New details about the Horizon Forbidden West enemy machines have been revealed.
In a new PlayStation Blog post, Guerrilla Games shared a deeper look at the “metal beasts” that will be roaming the world of the Horizon Zero Dawn sequel.
According to the developers, although some machines that players encountered in the first game will be present, brand new enemies will also be featured including fast and agile Clawstrider and the mammoth-like Tremortusk.
“It was interesting to figure out what type of machines would live in different ecological zones, and how they would interact with each other, their environment, and of course humans,” said principle machine designer, Blake Politeski. “Machines are the so-called caretakers of this world, so how they perform their roles and what the player can do to use these behaviours to their advantage was always interesting to consider.”
Another example of a machine the team of developers thought would add to the world of Forbidden West is the Sunwing–a bigger version of the flying Glinthawk from the first game which can harvest solar power.
“We studied various flying reptiles and primitive birds for inspiration and came up with the concept of their wings collecting solar energy during sunny weather. This in turn created an interesting gameplay dynamic: Sunwings will be vulnerable when they are harvesting solar power, but are also more alert to potential predators when they are idle,” Politeski said.
On the other hand, the Tremortusk–which was shown in the debut trailer–has many different attacks and a body covered in guns. “Apart from using its tusks to attack up close, it also has different elemental weapons it can use. The one we see in the trailer is controlled by a rebel faction of the Tenakth, but you can also find them wandering the wilds,” said Maxim Fleury, asset art lead at Guerrilla.
In addition, Politeski explained that in Horizon Forbidden West, players can expect machines to jump, swim, and cling to surfaces, giving reason to Aloy’s new movability and utility this time around. The developer also teased his favourite machine, which is the Shellsnapper, that was “brewing in my mind since the first game”, however, he didn’t elaborate on the details.
Horizon Forbidden West is set to launch on PS4 and PS5 on February 18, 2022.
In other news, Ubisoft has revealed the roadmap for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, detailing the next two months of upcoming content.
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