Horizon Forbidden Westhas been a big success for Sony, only falling behind FromSoftware’sElden Ringas the most-downloaded PS4 and PS5 game in February 2022, according to PlayStation Blog. As players make their way across a post-apocalyptic America to reach San Francisco, voice actorAshly Burch gets to really flesh out protagonist Aloy, who makes plenty of alliances along the way. Much of the series' acclaim comes from its protagonist, who has become a modern PlayStation icon alongside titans like Kratos and Nathan Drake, but Guerrilla Games also intends to expand its universe.
When Sony announced its PlayStation VR2 headset at CES 2022,Horizon Call of the Mountainwas revealed to be its killer app. ThisHorizonspin-off positions Guerilla as a major force for Sony, and it notably moves away from the story of Aloy to flesh out other parts of the world. There are plenty more opportunities forHorizonspin-offs, but one of the most obvious ideas Guerrilla could attempt is a sort of prequel that depicts Operation: Enduring Victory, in the style of its own sci-fi first-person shooter franchise,Killzone.
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Killzone, the ‘Halo Killer’
AfterHalo: Combat Evolvedtook the world by storm, Sony tapped a young Guerrilla Games to develop a competitor for the PlayStation 2. The result was 2004’sKillzone, which launched just before Bungie’sHalo 2hit shelves that November. It may not have seen the same overwhelming success asHalo, butKillzonespawned two sequels on PS3, followed byPS4 launch titleKillzone: Shadow Fallin 2013. The franchise also saw portable spin-offs with 2006’sLiberationand 2013’sMercenary, but fell dormant as Guerilla shifted attention to the open-worldHorizonfranchise that kicked off with 2017’sZero Dawn.
Similarities toHaloare clear when looking atKillzone’s plot. The series takes place in the 24th Century and centers a conflict between the Interplanetary Strategic Alliance, a military connecting Earth with its space colonies; and the Helghan Empire, the totalitarian regime overseeing a race of mutated humans who hope to conquer Alpha Centauri. This antagonistic force began as the Helghan Corporation, a mining and energy conglomerate that reorganized over time as wars broke out between the universe’s big powers. Every game has players take the role of soldiers in the Second Extrasolar War, and all are first-person shooters with future tech — except the twin-stick shooterLiberation.
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Horizon’s Faro Plague Could Come to Life in a Killzone-Style Game
ThoughHorizon Zero DawnandHorizon Forbidden West’s main gameplay loop sees Aloy killing animalistic machines in a far-future where humanity has reverted to tribal stages, a lot of the appeal comes from players uncovering what happened to the contemporary “Old Ones.” The world’s backstory is a cautionary tale about global warming and corporate power, with climate disasters leading humanity to great technological leaps like true AI during a “Claw-Back” era in the late 21st Century. One of the most successful corporations, Ted Faro’s Faro Automated Solutions, then pivots to military tech.
The resulting Chariot line of “peacekeeper robots” go rogue and present an apocalyptic threat given their ability to autonomously reproduce using biomatter. Under dire projections, scientist Elisabet Sobeck spearheads a Hail Mary project called Zero Dawn that would bring life back centuries after the “Faro Plague” destroys it all. To accomplish this feat, theworld’s militaries enact Operation: Enduring Victory, which sees civilians hold back the Plague long enough for Zero Dawn to finish. Remnants of these battles can be found all over the planet, and many of the text and audio logs that Aloy discovers delve into the horrors of humanity’s slaughter.
AHorizon Zero Dawnprequelcovering Operation: Enduring Victory could be a hard sell given its bleak conclusion, but may have merit in the same wayRogue Onefilled in gaps betweenStar Wars Episode 3and4. Battles with futuristic military tech are something Guerrilla Games has experience with thanks toKillzone, even if its focus has been different over the last few years.
Even if the game is just quick simulations of major battles in another PSVR2 title, this kind ofHorizonprequel would help build the universe’s backstory in a more concrete way — while giving fans the chance to take on Scarab (Corruptor), Khopesh (Deathbringer), and Horus (Metal Devil) machines in a whole new light.
Horizon Forbidden Westis available now on PS4 and PS5.
