One of the big reveals at this year’s E3 was Guerrilla Games’ Horizon: Zero Dawn – though we already sort of suspected it was coming thanks to the numerous leaks.
The initial gameplay reveal at E3 was pretty mind-blowing stuff and certainly got out interest, but it’s even more impressive when you learn that the massive dino-machine thingy-majig (if you know the name, comment below) has more animations than most of us lot on a good day.
Speaking during the Guerrilla Games Twitch stream, the developers spoke over the reveal trailer and note that the aforementioned boss-machine has around 271 different animations, 12 attacks and around 67 visual effects. Crikey.
Some other details were also shared during the stream. Exploration is a big part of the game and, according to the developers, anything that can be seen within the game is free to be explored (including that massive ruined city) with no load times. The main character also gets a few scant details. Stealth and agility play a big role player movement on Aloy’s quest to collect parts from fallen machines, a journey where players will have to use a variety of tactics that include mastering Aloy’s stealth mechanics and also her agility which gives her an advantage in combat as well as her knowledge of the in-game world which is also very destructible, according to Guerrilla Games.
The developers also stated that the game has been heavily inspired from other media such as the Monster Hunter series, Binary Domain and, obviously – Jurassic Park.
The gameplay we saw during E3 was all real, too. The development team are actually running the game on PS4 systems down at their offices and “what you see is what we’re playing.”
When asked: Why are the graphics so awesome?
“Graphics are awesome because we worked hard for four years.” Simple enough answer.
Asked what sort of RPG elements would be in the game, the developers stated that there will be the traditional RPG stuff, but there will also be perks , a crafting system and “other stuff” that is still being worked on by the development team. The Dutch development outfit also state that the primary focus is on building a “great single-player action-RPG.”
It’ll be hitting shelves 2016. Can we wait until then? No, but we’ll have to.