Sony's recent Horizon: Forbidden West demo gave fans their best look at the game yet, offering roughly fifteen minutes of footage depicting it in action. As the next big PlayStation exclusive after Ratchet and Clank, Sony is starting to pump up its marketing efforts for Horizon: Forbidden West. Fans have taken that marketing material to compare the fictionalized, overgrown take on San Francisco with its real-world counterparts.
Over on Reddit, user CptnCASx has compiled some screenshots from Horizon: Forbidden West next to landmarks from San Francisco, with iconic locations like Lombard Street and the Ferry Building conveying the look and tone that dilapidated San Francisco will boast when the game launches. Judging by the photos, Guerrilla Games has but a lot of care into its depiction of the city.
Of the locations shown, Horizon: Forbidden West's Lombard Street is the most transformed, and in a particularly unique way. The winding pathway is now home to rapids rushing down where the pavement once carved through the street. It's surrounded by dense foliage and greenery, making for a gorgeous scene. Horizon: Forbidden West has a tropical vibe to it, and while that's not what one would typically associate with San Francisco, it certainly works here.
Other locations highlighted by CptnCASx include the Palace of Fine Arts, City Hall, the Transamerica Pyramid, and the Golden Gate Bridge. The Golden Gate itself is easily the most recognizable, its high archways now overgrown but instantly recognizable by those that are familiar with the structure. The other images have similar vibes, emphasizing recognizability, but also being run-down in interesting ways.
The locations depicted here hardly scratch the surface of San Francisco's landmarks, so fans will likely have a lot more to see when Horizon: Forbidden West launches. Locations like Alcatraz, Union Square, and plenty of others will likely be featured as well, so Guerrilla Games definitely has a lot of areas to play around with. How the developer ties those locations into the story will be worthy of its own comparison, though.
San Francisco is a large city, so successfully capturing its breadth will undoubtedly be a challenge. In recent years, though, ruins of great cities have become a more common setting. For instance, The Division and Fallout games feature recreations of cities like DC and Boston, though some depictions are more heavily fictionalized than others, depending on what the developer is going for.
Horizon: Forbidden West is in development.
