It's been well over 2 months since the PS5 Game Showcase and we are still hyped for the upcoming Horizon Zero Dawn Forbidden West.  The original game is hailed as one of the best PS4 exclusive games with over 10 million copies sold in the first two years. The prospect of a sequel was expected but you never can get your hopes up with the gaming industry!

Release Date

There's no firm date for Horizon Zero Dawn Forbidden West to be released but we do know that it will be sometime in 2021 and it is set to be a PS5 exclusive. At least for now. 3 years after the original was released exclusively to PS4 the game has made its way over to PC. Does this mean one day it could be launched on Xbox?

New Missions

The premise of the game is a new concept but still close enough to the original that it's not completely out of place. Once again Aloy has to set out across dangerous land in order to save the world as she knows it. Her mission is to discover the cause of a strange "crimson blight" sweeping across the land. With plants, animals and tribes at risk from the blight, along with the added risk from the non-stop superstorm it has caused, Aloy has her work cut out for her.

Horizon Forbidden West continues Aloy’s story as she moves west to a far-future America to brave a majestic, but dangerous frontier where she’ll face awe-inspiring machines and mysterious new threats.

The map is set to be "a bit bigger" than from the original game, confirmed by game director Mathijs de Jonge the world will stretch from Utah to the Pacific Coast. We've already seen several landmarks in the trailer, from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Palace of Fine Arts. Like with the ruins in the first game, Mother Nature has reclaimed these areas for herself.

New Machines

What puts Horizon Zero Dawn ahead of other games with a similar style is the inclusion of the machines. We learn in the original that the machines all served their own purpose to terraform the planet to make it habitable for humans again. That is until an unknown signal detected by GAIA triggers HADES which makes the Faro robots more aggressive against humans. The machines are based on various animals ranging from the Snapmaw (Crocodile) to Grazers (Deer) and Striders (Horses)From just the trailer itself we've seen some of the new machines Aloy will be encountering.

• Bristlebacks
• Clawstriders
• Shellsnappers
• Sunwings
• Tremortusks

New Game Mechanics

A significant aspect of the trailer was Aloy swimming underwater with a re-breather on. Snapmaws are seen swimming overhead and we see the Palace of Fine Arts is found completely submerged. Underwater levels can be a hit or miss and are usually notorious for being the most awkward with their finicky controls. Here's hoping Guerrilla Games has managed to iron out the usual issues with underwater levels.

Sylens

Sylens is a key character throughout Aloy's adventure and is shrouded in mystery from the beginning. His fascination with the "Old Ones" and what happened to them leads him down a dark path. Upon discovering a damaged Focus he worked to repair it. Upon repairing it Sylens discovered a weak signal which eventually lead him to the heavily damaged AI HADES.At the end of the game once Aloy has defeated HADES, the energy of HADES was shown to disappear into the distance. That is until the cut scene with Sylens;

Hello, old friend. Remember me?We've still so much to discuss, so much you never revealed.Your Masters, for example. The ones who sent the signal that woke you.Knowledge has its rewards, don't you think?Well.. let's begin.

In the trailer Sylens makes an appearance, seemingly working with another tribe to override the machines. Instead of the familiar red glow of a corrupted machine, these news ones seem to have a golden hue. Assuming there has been a bit of a time jump between the first and second game I for one am excited to see what else Sylens has learned.

New Tribes

It looks as if Aloy will be coming in contact with new tribes. In the original game we had the Nora, the Carja and the Oseram. Banuk are also heavily featured in the Frozen Wilds DLC.This new tribe doesn't seem to be very friendly though, they were seen as heavily painted, adorned with bones and with gigantic elephant styled machines included in their army.