Day Two of the PlayStation Experience featured an opening panel discussion with Guerrilla boss Hulst and writer John Gonzalez. They both talked about the developer’s upcoming Horizon: Zero Dawn. While at this year’s PSX the team released a new trailer:
Hulst revealed that while working on Zero Dawn’s development, Guerrilla found it “incredibly difficult” to make a new IP after having heard over 40 different ideas for a new game. The idea for a new game with robotic animals though had just “too much appeal” and the developers couldn’t pass up on it. Once the team committed to the project back in 2011 though, they’ve been pretty “prudent” in the way they approach their game.
Since they’ve never actually developed such a large title as an open-world RPG, Guerrilla had some difficulty from the beginning, according to Hulst and John. Known for their more linear games, writer John Gonzalez believed that it took some time for not only him to write a fitting narrative for an open world game but for the entire team creating the game. New team members need to be hired into the Guerrilla so it could expand its engine.
Zero Dawn follows Aloy, a young woman who’s on a quest amongst some remnants of the ancient past to discover her destiny. A lone wander who was shunned by her tribe since birth, you play as Aloy, using her learned abilities to fight against rival tribes and defend yourself from a deadly environment filled with unforgiving machines.
What exactly happened to humanity? Where is all this set in Earth? Why are animals replaced with animal machines? John Gonzalez didn’t not clearly address these answers but he did say that the element of mystery does take a huge part in this game. One of the reasons why John did not want to give out all of these answers was because he said that the game’s character is seeking the same answers. As you play as Aloy, you will be learning your own backstory, which includes where all the mechanical beasts come from.
Until then, players will have to discover the rest for themselves. That is when the game comes out on February 2017.