Horizon (video game series)

Video games

Other media and adaptations

The Horizon universe was adapted into a comic book series published by Titan Comics beginning with the release of the four-issue miniseries, Horizon Zero Dawn: The Sunhawk in 2020.^[36][37] The story is set after the events of Zero Dawn and follows the newly appointed Sunhawk, Talanah who is struggling to find her purpose after Aloy vanishes. Talanah leaves Meridian on a contract to hunt a new breed of machine: a black-armoured Clawstrider. She allies with a Carja hunter named Amadis to battle the machines and a mercenary group. The comic bridges the gap to Forbidden West by introducing new machines and characters that appear in the game.^[37][38] A second four-issue miniseries, Horizon Zero Dawn: Liberation, was released between July 2021 and January 2022.^[36][39] It is set during the events of Zero Dawn and the story follows Aloy and Erend as they hunt for Korl, an Oseram assassin responsible for murdering a merchant and is linked to the death of Erend's sister, Ersa. The narrative frames Erend recounting the "Liberation of Meridian" where he details Ersa's escape from Carja captivity and the unification of the Oseram and Carja resistance.^[39][40] The comics were co-created and written by Anne Toole, one of the writers for Zero Dawn.^[37][39]

A licensed cooperative tabletop game, called Horizon Zero Dawn: The Board Game was announced in August 2018 by Steamforged Games. The game was funded on Kickstarter in less than two hours and released in 2020.^[41][42] The first expansion, called "The Sacred Land", released in September 2021.^[43] Steamforged partnered with Sony again for a second game based on Forbidden West called Seeds of Rebellion, which was funded via Kickstarter in November 2023. The game explores never before-seen canon events leading up to the game.^[44] In late 2025, Magic: The Gathering released six cards based around Forbidden West as part of their Secret Lair Drops.^[45][46]

Mainline entries

Following the release of Killzone 3 in 2011, Amsterdam-based studio Guerrilla Games began to conceptualise their next project. The studio's leadership sought a shift away from the dystopian tone of the Killzone franchise, while Sony Interactive Entertainment wanted to add a Western role-playing game to its lineup. From a pool of roughly 40 internal pitches,^[81] the team selected a concept by art director Jan-Bart van Beek that was defined by three core pillars: nature, robotic dinosaurs, and a strong female protagonist.^[82][83] Development began with a small prototyping team of 10 to 20 people before the remainder of the studio joined after completing Killzone Shadow Fall in late 2013.^[84][81] Zero Dawn required a budget of over €45 million and a team of roughly 270 internal employees, supplemented by 18 outsourcing studios, which included Singapore-based Virtuos and Serbian studio 3Lateral.^[85]

With the transition from linear shooters to an open world format, Guerrilla avoided complex role-playing statistics to retain accessibility.^[86] Early prototypes equipped Aloy with a rifle, but developers replaced it with tribal weaponry to better align with the naturalistic setting.^[87]: 7:18 The developers designed Aloy as a capable survivor to provide the player with a grounded perspective, and avoided industry tropes of oversexualised female characters.^[88] Market testing revealed her early design possessed what developers described as a "Disney Princess" quality; the art team then spent two years working on her concept art to make her look older and more authentic in survivalism.^[89] Her visual likeness was modelled on Dutch actress Hannah Hoekstra,^[90] while American actress Ashly Burch provided her vocal performance.^[91]

Guerrilla modified their proprietary engine, naming it Decima in 2016, to generate the game's world. The engine used procedural generation for foliage and rivers alongside hand-crafted rock formations, and was managed by a system of data maps that tracked changing environmental conditions.^[92] Guerrilla collaborated with anthropologists and researched the formation of tribal cultures to build the game world.^[82] Jared Diamond's books Guns, Germs, and Steel (1997) and Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (2005) were the team's main sources of inspiration.^{[93]: 24:06} The characters in the games mostly speak plain English despite being set centuries in the future, as the team wanted to avoid jargon to retain accessibility.^{[93]: 19:36-20:51} The audio team developed an approach they dubbed "natural-fiction" for the audio design.^[94] Zero Dawn's composers Joris de Man, The Flight, and Niels van der Leest, avoided traditional sci-fi blockbuster tropes in favour of an organic soundscape.^[95] They blended unconventional acoustic instruments, including sparse cellos and contrabass flutes, with synthesised, circuit-bent sounds to reflect the contrast between primitive tribes and advanced machinery.^[95][96]

The art team designed the machines based on their functional ecological roles. They consulted with robotics engineers from the Delft University of Technology to determine how practical robotic anatomy would be constructed. The engineers recommended an exoskeleton-like approach rather than traditional internal skeletons. This provided visual durability and logical weak points for combat.^[97] Animators studied wildlife documentaries to ensure the movements closely resembled real animal motion. The Tyrannosaurus rex-inspired Thunderjaw was the franchise's initial proof of concept. It took 18 months to develop it from a sketch to a functional in-game model.^[81] The combat and stealth mechanics were designed to simulate a hunt, with enemy AI programmed to be lenient upon initial detection, but difficult to evade once fully engaged.^[98]

Development on Forbidden West began in 2018.^[99] Guerrilla relocated to a new five-story studio space in Amsterdam in August 2020, which allowed them to accommodate the franchise's expanding scope.^[100] They also expanded their internal workforce to 360 employees by mid-2021.^[101] Production cost approximately US$212 million.^[102] The studio delayed the release to 2022 to accommodate production disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and to avoid implementing mandatory overtime.^[103] Ben McCaw stepped into the role of narrative director as the lore expanded. He centred the sequel's story around the pressure Aloy faced living up to her predecessor's legacy and introduced the clone, Beta, as a sullen, isolated counterpart of Aloy.^[104] Forbidden West also expanded its cinematic casting by including Carrie-Anne Moss and Angela Bassett.^[105]

The studio improved player traversal in the sequel by introducing underwater exploration and aerial mounts.^[106] Guerrilla initially focused on maximising the visual fidelity of the PlayStation 5 before dedicating resources to ensure parity on the PlayStation 4. The limitations of the older hardware proved challenging as developers nearly removed the aerial mechanics because they worried that the PlayStation 4 could not stream the environments fast enough to support the feature.^[107] Lead character artist Bastien Ramisse increased the character models' polygon density to take advantage of the PlayStation 5 hardware, which allowed for enhanced facial capture accuracy and the rendering of vellus hair.^[108] Guerrilla updated the Decima engine to transition to the open-source Jolt physics engine and to implement a rendering system that generated three-dimensional cloud formations.^[109]

Designers refined the combat by overhauling the skill trees and introducing Valor Surges to support different playstyles.^[78] The AI of human enemies was programmed to be more aggressive, and the encounters of the first game were integrated by allowing enemy factions to commandeer and ride machines into battle.^[110] Guerrilla established a dedicated team to implement over 80 settings to improve accessibility, which included a Co-Pilot control system, custom difficulty options, and toggles for tinnitus audio effects.^[111] The audio design also expanded to match the diverse cultures; composer Oleksa Lozowchuk joined returning composers Joris de Man, The Flight, and Niels van der Leest, and wrote acoustic and percussive themes to differentiate tribes.^[112]

Sony moved away from strict console exclusivity by porting the mainline games to Windows. Guerrilla partnered with Virtuos to adapt Zero Dawn for PC in 2020.^[113] Sony subsequently acquired Nixxes Software in 2021 to help with their PC releases;^[114] Nixxes handled the PC port of Forbidden West and co-developed Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered.^[26][28]

In April 2023, following a series of management changes at the studio, Guerrilla confirmed that a third mainline entry continuing Aloy's story was in development.^[115] In February 2026, Kotaku reported that the game was still multiple years away from release, as the studio's primary development resources had been allocated to work on Hunters Gathering.^[116]

Story expansions

Guerrilla developed The Frozen Wilds to expand on the base game's Banuk tribe. The designers drew geographical inspiration from Yellowstone National Park and used its hydrothermal pools to contrast the snowy environments.^[117] The studio upgraded the Decima engine to process real-time snow deformation and interactive water rendering.^[118] The team integrated narrative with environmental puzzles when designing the quests; for example, the character of Gildun was built specifically to justify a chain of mechanical failures that the player must fix within a ruined dam.^[119] Developers altered the enemy AI to increase the difficulty of stealth mechanics to force the player to commit to initiated combat encounters.^[98] Animators referenced footage of polar bears and red pandas for the movements of the new machines, while the sound team mixed synthetic noises with walrus and seal vocalisations.^[120] The team used player feedback and focused on NPC interactions. They overhauled their cinematic motion capture technology and recorded actors Burch and Lance Reddick together in the studio.^[121] The expansion also marked the first time Burch performed full-body motion capture for Aloy. She studied Zero Dawn footage to replicate the character's traversal animations.^[91]

The Burning Shores dropped PlayStation 4 support. This allowed the developers to use the PlayStation 5's solid-state drive for fast aerial streaming and enabled the construction of dense city environments within the ruins of Los Angeles. The console's enhanced processing power allowed developers to keep a specialised lighting setup active on Aloy during all standard gameplay, a feature previously restricted to cinematic cutscenes.^[122] Volumetric cloud formations that the player could fly through were introduced in Burning Shores, which required low-level code optimisations to handle the lighting calculations.^[123] The expansion's final boss, a reanimated Horus machine, was built with over a thousand more articulation joints than the base game's machines. The fight required new climbing technology to ensure Aloy's character model aligned with the moving components.^[124] Developers also introduced the Waterwing, a flying machine capable of diving underwater to allow the player to navigate the flooded archipelago. A thalassophobia mode was also added to assist players with a fear of deep water.^[125]

Standalone games

Guerrilla partnered with Firesprite for Call of the Mountain. Unlike the mainline entries, the game was developed using Epic Games' Unreal Engine 4 to demonstrate the hardware capabilities of the PlayStation VR2. Developers used the headset's eye-tracking in conjunction with foveated rendering to allocate processing power and maintain visual fidelity.^[126] The shift to a first-person perspective altered the perception of scale, so the team had to remodel and reanimate the machines for close-quarters combat.^[127] The developers incorporated haptic feedback into the controllers and headset to increase player immersion and to simulate the sensory impact of the machines walking nearby.^[128] The team conceptualised a gesture-based arm-swinging traversal scheme as an alternative movement option to reduce motion sickness and improve player comfort.^[129]

Guerrilla collaborated with Studio Gobo and The Lego Group to develop Lego Horizon Adventures. The game was built in Unreal Engine 5. Developers constructed the in-game assets from individual digital Lego bricks to replicate and animate the characters in a stop motion style.^[130] The writers tried to make the franchise approachable for newcomers, hiring comedy writer Mark Llabres Hill to adapt the tone by leaning into slapstick humour.^[131] The game featured returning voice actors from the mainline games; Ashly Burch as Aloy, JB Blanc as Rost, John Macmillan as Varl, and John Hopkins as Erend. Tim Russ was cast to voice Sylens following Lance Reddick's death in March 2023.^[132] The game was released for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Nintendo Switch. Narrative director James Windeler explained that the Switch port aligned with their goal of reaching a broader audience and that the Switch's simple control scheme made it a "natural fit".^[133]

The upcoming Steel Frontiers is co-developed with South Korean developer NC.^[134] The game is being built in Unreal Engine 5 to optimise the large-scale multiplayer environment for mobile devices. It replaces the single-player aspect of the franchise with a player versus environment structure inspired by the Monster Hunter series. The game is set in the Deadlands, a region inspired by the Southwestern United States.^[18] Hunters Gathering is being directed by Arjan Bak. It will return the series to the Decima engine and uses a stylised art direction instead of photorealism.^[20][135]

Critical response

The Horizon franchise is one of Sony's best-selling first-party properties.^[158] By November 2025, the series had sold over 40 million units worldwide.^[159] Zero Dawn became one of the best-selling PlayStation 4 games with over 24.3 million units sold by April 2023,^[160] while Forbidden West sold over 8.4 million copies within its first year.^[161]

According to the review aggregator website Metacritic, both Zero Dawn and Forbidden West have received generally favourable reviews.^[162][163] Both games received nominations for Game of the Year at The Game Awards.^[164][165] The spin-off titles drew a more mixed response; Call of the Mountain received generally favourable reviews,^[149] while Lego Horizon Adventures received "mixed or average" reviews.^[166]

The games were frequently commended for its distinct, post-apocalyptic setting.^[167][168] The open world design of both games was also praised for evoking a sense of discovery for players.^[169][170] Reviewers praised the scope of Zero Dawn's central mystery and its grounding of complex science fiction concepts in a tribal setting.^{[167][171][169]} The overarching plot direction of the sequel drew a more divided response, with its main narrative's sudden shift toward science fiction concerning immortal billionaires being criticized.^[172][173] The second game's storytelling methods, through its use of cutscenes and motion capture, were viewed by critics as an improvement over the first game.^{[174][175][176]} Critics have praised Ashly Burch's performance as Aloy,^{[177][178][179]} alongside the voice work of the franchise's ensemble cast.^{[180][174][58][175]}

All games in the series had been recognized for their technical achievements.^[h] Some critics considered the machine combat to be the franchise's strongest feature.^{[167][174][169]} with the overall gameplay loop being compared to that of Monster Hunter.^[167] Across the mainline entries, reviewers have identified the simplistic melee combat and encounters with human enemies as the weakest aspects of the gameplay.^[64][184] Critics has noted that both main games were not mechanically innovative, observing their heavy reliance on the gameplay formula established by previous open world games.^{[185][186][187]} While the first game's role-playing game mechanics were deemed superfluous,^[188][184] the second game's quests and narrative structure had been compared to other acclaimed western RPGs such as The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and BioWare games.^{[174][175][189]}

Thematic and scholarly analysis

Academics have examined the series through the lenses of ecofeminism and posthumanism and praised its thematic focus on an environmental ethics of care and the symbiosis between humanity and nature.^[190][191] The series has also been used in educational studies for its potential to counteract gender stereotypes through its variety of complex, non-traditional gender roles.^[192] Natalie J. Swain argued that the franchise subscribed to standpoint theory by forcing the player to inhabit the worldview of a social outcast, thereby privileging the perspective of the marginalised.^[193]

Andrei Nae and Eirini Bourontzi argued that the core gameplay, which requires the player to hunt and dismantle machines for resources, forces Aloy into the role of a "colonial entrepreneur", which is contradicting to the game's broader ecological message by promoting capitalist exploitation. Nae and Bourontzi further asserted that while the narrative provides a systematic critique of neoliberalism and unregulated corporate governance, the in-game economy paradoxically "naturalises capitalism" by encouraging resource accumulation without lasting environmental consequence.^[194] Scholar Ian Faith defended this gameplay mechanic as a "hybrid ecology", where the mechanical harvesting represents a healthy symbiosis and a low-waste approach to survival.^[195]