expand...

In an interview with Kinda Funny Games, Shuhei mentioned that they focused on the gameplay first. They wanted to nail the "minute to minute" gameplay experience before expanding on the other aspects. He also said the game has been in a playable state for over a year now. So I don't think we have to worry about that.

If anything I am a bit more "concerned" how in depth the RPG/Story elements tie in to everything. I want this game to be everything that it promises to be. I'll keep my expectations muted so I can be blown away when I finally get to play in next year. Can't wait!
 
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