*This article is compiled from IGN US and is not reproduced without authorization.
After playing Horizon West for four hours, we still felt like we had only scratched a few skins, but despite this, we found a lot of detail in this sequel to Guerrilla Games. Eloy's world is full of more vivid details, and we see improved animations, new machines, and improved combat systems. While we wait for the full version of the game to go on sale on February 18, let's dig into all these amazing details and why you should be excited about it too.
Run map to explore
Some of these details confirm what the developers said before, and now we've finally actually played it; others are more specific explanations of the new content of the sequel; and some are completely new designs that make us look forward to the open world that Guerrilla has optimized and perfected.
1. Compared to Dawn of Zero, the climbing in "Desperate Situation in the West" is more free and open. While not every surface is available, there are significantly more climbable parts, making exploration and running in the sequel smoother.
2. You can use Focus to temporarily highlight climbable parts of your environment. Focus can also find some places where you can use the hook launcher. Eloy's new equipment can pull her from great distances onto the rock frame, using it like a dip in two stages — the player needs to press the "X" again in the air to trigger the action.
3. You can use the pull hook launcher at the end of the slide using the brand new shield wing. So if you happen to glide along the edge of a cliff and notice that there's a place to stay above, you can get there easily.
4. We won't spoil it, but Elloy will get shield wings in a story mission earlier in the game, so you won't miss the dream of flying. However, all of these tools are very important because they are all about building the entire world of Desperate West.
As Ben McCaw, narrative director at Horizon West, puts it, "One of the features of Desperate West is that the world has more three-dimensional extensions, stretching from the tallest mountains or skyscrapers to the surface. Now the game has also added an underwater section, giving players a fresh form and content of exploration, as well as a new terrain construction."
Weapons, combat and machines
5. Speaking of equipment, Elloy will get some new and returned weapons and items through the main quests - for example, she will get the same weapons as the tripwire launcher in Dawn of Zero early in the adventure, while other things will be obtained through side quests. The first thing you'll encounter will be a cool new explosive weapon, the Javelin Thrower, followed by the Shredder Gauntlet, which brings a whole new way to fight.
6. Two new elements attack, acid and plasma.
7. Players can now use the points they earn on six different skill trees, including warriors, traps, hunters, survival, infiltrators, and machines. Selecting a specific ability around a wave on any given skill tree unlocks a special move called "Wave of Courage".
8. Eloy can now upgrade her equipment at the workbench in her environment, and she can still use the "Create Tasks" feature to track down specific parts that need to be upgraded.
9. Costumes can also be upgraded and can provide status bonuses for specific skills in the Eloy Skill Tree.
10. Potions and other consumables are also back, and Eloy can buy different items from different sellers: chefs sell food to improve their skills, herbalists sell potions, hunters sell weapons, and tailors sell costumes.
11. A new enemy called the Digger has the same level of threat as the Watcher, but has a few new moves and attacks than the Watcher that can drill holes and send bouncing explosions, which can temporarily disrupt Elloy's (and the player's) vision.
12. "Bristlebacks" is a new type of machine, similar to a collider, with an acidic fuel tank on its back. Shooting them with acidic arrows is the key to victory.
13. We have only fought the "Slitherfang" in the new arena, never fought it in the wild. Slitherfang has a variety of attack methods, including jumping into the ground and jumping up elsewhere, as well as shooting lightning bolts from the tail (and even charging parts of the environment).
14. Melee combat has also been improved, with players using the Resonator Blast skill to charge Elloy's weapons, strike enemies, and inject energy into them, then aim their arrows at a specific point to inflict massive damage on them.
15. Players can test their melee skills in melee pits scattered throughout the West. You'll encounter the first melee pit in Chainscrape.
16. Players can also choose whether or not to participate in the Arena. Players can complete challenges against various machines in a limited time, unlocking powerful equipment by earning medals. You can also compete with your friends for the best results in the online leaderboards.
"We wanted to make sure the game had a set path that players could choose if they wanted to experience the main quest and get to the end of the story as quickly as possible. Also, there's definitely a growth process that's really focused on combat," McCaw explains. "If you just want to fight the most powerful machine boss, we offer that option." The Arena is a great example of how you can repeatedly challenge powerful machines."
Storyline
17. Elloy's journey takes place approximately six months after the end of horizon: Dawn of Zero.
18. Her main task is to stop the red blight that seems to be infecting the whole world and prevent another mass extinction of humanity.
19. After an introductory passage that we have not seen, Eloy believes that she can find the answer in the Desperate West, a land outside the territory of Nora, Oserland, and Calgar as we know it. However, the border of the West's Desperate Realm was guarded by a Calgar tribal leader on her side, and a group of members of the Tinakor tribe on the other side.
20. Tirnako is actually made up of three different civilizations, each with its own customs and way of life. Tinak is one of two new tribes, the other being the Utaru.
21. In order to cross the border, Eloy needs to get the embassy meeting between Calgar and Tinak to proceed as planned. Just saying that this is not a spoiler, the embassy meeting did not go well.
22. Eloy will meet new rival Regal early in her journey. I don't want to give you too many details, but the experience of meeting for the first time was terrible and unforgettable.
23. In Horizons west, you'll spend a significant portion of your time in settlements, including doing new genres or regression side quests, more active interactions with NPCs, and more varied animations. Chainscrape is a new settlement we saw in the playtest.
"In Tinakor, you'll see a lot of training, combat practice, and a lot of competitions that feel like between tribal members, while the Utarus prefer an agrarian lifestyle, where they focus on music, craftsmanship, and a bit of a society of male and female weavers," McCaw explains to us about the new tribe in Desperate West.
Other details
24. Eloy can craft blood potions and other boosters, but one of the easiest ways to restore health is to pick up plants and animals in the world that give them health. Of course, there is a limit to the amount you can carry. Luckily, if you reach the upper limit for the collection of life berries (the upper limit for the early part of my demo was 10), you can still collect more, and they will simply be sent back to the storage. Press and hold the up key of the cross key to replenish the items you have in hand and avoid running out of supplies.
25. Eloy can use this deposit from various settlements.
26. Observing the machine with a Focus before a battle is a top priority. But in Dawn of Zero, you have to carefully move the right stick around the machine to highlight each section. Now that worry is gone, pressing the left and right directions of the cross key allows you to cycle through each specific part of the machine without much effort.
27. If you want to collect specific fuel tanks or horns, you can even track specific body parts so that these elements can always be highlighted on the outline of the Focus during battle.
Side quests
28. For players, the side quests of "Desperate State of the West" are more playable and attractive than "Dawn of Zero" overall. For example, in the early missions of the settlement of Chainscrape, players can obtain a new weapon called the Explosive Javelin Thrower. This weapon is more powerful, lacks a certain degree of accuracy, and may damage enemies while destroying parts that you can loot after the enemy dies. You'll also learn about a lot of likable NPCs in side quests.
29. A new side quest also includes a series of melee pits, the first of which appears in Chainscrape, but you'll find more later in The Desperate West. They will help you train new combat skills and test your level, helping you achieve the ultimate goal of defeating a member of the Tinako tribe known as The Enduring.
30. In another side quest called Vista Points, Eloy will get some data from mysterious metal pillars (basically radio towers in our everyday world). The player will then see a partial image that corresponds to a location in the Old World and will need to align it with a location in the Elloy Timeline. The mission is similar to the "Vantage Points" in Dawn of Zero, but more active.
31. The inhabitants of Horizon have their own board game called Machine Strike. As we can see, it's a 1v1 mini-game where players need to move the pieces representing the machine on the board to knock down the opponent's machine. The board is laid out in the form of a grid, in which there are spaces representing different terrains that can affect the strength of the machine. Depending on the orientation of the machine's armor, your movement of the machine will bring corresponding advantages and disadvantages (the machine has both armor and weak points, which are very important considerations in different games). In addition, players can use more strategies, such as carefully choosing positions to hit multiple enemies, or using the "Overcharge" skill to consume HP to attack, and so on. Eloy only has a few pieces at the beginning of the game, but can get more later around the world.
32. In the Desperate Situation of the West, you will encounter a quest line known as "Salvage Contracts". In this quest line, Elloy must hunt down specific parts to make a set of unique armor for the equipment dealers.
"The game has some side quests of a similar scale to Dawn of Zero, but we've always wanted to make sure they're more satisfying, more emotional, and more connected to their peers and other NPCs. So basically, if you do a side quest in Desperate West and meet the NPC of that mission, it's definitely not the last time you'll see the NPC," McCaw joked.