The world of Horizon is filled with a wide variety of animalistic machines roaming the post-apocalyptic United States. From the small Watchers to the towering Tremortusks and even ancient war machines such as Corruptors, all machines in Horizon can prove to be lethal foes if provoked or attacked when unprepared. However, Horizon Forbidden West introduced a new type of technology and machines to go along with the new tech based on the sleek, menacing designs of the Far Zenith. While only a few Far Zenith machines were featured in Forbidden West, more machines like them may appear in Horizon 3 for better or for worse.
Why Horizon 3's Enemy Roster May Be Unlike Anything That Came Before
Guerrilla Games may add a brand-new enemy type to spice up the gameplay and lore in the upcoming Horizon 3, building off Horizon Forbidden West.
The Technology and Machines Derived from Horizon’s Far Zenith
After the Faro Plague began and was on the brink of wiping out 21st century humanity, some of humanity’s wealthiest and smartest individuals escaped the planet aboard the Odyssey starship and colonized the faraway planet of Sirius. For about 1,000 years, Sirius became a technological utopia with the Far Zenith developing highly advanced technology, even gaining the ability to cease aging and achieve a form of immortality. Most of Far Zenith tech was centered around nanotechnology and advanced energy; the Far Zenith could instantly create structures, machines, clothes, energy shields, and weapons with their technological advancements.
The Far Zenith nanotech is best represented by their machines known as Defense Drones, Specters, and Specter Prime. Each of these machines are equipped with powerful energy shields and deadly weapons such as Pulse Cannons, Siege Mortars, Lancers, and Missile Pods. Due to their nanotech, most Far Zenith machines are able to move swiftly, even more like organic animals than the rigidness of Zero Dawn machines. However, after the rogue artificial intelligence HEPHAESTUS was captured and subsequently freed from Far Zenith imprisonment, HEPHAESTUS gained access to a Far Zenith printer matrix, allowing it to instantly create Zero Dawn machines with nanotech. This may have serious ramifications for the next game.
Horizon 3’s Potential Continued Use of Nanotech
Nanotech has become a contentious subject in many pop culture fanbases and franchises over recent years, especially in highly popular properties such as the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While nanotech is an effective tool to display a person or organization’s technological advancement, it’s often criticized for being overused or too powerful of a tool. In terms of films, nanotech is sometimes perceived as a studio being lazy for relying on CGI to create nanotech effects instead of making real props or costumes. In many pop culture properties, nanotech can further be perceived as too powerful, because practically everything and anything can be created with nanotech, such as Transformers: Age of Extinction’s Transformium or Tony Stark’s nanotech weapons in Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame.
Guerrilla Games is a bit at fault for using nanotech in Horizon Forbidden West to make the Far Zenith powerful, similar to the MCU, though it is a bit more realistic for a 1,000-year-old faction of Earth’s brightest minds to use advanced nanotech for everything in their alien society. Despite fans’ approval or disapproval of Horizon nanotech, it’s highly likely that nanotech will appear in some form in Horizon 3. While all the Far Zenith may be dead after the end of Forbidden West’s Burning Shores DLC, it’s likely the rogue Far Zenith AI Nemesis will continue using their machines and nanotech in Horizon 3, while HEPHAESTUS could make entirely new machines merging designs of Zero Dawn with Far Zenith. As Beta speculates near the end of Forbidden West, HEPHAESTUS' time in the Far Zenith system may have given it the data necessary to replicate nanotech and make more dangerous machines moving forward.
Potential New HEPHAESTUS-designed Machines in Horizon 3
Nemesis is expected to be the main threat of the third Horizon game, but HEPHAESTUS can still play a secondary antagonistic role in Horizon 3 with new machines. HEPHAESTUS was already shown tampering and modifying Zero Dawn designs in Horizon Zero Dawn's Frozen Wilds DLC and Forbidden West, such as the combat-oriented Grimhorn. At the end of Forbidden West, HEPHAESTUS is shown to use Far Zenith nanotech to instantly create Slaughterspines and Thunderjaws to attack Specters, so it could similarly create a vast nanotech army in Horizon 3 to attack Aloy. HEPHAESTUS could additionally make new machines such as animalistic war machines with energy shields and nanotech weapons. While the more classic grounded machines will likely still show up in Horizon 3, more flashy nanotech machines will likely become more prominent too.
Horizon Forbidden West
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 88 /100 Critics Rec: 96%
- Released
- February 18, 2022
- ESRB
- T for Teen: Blood, Language, Use of Alcohol, Violence
- Developer(s)
- Guerrilla Games
- Publisher(s)
- Sony
- Engine
- Decima
- Franchise
- Horizon
- Steam Deck Compatibility
- Unsupported
