Horizon 3 Won’t Grow to Its Full Potential Until It Breaks an 8-Year Curse

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Beyond Nemesis posing a significant danger, Horizon 3‘s story isn’t as rigidly structured as Spider-Man 3’s might be. However, the gameplay has plenty of opportunities to break new ground, but it remains uncertain how much Horizon 3 will focus on refining existing mechanics or introducing fresh elements to the series. At a high level, the gameplay hasn’t undergone major shifts from its initial formula over the course of two games. That might not be entirely accurate, though, as new machine enemies necessitate different strategies for optimal hunting and dismantling using available weapons, which is the rich, meaty core of the Horizon experience.

In both Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West, there’s an abundance of creative machine enemy designs, including Bellowbacks, Snapmaws, and Thunderjaws. However, not every machine is equally thrilling to fight, as is common in any game with a diverse roster of enemies. What can be startling for players, though, is the shift from intense battles against Horizon Forbidden West’s Slaughterspine to casually defeating human bandits. Human enemies are useful for worldbuilding, indeed, but they rarely offer combat scenarios as intense as the adrenaline-pumping Frostclaw and Slitherfang encounters. Removing human enemies entirely in Horizon 3 could finally set the franchise free from its constraints.

Horizon’s Human Enemies are Somewhat of a Necessary Evil

In open-world action RPGs like Horizon, human enemies don’t inherently detract from the gameplay experience, but there’s a significant problem that stands out: human enemies aren’t as captivating as mechanical ones. Typically, in post-apocalyptic narratives, humans can be both fearsome and morally ambiguous characters when the science fiction setting doesn’t overshadow them. However, this isn’t the case in Horizon.

In the long-running “Walking Dead” series, it’s often the people Rick Grimes and his group meet who pose a greater threat than the common, persistent zombies. The same can be said for “The Last of Us”, where the infected may be unique and terrifying, but they serve more as a setting for the complex relationships between characters. In contrast, “Horizon” offers a captivating backdrop that is as intriguing as it is thrilling, which Guerrilla Games has excelled at so far. However, this focus on an engaging environment might have inadvertently made human enemies less diverse.

Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West’s human enemy factions include:

  • Bandits
  • Eclipse
  • Rebels of established tribes, such as Regalla’s Tenakth rebels

It’s worth mentioning that Horizon differs from most post-apocalyptic stories in that it doesn’t focus on society’s collapse or people’s struggles to adapt. Instead, since the story unfolds far into the future where the world has transformed into a heavily overwritten landscape with very little information about its past, the characters don’t have to grapple with the harsh reality of the world as a traumatic limbo that distorts and tests their fundamental identities.

In this world they’re accustomed to, even if everyone knew about an earlier civilization where machine-animals weren’t common, it wouldn’t significantly alter their lives. They would merely acknowledge that this is how their current reality originated. However, for most people living in separate communities with modest means, the knowledge would be of minimal importance as they continue to meet the necessities of their daily lives.

Even though the conflicts within Horizon’s tribe are captivating enough to mirror real-life human disputes, machines outshine them in every aspect. Real enemies offer a sense of importance to these disagreements, but they can never compare to machines when it comes to grandiose set-pieces or epic battle scenes.

Horizon’s Machines Have Always Been the Star, Not Humans

The Far Zenith faction in Horizon Forbidden West is one of the most intriguing human groups introduced within the series, primarily due to their unique, advanced, and otherworldly nature within the Horizon universe’s take on sci-fi. However, since new creatures are often depicted as adversaries in the Horizon franchise, it seems that machines will continue to be the most captivating aspect of the IP – a fact that might just be fitting.

In the game Horizon, colossal machine creatures have captivated players with their unique blend of ranged combat using bows and arrows, along with requiring strategic thinking to overcome each self-governing adversary. Additionally, there are numerous other animal-like designs that the series has yet to incorporate, such as potential giant mechanical spiders in Horizon 3, weaving artificial silk between cliffsides, offering a fresh and exciting canvas for creative exploration.

As Horizon progresses, it may have to delve into more specialized realms when introducing new machine creatures, as there might not be many animal archetypes left that would seamlessly fit within the game’s world. However, if players perceive Guerrilla’s creativity and originality as narrative obstacles due to unique machine designs, it would be surprising. Instead, they would likely appreciate these innovative creations.

In a future installment of “Horizon Forbidden West“, the underwater elements could form an impressive basis, and introducing a menacing, fear-inducing shark machine might make swimming in the ocean a nerve-wracking experience. To stand out among various human adversaries like rebels or even Zeniths, they would need to be exceptionally intriguing, as it might prove challenging for them to escape the imposing presence of machines, particularly when their shadows are as massive as Horus’ tentacles in “Horizon Forbidden West‘s Burning Shores DLC.

In the game “Horizon”, the setting stands out as both unique and thrilling, which Guerrilla Games has effectively achieved so far. However, this may have unintentionally relegated human enemies to a lesser role in terms of diversity.

In the story of Horizon 3, humans can still play a significant role, interacting with Aloy and influencing her journey through the introduction of diverse side characters. The player may also encounter decisions that impact the destiny of human societies. However, to bring new elements into the game, Horizon 3 might choose to evolve by reducing or eliminating human adversaries and the open-world content associated with them. If necessary for enemy variety within the Horizon universe, human enemies could still persist in some form.

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2025-08-08 03:44