After the deepening on the creative process behind the character of Helloy, Guerilla returns to tell Horizon Forbidden West on the pages of the PlayStation Blog, revealing all the peculiar elements of the movement system, the skills, the combat and so on.
Horizon Forbidden West, between skill and combat
In gameplay trailer released in June, the public had a chance to see Aloy use so many new tools in Forbidden West. Regarding this, David McCullen, Lead Systems Designer at Guerrilla, revealed: “Building on the foundation of Horizon Zero Dawn, we have added a number of new ways to move around the world. Aloy can freely climb up and through huge sections of rocky terrain; even more types of machines can be ridden and grip points can be found throughout the environment, which allows for agile vertical traversing. Aloy will also be able to swim underwater and glide with him Shieldwing.”
This wide range of new options has also posed challenges to Guerrilla’s way of thinking level design. McCullen revealed that the team must allow players to outwit them, using new moves or tools to circumvent some of their challenges in clever and unpredictable ways.
I crossing puzzle they will not always have a binary solution. The team encourages players to experiment and have fun with the new tools. They will then offer one variety of challenges, regardless of play style or skill or previous experience in Horizon Zero Dawn.
And, of course, the new features of thePlayStation 5 hardware presented another exciting challenge for the Guerrilla team. While Horizon Forbidden West is developed and released for both PS4 and PS5 from scratch, there are some highlights for who will be playing on the latter console.
“The wireless controller DualSense it’s heavily present in all of our mechanics, ”says David. “From scraping debris when pushing a crate, to the feel of a winch unwinding when using the Pullcaster – with the increased adaptive trigger tension as you pull. We have also added additional tactile dimensions to increase both the value of the gameplay and the feeling of being part of the world in which Aloy moves. These can be as subtle as the feel of grass brushing around you to indicate that you are entering stealth grass, or the snap of the adaptive trigger when reaching full extension with a bow. We even use the absence of adaptive voltage to communicate when you run out of ammunition ”.
New weapons and tools
The Forbidden West is one majestic frontier ma dangerous with many mysterious threats Aloy may encounter. This creates an additional goal for Dennis and the teams to make sure she has them available weapons they tools right to face these battles.
“We wanted to bring both melee and ranged combat closer,” says the Guerrilla team. “Aloy is not a brute force character, so we were looking for ways to get the player to go back and forth between melee and distance, where to use his precise bow skills to save himself. ‘last second “.
A new example of a skill that does this is the Resonator Blast. Simply put, you charge your spear with melee strikes and when fully powered, energy can be thrown at enemies (both human and machine) and followed by a projectile. The result? A huge explosion.
The team also talked about the function Value Arises. According to what has been revealed, there are 12 in total, with everyone who represents e strengthens a specific approach in the title. Yes unlock Well yes enhance through the skill tree. There are three levels for each Valor Surge: the higher the level, the longer the charge, but the more powerful the attack.
“This level is shown on the purple bar you see during the gameplay trailer: you receive more Valor – or charge that bar – through skillful actions like hitting enemies’ weak spots or removing components. In the video, Aloy could be seen performing the Radial Blast on the burly warrior Tenakth. ‘
There is also another level of fighting skills necessary now that some enemy factions can ride the machines. Players will need to keep an eye on both enemy mount that his rider.
“In Horizon Zero Dawn, machines and humanoids were very separate; they never operated as a group against Aloy. The world has changed in Horizon Forbidden West, with more dangers, more enemy factions, and more cars. Now they can fight together as a group, which is a real challenge for our hero and for the player ”.
In the gameplay trailer, Aloy has one set of new weapons at his disposal. Familiar weapons such as theHunter’s bow, the bow Sharpshot and the sling Blast they will return but there are also many new weapons to try.
“The goal for the weapons in Horizon Forbidden West was to give each of them a stronger personality that also expresses itself in the way they are used. Each weapon has its strengths and weaknesses in terms of ideal situations in which to use it ”.
Horizon Forbidden West will be available in exclusive on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and PC from February 18, 2022.