A sequel to Horizon Forbidden West has not yet been officially announced, but it seems inevitable. Horizon Forbidden West ends on not even a cliffhanger, but the entire premise of another sequel’s plot laid out plainly for players to anticipate. Therefore, fans can speculate about what mechanics and features Guerrilla will extrapolate upon in Horizon’s third installment.
One mechanic that is sure to return in a third entry is the ability to ride winged machines in midair, as well as being able to swim at extraordinary depths with the same level of graphical fidelity. These features, alongside its other improvements on open-world traversal, made Horizon Forbidden West stand apart from Horizon Zero Dawn immeasurably. Rather, when it is considered where a third entry could improve further, there is one mechanic Horizon Forbidden West iterated on that may have an effect on later sequels: melee combat.
Aloy’s Improved Melee Combat Could Lead to New Horizon Mechanics
Horizon Forbidden West made a strange choice in improving Aloy’s melee combat mechanics. Aloy is best known for her ranged skills, so it seems like an odd mechanic for Guerrilla to concentrate on. Perhaps Guerrilla is establishing an emphasis on melee in Aloy’s move-set to prepare her for more physicality or melee-based mechanics in the future.
Melee should not be concentrated on when human enemies are considered, but instead when machine enemies are considered. The third Horizon game could take further inspiration from Monster Hunter and add mechanics that allow players to attach onto or mount machines, having her then strike at particular parts for resources while scaling the machine much like Shadow of the Colossus.
Horizon Forbidden West’s Pullcaster would be perfect for such a mechanic, and it would also be great to see Aloy’s melee attacks branch out further from spear strikes. Spike Throwers and other such weapons are already indicative of her physical skill, and if Aloy embraced a more brawny approach to combat, Horizon’s next entry could introduce new melee instruments for Aloy to clobber smaller machines with.
Aloy being able to wrestle smaller machines down after hobbling them with a strike to their weak points would be thrilling to see. This would make an improvement to Aloy’s melee abilities and overall strength much more impactful, and these changes would also be more meaningful if they were complemented by a positive physical change in Aloy’s character model.
Aloy’s Strength Needs to Be Represented in Her Physicality
Aloy’s currently character model unfortunately reflects that of Uncharted’s Nathan Drake, where the character is capable of preternatural physical feats while their body is decidedly average in terms of muscle tone or athletic presumption. These characters do not have to have literal demigod bodies like God of War’s Kratos, but it would be more accurate to have muscle definition to represent that they are indeed capable of peerless physical maneuvers. If Aloy is to continue performing the same physical feats she does and more, it would be nice to see that growth in strength and agility represented as a distinct enlargement of muscle mass.
In the time between Horizon Forbidden West and its inevitable sequel, while Aloy and her companions prepare for the arrival of Nemesis, it is plausible that Aloy could develop a distinct amount of muscle or tone in her physicality. Aloy should have already had muscle tone depicted in her character model at this point anyway, and as such it would not need a stretch of the imagination to picture her with an appropriately developed muscle tone.
It may not be detrimental to Horizon’s narrative or Aloy’s character development if she does not appear in the third installment with bulkier arms. It is hardly out of the realm of possibility, however. If Guerrilla wishes for her to achieve more with her physicality, it would be fantastic to see that depicted in both gameplay and Aloy’s character model. There's a lot of value in more portrayals of atypical or underrepresented body types in games too.
Horizon Forbidden West is available now on PS4 and PS5.
