It’s been over three years since Horizon Forbidden West first released in early 2022 for the PlayStation 4 and 5. In that time, Guerrilla Games released a DLC expansion for Horizon Forbidden West in the form of the Burning Shores, a remaster of Horizon Zero Dawn, and two spin-offs with Horizon Call of the Mountain and LEGO Horizon Adventures.
While rumors, leaks, and hints from Guerrilla have teased upcoming Horizon multiplayer games, little has been officially discussed about Horizon 3, with many fans expecting it to end Aloy’s story, if not the entire series. If this turns out to be the case, Guerrilla may want to strive to feature multiple awe-inspiring and jaw-dropping boss battles similar to the climactic fight from Burning Shores.
Horizon 3 Can't Repeat a Key Trick From Horizon Forbidden West's Intro
Guerrilla Games may want to avoid repeating a drastic change from Horizon Zero Dawn to Horizon Forbidden West in the eventual Horizon 3.
Horizon’s Varied Boss Battles Explained
With a world as treacherous as Horizon’s filled with gigantic, animalistic machines and warmongering cults or tribes, the series was poised to feature dynamic boss battles from its initial reveal in 2015. However, while Horizon Zero Dawn did feature several tough fights against titanic machines such as Fireclaws, Stormbirds, and Thunderjaws in certain arenas, including Cauldrons, none of these are considered traditional boss battles, since these machines can often be repeatedly encountered in the wild. Zero Dawn centered most of its main story boss fights against the ancient machines, Corruptors and Deathbringers, but even these machines became commonplace by the end of the game. Human boss battles were similarly underwhelming, with most antagonists, such as Helis, playing exactly like common cultists, just with increased health and damage output.
Horizon Forbidden West continued to have boss-like encounters in Cauldrons like Zero Dawn, but greatly improved upon boss fights with unique and engaging scenarios. This can be seen through the many difficult encounters with the near-invulnerable Far Zenith and their Specter drones, as well as the climactic fight against Tilda van der Meer within the exoframe Specter Prime, the latter of which only appears once in the game. Boss battles against normal human opponents, such as Regalla, were similarly improved thanks to Forbidden West’s dynamic combat overhaul with increased melee combos and weapon variation. These advancements culminated in the bombastic, multiphased boss battle against the Far Zenith Walter Londra and his reactivated colossal Horus, which was able to deploy Corruptors and required Aloy to swim, fly, and climb on the massive machine.
Boss Battles in Horizon Spin-Offs
All of Horizon’s spin-offs released so far take place during the events of Zero Dawn, with Horizon Call of the Mountain taking place around the midpoint of Zero Dawn’s campaign and LEGO Horizon Adventures being a succinct, family-friendly adaptation of Zero Dawn overall. Due to these settings and gameplay restrictions, both Call of the Mountain and Adventures’ boss battles are only against machines encountered in Zero Dawn. For example, most of Adventures' boss battles are against large machines in Cauldrons, save for a climactic fight against a HADES-possesed Deathbringer. Meanwhile, Call of the Mountain’s boss battles are just fights against common machines, but in complicated virtual reality arenas.
Potential New Enthralling Boss Battles in Horizon 3
Based on the widespread positive reception of Burning Shores’ Horus boss battle, Guerrilla Games could at least make a few more intricate but engaging encounters in Horizon 3. The next mainline Horizon game could feature another battle against a Horus given how common their remains are scattered about the post-apocalyptic United States. Guerrilla could even go the Power Rangers route and feature a sequence wherein Aloy gets to pilot a Horus against another Horus or a similarly large threat. While additional Horus fights could be entertaining, new titanic and enthralling boss battles are likely to come from the incoming alien Nemesis and the rogue HEPHAESTUS artificial intelligences instead of ancient remains.
Towards the end of Forbidden West, it is revealed that HEPHAESTUS escaped after gaining access to Far Zenith technology and that the Far Zenith-created A.I. Nemesis was en route to Earth to destroy all life. Following these events, HEPHAESTUS and Nemesis will likely be the main antagonists of Horizon 3 and bring with them a target set of gigantic, dangerous machines to destroy. Nemesis’ machines could appear similarly to the Specters and Specter Prime due to their common Far Zenith origin. However, Nemesis could show up on Earth with a space station-sized machine that threatens to destroy all life, possibly serving as the final boss of the series. This boss battle could function similarly to Burning Shores’ Horus but with more of a Death Star-like feel of dread and finality.
HEPHAESTUS’ Possible Hybrid Machines in Horizon 3
In contrast to Nemesis’ alien machines, HEPHAESTUS could create entirely new machines that are a hybrid of both Zero Dawn and Far Zenith technology from Horizon Forbidden West. By using the Far Zenith’s nanotech structures and Zero Dawn’s animalistic designs, HEPHAESTUS could design gigantic, monstrous machines with the sole function of destroying humanity. One of these machines could be a dragon-like robot that Aloy will first have to confront on land before battling it in the skies aboard a Sunwing or a different tameable flying machine. If Horizon 3 takes place near the coastal Quen Empire, as many fans suggest, another hybrid machine could be a colossal kraken-like robot that forces Aloy to use new underwater and air battle mechanics to take it down.
All Cauldrons in the Horizon series were overseen by the artificial intelligence HEPHAESTUS, wherein it produced machines to maintain environments as a part of Project Zero Dawn.
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
