One of the most remarkable features of Horizon Zero Dawn, that has captured imaginations ever since the game was unveiled at E3 2015, is the vibrant, living world that Guerrilla Games have given us a glimpse of.
Here, two societies vie for control of a landscape that at first glance looks entirely familiar. Snow-capped mountains, lush green valleys, woodland and sprawling desert vistas promise a gaming playground that reflects the best our world has to offer; scratch the surface however, and it’s clear this is no longer “our” world to play in. Ancient ruins scatter the land, providing eerie flashbacks from the distant future to a crumbling remnant of the player’s reality, while a society of mechanized creatures enforce their dominance.
On a recent visit to Guerrilla Games’ canal side studios in Amsterdam, the team there gave us a tour of their forthcoming action-RPG – and provided some insight into how they’ve approached creating a vast, living sandbox environment and how this differs from the intensely focused FPS world of Helghan in their legendary Killzone series.
