Horizon Zero Dawn is a 2017 action role-playing game developed by Guerrilla Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The first instalment in the Horizon video game series, it is set in a post-apocalyptic United States where large robotic machines dominate the Earth while humans live in primitive tribes with varying levels of technological development. The game follows Aloy, a young hunter who sets out to uncover her past. The player uses ranged weapons, a spear, and stealth to combat mechanical creatures and other enemy forces. A skill tree provides the player with new abilities and bonuses. The player can explore the open world to discover locations and take on side quests.
Horizon Zero Dawn was Guerrilla Games' first intellectual property since Killzone in 2004 and its first open world and role-playing game. Development began in 2011 after the completion of Killzone 3, with director Mathijs de Jonge considering it the riskiest idea pitched at the time. The game engine, Decima, was developed for Killzone: Shadow Fall (2013) and altered for Zero Dawn. Despite being in a post-apocalyptic setting, the game utilises vibrant colours and was designed to evoke a sense of adventure and hope. Anthropologists were consulted to authenticate the world's decay over a millennium, while experts in robotics were consulted to develop realistic machine designs. Non-fiction books by Jared Diamond, as well as futuristic fiction such as Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984) and Princess Mononoke (1997) influenced the design of the game's setting and narrative. The game's cast included Ashly Burch and Lance Reddick, while the soundtrack was composed by Joris de Man, featuring contributions from The Flight.
Released for the PlayStation 4 in February 2017, the game was ported to Windows in 2020 as the first in a series of PlayStation exclusive video games arriving on personal computers. A remastered version of the game, developed by Nixxes Software, was released in October 2024. Zero Dawn received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised its setting, story, visuals, and combat; however, its role-playing mechanics and unoriginal gameplay received some criticism. The game won numerous awards and sold over 24.3 million units by April 2023. An expansion, The Frozen Wilds, was released in November 2017. A sequel, Horizon Forbidden West, was released in February 2022. Events in the game are reinterpreted comically in Lego Horizon Adventures, which was released in November 2024. A film adaptation is in the works by PlayStation Productions and Columbia Pictures.
Gameplay
In this gameplay screenshot, Aloy is aiming a bow and arrow at a Fanghorn while riding on a mount.
Horizon Zero Dawn is an action role-playing game played from a third-person view.[4] Players take control of Aloy, a hunter who ventures through a post-apocalyptic land ruled by machine creatures. These machines, as well as human enemies like bandits and cultists, are the game's main types of enemies.[5][6] Aloy can dodge, sprint, slide, or roll to evade her enemies' advances.[7] She uses a variety of weapons to defeat enemies. In addition to a spear for melee combat, Aloy can also shoot them with arrows, set up traps such as tripwires using the Tripcaster, harpoon them to the ground to restrict their movement with the Ropecaster, or slingshot explosives at them. Different ammunition types offer specialised utility. For example, some arrows help players dismantle a machine's offensive capabilities by tearing off specific components and disabling weapons. Others inflict elemental status effects, such as burning or stunning enemies.[8] A special type of ammo named Corruption causes a machine to attack everything around it, including its allies. Weapons can also be customized with modifications, which enhance their qualities such as increasing their damage output or improving its handling.[9] Aloy wears a Focus, a small earpiece that scans machines to identify their location, susceptibilities, level, and the nature of loot they will drop.[10][11] Information about these machines will be then stored in an in-game journal.[12] Players can also utilise stealth tactics, hiding in foliage to ambush nearby enemies, and distracting enemies by throwing rocks or whistling.[13][14]
As players explore, they will collect natural resources and parts dropped by the machine to craft ammo, traps, and potions, which can restore Aloy's health and increase her resistance to elemental effects.[15][16] Hunting animals also provides materials to expand Aloy's inventory, allowing her to carry more arrows and consumables.[17] Players can visit merchants to sell unwanted scraps, and purchase additional weapons and outfits.[16] Aloy earns experience points (XP) by completing quests and engaging in open-world activities. While individual kills provide a baseline amount of XP, the game rewards skillful play, such as stealth takedowns or headshots, with bonus XP. Once enough XP is accumulated, players earn Skill Points for upgrading Aloy's abilities.[18] The skill tree has three categories: "Prowler", which concerns stealth, "Brave", which improves combat, and "Forager", which increases healing and gathering capabilities.[19] Through upgrades, Aloy can perform additional feats such as aiming a bow in slow motion, shooting multiple arrows at once, or collecting more resources from each defeated enemy.[20] Also, players will receive rarer variants of the same weapon as they progress the game, allowing access to more ammo types and providing more modification slots.[9][17]
Horizon Zero Dawn is an open world game with a day-night cycle and dynamic weather system.[21] The map is composed of forest, desert, and snowy mountain regions.[22] Mountainous terrain is traversed with the employment of parkour,[23] and aided by the use of zip lines.[24]Save points and fast travel can be accessed by interacting with campfires, once discovered.[19] Aloy can scale and override large giraffe-like machines known as Tallnecks to reveal locations of interest around the map.[25] She is able to hack a selection of machines with the Override Tool on her spear, some of which can be turned into makeshift mounts.[26] Explorable ruins called Cauldrons unlock additional machines to override.[27] The quest structure is divided into side quests, which are designed to flesh out the world's culture and answer smaller questions, while the main questline handles the major mysteries regarding Aloy's origins.[28] A dialogue wheel is used to communicate with non-player characters (NPC), allowing players to choose different dialogue options to shape Aloy's personality and social interactions.[29] Aloy can also complete optional open world activities, such as clearing bandit camps, completing hunting challenges, and clearing Corrupted Zones, which constitute areas of heightened difficulty and are populated by corrupted machines that behave with more aggression.[27] Players can also find collectables such as vantages that offer visual information of the Old World, metal flowers that contain poetry, and old relics, such as ancient mugs and tribal artefacts.[30]
Synopsis
Setting
The story is set in a post-apocalyptic United States, between the states of Arizona, Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, and Utah, in the 31st century. Humans live in scattered, primitive tribes with varying levels of technological development. Their technologically advanced predecessors are remembered as the "Old Ones". Large robotic machines dominate the Earth. For the most part, they peacefully coexist with humans, who occasionally hunt them for parts. However, a phenomenon known as the "Derangement" caused machines to become more aggressive toward humans, and caused larger and deadlier machines to appear. Four tribes are prominently featured: the Nora, the Banuk, the Carja, and the Oseram. The Nora are fierce matriarchal hunter-gatherers who live in the mountains and worship their deity, the "All-Mother". The Carja are an empire of desert-dwelling city builders who worship the Sun. The Banuk consists of wandering clans made up of hunters and shamans who live in snowy mountains and worship the "blue light" of the machines. The Oseram are tinkerers and salvagers known for their advanced weapons, metalworking, brewing, and talent as warriors.
Plot
Aloy (Ashly Burch) is cast out from the Nora tribe at birth and raised by a fellow outcast, Rost (JB Blanc). As a child (Ava Potter), Aloy searches a forbidden "place of metal" and obtains a "Focus", an augmented reality device that gives her special perceptive abilities. Curious about her origins, Aloy learns from Rost that if she wins the "Proving", a yearly tournament between the young hunters of the Nora, the tribe's Matriarchs might concede this information. Aloy throws herself into years of hunting and survival training, becoming a skilled huntress.
After coming of age, Aloy participates in the Proving; she wins the competition, but masked cultists attack the Nora. Rost sacrifices himself to save Aloy from their leader, Helis (Crispin Freeman). When Aloy awakens, the Matriarchs explain that Aloy was found as an infant before a sealed door within the Nora's sacred mountain and that these suspicious origins were the reason for her being an outcast. The Matriarchs name Aloy a "Seeker", allowing her to leave their lands in pursuit of the cultists. Aloy eventually learns that the cultists are part of a splinter Carja faction called the Eclipse and that Aloy was targeted due to her resemblance to an Old World scientist named Elisabet Sobeck (also voiced by Burch). Aloy locates the ruined corporate campus of Faro Automated Solutions and discovers that the Old World was destroyed nearly a thousand years ago after Faro lost control of its automated peacekeeper military robots. The robots, which could self-replicate and consume biomass, overran the planet and engulfed the biosphere, stripping Earth of life. Zero Dawn, a project spearheaded by Sobeck, was initiated to create an automated terraforming system to eventually deactivate the Faro robots and restore life to Earth over a period of centuries.
Aloy is contacted by Sylens (Lance Reddick), a secretive Banuk figure interested in uncovering the fate of the Old Ones. Aloy learns that Sobeck was sent to a decommissioned Orbital Launch Base to complete Zero Dawn, located under the Citadel, the centre of Eclipse power. Inside the base, Aloy learns that Zero Dawn was a vast underground system of databases, factories, and cloning facilities controlled by a single artificial intelligence, GAIA (Lesley Ewen), and her subsystems. Once all life had been extinguished, GAIA developed a countermeasure to deactivate the Faro robots and build her own animalistic machines to restore the Earth's biosphere. Once the planet was habitable again, GAIA's next goal was to reseed life on Earth based on stored DNA and teach the first human clones not to repeat their predecessors' mistakes. However, Faro's founder and CEO, Ted Faro, sabotaged APOLLO, the subsystem containing humanity's history, because he didn't want people to know he was responsible for the Old World's destruction. The new generation of humans was consequently reduced to a tribal, subsistence society. The Eclipse are secretly controlled by HADES (John Gonzalez), another of GAIA's subsystems designed to enact controlled extinction if the outcome of Zero Dawn was not favourable for human existence. Reaching Sobeck's office, Aloy obtains a registry to give her access to the door beneath the Nora's mountain. She is captured by Helis and sentenced to death at the Citadel, but escapes with the help of Sylens. Aloy helps the Nora fight off the Eclipse and unlocks the mountain's door.
She finds a recording from GAIA, revealing that a signal of unknown origin caused HADES to activate and seize control of her functions; as a last resort, GAIA attempted to stop HADES by self-destructing, but failed and lost control of the other subsystems. Without GAIA to maintain the terraforming process, the entire system began to break down, leading to the Derangement. As a contingency plan, GAIA created a clone of Sobeck in the form of Aloy, hoping she would find GAIA's message, destroy HADES, and restore GAIA's functions. Aloy learns that Sobeck sacrificed her life to ensure the Faro robots would not find GAIA. Aloy manages to obtain the master override to destroy HADES. Sylens reveals that he founded the Eclipse, initially tempted by HADES' promises of knowledge when he discovered it. They surmise that HADES intends to send a signal to reactivate the Faro robots to extinguish life on Earth. Aloy kills Helis and helps fight off machines before stabbing HADES and activating the master override, ending the war. She journeys to Sobeck's old home, finds her corpse, and mourns her predecessor. In a post-credits scene, HADES is trapped by Sylens, who intends to interrogate HADES to find out who sent the signal that activated it.
The Frozen Wilds
Aloy travels to the Cut, the home of the Banuk tribe, after hearing word of dangerous machines appearing and a mountain belching smoke. She learns from Aratak (Richard Neil), chieftain of the largest Banuk clan, that the Banuk have been attempting to battle a "Daemon" on the mountain, Thunder's Drum, which has corrupted the machines of the Cut. However, their first attack failed, and their shaman, Ourea (Necar Zadegan), disappeared afterward. Aloy searches for Ourea, coming across strange robotic towers that control and repair the corrupted machines. She finds Ourea in an Old World facility that had been converted into a Banuk shrine and is housing an artificial intelligence the shaman calls the "Spirit". Aloy is able to make contact with the Spirit, which warns Ourea that the Daemon is blocking its transmissions before being cut off. Aloy and Ourea agree to work together to save the Spirit. Per Ourea's advice, Aloy defeats Aratak in a hunting competition, taking his place as chieftain. She also discovers that Aratak and Ourea are siblings.
Aloy, Ourea, and Aratak head for Thunder's Drum. They infiltrate the Old World facility built inside the mountain, where Aloy discovers that the Spirit is actually CYAN (Laurel Lefkow), a highly advanced AI designed to prevent the Yellowstone Caldera from erupting. Travelling further inside, they discover that the Daemon has already overtaken much of the facility. However, CYAN suggests using lava from the caldera to destroy the infected areas while preserving the facility. It is also revealed that the Daemon is, in fact, HEPHAESTUS (Stefan Ashton Frank), another of GAIA's subsystems designed to manufacture machines. The group fights through HEPHAESTUS' defences, and Ourea sacrifices herself to override CYAN's core, allowing it to escape. CYAN transfers its core systems to an auxiliary data centre and initiates self-destruction of the facility. Aloy and Aratak narrowly escape. Aloy returns to the Banuk Shrine, where CYAN is waiting; the AI provides additional information about the Old World but warns that HEPHAESTUS is still active somewhere and will continue to build machines explicitly designed to kill humans, which is why it tried to seize control of CYAN and its facilities. Returning Aratak to his previous position as Chieftain, Aloy departs the Cut.
Guerrilla Games began developing Horizon following the release of Killzone 3 in 2011.[31] In late 2010, Guerrilla put out a brief to everyone in the studio for ideas of what the next game would be. There were few guidelines other than no puzzle or racing games. The studio was also open to another game in the Killzone universe. 45 pitches were made.[32] Among these was Horizon Zero Dawn, which game director Mathijs de Jonge considered "the most risky" of the concepts and was pitched by art director Jan-Bart van Beek.[33][34] Guerrilla co-founder and Managing Director Hermen Hulst said a big part of the decision was to move away from the dystopian, gritty tone that the Killzone franchise had, to a game that was more beautiful and vibrant. It was also chosen because Worldwide Studios did not have a western role-playing video game in its portfolio at the time.[35] The concept was defined by three pillars: a lush, documentary-style nature setting, robotic dinosaurs, and a red-headed lead character.[36] Development of the concept was put on hold briefly as the premise was very similar to that of Enslaved: Odyssey to the West (2010), though the team subsequently became more confident in the project and decided to pitch it to Sony again.[35]
Once this concept was chosen, a team of 10–20 began building prototypes of the game.[33] The meaning of "Horizon" in the title represents "a boundless new world, and also the passage of time (where the Sun rises and sets) that is so fundamental to the setting and story" according to the developers.[37] The game's protagonist, Aloy, was one of the core elements of the pitch that remained throughout the whole process, along with the tribes and nature.[28][34] Approximately 20 different stories were written, exploring various concepts, such as different player characters. John Gonzalez, who previously acted as lead writer for Fallout: New Vegas (2010), was hired to write the game's story as narrative director, with Ben McCaw as lead writer.[33][38] Upon the completion of Killzone: Shadow Fall in late 2013, the remainder of the staff joined the development team.[39] Guerrilla cancelled another game to allow the entire team to focus on Horizon.[40] Guerrilla had roughly 270 employees in Amsterdam to work on the game, while utilising 18 different outsourcing companies worldwide. Virtuos alone dedicated 65 employees for over two years to build 11 of the machine types and various bandit settlements. Other contributors included 3Lateral (Serbia) for facial animation, Territory Studios (New York) for interface design, Audiomotion (London) for motion capture, and Kokku (Brazil) and XPEC Art Center (Taipei) for environmental assets and robotic models. To ensure consistency across global teams, Guerrilla provided exhaustive reference libraries for every asset.[41]Horizon had an estimated budget of over €45 million.[42]
Technology
Unlike many role-playing games that emphasise player choice, Horizon prioritised a more curated, personal story. Gonzalez described the game as a hybrid, borrowing the scope and interactive dialogue of RPGs while embracing cinematic storytelling commonly found in an action-adventure game.[35] To strengthen its RPG credentials, Guerrilla recruited talent from franchises like The Elder Scrolls and The Witcher.[43]Horizon was designed to be an accessible experience, and the team avoided adding deep role-playing systems to the game. Traditional character stats for Aloy were removed, and the team wished for the game to have a simple user interface design, specifically avoiding complicated menus for crafting.[44] The team was inspired by Fallout 3 (2008), a role-playing game emphasising emergent gameplay that gives players agency and freedom to perform actions beyond the developers' original intent.[45] Gameplay was designed to be challenging, especially when players venture off the beaten path. Combat was divided into three stages: "prepare", "engage" and "escape", and most combat encounters were designed to support these pillars.[46] Original designs had the protagonist using a rifle, but this was changed to tribal weaponry because high-tech gunfire felt conceptually wrong for the beautiful forest setting.[32]
Horizon was Guerrilla's first open world game. Commenting on the change from Killzone to Horizon, van Beek added that they had to change their design philosophy from "designing rollercoaster rides" to creating full "theme parks". Guerrilla also studied the gameplay structure of other open world games, such as The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011), to determine the density of the game's world.[45] The team wanted to give players more options for how they approached objectives. While the game had mechanics which allowed Aloy to hide and evade detection, it was not envisioned to be a full stealth game. Once a stealth approach is failed, the player is encouraged to fight their enemies head-on.[47] Machines were initially the only enemy type in the game, while human enemies were added to introduce more combat variety and show different tribal cultures. Initially, the game's world was designed to be significantly larger, though its size was significantly scaled back after the team realised they cannot fill the entire map with content. The original plan was to support cooperative multiplayer, though this was later scrapped as the team wanted the world to maintain a high level of details.[35]
Guerrilla had difficulty altering the game engine, Decima, which was previously used for Killzone: Shadow Fall,[48][49] for Horizon, in terms of draw distance and loading. The goal was to create an open world with the visual resolution and detail typically reserved for linear first-person shooters.[32][33] The team had to significantly rework the engine. While the rendering core existed, they built new systems for streaming, level editing, and asset placement from scratch to support an open world workflow. The world was built through a mix of procedural generation and hand-crafting. While vegetation and rivers used procedural placement, rock formations and mountains were hand-made to ensure specific art direction. To maintain performance, the team used techniques like converting complex mid-distance rock faces into 3D voxel structures with re-projected materials, which saved memory while looking better. "World Data Maps" were used to inform shaders and placement systems about environmental conditions, such as humidity and temperature, allowing for details like fireflies appearing only near bushes at night. The team used a mix of dynamic and pre-baked solutions. "Irradiance volumes" allowed for high-quality indirect lighting that could still update with the dynamic time-of-day cycle. To handle the massive amount of foliage, the team used a "placement system" based on texture lookups rather than storing individual object data. Rendering was optimised by using a cheap depth-only pass first to handle expensive alpha testing.[50]
World design
Initial work focused on how different human tribes would interact with the machines of the world, which in turn dictated the style of their clothing, architecture, and tools. A major goal for the team was to treat the machines as a natural part of the ecosystem, and show that the tribes viewed them as a standard part of their daily lives and environment.[28] The developers created distinct cultures like the matriarchal Nora and the patriarchal, technology-embracing Carja to represent different ways of seeing the world.[51] The game's concept explores the juxtaposition between the danger and beauty of the world, particularly analysing the concept of humanity not being the dominant species due to animal-like machines roaming around. It also explores the integration of nature and technology, depicting a world where nature itself has become technological.[51][52] Set in the ruins of the "Old World," the team faced challenges in creating sci-fi imagery that also looked prehistoric. They manually sculpted each ancient structure to ensure it appeared broken and lopsided. Old World ruins were designed to look frail, evoking a sense of compassion for the people who once lived comfortably there.[36] Despite the game's premise, the world was depicted with vibrant colours. Described by the team as a "post-post-apocalyptic" game,[53] it was designed to be appealing and evoke a sense of adventure and hope.[45]
The game features two types of "dungeons": Bunkers and Cauldrons. Bunkers are man-made structures designed to provide story beats and establish an emotional connection to the "old world". These spaces came late in the project and used a limited set of building components. Because they were small compared to the vast open world, there was a risk they would feel dull or repetitive. To make each space feel unique, the team covered surfaces in stalactites, calcite, ice, and snow to break up the architecture and create interesting visual formations. Large holographic interfaces were added to provide lighting and context, allowing players to understand a room's original function even if the physical consoles were covered in grime or ice. Cauldrons are AI controlled assembly lines where machines are built. Because these structures were built by AI rather than humans, the artists were free from human architectural constraints. The directive for these spaces was to "go big, go crazy" and treat the environment like a giant sculpture. The team designed these two dungeon types to be diametrical opposites. While Bunkers offer a contrast to the natural world above ground through human history, Cauldrons provide a stark contrast through cold, alien, and massive machine aesthetics.[50]
The machines
The creative process for the machines began with rudimentary sketches of functional platforms.[54][55] The team consulted with the robotics department of the Delft University of Technology, and settled on a design which would see the machines having an exoskeleton. This design choice improved durability and created strategic "soft spots" for players to target with arrows.[56] Engineers were instructed to design the machines as if they could be physically constructed in reality,[54][55] and artists used ZBrush to whittle away digital clay for high-detail components like hydraulic joints and armour plates.[41] To animate and telegraph the machines realistically, the team took courses in animal and creature animation, and consulted Dr. Stuart Sumida, a professor who provided anatomical consulting to various film and theme park projects.[56] The size of the machines and their behaviours also affect how the team designed encounter spaces as they become more varied as players progress. Designers struggled to convey a sense of heavy weight while keeping the AI responsive enough to challenge the player's high agility.[47][56]
Early designs for the machines drew inspiration from the Killzone's more militaristic and industrial aesthetic, but they were soon abandoned as playtesters felt like they were playing soldiers in a war rather than hunters.[35] The design of these mechanical creatures was inspired by real-life animals, so that their movements and behaviours were easily recognisable. For instance, the Tallnecks were inspired by giraffes, the Stalkers were inspired by maned wolves, the Longlegs were inspired by terror birds, and the Watchers were inspired by meerkats and small, bipedal dinosaurs.[36] The Thunderjaw, resembling a T. rex, was the team's earliest creation and served as their proof of concept for the project. The team spent 18 months bringing the Thunderjaw from initial sketch to a functional in-game state.[56][57] They worked to avoid overloading machines with blinking lights and colours to ensure players could easily identify their status and gameplay functions during combat.[56] Sound designers balanced robotic and animalistic noises to create an "emotional impact". Most machines have between 200 and 300 unique sounds and another 150 that are shared between them.[54]
The game utilises hierarchical task network (HTN) planning, which generates sequences of behaviour rather than single actions. It allows for different reactions based on a machine's class: Acquisition machines might flee, while Combat and Recon machines coordinate to hunt the player. To prevent the player from being overwhelmed, the AI decides which machine attacks next based on how interesting or varied the combat will feel. While one machine attacks, others in the group are programmed to circle the player and wait their turn, creating strategic windows for the player to counter-attack or escape.[58] Information is attached to objects like the player, arrows, or rocks in "packets". This allows machines to distinguish between a dead body, an arrow whizzing past their head, or a player hiding in tall grass. Each machine type interprets sensory data differently and depending on the "strength" of a machine's sensors, the AI might only receive a portion of the available data, creating unique and emergent behaviours for different species. Guerrilla developed two distinct systems to handle the game's varied terrain and machine types: land navigation and aerial navigation. Land navigation uses a navigation mesh (NavMesh) that allows ground-based machines of various sizes to move through complex geometry. It is designed to recognise and adapt to changes in local terrain. Aerial navigation use a completely separate system based on a runtime-generated heightmap of the flyable air space. This allows for hierarchical path planning and specialised behaviours like transitioning from air to ground or performing guided crash-landings.[59]
Guerrilla always envisioned Horizon as a science fiction title, with all lore firmly grounded in plausible science and realistic extrapolation.[60] The world was designed to be dynamic, as Aloy had to navigate the conflicts between various tribes and settlements during her journey. In extrapolating the game world, Guerrilla turned to anthropologists and researched the formation of tribal cultures as well as how building materials would decay over a millennium.[34]Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (1997) and Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (2005) were cited by Gonzalez as points of reference, while futuristic fiction including Princess Mononoke (1997) and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984) served as major touchstones early in the game's development.[61] The game's weapons were intentionally designed to reflect the primitive and technologically regressed nature of the surviving civilisation.[36] Major quest lines were inspired by biblical epics like Ben-Hur (1959) and The Ten Commandments (1956), while the game's expansion, The Frozen Wilds took inspiration from the film 2010 (1984).[62]
Aloy was originally designed to be younger and more expressive, but the team ultimately decided that a more mature version offered greater narrative opportunities.[36] The writing team initially drew inspiration from iconic female leads like Ellen Ripley from Alien, Sarah Connor from Terminator, and San from Princess Mononoke. They focused on creating a personal, emotional story arc for her, establishing her as an outcast of the Nora tribe to drive her search for her own origins.[51] Aloy was designed as an outcast so players could empathize with her perspective as an outsider entering a strange new world. The team aimed for Aloy to be a "real human being" who starts as the "least important person in the world" and becomes the most important.[62] Due to her unique upbringing, Aloy was designed to be a compassionate character who is willing to help and heal the world. The entire game was built around Aloy; every side quest began as a narrative concept designed to answer why she, specifically, would want to get involved. While the core story is an "epic tragedy", side quests allowed the team to explore stories that are lighter, sarcastic, or comedic.[51]
Burch voices Aloy,[63] whose likeness is portrayed by Hannah Hoekstra,[53] and motion capture was performed by Amanda Piery.[64] Following an auditioning process in 2014, Burch was called in to do the E3 2015 trailer and proceeded to work on the game for two years in Los Angeles, providing facial motion capture as well.[65] Burch's performance heavily influenced the writing of narrative director John Gonzales. The two of them collaborated closely regarding how she delivered her lines and what he would write for her to say next.[32] Aloy came together late in the process of development, which affected people on the commercial side because they wanted to get a short description of the character. Her look was driven by practicality and the materials available to her tribe rather than a reaction to industry trends.[28] They spent considerable time refining her hairstyle to ensure she remained instantly recognisable among the game's cast, regardless of the armour she wore.[36] Sony would later admit to being reluctant about having the main character be female and conducted focus testing to see if such a decision was marketable.[66]
Music
Lead composer Joris de Man(pictured in 2013) used experimental instrumentation in the score.
The game's soundtrack was composed by Joris de Man, the Flight, Niels van der Leest, and Jonathan Williams, with vocalist Julie Elven serving as the primary performer.[67][68] To handle the massive open world, the workload was split: De Man concentrated on memorable themes and leitmotivs, the Flight handled textures and soundscapes, van der Leest focused on percussion, and Williams handled various tribal songs in the game.[69]
Lucas van Tol, music supervisor and senior sound designer steered away from the heavily compressed, "epic" orchestral sound common in modern games, opting instead for an intimate, organic feel. Composers were encouraged to play instruments "naïvely"—as if a post-apocalyptic survivor had found a guitar or harmonica and was guessing how to play it. The score was built around three themes: machines, tribes, and nature.[70] For the tribal theme, they experimented with bows on piano wire and resonator guitars (with layered tracks of harmonicas on top of the latter) and playing cellos with plectrums or the back of a bow to convey how contemporary instruments would be played by someone to whom the instruments were unknown; de Man also used a contrabass flute and made synth pads from blowing on a Thai bamboo flute, noting "distant pads and ambiences, and wide, spread out chords seemed to work well". Circuit-bent synthesizers and percussive loops, run through impulse responses of metal and iron being beaten, were devoted to making a thematic identifier for the machines based on technology and metal. Van Tol required that the music be supplied in stems so that different pieces could be combined. The team used "stemming" for breaking tracks into separate components, allowing the game engine to remix the music dynamically during long periods of exploration. They designed unique physical instruments for the game world, such as the Braumdrum, KunaBass, and Iron Pendulin.[69][70][71][72] Rather than writing fixed tracks, the composers provided music in "kit form" or stems. This allowed the game engine to layer and rearrange elements dynamically, providing variation and preventing repetition during long gameplay sessions. The positive response to the first E3 trailer's main theme led it to be included in the main menu. The composers also did the motion capture for diegetic music vignettes, portraying in-game tribal musicians.[70][71] The four-hour soundtrack was released via digital music platforms on 10 March 2017.[73]
Release
The concept art as well as the game's codename, Horizon, were leaked in September 2014.[74]Horizon Zero Dawn was officially announced during Sony's E3 2015 press conference.[75] At E3 2016, Sony had a life-sized cosplay version of one of the machines greet the trade show attendees.[76] Originally set to be released in 2016, the game was delayed to February 2017 to be further polished.[77] It was released to manufacturing in late January 2017,[78] and launched to North American markets on 28 February 2017, in Europe, Australia and New Zealand on 1 March and Asia on 2 March for the PlayStation 4.[79]Horizon Zero Dawn is forward compatible with the PS4 Pro,[24] allowing it to run up to 4K resolution.[80] Players who pre-ordered the game received a resource pack that included modifications for weapons and outfits, and materials for crafting ammo and traps. Other bonuses were exclusive to GameStop and EB Games customers, who received in-game upgrades, an outfit, and a bow. The Digital Edition included the resource packs, outfits, and weapons, while the Collector's Edition featured an Aloy statue, an artbook, a steelbook case, 4 resource packs, and the same outfits and weapons as the Digital Edition.[81][82] A "Thunderjaw Collector's Edition" was also available. This included a premium Thunderjaw statue, Aloy's "Focus" earpiece, lithographs, and a world map.[83] An assortment of merchandise was released for the game, including clothes,[84] an official art book by Titan Books,[85]Funko Pops,[86] and premium statues for Aloy and one of the machines, a Stalker.[87][88] A making-of documentary was released on Dutch public television in April 2017.[89]
Guerrilla continued to support the game after its initial launch. New Game Plus, an Ultra Hard difficulty mode, additional trophies and aesthetic features were introduced with a patch released in July 2017.[90] The game's DLC, The Frozen Wilds, was announced in June during E3 2017 and released on 7 November.[91][92]The Frozen Wilds adds a new section to the map that can be reached whether the base game was already completed or not. The level cap is increased from 50 to 60 and a new skill tree branch called "Traveler" was added, which focuses on ease of movement while riding overridden machines.[93][94] Multiple new machines are included as well as the introduction of "daemonic machines", which are a variant of the machines that glow with purple light. They also have increased health and inflict more damage when they attack.[95]The Frozen Wilds also introduced "control towers", a device that will keep healing enemies in its proximity until they are destroyed.[96]
The Complete Edition, which bundled the base game and The Frozen Wilds, as well as all items from the "Digital Deluxe Edition", was released for the PlayStation 4 on 5 December 2017. In an effort to increase profitability, in 2020 Sony decided to begin porting their first-party titles to PC, with Horizon being one of the first.[97] The game was released for Windows via Steam and Epic Games Store on 7 August and GOG on 24 November.[98][99] Ported by Virtuos with additional work by Nixxes Software,[1][2] the PC version introduced a number of graphical options and improvements, benchmarking tools, unlocked frame rate, and support for ultrawide aspect ratio.[100]
Remaster
Improved lighting and character models were among the updates made in the remaster.
Rumours of a remaster being in development began in 2022 and speculation increased after Zero Dawn was removed from PlayStation Plus in May 2024.[103][104] Co-developed by Nixxes, Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered was announced for Windows and PlayStation 5 on 24 September and released on 31 October. Remastered includes the previously released downloadable content, including The Frozen Wilds.[3] Its existence received mixed reactions as some journalists and players felt it was too soon to remaster the game, plus it was already playable on the PlayStation 5 in 4k and 60fps following an update in 2021.[b] The Steam and Epic Games Store versions of the Complete Edition were delisted with the release of the remaster and initially it was required for PC users to use a PlayStation Network (PSN) account in order to play.[110] This prevented anyone living in the more than one hundred countries, primarily in the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and Southeast Asia, where PSN is unavailable, from playing the remaster.[111] Sony ended up removing the PSN account requirement in February 2025.[112]
Remastered brought over the gameplay, HUD, and accessibility options, as well as the performance options allowing players access to 30 frames per second (FPS), 40fps, and 60fps from the game's sequel Horizon Forbidden West (2022).[101] The terrain system and foliage were graphically updated along with an increase in the number of unique plants. Nixxes looked at the biomes in the original game and used the game's concept art to closely match the types of foliage expected for each biome.[101][102] The increased amount of memory of the PS5 allowed Nixxes to increase the number of NPCs and introduced more dynamic NPC behaviours.[102] Deforming snow that was introduced in The Frozen Wilds is now used across the whole game for snow and sand.[101][102] Aloy's character model received the most improvements as her face model from Forbidden West was brought over which included changes like the addition of peach fuzz, as well as upgrades to her hair, eyes, and outfits.[101][102][113]Remastered features more than 10 hours of re-recorded dialogue and uses new motion capture data for conversations. Nixxes built a new system to integrate the animation data into the game, which made the character movement and facial animations look and feel more natural. New camera angles were also added to these scenes. The audio mix was reworked, which includes better support for surround and 3D audio.[101][102] The remaster also integrates features of the PS5's DualSense controller including adaptive triggers and haptic feedback, providing specific tactile sensations for different actions. A new optional setting was added that uses both sound and haptic pulses to notify players of interactable elements in the world, which were previously only marked visually.[114]
Horizon Zero Dawn received "generally favourable" reception, according to the review aggregator Metacritic,[127] and according to OpenCritic, 94% of critics recommended the game.[119] Critics generally agreed that it was visually impressive with a familiar gameplay design.[128]
The combat received generally positive reviews. Several reviewers noted that the game's combat remained engaging throughout its runtime.[126] Dan Silver from The Guardian described combat as "endurably exhilarating", and liked how each machine require different tactical approaches.[129] Peter Brown from GameSpot described the machine design to be creative and liked how the game gradually introduced more complex variants as players became more proficient in combat.[122] Their distinct attack patterns were also praised for contributing to combat variety.[5][121] Several critics wrote that these machine combat encounters created a lot of emergent yet memorable moments, and fighting against larger machines was considered to be a satisfying experience as they tend to push players to use all gadgets available to them.[c] Several critics also noted that combat in the game can be demanding.[121][130][132] Phillip Kollar from Polygon further compared the cadence of gameplay alternating between crafting, combat and collecting materials to Monster Hunter, and found Horizon's approach to be more approachable.[124] Melee combat,[29][122] as well as combat encounters with human enemies,[5][124][129] however, were singled out as weaker parts of the game.
The game's world design received praise. Writing for The Verge, Andrew Webster praised Guerrilla's attempts at worldbuilding, noticing that each tribe has a unique visual identity reflected in their architecture and clothing design.[129] Kollar observed that Horizon was the result of a team being allowed to do something new, noting the game's setting is refreshing and that the game had more personality when compared with Guerrilla's past works.[124] Jeff Marchiafava from Game Informer noted that the world provided "a remarkable sense of discovery", praising its diverse biomes, machine types and human settlements,[121] while Justin Clark from Slant Magazine wrote that the game had the "most vibrant and beautifully envisioned open worlds in a video game to date".[132] The game's wealth of content and the variety of its activities were also praised.[5][29] Despite noting the novelty of the game's setting and finding the game to be graphically impressive, many reviewers wrote that the game did not deviate from the design established by other contemporary open world games.[d] Its impelementation of RPG mechanics, such as crafting and inventory management, was also criticised for being unrefined.[121][122][129] Dan Silver from The Guardian and Sammy Barker from Push Square wrote that the game did not actually allow players to have much agency in the role they play because the game follows a very fixed, predetermined path, with Silver suggesting that the RPG mechanics in the game were "lip service to genre expectations".[125][126]
The game's story received praise by critics. Webster wrote that the game's central mystery kept him engaged despite the slower opening hours, adding that the story was both "personal" and "epic" and liked how these two sides of the tale intersect with each other.[129] Kollar was frequently surprised by the game's narrative, and liked how the game set up future adventures while resolving most of the plot threads in a satisfying manner.[124] The quests in the game were praised for facilitating world-building,[29][132] and several reviewers praised how the game integrated modern-day tribal conflicts and politics in a story about the mysteries of the past.[29][123][125][132] Brown praised Aloy's character development and the game's exploration of themes about nature and technology. He described the central mystery to be "fascinating", though he found the side content to be inferior in comparison.[122] Silver found the story to be compelling, but disliked the game's reliance on "extraneous exposition" as well as audio and text files to convey the narrative.[126] Aloy was observed to be perfectly coupled with the story in that she offered the curiosity to seek out its many mysteries.[125][124][130] Barker described her as a determined yet vulnerable character, comparing her to Katniss Everdeen, Hermione Granger, and Lara Croft.[125] Burch's performance was also praised, with Sam Machkovech from Ars Technica calling her performance "emotionally well-rounded".[5][131]
The game received some criticism for the similarities between the tribes and Native Americans, including having Aloy, a white female, as the lead protagonist. Dia Lacina, a Native American writer, noted that some of the terminologies used within the game were also considered to be disrespectful.[133][134] In her review for The Frozen Wilds, The A.V. Club's Holly Green further criticised the depiction of tribal societies as "primitive" people whose beliefs are based on a lack of understanding of technology, which can reinforce harmful stereotypes about modern Native cultures.[135] Gonzales said the terminology was discussed during the creative process to make sure that the team was being sensitive to the cultural concerns of the audience. He added that the team didn't base the tribes on one group, instead they looked at people from all around the world and different time periods.[133]
Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered received "generally favourable" reception, according to Metacritic,[136] and according to OpenCritic, 89% of critics recommended the game.[120] Critics praised the graphical improvements,[e] the updated character animations,[f] and the technical performance.[g] Criticisms included the questioning of if the remaster was necessary,[h] technical and animation issues,[i] and the price for players who did not previously own the game.[j]Empire's Matt Kamen felt that the remaster created a more immersive experience where Aloy feels like a natural part of an "overgrown world"[141] and IGN Benelux's Niels Hassfeld said that Nixxes addressed criticisms of the original game's stiff facial expressions which brought character interactions closer to the quality seen in Forbidden West.[143]TechRadar's Lloyd Coombes noted that actions such as firing a bow or deploying a Tripcaster feel more "kinetic" thanks to the DualSense controller's adaptive triggers[139] and TheGamer's Jade King added that the bigger cities feel more populated and active, with improved character models and immense detail on the clothing.[145]
Horizon Zero Dawn was the best-selling game during its release week in the United Kingdom and Australia.[198][199] It surpassed No Man's Sky (2016) as the biggest launch of a new intellectual property on the PlayStation 4 and was the most successful launch of any kind on the platform since Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (2016),[200] as well as Guerrilla Games' biggest debut to date.[201] The game sold close to 117,000 units in its first week in Japan, becoming the second best-selling game that week.[202]Horizon Zero Dawn was the second most downloaded game on the North American PlayStation Store for February.[203] In March 2017, it was the second best-selling game in the UK and the fourth best-selling game in the US.[204][205]
Within two weeks it sold 2.6 million units.[206] By the game's second anniversary, it had sold over 10 million units, making it one of the best-selling PlayStation 4 games.[207] The Windows version had a successful launch, moving over 700,000 digital units.[208] Due to a December 2023 hack on Insomniac Games by the ransomware group Rhysida, files revealed that Zero Dawn had sold over 3.3 million units on Steam by that point.[209] By 16 April 2023, the game had sold around 24.3 million units.[210]
Guerrilla announced a sequel titled Horizon Forbidden West in June 2020 at the PlayStation 5 reveal event. The game was released on 18 February 2022 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and was ported to Windows on 21 March 2024[211][212][213] The story takes place 6 months after the conclusion of Zero Dawn.[214] In the game, Aloy ventures into the Forbidden West and uncovers the origin of the extinction signal that triggers the activation of HADES.[215] Ashly Burch reprises her role as Aloy, while Carrie-Anne Moss and Angela Bassett are among the cast members.[216]
Guerilla enlisted UK-based Studio Gobo as a co-development partner in January 2023 to expand the Horizon universe.[217]Lego Horizon Adventures was announced on 7 June 2024 and released on 14 November for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Windows.[218][219] Key cast members from Zero Dawn return to reprise their roles, but the role of Sylens was recast following the death of Lance Reddick in March 2023, with Tim Russ playing the character in the game.[220][221]Lego Horizon Adventures reshapes the story of Zero Dawn in an upbeat and family-friendly way, with the team significantly downplaying the apocalyptic story.[222]
Film adaptation
In January 2025, Sony announced that a film adaptation of the game was in the works at PlayStation Productions and Columbia Pictures.[223] PlayStation Productions president Asad Qizilbash stated that the company had a working script and were searching for a director, and that the company was planning to start shooting the film in 2026 for release in 2027.[224]
Other media
A tabletop game, Horizon Zero Dawn: The Board Game, was announced as being in development in August 2018 by Steamforged Games.[225] The game was funded on Kickstarter in less than two hours and began shipping out in November 2020.[226] An expansion named "The Sacred Land" was released on 14 September 2021.[227] In March 2020, it was announced that Titan Comics would release a comic book series, including a prequel issue for Free Comic Book Day. The story takes place after the events of the game.[228] The four-issue comic book miniseries called Horizon Zero Dawn: The Sunhawk was supposed to release its first issue in July, but was delayed slightly by the COVID-19 pandemic and released monthly between August and November.[228][229][230] A second four-issue miniseries called Horizon Zero Dawn: Liberation was released starting with the first issue in July 2021 and concluded in January 2022. Its story takes place during the events of the game.[230][231] The comics were co-created and written by Anne Toole, one of the writers for the game.[229]
In May 2022, it was announced that a live action television series adaptation was in development at PlayStation Productions and Sony Pictures Television for Netflix, with Steve Blackman writing and producing the series under his Irish Cowboy production banner.[232] Aloy was expected to be one of the main characters.[233] By January 2024, writing was underway on the series.[234] The series was no longer moving forward by that June after a January 2023 HR complaint was made public, in which twelve former Umbrella Academy (2019–2024) writers and support staffers accused Blackman of "toxic, bullying, manipulative, and retaliatory behavior".[235]
12Williams, Jerry (16 November 2024). "Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered". RPGFan. Emerald Shield Media LLC. Archived from the original on 17 November 2024. Retrieved 27 January 2026.
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