Horizon Forbidden West Gameplay Trailer Shows New Machines and Powers

Fans of Horizon Zero Dawn got a treat yesterday when Guerilla Games released an extended gameplay trailer of the upcoming Horizon Forbidden West. With footage from the PS5, the game looked gorgeous and is easily one of the most anticipated games of the year. We got a look at all the new machines, locations and Aloy has picked up a few new tricks since the last time we saw her.

In this installment, Aloy is headed for the Forbidden West to understand the cause behind a strange crimson blight infecting and killing plants, animals, tribes, and turning the local weather into a constant super-storm.

The first, and easily most prominent change, is the landscape of the game. While Horizon Zero Dawn featured various biomes within the world map, from snowy hills to deserts and thick forests, Horizon Forbidden West is set in the remains of San Francisco. That means water will be a large part of the map structure, as are dense forests.

We also got a look at some new machines that Aloy will have to face. Clawstriders – which look inspired by Velociraptors – are nimble, roam in packs, and can traverse the terrain with ease to chase you down. They are also vulnerable to the “Override” feature from the previous game, allowing Aloy to use them as mounts.

Ben McCaw, narrative director at Guerilla Games, has stated that there will be many new machines that can be ridden.

Aside from that, the trailer also showed a fight against a massive new machine called the Tremortusk. Other machines shown during the trailer, and we can expect to see in the game, are Sunwings (flying machines), Snapmaws, and Burrowers (both water-based machines).

Speaking of water, we now have a new dimension of the world to explore underwater. Thanks to Aloy’s Diving Mask apparatus, which allows her to breathe underwater and also propels her, we’ll probably get to visit some sunken ruins and also hide from the machines on land. The Diving Mask is just one of the few new things showcased in the gameplay video.

We also saw the Pullcaster, a grappling hook that makes climbing much faster, and the Shieldwing, which acts as a glider to slow descent. Aloy’s spear also seems to have been upgraded to deal more damage through wide, electric AOE attacks.

One exciting piece of news is that Horizon Forbidden West will also be coming to the PS4, along with the PS5.  While the PS5 will undoubtedly have superior graphics and virtually zero load times thanks to the fast SSD, PS5’s aren’t exactly easy to come by these days.

Thankfully, PS4 users will still be able to experience the world of Horizon Forbidden West. We don’t have an exact release date for the game yet, but we know that it will release sometime in 2021.

About Horizon Forbidden West

Horizon Forbidden West is the sequel to 2017’s Horizon Zero Dawn by Guerilla Games. An open-world, action adventure game, players control Aloy, a Nora hunter who is on a quest to reverse the effects of a strange crimson blight which is infecting the land. Set in a completely new world, Horizon Forbidden West has many new machines, threats and adventures for Aloy.