As the most iconic feature of the series, Horizon Forbidden West introduced a wide variety of new animal-based machines that Aloy must face during the course of her journey. Battling, taming, and collecting parts from machines is a core part of the gameplay of Horizon Forbidden West, and the game did a lot to up the ante from its predecessor by introducing many more aquatic and sky-based machines that shake up how players approach different environments. However, there are still more animals that could make for great machines in the inevitable follow-up title.
There is a lot of room for developer Guerrilla Games to iterate upon the mechanics established in Horizon Forbidden West with its choices for new machines in the sequel. Horizon Forbidden West's Burning Shores DLC already showed the potential for where the series can go next with the new machines it introduced like Waterwings, Stingspawns, and Bileguts. Even after the DLC, there are still some unused animals that seem like obvious candidates that the sequel to Horizon Forbidden West could use as a basis for even more new machines.
Praying Mantis
Although quite the small insect in real life, Horizon 3 could really run with the concept of a giant-sized praying mantis machine, and Stingspawns in the Burning Shores DLC show that real-world insects can make great machine enemies in the series if scaled up to a more threatening size. With this idea in mind, creating a massive praying mantis machine could be a terrifying threat to Aloy with their scythe-like appendages making for powerful weapons. These appendages would also be perfect as breakable machine parts players could attempt to tear off and collect for use in crafting new weapons for Aloy, giving them a good reason to try and take down these insectoid foes.
Gorilla
While other primate-inspired machines exist in Horizon Forbidden West, such as the Clamberjaw based on the baboon, gorillas have yet to be represented. These animals are known to be some of the strongest and most intelligent creatures among the primates, which puts them in a great position to be the basis for a powerful machine in Horizon Forbidden West's sequel. What's more is that gorillas live and travel in tribes, giving gorilla-based machines the potential to appear in groups that players will have to take on simultaneously or could perhaps even create the foundation for a quest involving a territorial war with human tribes in the same area.
Whale
With Horizon Forbidden West's emphasis on aquatic environments and the new enemies found within, it's surprising that more sea creatures were not translated into machines. However, Horizon 3 could remedy this issue if it ends up further expanding upon the aquatic exploration of its predecessor by introducing whale-like machines. These machines would be the perfect aquatic counterpart to Horizon Forbidden West's Tallnecks as massive yet docile machines that could take inspiration from whales' communication methods to reveal parts of the map, should the game feature a much greater emphasis on sea traversal and underwater exploration.
Dragon
The Horizon series is no stranger to machines based on massive prehistoric beasts, but Horizon 3 could take it a step further and introduce a machine based on the mythological dragon. There are already some frightening winged machines in the series, such as Horizon Forbidden West's Stormbird and Dreadwing, but a machine based on a dragon could be the winged equivalent to beasts like the Thunderjaw or Slaughterspine. This machine could easily take mechanics established by others in the series, like the fire-spewing capabilities of the Bellowback or scanning capabilities of the Skydrifter, to make a machine powerful enough that it rivals the likes of Chariot Class machines like the Horus.
Horizon Forbidden West is available now for PS4 and PS5.
