After months of waiting, fans were finally given a real look at the next-generation of gaming with Sony’s PlayStation 5 gameplay event last week. Among a number of exciting first-party exclusives includingMarvel’s Spider-Man: Miles MoralesandRatchet & Clank: Rift Apart, Guerilla Games broke its silence and announcedHorizon: Forbidden West, adirect sequel toHorizon Zero Dawn.
One ofHorizon Zero Dawn’sbiggest achievements was the game’s story, plethora of lore, and incredible world-building, and fans have spent three years speculating on where the series would go withHorizon: Forbidden West, and in particular, what the game would be called. Guerilla Games promised that by the time players finished the first game, it would be clear why it was called Zero Dawn. With such strong attention to detail, surely that means Forbidden West isn’t just another random subtitle. The subtitle has meaning behind it, which could have some major implications for the future of the series.
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Horizon Zero Dawn Ending Explained
Warning: MAJOR STORY SPOILERSahead for the ending ofHorizon Zero Dawn. Throughout the story, Aloy learns that the old world was destroyed nearly 1,000 years ago after humanity lost control ofmilitarized robots that served as peacekeepers. These robots had been designed with the ability to self-replicate and feed on organic matter, making them entirely self-sufficient, and soon the Earth was overrun and all life wiped out.Horizon Zero Dawngets its name from Project Zero Dawn, a secret project controlled by an AI called GAIA, that would terraform Earth back to a point where it could sustain human life using underground databases, factories, and cloning facilities to build new robots, restore Earth, and restart humanity.
The initial goal of Project Zero Dawn was to create new life and use the power of GAIA to teach the next generation of humanity to not repeat the mistakes of the past. However, the creator of the militarized robots sabotaged GAIA’s teaching system and in-turn, the cloned humans were reduced to the Stone Age. One of GAIA’s subsystems known as HADES was designed to enact extinction if Project Zero Dawn wasn’t favorable for human existence and restart the process, leading to the robots slowly starting to turn against humanity once again throughout the story.Horizon Zero Dawnends with Aloy stopping the cultist group Eclipse that was helping HADES enact an extinction-level event, andstabbing HADES with Sylens' lance, putting an end to the AI’s corruption.
How Zero Dawn Sets Up A Sequel
Fortunately for players, the game doesn’t end with the death ofHADES and the end of the corruption- which would essentially stop any robots from ever needing to be fought in the first place.Horizon Zero Dawnfeatures a post-credits cut-scene that shows HADES survived the attack from Aloy and is now being held by Sylens in some sort of cylindrical device. Sylens' briefly speaks to HADES in the cut-scene, indicating the duo are far more involved than previously led on and that Sylens intends to learn more about the old ones. “Hello, old friend. Remember me?” Sylens says to HADES. “We’ve still so much to discuss, so much you never revealed. Your master, for example. The ones who sent the signal that woke you. Knowledge has its rewards, don’t you think? Well, let’s begin.”
Sylens acted as a guide and mentor for Aloy throughoutHorizon Zero Dawnwith the ultimate goal of learning as much as he can about the Old Ones. However, for a long time, it’s not clear whether Sylens can be trusted or not and for good reason, because he was the founder of the cultist group Eclipse. Obsessed with learning about the Old Ones, Sylens repairs HADES and teaches him about the new world, before manipulating the Shadow Carja into creating Eclipse to serve HADES, all in his pursuit of knowledge. Wherever the story goes inHorizon: Forbidden West, Sylens' mission is tofind the ones that woke HADESup in the first place.
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The Forbidden West
With the announcementHorizon: Forbidden Westis coming to PlayStation 5, what is Guerilla Games implying with that subtitle? Outside of the obvious move to a new western region, including locations such as San Francisco in California, the Forbidden West plays a large role in the game’s lore as a location where only the sun can go.Horizon Zero Dawnearned its name from Project Zero Dawn, a clever naming convention that refers to the beginning of a whole new age of humanity, kind of like the sun rising at dawn for a brand new day.
Following that same logic, couldHorizon: Forbidden Westalso be referring the sun sets, with a third and final game in the trilogy themed around night and/or darkness? After all, it’s always darkest before the dawn and a middle chapter would need to lay the groundwork for the stories conclusion. Many of the games tribes worship the sun, which is how the Forbidden West got its name in the first place, so it only makes sense that the subtitle would play far more of a role than just the name of a new land. Of course, this is all purely speculation right now, so hopefully Sony and Guerilla Games goes more in-depth onHorizon: Forbidden Westinthe next State of Play live stream.
Horizon: Forbidden Westis in development for PlayStation 5 and PC
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