Recently, Sony released a new post on its blog in which it reveals more details and information about the combat system in Horizon Forbidden West. Let’s find out what awaits us in the awaited sequel to Horizon.
Horizon Forbidden West and Aloy’s combat system
The Guerrilla Games team has revealed that they wanted improve the mechanics of the fights of the first chapter, so that we can offer players one more system free e dynamic. At the same time, it has increased the freedom and the possibility of choice during clashes in the open world. Charles Perain, combat designer, said that Aloy is a shrewd and agile fighter and that in this sequel, the tools at her disposal offer a wide variety of tactics for engaging opponents physically stronger.
Richard Oud, Guerrilla’s Director of Gameplay Animations, instead wanted to emphasize that it was important for the team to show players Aloy’s maturity in terms of skills e self-confidence. For this reason they made every effort to ensure that the animations could be unique e realistic: through them it is possible to closely observe his great wealth of experience that emerges.
The team IA made a great contribution to improving the combat system, especially to increase the challenge level. Chief AI programmer Arjen Beij confirms that they made the more authentic enemies and have equipped them with smoother and more realistic movements.
“Also,” Beji points out, “in this chapter many Machines can swim and even dive to follow Aloy underwater. Amphibious enemies can also dive or emerge from the water with jumps that, if we’re so unlucky, can be combined with attacks. “
Not only animations but also sounds
Guerrilla Games has not only improved the combat system and animations but has also focused on sounds. Indeed for senior audio designer Pinar Temiz, the Machines must “Play” right. Temiz in fact stated:
The biggest challenge was balancing the characteristic sounds of the Machines of Horizon Zero Dawn with the novelty and complexity of the scenarios of the Forbidden West and the Machines that populate them. In this new frontier we have Machines with even more expressive animations and specific functions, which required a more detailed audio design. Building on the achievements of the first game, we have created a new range of sounds to characterize each Machine and make it consistent with the rest of the Horizon world.
Temiz also revealed that the Machines make sounds characteristic e details, which will allow the player to distinguish them even from a distance.
In the new chapter of Horizon, players will have to face many obstacles, such as new machines with incredible skills and human enemies extremely aggressive. All this and more is coming in Horizon Forbidden West, the Sony exclusive coming on February 18, 2022. For more information you can consult the official website.