One of the most interesting things about Guerrilla Games' Horizon franchise is seeing how the Dutch studio imagines American landscapes in a post-apocalyptic future. Horizon Zero Dawn took place around various parts of real-world Colorado, Utah, and more states in that region; then five years later Horizon Forbidden West took players to the west coast of northern California after a journey across Utah and Nevada - including cities like Las Vegas.
With Horizon Zero Dawn's Frozen Wilds DLC bringing Aloy further north into Yellowstone National Park, now a territory called The Cut inhabited by the Banuk tribe, it's likely Forbidden West will receive something similar. There are plenty of areas for Aloy to explore, either heading south toward Los Angeles or north toward Seattle, and the introduction of the Quen from across the sea means another continent may be in the cards. However, circumstances at the end of the adventure suggest a return to Zero Dawn's Nora Sacred Lands would make sense as Forbidden West DLC. Spoilers for Horizon Forbidden West ahead.
Horizon Forbidden West: Who Are the Nora?
In the Horizon franchise, humanity invests its technological prowess into fighting climate change some years after the current day, and this "claw-back" era brings a number of individuals and their tech companies to prominence. One such individual is Ted Faro of Faro Automated Solutions (FAS), who pivots his organization to military contracts. This leads to the construction of unstoppable, self-replicating robots that are powered by biofuel, and Project Zero Dawn is humanity's last-ditch effort to reseed the world after this "Faro Plague" strips Earth of all life.
Because Faro destroys Zero Dawn's Apollo database of human knowledge to obscure FAS' culpability, the new seed of humanity evolves into a tribal state that lives alongside ecosystem-restoring robots designed after animals. The Nora tribe builds its society around the "Metal Devil" (an old-world Horus Titan) near current-day Colorado Springs. The matriarchal Nora people see themselves as blessed by their goddess, the All-Mother, and live in a region they call The Embrace with settlements such as Mother's Watch, Mother's Cradle, and capital city Mother's Heart.
Their religiosity bred a highly xenophobic society, one that not only distrusts outsiders but actively casts out its own members for sleights like leaving the Sacred Lands. Aloy is an outcast from birth as a "motherless" genetic clone of Elisabet Sobeck, who spearheaded the creation of the GAIA terraforming AI for Project Zero Dawn. However, much of the game sees her dealing with surrounding tribes like the Carja, Oseram, and Banuk, only to return and become a deified figure for her ability to enter an old-world facility and speak with the "All-Mother."
Nemesis and the Looming Global Threat
After helping the Nora, Aloy saves the Carja capital of Meridian - and the world - by stopping a second Faro Plague. Yet the destruction of GAIA, which led to Aloy's birth and the rampage of rogue AI entities, is causing the world's climate to deteriorate. Horizon Forbidden West sees the hero travel in order to find a backup of GAIA's code that can be restored.
However, this is complicated by the Far Zeniths: old-world humans among the richest of the rich who fled Earth in a space shuttle and convinced the Zero Dawn team they had perished. While much of Forbidden West is spent working under the assumption that the Far Zeniths want their own GAIA to re-terraform Earth, by the end Aloy discovers they were looking to escape Nemesis: an AI amalgam of replicated consciousnesses from each Far Zenith member bent on destroying its creators after they lost interest in the "failed" project for centuries.
The impending arrival of Nemesis is a cliffhanger setting up Horizon 3, with Aloy and her friends setting off to recruit allies. After completing the final mission, players can travel to Plainsong, Memorial Grove, Legacy's Landfall, and Hidden Ember to check in on Zo, Kotallo, Alva, and Erend as they aim to recruit the Utaru, Tenakth, Quen, and Oseram tribes, respectively. Given her status back home, it would make perfect sense for Horizon Forbidden West DLC to see Aloy head back to the Sacred Lands and its surrounding areas for the same purpose. It could also give her the chance to reconnect with Nora War-Chief Sona and let her know about Varl's death at the hands of the Far Zeniths.
How Guerilla Could Improve a Second Trip to the Sacred Lands
Beyond the narrative justification of bringing Aloy home to accrue allies, reusing Horizon Zero Dawn's map would offer additional benefits. For one, it would theoretically be an easier project for Guerrilla as it shifts focus to Horizon Call of the Mountain and an inevitable third mainline Horizon game. As with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and its sequel, Zero Dawn's map has already been designed. DLC development efforts could instead be put toward showcasing how this landscape has changed in the months after Aloy saved Meridian.
Guerrilla Games has already shown an interest in doing so. After an introduction where Aloy and Varl explore the ruins of a Far Zenith launch facility, Forbidden West brings players back to the Spire outside Meridian; site of the first game's final battle. Aloy can talk to old friends like Sun-King Avad, but she can also see how the area is rebuilding - including the construction of a statue in her honor. Expanding this attention to detail beyond the Carja capital to see how the Nora, Banuk, and other tribes are reckoning with their reconstruction would be interesting. Players could also visit recurring characters like Talanah to return the favor of completing the Sunhawk's side-quest in Forbidden West.
While allying with peoples like the Nora would be important steps toward building an army, revisiting elements from Zero Dawn's Frozen Wilds DLC offer an even more valuable proposition. This expansion centered an AI named CYAN that was being overtaken by one of GAIA's rogue sub-functions, HEPHAESTUS. This was players' first introduction to the antagonistic AI, which would become a more prominent threat in Forbidden West that is let out of containment to help combat the Far Zeniths.
CYAN offers Aloy insights into other AI sub-functions like DEMETER, which is captured in Forbidden West's Greenhouse mission. However, if Aloy brings up the entity to GAIA, she says attempted connections with CYAN have been terminated - likely out of fear another malignant entity could take over Project Firebreak, which keeps a local volcano stabilized. Visiting CYAN in-person to assure her the connection is legitimate would offer closure to that storyline, and give Aloy another super-intelligent companion with more experience combating entities like Nemesis.
Aloy's father-figure Rost left her with his wish that she embrace the Nora despite how they rejected her, finding a family and using her hunting skills to benefit others rather than just surviving. While she never acclimated to these ideals, Forbidden West sees Aloy starting a tribe of her own, finally learning how to work with others and embracing the comforts of a found family. With this character growth, it would be a perfect time for the heroine to return and bring her homeland into the fold, letting its various peoples join the fight for a better future.
Horizon Forbidden West is available now on PS4 and PS5.
