Horizon Forbidden West centers around the heroics and abilities of its protagonist, Aloy, who leads the charge against anything that threatens humanity. Whether she is fighting rebels trying to overthrow peaceful leaders, or sneaking past patrolling machines, Aloy’s most important tool has always been her focus. The device not only gives Aloy an insight into every enemy she goes up against, but it is also directly responsible for the vast knowledge that Aloy possesses of the current affairs in Horizon Forbidden West as well as the Old Ones and their secrets.
Aloy found her focus at a very young age when she fell into an Old One ruin, a place deemed forbidden by the Nora. Following this, she began to rely on it heavily, first showcasing her abilities as she brought Teb to safety by sneaking around patrolling machines in Horizon Zero Dawn. She later used it to find machine weak spots, track enemies, communicate with her allies, uncover more mysteries of the Old Ones, and locate hidden signals. Because of all this, the focus is an integral part of the Horizon franchise, so, future protagonists should be required to learn the focus if they receive one at the start of their game, either through a skill tree or by unlocking certain functions by progressing through the story.
Horizon’s Focus After Aloy's Time
The Focus is a small piece of Old World tech that gives the user details about anything that is scanned and even allows the user to communicate over vast distances or replay old audio or video files. As a result, the tech is a vital part of the games and is the main way for players to uncover information about the world, progress through the story, and gain an edge in battle. The Focus allows Aloy to excel in machine battles, uncover the secret that allowed her to override machines, and gives her a leg-up in nearly everything she attempts to do.
Since Aloy received her Focus at a young age and used it all the time during her training for the Nora Proving, her adeptness with tech was easily explained away. However, future Horizon games may step away from Aloy, and new protagonists should not immediately become masters of the Focus. Rather, Horizon games after the end of Aloy’s story should consider adding a Focus skill tree that will force players to progress through their ability with the Focus, unlocking certain features like quick scans or detailed descriptions by spending skill points after leveling up.
Adding these skill trees is not only a great way to add more challenging elements to future Horizon games, but it can also be used to display just how talented, intelligent, and dedicated Aloy was, both as a clone of Elisabet Sobeck, and a Nora Brave. Future protagonists will still require a Focus since the tech is how the player seems to interact with the world, and simply giving it to them similarly to Aloy may seem too repetitive. Instead, giving the protagonist a Focus at the start and forcing them to learn the new tech would be a good way to showcase the abilities of the tech and could even share more insight into life in the Old World.
The Focus has been one of the more innovative ways for players to interact with their environment, and its connection to the Old Ones and to Aloy and her allies only proves its usefulness. While the future of Horizon games has not yet been confirmed, if the series were to step away from Aloy following her battle with NEMESIS, future protagonists are going to need a Focus to survive in the harsh new world. Adding progression to the Focus in future Horizon games seems to be the best logical step for the developers to take as it would be able to set itself apart from Aloy’s games and will keep things challenging for both newcomers and veterans of the series.
Horizon Forbidden West is available now for PS4 and PS5.
