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Walking with the Robosaurs in Horizon: Zero Dawn
Robotic dinosaurs? Open world? Count us in!
Lush open-worlds filled with hulking sentient tech
© Guerrilla Games
You've got to drool over the reality-bending hacks of a developer debug console. Rather than show us the same epic "David v Goliathbot" fight everybody saw at E3, Guerrilla Games busted out their Neo code kung fu, giving us an unprecedented snoop through the robotic innards of PS4's most exciting new IP, Horizon: Zero Dawn. Our reaction to it: a "woahhh" worthy of Keanu.
Horizon is an open-world action-RPG that's pitched as a post-post-apocalypse. It's been roughly a thousand years since humanity screwed the cyber-pooch, and the details are sketchy. Skyscrapers have been reclaimed by nature to the point where cities resemble herds of colossal chia pets, and all remaining homo sapiens eke out a tribal existence, blending native American hunter/gatherer skills with the reverse engineering of advanced old-world tech. These exotic doodads are generally reaped from the enigmatic robo-animals which now roam the wastes, curiously mimicking herbivore and carnivore organic life. They do this convincingly, to the point where the heroine of the piece, Aloy, apologises to her prey whenever her arrow finds a target.
Though we press them, Guerrilla Games is not willing to explain the odd inclusion of these robosaurs. They're aware of the early comparisons to Dinobots, they've also fielded questions about human-built AI that's (literally) gone wild and then caused mankind's downfall. Our demoer entertains all of these as possibilities, but also throws in another hypothesis. Maybe they're from offworld? Perhaps they've been here all along? It's going to be fun slaughtering our way to the truth.
For the most part, our demo begins much as it did in Sony's E3 conference. We're told that the Killzone engine – traditionally concerned with only first-person experiences, and modest-sized environments – has been greatly reworked to deliver Skyrim-style, explore-anywhere-you-can-see levels of freedom (at 1080p/30fps, no load screens). The lure of those beautiful snow-capped mountains is great, but for now we decide to slink into a nearby valley under the cover of physics-reactive vegetation that GG insists on calling 'stealth plants'. We set pneumatic rope snares around the predicted escape vector of some nearby deerbots, then pop from cover to provoke their flight with an explosive arrow arced well over their odd, searchlight-looking heads. As predicted, the group flees from the ruckus and are effectively funnelled into our... well, Killzone.
Walking with the Robosaurs
© Guerrilla Games
Had we simply bumbled into that scenario we would have been lucky to drop one, maybe two of these herbivores. Hunting intelligently lands us five or six victims, all of them bristling with tech to be either stripped and sold later at a bartertown, or crafted into sweet upgrades in the field.
Right on cue, a 30 foot tall, 80 foot long T-Rex called the Thunderjaw attacks, and the debug tools kick in to freeze the demo so GG can pan, zoom and explain the finer points. Seems old mate Thunderjaw consists of 550,000 polygons, 93 destructible armour plates, can trick you with 12 different attack patterns or hundreds of incidental animations, and has five interactive features that can be detached and used against him. The latter may very well be his heavy mortar weapon, metal plate shields, and razor mandibles.
Like any boss in existence, ever, Thunderjaw has a bunch of weak-points you should definitely prioritise. Our regular arrows ricochet off its metal hide, spitting out paltry damage numbers. Timing our dodges and aiming into the softer orange 'tissue' sections near his joints cause triple damage. Likewise, repeated explosive rounds can expose power cores about the beast's body which increase that damage modifier considerably. Should you need more time to really nail those shots, we recommend you momentarily stun this brute with some shockingly effective electro-arrows. It's at this point that Guerrilla makes mention of Horizon focussing on player trial and error with the absence of tutorials. Best of luck with that.
Are we fighting robots, or nature itself?
© Guerrilla Games
Heart-pounding, well-handling action that's bursting with tactical freedom is much appreciated, but it's the RPG half of Horizon that excites us the most. Guerrilla reminds us that all of this dino-slaughter will be firmly rooted in a grand narrative that will blur the lines of artificial and regular life. The team has also enlisted the scriptwriting help of John Gonzalez, lead creative designer on Fallout: New Vegas, and he's backed up by an ex-CD Projekt Red narrative designer who handled The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Now our robo ears have pricked up.
Much like the ex-Thunderjaw lying “dead” at our feet, we muse upon the fact that Horizon: Zero Dawn is going to be a very large, very complex beast for Guerrilla Games to tackle. The team is well renowned for their graphical wizardry with linear shoot-fests... less so for their story-telling abilities, and experience with RPGs or open-worlds packed with systemic AI. This game is exactly what it says on the tin – a bold new horizon for both fans of the studio and the developer itself. Can all of its parts be successfully cobbled into a whole worth hunting down come launch day? We cannot deny that we're massively intrigued by the world of Aloy, but at the time of writing our fears aren't allayed. We will continue to stalk this with great interest.
