Top Facts about Horizon Forbidden West, PS5's Most Anticipated Game

This game has solidified itself as one of the most eagerly awaited PS5 exclusives, with Horizon Forbidden West release date being February 2022 looming ever closer. Horizon Forbidden West is the follow-up to the critically acclaimed Horizon Zero Dawn, which was released in 2017. The journey of protagonist Aloy will be continued, this time taking her to the western United States on a mission to stop a strange menace known only as of the Red Blight.

The game will have a big open environment packed with machinery, gadgets, and weapons to discover, similar to Zero Dawn. Underwater exploration and a variety of new tools and weaponry are among the new activities Aloy will experience on her quest. It's safe to say that what we've seen thus far is visually stunning.

As the release date of this highly awaited sequel approaches, we're learning a lot more about it, so we've compiled all of the newest news and rumors, including Horizon Forbidden West release date, Horizon Forbidden West trailers, pricing, and more, for your perusal below. Continue reading to learn everything there is to know about Horizon Forbidden West.

Horizon Forbidden West release date

is confirmed to be on February 18, 2022, for PS5 and PS4. Horizon Forbidden West was originally scheduled for release in 2021, with PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan telling GQ in early 2021 that he felt "pretty good" about the sequel arriving later that year. However, Sony announced during Gamescom 2021 that the game would be postponed until February 2022.

This comes after PlayStation Studios' Hermen Hulst expressed caution about the release date in June, while a Bloomberg story in July indicated that Sony had pushed back the release date of Horizon Forbidden West to the first quarter of 2022.

Top Facts about Horizon Forbidden West You’ve Got to Know Before the Release

Below you will be able to find almost whatever information about the game you’re looking for. It is only natural to want to know everything after all the hype around the Horizon Forbidden West trailers we have seen so far.

Horizon Forbidden West Delays, Pricing, and Different Versions

One of the Top Facts about Horizon Forbidden West is that game director Mathijs de Jonge blamed the global pandemic as a reason for the game's delay in a post on the official PlayStation Blog, saying:

"It’s no surprise that our teams were hugely impacted by the global pandemic; we have been adjusting to new workflows, protocols, and other challenges while keeping our teams safe and prioritizing a healthy work/life balance".

He continued: "While the decision to move the game’s launch to 2022 certainly wasn’t easy, we’d like to take a moment to thank all of our fans for their unwavering support;

we know how much you’ve been looking forward to reuniting with Aloy and her friends, continuing her story, and exploring a new and more dangerous world. Your passion, fan art, cosplay, virtual photography, and videos have meant the world to all of us".

Following Sony's pre-order announcement, we now know how much each version of Horizon Forbidden West will cost at launch.

On PS4, the Standard Edition will cost $59.99 / £59.99 / AU$109.95, while on PS5, it will cost $69.99 / £69.99 / AU$124.95.

Alternatively, you could spend more money on the Special Edition (which includes an art book as well as the base game), the Digital Deluxe Edition (which includes the base game as well as in-game digital bonuses like outfits), or the Collectors and Regalla editions, which include physical statues and other goodies.

Initially, Sony made the questionable choice not to provide a free PS5 update for the PS4 edition of Horizon Forbidden West, one of the Top Facts about Horizon Forbidden West.

Following outrage from fans, Jim Ryan said that the PS5 upgrade will be free and that players will no longer need to purchase the Deluxe edition to be eligible.

Furthermore, all future PlayStation cross-gen titles, including God of War: Ragnarok and Gran Turismo 7, will have a flat $10 / £10 cost to upgrade from the PS4 to the PS5 version.

Horizon Forbidden West Trailers

On June 11, 2020, Sony and Guerrilla Games unveiled the first Horizon Forbidden West trailer during the PS5 games launch event.

The teaser gave us a three-minute look at the different locations you'll discover in the sequel, as well as the machines you'll face (mammoths and alligators, by the looks of it).

We also got the impression that Horizon Forbidden West will have a lot of underwater gameplay, given how noticeable Aloy's scuba gear is in the trailer and the shots of submerged ruined cities, one of the Top Facts about Horizon Forbidden West.

During a May 2021 State of Play, we got another peek at Horizon Forbidden West. A total of 14 minutes of gameplay was presented, giving us a better idea of what to expect from Aloy's western travels.

Horizon Forbidden West game director Mathijs de Jonge disclosed the game's official release date during Gamescom 2021's Opening Night Live showcase.

At The Game Awards 2021, a trailer for Horizon Forbidden West was revealed, displaying a variety of environments and enemies to expect in the long-awaited sequel.

PlayStation focused on some of the machines that would appear in Horizon Forbidden West in a teaser released in December 2021.

The trailer featured numerous well-known machines as well as three new ones: "the armored Rollerback, the graceful Sunwing, and the acid-spitting Slitherfang."

Some of the tribes that players may encounter when visiting the Forbidden West with Aloy were shown in a trailer released in January 2022.

Various clans were depicted in the two-minute video, including Oseram, Carja, Utaru, Tenakth, and a mysterious unspecified tribe in the far west.

One of the last

Horizon Forbidden West trailers

 was a story trailer in January 2022.

The three-minute preview presented a taste of what Aloy will face in her new adventure, including new opponents, old companions, and brand-new mysteries.

Horizon Forbidden West Story & Environment

Horizon Forbidden West is a direct sequel to Horizon Zero Dawn, and it takes place six months after the events of the previous game. Aloy travels west from her homeland to a new frontier landscape.

Aloy is on the lookout for allies and a cure for the Red Blight, a mystery organism causing havoc on the natural world, one of the

Top Facts about Horizon Forbidden West.

Along the way, she'll meet new tribes and machines. Regalla, a rebel leader who "seeks to slaughter all those who have wronged her" and is backed by a higher power with troops, weapons, and war machines, will be a new enemy for her.

The story director Ben McCaw told GamesRadar that "the vast, vast majority of the game takes place in the Forbidden West." Horizon Forbidden West will take players to places like San Francisco, Yosemite, and beyond.

Horizon Forbidden West offers a larger, more dense game world than Zero Dawn, according to Game Director Mathijs de Jonge.

“The map is a little bit bigger, but in general, we’ve really looked at increasing the density, and adding more content, making sure there’s a lot more to do for the player across the map, and then making that content also engaging by telling little micro-stories.” de Jonge says. New undersea exploration is providing some of the world's additional breadth and depth.

Narrative director Benjamin McCaw told IGN, "Exploration is really the theme. And it’s not enough for us to just show underwater. We wanted to make sure that it’s every bit as beautiful as what you see in the natural world above it.

But it wasn’t just enough that you could swim around underwater. We wanted to do some things that are really surprising and interesting. And I think that’s where some of the story stuff comes in, and we just absolutely can’t wait for players to see what they’re going to experience."

One of the Top Facts about Horizon Forbidden West, According to an official PlayStation blog post, is that there's an entire team committed to making Horizon Forbidden West's "world feel authentic and alive: the tribes, settlements, and the people within them," overseen by Espen Sogn, Lead Living World Designer.

Sogn's team collaborated with the narrative team, and Annie Kitain, the Senior Writer at Guerrilla, adds that each tribe that players will encounter in the game has been given "a lot of thought."

"Take the Tenakth, for instance,” Kitain explains, “Many of their beliefs are influenced by the ancient ruins of the Forbidden West, and unlike other tribes, they’re comprised of three distinct clans. Their shared history, convictions, disputes – all of that is important to developing the characters that Aloy will meet on her journey.” 

Tenakth are both similar and different from other tribes in the game world, and this is represented through the game environment itself, through "the details, the animations, and the behavior," another one of the Top Facts about Horizon Forbidden West.

"Within their settlements, you’ll see the Tenakth working out, readying themselves for battle. They’re often younger because they need to be capable warriors.

Their base is an ancient ruin, from which they’ve picked up certain Old World gestures that they may not fully understand – like using a military salute to say hello."

“The Living World team does a fantastic job, and it’s so great to see it all come together,” says Kitain. “Each tribe starts as a bunch of ideas, then is translated into these amazing settlements.

Like the Utaru, who were imagined as an agrarian society that’s deeply connected to the land around them. Once the tribe is in-game and the Living World team has done their magic, you’re walking around the Utaru’s fields, interacting with them, and you think, ‘whoa, they nailed it.’ Now, this tribe feels real.”

To add to the realism, the post explains that every non-combat NPC is a member of a "crowd system," which may be used to define rules.

Guerilla is able to “create unique people who behave like individuals within the world,” as a result of this.

Throughout the game, Aloy will visit tribe settlements and will need them, as well as the NPCs who populate them, "to sustain and equip her."

The team “wanted the towns and villages across the Forbidden West to feel lived in, vibrant, and useful,”  according to Steven Lumpkin, Senior Designer at Guerrilla.

“in each settlement across the world, you’ll find opportunities for adventure. They are filled with merchants and vendors: Stitchers, who can sell Aloy powerful (and beautiful!) new outfits in exchange for shards and machine parts;

Hunters, who offer an array of tactical new weaponry; Herbalists, who sell potent potions that Aloy is definitely strong enough to handle; and Cooks, who prepare invigorating meals that Aloy can carry with her for a boost.”

Horizon Forbidden West Gameplay

Guerrilla is taking advantage of Horizon Forbidden West's deeper and larger setting to give players more freedom of movement, one of the

Top Facts about Horizon Forbidden West.

According to David McMullen, Lead Systems Designer at Guerrilla, "Aloy can climb freely on and across huge sections of rocky terrain; even more machine types can be used as mounts; grapple points can be found throughout the environment which allows agile vertical traversal; swimming underwater has opened up a whole new world."

This emphasis on player choice applies to combat enhancements as well. Dennis Zopfi, Guerrilla's Lead Combat Designer, says: "One of the focus points that influenced all our combat decisions was increased player choice, and we applied this to everything: melee, weapons, outfits, skills, and other new mechanics. We wanted to give players more tools, depth, and dials to play with."

This means Aloy will not only receive new weapons and skills, but she will also be able to upgrade and enhance them. Narrative Director Ben McCaw noted that Aloy will have a "huge variety of weapons" at her disposal, with combat focusing on tactics and choice.

This will be done at the new workbench, which “unlocks new perks, mod slots, skills, and offers a bigger degree of customization, resistances, and new abilities for players!”

This upgrade is part of a larger effort to improve the game's RPG and action features, according to de Jonge, who also stated that it “comes from just the desire to make the weapons more engaging, that you have a little bit more of a bond with these weapons.

By investing time and resources, and by upgrading them, you get that feeling of like, you actually spent time to make this weapon better, rather than getting an upgrade from a machine and just slotting that in. You have to fight sort of machines or get other resources throughout the world in order to upgrade. So the whole loop is more integrated, in that sense with the rest of the world.“

We are aware of a number of new tools, including the Pullcaster, Shieldwing, and her Diving Mask. All of this makes Aloy "more agile during both exploration and the inevitable battles she'll be fighting in the West," according to Guerilla.

The Pullcaster, for example, serves as both a grapple and a winch, allowing Aloy to manipulate, move, and destroy anything in the environment, another one of the Top Facts about Horizon Forbidden West. Meanwhile, the Shieldwing "allows her to descend safely from great heights (or surprise enemies from above)."

There's also a fresh new skill tree, which has been “completely redesigned and repopulated with new skills” to add greater complexity to the Zero Dawn skill tree. Game director Mathijs De Jonge said in an interview with Game Informer that players would be able to improve Aloy's skills to suit their playstyle.

A new Valor Surge mechanism is included in the new skill tree. There are a total of 12 Valor Surges, "each of them representing and strengthening a specific approach to the game." 

They're unlocked and enhanced by spending skill points in the skill tree, and players can then choose which Valor Surge is active at any given time.

The Valor Surge bar in the bottom right corner of the screen must be filled before a Valor Surge move can be used. This is accomplished by "playing technically," such as headshotting humans or removing components from adversaries, which rewards players with technical combat rewards. XP is a point system that can be used to advance through the skill tree.

360 Blast is a Valor Surge that was demonstrated in a State of Play gameplay trailer. Another, as seen on the PlayStation Blog, is Radial Blast, which may be employed to take out stockier opponents.

Because her enemies may now hunt in new ways, it appears that you'll need the majority, if not all of the advantages you can obtain with Aloy's new abilities.

One of the Top Facts about Horizon Forbidden West is that human adversaries can now fight with machines as well as against them, and we've seen them use mounted combat just like Aloy.

Horizon Forbidden West More Rumors & News

Here are a couple of

Top Facts about Horizon Forbidden West

you might wanna know of.

How Long to Complete?

Mathijs de Jonge, the director of Horizon Forbidden West, confirmed to GamePro that the story in Horizon Forbidden West is similar in length to that of its predecessor. However, the game's total scope is far larger.

Horizon Zero Dawn's main story takes around 22 to 23 hours to complete (according to How Long to Beat), whereas the main quest including extras, such as side quests, takes over 45 hours. Players need to spend more than 60 hours playing the game to complete everything it has to offer.

Not Interested in Side Quests?

In a recent interview with IGN, Horizon Forbidden West's narrative director Ben McCaw said that the game has been structured such that you may focus just on the primary story, implying that you'll be able to skip much of the side content.

There are Spoilers out there

Be careful with spoilers ahead of Horizon Forbidden West's release, as an early build of the game for PlayStation 4 has leaked online. Images from the build began emerging on social media in early January 2022, and insiders told VGC that the leaked build is legitimate. While certain art assets are missing, it appears to have all of the content that will be included in the final version.

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