Horizon Forbidden West is one of the biggest PS5 exclusives on the near horizon, and yet, Sony and Guerrilla Games haven’t shown us much of the game. A single trailer, which appeared to be mostly cinematic, is all we’ve seen since the game was announced. Well, thankfully, that changed today, as Guerrilla showed off over 14-minutes of actual Horizon Forbidden West gameplay during the latest State of Play show, and the game is looking very impressive.
The footage shows Aloy making her way through a tropical environment built on the ruins of San Francisco, as she attempts to save her friend Erend from a band of raiders. These raiders ride on raptor-like machines and control a giant robo-elephant, but Aloy has new tricks of her own – she can now grapple like Spider-Man, glide with her Shield Wing, and dive underwater. We see her take out a band of chatty raiders in a sequence that feels very influenced by The Last of Us Part II, use one of the raptor machines as a mount, and finally, destroy that elephant in an intense boss battle. Needless to say, all this looks very, very nice with incredibly lush environments and cutting edge animations for Aloy and her enemies. But hey, enough of my prattling on! Check out the footage for yourself, below.
Yeah, consider me excited. Haven’t been keeping up with Horizon Forbidden West? Here’s the game’s official description:
Explore distant lands, fight bigger and more awe-inspiring machines, and encounter astonishing new tribes as you return to the far-future, post-apocalyptic world of Horizon. The land is dying. Vicious storms and an unstoppable blight ravage the scattered remnants of humanity, while fearsome new machines prowl their borders. Life on Earth is hurtling towards another extinction, and no one knows why.
It's up to Aloy to uncover the secrets behind these threats and restore order and balance to the world. Along the way, she must reunite with old friends, forge alliances with warring new factions and unravel the legacy of the ancient past – all the while trying to stay one step ahead of a seemingly undefeatable new enemy.
Horizon Forbidden West is coming to PS4 and PS5. Sony has yet to specify a release window, although they’ve hinted at 2021 release multiple times.