Summary
- The Horizon franchise impressed with a unique vision and an epic "post-post-apocalyptic story," setting up high narrative stakes for the third entry.
- Detailed lore and visually stunning locations enrich the Horizon series, letting fans explore ancient and mysterious facilities.
- Horizon 3 could explore the Old World Elysium bunker and its mysteries, possibly providing Aloy a way to defeat the Nemesis threat via lost information or powerful tech.
Guerrilla Games' Horizon franchise has become one of the premiere exclusive Sony IPs, having impressed critics and gamers across two full titles so far with its unique vision and presentation of a "post-post-apocalyptic" Earth. Horizon's story of the future and the devastation it experienced due to rogue military AI machines that destroyed the planet's ecosystem has been an epic one so far. Through the course of the grand adventure, it added twists and turns, bringing surprising revelations and raising the narrative stakes that are now set for the third main entry in the franchise.
The series' visually stunning maps and locations within each region were further bolstered by Horizon's extensive lore, filling in the details and history of the ravaged Earth. Players explored and encountered various tribes scattered across the landscape of Midwest America in Horizon Zero Dawn, and then to the stretches of Nevada and California in the sequel, Forbidden West. Both also brought players to hulking abandoned Old World bunkers filled with fragments of ancient knowledge and technology; part of the network of coordinated attempts to buy more time to stave off the machines. As each prior title allowed fans to visit one of these major bunkers, and with hints provided about another known as Elysium, it seems only fitting that the third entry should send fans to see it up close.
Guerrilla Games is currently developing multiple Horizon titles and related spin-offs, including an MMO experience.
Horizon 3 Seems Obligated to Include Elysium
Horizon's Previous Old World Bunker Sites
As protagonist Aloy and her growing group of allies trek through the remnants of civilization, searching for answers and a way to prevent another catastrophe, they discover the truth about what happened to society a thousand years in the past. When it was clear that the Faro plague of machines was going to overtake Earth, various conglomerates and military institutions began frantically preparing in facilities and production centres for ways to slow the advance enough to enact Dr. Elisabet Sobeck's last-ditch efforts with the Project Zero Dawn program, the same one that resulted in Aloy's "birth" a millennium later, sending her down her journey.
In Horizon Zero Dawn, fans could find a place simply referred to as The Bunker, where they can acquire the advanced shield-weave armour, an extremely powerful and valuable piece of lost tech. Horizon Forbidden West's main base is also a massive control centre that Aloy and Co. Took as their headquarters. Then there is Thebes, Ted Faro's own private bunker, which holds his dark secrets and reveals his insidious nature and personality.
How Horizon 3 Could Explore and Expand on Elysium
Horizon's Elysium bunker was a sort of last bastion for scientists and other personnel who remained after the final stretch of the crisis to live out the rest of their days in a sealed and sterilized environment while Zero Dawn took its course. However, it wasn't designed with long-term sustainability in mind, or as a re-population program, as it did not have the stock of resources necessary. The sterilization also extended to the inhabitants themselves to prevent overcrowding and unbalancing the carefully calculated amount of supplies it contained. Like the above, though, there are bound to be many mysteries still locked away in Elyisum's depths, begging for the next Horizon to reveal some of them.
Given that the previous two entries sent players to one location of each of these types of Old World bunkers, it would be natural to continue this tradition in Horizon, peeling away more layers of how and what the 21st century was like for those who witnessed and dealt with the Faro plague firsthand. Aloy and her group could likely make use of any information or secret tech that might be contained in Elysium that would aid or provide insight into thwarting the oncoming Nemesis threat. This might be another powerful piece of equipment like the weave armor, or something else entirely. In any case, Horizon has already laid the groundwork for the series to send fans to the Elysium bunker in the next title, and hopefully pays off the previous hints given about it by doing so.
Horizon Forbidden West
- Released
- February 18, 2022
WHERE TO PLAY
Join Aloy as she braves a majestic but dangerous new frontier that holds mysterious new threats. This Complete Edition allows you to enjoy the critically acclaimed Horizon Forbidden West on PC in its entirety with bonus content, including the Burning Shores story expansion that picks up after the main game.
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, and life on Earth is hurtling toward another extinction.
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.
- ESRB
- T for Teen: Blood, Language, Use of Alcohol, Violence
- Developer(s)
- Guerrilla Games
- Publisher(s)
- Sony
- Franchise
- Horizon
- Platform(s)
- PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5
- How Long To Beat
- 29 Hours
- Metascore
- 88
