Horizon Zero Dawn is Guerrilla Games' first intellectual property since Killzone in 2004 and its first role-playing video 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 and altered for Horizon Zero Dawn. Being set in a post-apocalyptic setting, anthropologists were consulted to authenticate the world's decay over a millennium. The soundtrack was led by composer Joris de Man, featuring contributions from The Flight.
The game received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised its open world, story, visuals, combat, characterization, and the performance of voice actress Ashly Burch; however, the dialogue, melee combat, and character models received some criticism. The game won numerous awards and sold over 24.3 million units by April 2023. A downloadable content expansion, The Frozen Wilds, was released in November 2017. A sequel, Horizon Forbidden West, was released for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 on 18 February 2022. Events in the game are reinterpreted in Lego Horizon Adventures, which was released in November 2024. A remastered version of the game was released for PlayStation 5 and Windows in October 2024 and a film adaptation is in the works at PlayStation Productions and Columbia Pictures.
Gameplay
The bow is one of the main weapons used in the game.
Horizon Zero Dawn is an action role-playing game played from a third-person view.[4][5] Players take control of Aloy, a hunter who ventures through a post-apocalyptic land ruled by robotic creatures.[6][7] Aloy can kill enemies in a variety of ways – shooting them with arrows,[4] setting traps such as tripwires using the Tripcaster,[8] using explosives, and a spear.[9] Machine components, including electricity and the metal they are composed of, are vital to Aloy's survival; she can loot their remains for crafting resources.[4][10] Ammo, resource satchels, pouches, quivers, resistance, antidotes, health potions, and traps can all be crafted.[11] Weapons have modification slots for dealing more damage.[12] Aloy wears a Focus, a small earpiece that scans machines to determine their susceptibilities,[13] identify their location, their level, and the nature of loot they will drop.[6] One machine, the Stalker, can enable cloaking technology to avert the gaze of Aloy's Focus scan.[14] Machines attack with defensive and offensive measures, and in either case react to a perceived threat by charging at it with brute force or projectiles. Exhibiting the behaviour of wild animals, some machines are inclined to move in herds, and others, with the ability to fly, do so in flocks. Machines do not exert aggressive force against each other, but if the player uses the Override Tool on a machine, it will defend the player if they are attacked by other machines.[15] Aloy also engages in battle with human enemies, such as bandits and the Eclipse cult.[16][17]
Aloy can dodge, sprint, slide, or roll to evade her enemies' advances.[18] Hiding in foliage to ambush nearby enemies can ensure immediate takedowns.[4] She is able to hack a selection of machines with the Override Tool, some of which can be turned into makeshift mounts.[9][19] Explorable ruins called Cauldrons unlock additional machines to override.[20] The skill tree has three categories: "Prowler" concerns stealth, "Brave" improves combat, and "Forager" increases healing and gathering capabilities.[21] Upgrades in each category result in more adept use of the skills learned, with "Prowler" leading to silent takedowns, "Brave" to aiming a bow in slow motion, and "Forager" to an enlarged medicine pouch.[22][23] Aloy attains experience points from individual kills and completing quests.[24] The game has a seamless open world with a day-night cycle and dynamic weather system.[10][25]
The map is composed of forest, jungle, desert, and snowy mountain regions.[20][26][27] Mountainous terrain is traversed with the employment of parkour,[28] and aided by the use of zip lines.[29] Corrupted Zones constitute areas that heighten difficulty and are populated by corrupted machines that behave with more aggression.[9] To uncover more of the map, Aloy must scale large giraffe-like machines known as Tallnecks.[30]Save points and fast travel can be accessed by interacting with campfires, once discovered.[21] The quest structure unfolds to accommodate the exploration of tribes, while the main story covers the entire world.[31] Side quests involve Aloy completing tasks, like clearing the four cauldrons, assuming control of bandit camps, eliminating human and machine enemies, accomplishing various challenges at any of the five Hunting Grounds,[32] and obtaining an ancient armour that makes Aloy almost impervious to damage.[12] A dialogue wheel is used to communicate with non-player characters.[13] Collectables include vantages that offer visual information of the Old World, metal flowers that contain poetry, and old relics, such as ancient mugs and tribal artefacts.[33]
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" has caused machines to become more aggressive toward humans, and larger and deadlier machines have begun 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 (Wyoming's Yellowstone National Park) 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 center 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 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, disappeared afterward. Aloy searches for Ourea, coming across strange robotic towers that control and repair the corrupted machines. She finds Ourea (Necar Zadegan) 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 center 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.
Development
Guerrilla Games began developing Horizon Zero Dawn following the release of Killzone 3 in 2011.[34] When conceiving the idea for a new game, about 40 concepts were pitched. Among these was Horizon Zero Dawn, which game director Mathijs de Jonge considered "the most risky" of the concepts and was pitched in 2010 by art director Jan-Bart van Beek. When this concept was chosen, a team of 10–20 began building prototypes of the game.[35][36] 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. The main elements of the story and the character of Aloy remained intact from early development.[35][36][37] Upon the completion of Killzone: Shadow Fall in late 2013, the remainder of the staff began working on Zero Dawn.[38] Guerrilla canceled another game to allow the entire team to focus on the development of Horizon.[39] 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.[40] The game had an estimated budget of over €45 million.[41]
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. The team aimed to emphasise the game's exploration element by featuring a quest system, as well as including items throughout the world that can be used to craft or replenish health. The team wished for the game to have a simple user interface design, specifically avoiding complicated menus for crafting, and considered the game to be a technical challenge.[35] They felt that the game engine, Decima, which was designed for games such as the Killzone series and was previously used for Killzone: Shadow Fall,[42][43] was difficult to alter for Horizon, in terms of draw distance and loading. To discover how some game elements work differently in open world games, the team sought help from talent in the design, art and technical fields.[35] 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.[36] The game's quest system and narrative design took inspiration from role-playing video games, ranging from the "Relaxed" quest design of RPG Maker games to the "Strict" quest design of hack and slash games. They defined "Relaxed" quest design as having few centralized systems for managing quest progression, and "Strict" quest design as having a rigid structure and predefined elements, with the team deciding the latter.[44][45]
Ashly Burch and Lance Reddick's involvement was revealed in January 2017.[46][47] Burch voiced Aloy,[46] whose likeness was portrayed by Hannah Hoekstra,[48] and motion capture was performed by Amanda Piery.[49] 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.[50]
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.[51][52] Lucas van Tol, music supervisor and senior sound designer, provided the composers with a game design document, insisting on an intimate sound for the score. 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 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.[53][54] The four-hour soundtrack was released via digital music platforms on 10 March 2017.[55][56]
Release
The concept art as well as the game's codename, Horizon, were leaked in September 2014.[57]Horizon Zero Dawn was officially announced during Sony's E3 2015 press conference.[58] At E3 2016, Sony had a life-sized cosplay version of one of the machines greet the trade show attendees.[59] During PlayStation's press conference at the event, a gameplay trailer was shown off, and pre-order bonuses and special editions were revealed. Bonuses consisted of a resource pack that included modifications for weapons and outfits, and resources for crafting ammo and traps was available for everyone who pre-ordered the game. Other bonuses were exclusive to GameStop and EB Games customers, who received in-game upgrades, an outfit, and a bow. Two special editions were also announced; the "Digital Deluxe Edition" and "Collector's Edition". The Digital Edition included 2 each of 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.[60][61] A "Thunderjaw Collector's Edition"[b] was also available. This included a premium Thunderjaw statue, Aloy's "Focus" earpiece, litographs, and a world map.[63]
The game's logo was updated leading up to the release of the PC edition by adding a Roman Numeral I to reflect the logo of the sequel, Horizon Forbidden West.
Originally set to be released in 2016, the game was delayed to February 2017 to be further polished.[65] It was released to manufacturing in late January 2017,[66] 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.[67][68]Horizon Zero Dawn is forward compatible with the PS4 Pro,[29] allowing it to run up to 4K resolution.[69] In April 2017, a making-of documentary was released on Dutch public television.[70] 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.[71] The downloadable content (DLC) expansion, The Frozen Wilds, was announced in June during E3 2017 and released on 7 November.[72][73]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.[74][75] 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.[76]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 and ported to Windows via Steam and Epic Games Store on 7 August 2020 and GOG on 24 November 2020.[77][78] An assortment of merchandise was released for the game, including clothes,[79] an offical art book, The Art of Horizon Zero Dawn, by Titan Books,[80]Funko Pops,[81][82] and premium statues for Aloy and one of the machines, a Stalker.[83][84]
Remaster and Lego
Rumours of a remaster being in development began in 2022 and speculation increased after Zero Dawn was removed from PlayStation Plus in May 2024.[85][86][87] On 24 September, Guerrilla Games announced Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered for Windows and PlayStation 5. It released on 31 October.[88][89] The existence of Remastered was revealed nearly a week before the official announcement due to the ESRB listing the game's rating.[90] The remaster was done by Nixxes Software.[89]
Improved lighting and character models were among the updates made in the remaster.
The gameplay, HUD, and accessibility options, as well as the performance options allowing players access to 30 frames per second (FPS), 40fps and 60fps were brought over from the game's sequel Horizon Forbidden West (2022).[91] 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 used the game's concept art to closely match the types of foliage expected for each biome, but "used completely revamped assets that look a lot better overall" according to Digital Foundry's John Linneman.[91][92] The increased amount of memory the PS5 has compared to PS4 allowed Nixxes to add more Non-player characters (NPC). The team "added many more places for NPCs to stand, sit, work and fulfil their needs" and tried to get creative with the existing animations.[92] Water rendering was improved, sitting quality-wise in between the original Zero Dawn and the much improved water quality in Forbidden West. Deforming snow that was introduced in The Frozen Wilds is now used across the whole game for snow and sand. Lighting was improved and a lot of Remastered was re-lit by hand. The quality of lighting was improved enough that Linneman said "the changes are significant enough that I'm not sure the word 'remastered' is entirely fitting here".[91][92] For character models, skin now looks more realistic and clothing "feels" more natural. Aloy 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.[91][92][93] Conversations outside of the main cutscenes improved on the original game, in which they were "stiff and awkward" according to Linneman. 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.[91][92]
Remastered includes the previously released downloadable content, including The Frozen Wilds.[88]Remastered's 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.[c] 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.[95][98][99][100] 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, to not be able to play the remaster.[99] Sony ended up removing the PSN account requirement in February 2025.[101][102] The Complete Edition was added back to Steam, but was no longer purchasable by itself. Instead, it was combined with the remaster in a bundle.[103] Upon release, the game received positive reviews on both PS5 and PC,[104] though many technical issues affected the PC version, including visual glitches, audio bugs, and crashes.[97][98]
Guerilla enlisted UK-based Studio Gobo as a co-development partner in January 2023 to expand the Horizon universe and in May 2024 rumours about a Lego game began after a trademark filing was discovered.[105][106]Lego Horizon Adventures was announced on 7 June and released on 14 November for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Windows.[107][108] Cast members from Zero Dawn return to reprise their roles, including Ashly Burch as Aloy, JB Blanc as Rost, John Macmillan as Varl, and John Hopkins as Erend. The role of Sylens was recast following the death of Lance Reddick in March 2023, with Tim Russ playing the character in the game.[109][110]Lego Horizon Adventures reshapes the story of Zero Dawn in an upbeat and family-friendly way, with the team significantly downplaying the apocalyptic story. According to James Windeler, narrative director at Guerrilla, "we definitely pushed some of the more complicated and truly dark themes very much into the background. Those ideas are in the game, but they're very subtle".[111] Those who pre-ordered the game were given the Shield-Weaver outfit from Zero Dawn.[108] The game was developed with Unreal Engine 5 and environments in the game are made entirely out of Lego bricks. As a result, the game's environments can be built with real Lego bricks.[112][113]Lego Horizon Adventures received mixed reviews.[114]
Horizon Zero Dawn received "generally favourable" reception, according to the review aggregator Metacritic,[128] and according to OpenCritic, 94% of critics recommended the game.[117]Destructoid's Chris Carter commended Ashly Burch and Lance Reddick for their performances, with the character of Aloy receiving credit for maintaining a "captivating" and "interesting" consistency in the narrative and action sequences. Carter also lauded the focus on exploration and discovery, which he said grew more effective as he traversed more of the land. The game world itself was subject to compliment for its "beautiful" day-night cycle and weather system. According to Carter, the challenging nature of the machines and varied methods with which to battle them brought a real sense of fun to the combat.[118] Matt Buchholtz of Electronic Gaming Monthly likewise praised Burch as well as the game world, which he found to be mesmerizing. Considered the most powerful part of the game, the Focus feature gained approval for complementing the combat in a way that "forces you to become a hunter".[28] Writing for Game Informer, Jeff Marchiafava opined that, unlike with other open world video games, searching for audio logs and emails provided the plot with a "remarkable sense of discovery". He was thankful that story-based missions dominated the overall experience, arguing that they worked to detail the world and inspired gameplay variation.[119]
Ashly Burch(pictured in 2014) was well received for her portrayal as Aloy
Peter Brown at GameSpot reflected on Aloy's character development with amazement. One constant thrill to Brown came from combating the machines, which he said took the spotlight and never lost its flair. He appreciated also that the main quests encouraged one to explore the environment.[120] Zoe Delahunty-Light, writing for GamesRadar+, was fascinated with the intricacies of the world and found integral value in the lore scattered among the ruins. She echoed Brown's view that fighting machines maintained excitement throughout.[121]Giant Bomb's Jeff Gerstmann declared Horizon Zero Dawn as "a near-perfect story" with a satisfying conclusion, and emphasised that it contained substantial depth.[122] Lucy O'Brien at IGN admired its weight in meaning, while welcoming the charm of the protagonist's personality. A considerable impression was made with the combat, which was stated as the most compelling accomplishment.[8] Writing for Polygon, Philip Kollar applauded the game as what he dubbed the "refutation" of Guerrilla Games' past work, a change of pace he described as "refreshing". Aloy was observed to be perfectly coupled with the story in that she offered the curiosity to seek out its many mysteries. Kollar perceived the Focus as "key to combat" and the machines as engaging foes in battle.[126] Colm Ahern of VideoGamer.com wrote in his verdict, "Destroying large robot beasts while frantically switching between weapons is intoxicating, but the strength of Horizon Zero Dawn is in Aloy's engaging quest to find out who she really is".[129]
Conversely, Carter saw the characters beyond Aloy and Sylens as uninteresting and bland in their designs. He also disparaged the human artificial intelligence as being worse than that of the machines.[118] To Buchholtz, the weapon system in relation to ammunition appeared convoluted; the ability to only purchase one item at a time "a massive oversight"; and Aloy's ability to only grab marked ledges was confusing for a "parkour master".[28] Marchiafava's only major criticism was that it held too familiar roots with established open world formula.[119] Although Brown drew enjoyment from other aspects of combat, he disparaged the melee for its ineffectiveness and simplicity.[120] Delahunty-Light concurred that the melee fell short of its potential, and also took issue with the jumping mechanic.[121] O'Brien felt the dialogue occasionally contradicted the otherwise intelligent narrative.[8] Kollar bemoaned the character models as its one visual shortcoming.[126]
Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered received "generally favorable" reception, according to Metacritic,[104] and according to OpenCritic, 89% of critics recommended the game.[132]
Zero Dawn received 8 nominations at the 14th British Academy Games Awards, winning the award for "Original Property".[152][153] The game won awards for 2 of its nominations at the 21st Annual D.I.C.E. Awards; "Outstanding Achievement in Story" and "Outstanding Technical Achievement".[154][155] At the 2017 Golden Joystick Awards, the game won "Best Storytelling" and "Best PlayStation Game", while being the runner-up for "Best Visual Design" and "Ultimate Game of the Year".[139][156] It won the most awards at the 2018 NAVGTR Awards, winning 7 of its 17 nominations.[157] The game won for "Outstanding Achievement in Videogame Writing" at the 70th Writers Guild of America Awards.[158]Zero Dawn also won the awards for "Best PlayStation 4 Game" and "Best Graphics" at IGN's Best of 2017 Awards.[159][160]Game Informer awarded it "Best Sony Exclusive" in their Best of 2017 Awards, and gave it the awards for "Best Story" and "Best Character" (Aloy) in their 2017 Action Game of the Year Awards.[161][162] The game's music won multiple awards as well, including at the 2018 Game Audio Network Guild Awards, it won awards for "Best Original Instrumental" and Best "Original Choral Composition",[163] it won for "Best Original Video Game Score" at the Ivor Novello Awards,[164] and "Original Dramatic Score, New IP" at the NAVGTR Awards.[157] It appeared on several year-end lists of 2017, including EGM (3rd),[165]Entertainment Weekly (4th),[166]Eurogamer (31st),[167]GamesRadar+ (2nd),[168]Polygon (8th),[169] and The Verge (top 15).[170]
Horizon Zero Dawn was the best-selling game during its release week in the United Kingdom.[185] 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),[186] as well as Guerrilla Games' biggest debut to date.[187] The game sold close to 117,000 units in its first week in Japan, becoming the second best-selling game that week.[188]Horizon Zero Dawn was the second most downloaded game on the North American PlayStation Store for February. Because its launch day occurred on the last day of February, only one day of sales was counted.[189] Within two weeks it sold 2.6 million units.[190]
It was the best-selling game in its week of release in Australia.[191] In March 2017, it was the second best-selling game in the UK and the highest-selling PlayStation 4 game.[192]Horizon Zero Dawn was also the best-selling game on PlayStation Store that month.[193] It was ranked number one in the UK sales chart in April 2017, while hitting eighth place in the Japanese chart.[194] By the game's first anniversary, it had sold over 7.6 million units and a year later it had surpassed 10 million units, making it one of the best-selling PlayStation 4 games.[195][196] In an effort to increase profitability, in 2020 Sony decided to begin porting their first-party titles to PC.[197]Horizon Zero Dawn released on PC in August 2020 and had a successful launch, moving over 700,000 digital units.[198] By March 2022, that number had increased to about 2.4 million units.[199] 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.[200] By 16 April 2023, the game had sold around 24.3 million units.[201]
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.[202][203] An expansion titled Burning Shores was released on 19 April 2023 only for PS5. It was later bundled with the base game to form Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition. Complete Edition released for the PS5 on 19 April 2023 and was ported to Windows on 21 March 2024.[204][205][206] The story takes place 6 months after the conclusion of Zero Dawn.[207] Ashly Burch reprises her role as Aloy, while Carrie-Anne Moss and Angela Bassett are among the cast members.[208][209]
Film adaptation
In January 2025, Sony announced that a film adaptation of the game was in the works at PlayStation Productions and Columbia Pictures.[210] In an October statement filed as part of Sony's lawsuit against Tencent, PlayStation Productions president Asad Qizilbash stated that the company had a working script and were searching for a director. Qizilbash also added that the company was planning to start shooting the film in 2026 for release in 2027.[211]
Other media
A tabletop game, Horizon Zero Dawn: The Board Game, was announced as being in development in August 2018 by Steamforged Games.[212][213] The game was funded on Kickstarter in less than two hours and began shipping out in November 2020. The first expansion pack released in September 2021, with many additional expansions releasing later, including one for The Frozen Wilds.[214][215][216] 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.[217] 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.[217][218][219] In April 2021, it was revealed that Titan would release a second story arc. This four-issue miniseries, called Horizon Zero Dawn: Liberation released starting with the first issue in July and concluded in January 2022. The story of Liberation takes place during the events of the game.[219][220] The comics were co-created and written by Anne Toole, one of the writers for the game.[218][221]
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. Aloy was expected to be one of the main characters.[222][223][224] By January 2024, writing was underway on the series.[225] 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".[226]
↑Garripoli, Jarrod; Garvin, Nathan. "Exploring the Jungle". Gamer Guides. Gamer Guides Ltd. Archived from the original on 25 September 2020. Retrieved 12 January 2026.
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