Back when Horizon: Zero Dawn was first unveiled to the world, one of its most unique and defining aspects of the game was the world and the machines that inhabit it. The "post-post-apocalyptic" world of Horizon is filled with zoomorphic mechanical creations that heavily resemble their organic, prehistoric predecessors. Now Horizon: Forbidden West has begun showing off some of its new machines in the sequel, iterating on the innovative foundation of its predecessor.
Machines in Horizon: Zero Dawn mostly resembled dinosaurs from various time periods, and while for the most part Horizon: Forbidden West is continuing this trend, there's also several deviations shown off in the reveal trailer. The Horizon Twitter account has also been highlighting and providing some details on the new machines coming to the game as well. Extending beyond the Jurassic period opens up a lot of possibilities for new machines in the Horizon lore, with near limitless potential based on real-life animals.
New Machines Coming to Forbidden West
For starters, Horizon: Forbidden West has already announced and detailed several new machines coming to the sequel. So far there's been several confirmed machines coming to the next game: Shellsnappers, Bristlebacks, Sunwings, and a few others yet to have an official feature on the Guerilla Games Twitter. Because Forbidden West will be including more regions in the wilderness to explore, this opens up several new avenues for new machines to appear as well. The recent trailer showcases Aloy diving underwater to explore the ruins of the San Francisco Embarcadero, where she also witnesses several amphibious/reptilian machines swimming amongst the schools of organic fish.
Here's a quick rundown on the already-confirmed machines coming to Horizon: Forbidden West: Shellsnappers are large amphibious machines, clearly meant to represent snapping turtles. They are capable of lying dormant for days or weeks at a time, even getting to the point where nature starts to overtake their gigantic shells. Bristlebacks are boar-like acquisition machines that typically roam in herds. They're very violent and confrontational machines, willing to act aggressive in the fact of a threat with its sharp tusks. Sunwings are acquisition-class machines capable of agile and quick flight. Sunwing machines utilize photovoltaic wings to harness and store solar energy.
That's not even counting any of the potential new machines that were teased in Horizon: Forbidden West's first trailer. During the brief underwater segment, there were amphibious alligator-like machines swimming above Aloy. Mammoth-like machines can also be seen towards the end of the trailer as well. Plus, there's almost certainly more machines waiting to be discovered players themselves.
Potential for New Machines
In many of the machines featured throughout Horizon: Zero Dawn, several of the most prominent machines were designed based on prehistoric dinosaurs. In the case of Forbidden West, from what's been shown so far, many of these new machines seem to be inspired by mammals specifically. There's no machines like the Tallneck or Thunderjaw that have been show so far that strongly emulate the organic makeup of dinosaurs. While there were plenty of mammal-related machines in the first game, Forbidden West seems to be experimenting further outside of prehistoric reptiles and further into familiar mammals.
There should be no shortage of mammals or other organisms Horizon: Forbidden West could draw inspiration from for machine designs. There are plenty of apex predators in the wild like lions or killer whales that could be introduced into the game. Assuming underwater exploration will become a big part of the upcoming sequel, fish like sharks would be prime choices for any machines below sea level. Plus there's the gigantic and murderous machines from Horizon lore that have yet to resurface in the game. Considering the secret post-credits scene of Horizon: Zero Dawn, it wouldn't be far-fetched to expect those mega-machines make an appearance in some form.
It'll be interesting to see what Horizon: Forbidden West has in store for the new machines coming to the sequel. There's plenty of material and organisms throughout Earth's early history for the game to draw inspiration from.
Horizon: Forbidden West releases on PS5 in 2021.
