Development on Horizon Forbidden West might be barrelling towards a delay that will push the anticipated ARPG into 2022, if this industry insider is on the money.
Right. Before we get into the nuts and bolts of this story, delays are not bad. Delays are not bad. Delays are arguably... good. Guerrilla Games loves its Horizon series to pieces and this next game is serving up some serious changes and improvements from Aloy's original adventure in the ravaged ruins of Colorado. Some years after the events of Horizon Zero Dawn, our heroine trudges west to what remains of California, Utah and Nevada. She discovers a nasty red plague that chokes all life that it touches and so she takes it upon herself to find its source and stop it in its tracks. It looks like it is able to trigger enormous "super cell" storms that lay waste to the land, to add insult to injury.
So, trek over to the Forbidden West, hoik this "red blight" out by the roots and Bob's your uncle. Lest we forget that this is a world populated by hostile machines that are programmed to hate humans. In this corner of the USA, Clawstriders, Snapjaws, Shellsnappers, Sunwings and Tremortusks stalk the Earth. Yep, that last one is a hulking elephant-like machine that can even be piloted by enemy bandits.
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See it in action in this gameplay snippet below.
When news of the delay to God Of War 2 arose, PlayStation Studios Head Hermen Hulst had something to say about Horizon Forbidden West, too. "They're frankly affected by access to performance capture and talent," explained Hulst, relaying the impact of the pandemic on people from all over. "For Horizon, we think we are on track to release this holiday season. But that isn't quite certain yet, and we're working as hard as we can to confirm that to you as soon as we can."
Yesterday, GamesBeat reporter and industry insider Jeff Grubb stated on Giant Bomb's show that he has heard things suggesting that there will be a State of Play presentation in September and that Horizon Forbidden West will slip from 2021 to 2022. He clarified his comment on the GamingLeaksAndRumours subreddit: "this is what I'm hearing and not that it's a sure thing."
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Should we pay attention to this Grubb figure? Well, he was the one who leaked the existence of the Mass Effect remasters well in advance of any announcements from anyone else. Oh, and he revealed that Zelda fans would see Breath of the Wild 2 in Nintendo's E3 2021 conference. And that Starfield would not be coming to other platforms aside from PC and Xbox. In short, he does have his finger on the button. Yet, with no official word from Guerrilla Games or Sony, we've got to be cautious before we start shouting about this delay from the rooftops. We'll let you know how this pans out.
Featured Image Credit: Guerrilla GamesTopics: News, PlayStation, Horizon Zero Dawn