Horizons, a desperate game to be released on February 18 on PS5 and PS4, will allow Eroy to go deep into the perils of the West to fight terrible machines, visit strange tribes, and solve the mystery of the threat of doom and restore order and balance to the world. Recently, A9VG watched the latest story promo in advance, and interviewed Benjamin McCaw, the game's narrative director, with several Asian media outlets, asking him to answer some questions about the game's plot and design development.
Benjamin McCaw is an Amsterdam-based game writer who earned a bachelor's degree in film from Brown University, a master's degree in screenwriting from Columbia University's School of the Arts, worked at Ubisoft and Warner Games, and is currently the narrative director of Horizon West in Guerreilla.
- We've seen a great new promo with some new characters, can you give us a quick overview of what we expect to see in this game and who?
Benjamin McCaw: In the new promo, you can see that Elloy is facing a storm of new threats, including dangerous new mechanical creatures, Regal, and her rebels. The only way Eloy survived these attacks was to rely on her companions. There are some exciting returns from Dawn of Zero characters, including Val and Allend. We also have a new set of characters, including Utaroo "Zhuo", who resembles a healer to help people embark on their journey after death, we call her the "Tomb Singer"; "Ketaro" from the Tenak tribe, who is a warrior, somewhat similar to a legislator; and a new character of my personal favorite, "Alva", from a mysterious new tribe that Eloi will encounter, and she and her tribe will help decipher the mysteries of the ancients. This is just the tip of the iceberg, there are many other characters in short, they will all participate in Elloy's adventures, help her grow and evolve, in the previous game Eroy spent a lot of time to understand how to get along with people, this game will continue the story, and in her dealings with various tribes and adventures are tempered and evolved. It's also a point to be revealed that the character who appears at the end of the promo is called "Tilda", a mysterious character who has a very special relationship with the ancient past, and one thing we are happy to tell you is that this character is played by actor Kerry Ann Moss ( Editor's Note: Trinity of the Matrix ) , and we are very excited about this.
- In a previous tribal propaganda film, it was mentioned that "more powerful strange tribes are rumored to have crossed the coastline", is this a hint that there will be enemies with oriental elements in this game?
Ben: No. In horizon's world all the tribes were essentially created by genetic material preserved after the end of the world a thousand years ago, and all of this was done in a way that protected people of different cultural backgrounds, all tribes are very different, and in this sense you can see that people seem to be various different tribes such as Latinos or Asians. We do have a very mysterious new clan, which is also the tribe of the character "Alva", and I would love to tell you more, but it will spoil the fans.
- A mysterious disease called "Red Blight" can be seen in the previous promotional video, how will it affect Eloy or the story during the actual gameplay?
Ben: The blight in the game represents a potential doomsday threat, it represents the degradation of the biosphere, a concept that was introduced a little bit in the previous game and then spread throughout the world after six months in the game, killing land, agriculture, and water, and it was deadly and poisonous, and for people in that world it would eventually destroy human civilization and kill everyone. In terms of gameplay, if Eloy stays in this disease for a long time, he will be hurt.
What kind of content can we expect when we explore underwater, and will there be underwater city landmarks? In the promotional video, Elloy can be seen dodging enemies in the water and exploring the underwater environment, will there be underwater boss battles?
Ben: We're excited to add this new dimension to Elloy's adventure, and the underwater part means we're taking a big step new and more diverse in the exploration part. We wanted to offer more experiences in terms of vertical depth, from the remains of skyscrapers to the depths of the water, which would provide an exciting shuttle experience. Discover well-known landmarks as you explore underwater, as well as hidden secrets waiting to be discovered. I don't want to talk too much about the underwater gameplay, but I'm sure fans will find this part of the experience interesting and the visuals stunning.
- Can Eloy fly through the sky on a ride on a mechanical mob, and is there any element of aerial exploration?
Ben: We spent a lot of time developing the game in terms of new forms of shuttle exploration, and in this game, Eroy has several new mounts that can be ridden, and you should have seen in some promotional videos that the Clawwalker can ride, and there are also a lot of machines that can be used by Eloi to cover the command. I can't talk about flying or anything like that at the moment, so I'm sorry.
So the story of this game takes place six months after the previous game? We know that the like of Hades is still active in some places, how do you incorporate the previous content into the new story?
Ben: Yes. If you've ever played Ice Dust, you should understand that Hephaestus represents the world's ability to produce more and more dangerous combat machines, an ever-escalating threat in the new game, which is very dangerous and will bring a variety of combat experiences to the game. The story about Hades isn't over either, and in Desperate West, Eloy does encounter Hades again.
- Can I repeat the challenge to a specific boss in this game?
Ben: We have a cool way for you to repeatedly challenge specific enemies, and I think people should be happy.
— Compared to technological and mechanical enemies, "Desperate In the West" seems to focus more on the relationships and conflicts between people, tribes and tribes, do you think so? What percentage of the battle with humans do you think has increased compared to the previous game?
Ben: Desperate in the West does add to Elloy's personal relationships, but it doesn't cut back at all when it comes to fighting mechanical creatures, and I think fans will be happy. Regarding the experience of fighting humanoid enemies, we have made a big improvement over the previous game, and there are many new mechanics to support this aspect, including the fact that you can see human enemies riding machines in the trailer, and they will have new skills at this time, making them a different threat. We've made a lot of progress in human enemy combat, but at the same time we haven't forgotten the mechanical enemies, and we love this part for ourselves and our fans, and this part of the game will be better, and it will be enjoyed by those who want to seek a real challenge.
- In the new video, you can see some of the former characters returning, will they have their own side quests or stories in the new game, or will their relationship with Elloy go further?
Ben: When we brought these characters into the sequel, we really wanted them to have their own story, a deep story, a story with emotional value, and they shared the story with Elloy because Eroy is the protagonist of the story and the player himself, but also has their own deep story, so in the sequel you can explore those stories in a more in-depth way when you do some side quests. We've created a thick main story where you can experience a great story, but we've also added more depth to the game with side stories, especially side quests related to these companions.
We saw a great world in the previous game, and there are a lot of different tribes and characters in this game, how do you combine the environmental narrative with the core narrative?
Ben: I think the main four points are a simple summary of the core experience: the beautiful natural environment, the mechanical creatures, the Eroys, the various tribes, but I think there is also a fifth point that is very much needed by the Horizon game, and that is the mystery of the ancient past. In the previous game, we did a lot to build the world, but I want to emphasize that the world is still far from being completed, and there are many mysteries of the ancient past that will be brought to the sequel from the previous work, and there are also new mysteries, I believe fans will be surprised. It's the most exciting part for us writers, and we wanted to add something new to touch the ancient past and excite players, which is where we're happiest when we're developing a sequel.
- Will the description of the pre-destruction world in the sequel be richer than in the previous game? In the previous game, it was basically just a text description.
Ben: Yes, there's a lot of in-depth content that would give Elloy an idea of what happened in the ancient world. Obviously we're going to have a lot of data points to get people to know about the ancient world, and we've got a wonderful environmental narrative, and in the promotional video you can see a little bit of the depiction of San Francisco, and we're going to go to some other parts of the American West, and there's some visual narrative that I'm sure people will absolutely be surprised by.
- Will it be difficult for new players to play Horizon West without playing the previous game?
Ben: We understand that there must be a lot of people who haven't played horizon Zero Dawn, and we encourage them to try the sequel, Desperate for the West, because the experience of this game (especially the early part) is based on the fact that the player has not played the previous game. The game's story begins very easily to understand, the deep stuff is added gradually, and there are a lot of narrative techniques and mechanics to help people understand what happened in the previous game. Making it easy for anyone who wants to try it out on any difficulty and without having to play the previous game is one of our first conditions for creating a sequel.
- What else can be revealed about the new clan now? Are they enemies or friends?
Ben: Eloy will meet two tribes from the previous game, Calgar and Osseland, and they are very friendly. Then there is the Utaru tribe, which is very peaceful and Eloy does not fight with them. Then there's the Tenaks, the most powerful tribe in the game, and Eloy has had both friendly and hostile encounters with them. I think you can see in the promo that it contains Regal and her army, which is essentially a branch of the Tenaks. In addition, we have a number of other factions, which I cannot disclose at the moment, including both friendly and enemy sides.
——The previous game is similar to the narrative approach of "a hero's journey" in the story, how will you surprise the players in this game?
Ben: The previous game was narratively real, and in Desperate West we put Elloy under more pressure, and when this new territory was available for her to explore, her previous prestige didn't help her much. We also put the whole world on her shoulders, and she knows that it is a heavy burden to save the world in a limited amount of time, which will also make her character evolve. We don't want to tell the story twice in the same way, it feels repetitive, we want the character to grow, and the key to growth is her companions, and she needs to rely on those companions to survive those threats, which is honestly difficult for her, because she used to always be used to doing things alone.
——Did you encounter some unexpected situations in the process of developing this game?
Ben: When developing such a large and complex game, there is inevitably a lot to learn and grow, to experience different things and try to find some solutions, which is a natural part of game development. One problem that can't be avoided is the COVID pandemic, which has changed the world and changed the course of our development, and we have been forced to work remotely, with a particularly large impact on the cutscenes production process, which should be unexpected difficulties. I'm proud of our team, we're proud of both centralized and remote work, and the end result is exactly what we want, and I think people will love it.