Guerilla Games, the developer behind the Horizon franchise, has confirmed that the series will be a trilogy of games. Seeing as there was a five-year gap between Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West, players can expect a third game sometime in 2027. In the meantime, Aloy’s story continues in California in the Burning Shores DLC, which will see her explore a volcanic Los Angeles. But like other post-apocalyptic games, the drama isn’t just isolated to the particular area where the game is set. Each Fallout game is set in a different area of the United States, while The Last Of Us weaves a story from Austin to Boston, then Seattle.
So far, Aloy’s story has been isolated to the Western United States in the Horizon franchise. The possibilities of where the third game could be set are endless, but there have been hints littered throughout Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West.
This list contains spoilers
5 South America
At the end of Horizon Forbidden West, a cut scene sees Sylens viewing a map of the globe, with South America pointing at the player. If Horizon 3 were to take place outside the United States, South America would make the most sense logistically, as it’s still connected by land through Mexico. There’s also a web of cauldrons over the continent, more so than in other places worldwide.
While it’s unclear what happened to the Amazon and other locations in South America, it would be interesting to see Aloy and her allies explore the different environments and landscapes the continent offers following the terraforming process.
4 China
In Horizon Zero Dawn, a datapoint titled “Cradle Sealed” reveals that the subordinate function ELEUTHIA’s first cradle was successfully sealed before the Faro Plague could detect it. Patrick Brochard-Klein, the Alpha in charge of the subfunction, emails Elisabet Sobeck with the news, in which he also reveals that it’s housed in China’s Xinjiang province. It’s believed in the Horizon community that this cradle produced the Quen introduced in Forbidden West. This tribe traveled across the Pacific ocean to retrieve “the Legacy,” which is ancient knowledge from the Old Ones.
During a conversation with Aloy, Alva mentions that super storms have caused river deltas in their homeland to flood. Reddit user LargoDeluxe has suggested that she may be referring to the Yangtze Delta near Shanghai or the Pearl River Delta near Hong Kong. While the Xinjiang province is in the Northwest of China, the Quen’s ancestors could have migrated from the cradle to either area before the current generation set off for the Forbidden West.
Tribes such as the Utaru and Tenakth were deeply explored in Forbidden West after first being mentioned in Zero Dawn. But it’s possible that in Horizon 3, Aloy could travel with the Quen back to their homeland in the fight to beat Nemesis.
3 Pacific Northwest
If Horizon 3 does stay in the United States, the Pacific Northwest makes the most sense geographically. It connects to territories of the Banuk, Nora, and Oseram tribes from past games, making it easily accessible. It could also present new AIs for Aloy to utilize outside the Zero Dawn project, just like Cyan in the Frozen Wilds. For example, there are plenty of volcanoes in the Cascade mountain range for an AI to monitor, as Cyan does with the Yellowstone Caldera, including some significant beasts like Mount Saint Helens and Mount Rainier.
And seeing as Aloy has yet to visit The Claim, the third game would be the perfect time to do so. Following the end of Forbidden West, Aloy needs to stay relatively close to her allies and their tribes for their help in defeating Nemesis. And since players have yet to see the Oseram’s homeland, this could be a good starting point before venturing off to recognizable cities like Seattle and Portland – both of which are likely underwater like San Francisco in Forbidden West.
2 Ohio & West Virginia
In Zero Dawn, the USRC Deployment Record datapoint mentions several locations across the United States where the Mechanized Response Brigade branches have been posted. A lot of action takes place on the East Coast to attack the Eastern Seaboard Swarm including in Ohio and Shenandoah Valley in West and East Virginia. As part of Operation Body Blow in Ohio, the 10th and 9th MRB took down a Horus-class titan machine. At the same time, the 12th MRB and the Civilian Guard face the swarm head-on in Operation Thickskull as the machines approach the Shenandoah Valley.
Seeing as players will encounter a battle with a Horus for the first time in Burning Shores, it would make sense for the third game to incorporate even more of these into the story. Horizon 3 could even see Aloy traveling to this area rife with Metal Devils to override one and use it in her battle with Nemesis. And seeing as Washington D.C. would be nearby, there may be essential data and information to collect on the Faro Swarm and how the U.S. government reacted at the time.
1 Florida
Florida being the setting for the next Horizon game is a far reach, seeing as the state no longer exists in the franchise’s post-apocalyptic future. Thanks to the environmental damage of The Clawback, Florida was one of the many landmasses on Earth to succumb to flooding, just like New Zealand during the 2036 Submergence.
However, what remains of Florida would be rife for underwater exploration for Aloy since the creation of her diving mask. While it may not be the perfect place to base a whole game around, it could work as a DLC in the same vein as the Frozen Wilds or Burning Shores.
Horizon Forbidden West is available now for PS4 and PS5.