History VideoGame / HorizonForbiddenWest

* SavageSpinosaurs: ''Forbidden West'' introduces the Slaughterspine, a heavyweight-class combat machine resembling a spinosaurid with deadly plasma attacks. Notably, they're clearly based on [[TheOughties early 2000s]] portrayals of ''Spinosaurus'' [[ArtisticLicensePaleontology as a terrestrial predator rather than the semi-aquatic potential piscivore it is now theorized to be]].

* SpinosaurusVersusTRex: Averted. Thunderjaws (The TRexpy) and Slaughterspines (The [[SavageSpinosaurs robot Spinosaurus]]) aren't anywhere near each other on the map, so you can't, say, override one and make them fight. In fact, in the final battle, [[spoiler:they fight alongside one another]].

* PlotHole: [[spoiler:Nemesis is explicitly stated to be after the Far Zenith survivors, with no vested interest in Earth or its inhabitants other than the planet being used a waystation for the Zeniths. So, once all the Zeniths are dead, there's no reason given why it should still be a threat to Earth if Aloy, Sylens or GAIA simply sent a transmission to Nemesis that proves the Zeniths' eradication. No one ever even considers this option, instead just assuming for some reason that Nemesis will continue to seek Earth's destruction.]]

* TrojanPrisoner: Erend attempts to get himself and Aloy into First Forge like this, but [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome the guards have no idea who he is]]. Erend solves this problem by bashing them with his hammer.

* FascistButInefficient: Rheng is the leader of Compliance in Fleet's End, but he's also a complete idiot. Him sending one of his agents to tail a group trying to recover a manifest results in the deaths of five people during a time when Fleet's End seriously cannot afford to bleed manpower, and Admiral Gerrit gives him a serious chewing out and throws him in the brig when this comes to light. Rheng tries to stand his ground but Admiral Gerrit [[MyRuleFuIsStrongerThanYours knows the clauses better than he]] and finds technical justification for tossing Rheng in the clink.

** [[spoiler:While [=HEPHAESTUS=] and Far Zenith do cross paths, it's under entirely antagonistic terms. Far Zenith hope to merge [=HEPHAESTUS=] with their version of GAIA to gain control of the MechanicalLifeforms populating the planet, while Aloy unleashes [=HEPHAESTUS=] onto Far Zenith to cripple their technological advantage not unlike a ComputerVirus.]]

** In [[spoiler:the final battle against Regalla's rebels, Aloy drops a Horus power cell on Regalla's army that instantly kills all of their machines, including at least ''three Tremortusks''. Outside of this cutscene, Horus power cells only put any machine into an instantaneous shocked state, similar to rappelling off a Tallneck]].[[note]] The Doylist explanation for this is that the developers didn't want you to be able to OneHitKill Apex Slaughterspines and other super-tough machines with basically no effort.[[/note]]

* WarElephants: The rebels have tamed Tremortusks, enormous robot mammoths, and ride them into battle. Aloy and Kotallo encounter a group of Rebels in the mountains hatching a plot to use one to attack the Bulwark, but put a stop to it before anything can happen by taking it and the Rebels down. Later on, the Rebels are seen [[spoiler:invading the Memorial Grove with a ''lot'' more, but Aloy incapacitates them with a Horus power cell]].

** [[spoiler:The Enduring is legendarily this to the Tenakth. Not only did she train Hekarro and Regalla, but she also puts up a terrific fight against Aloy in her training pit]].

A DLC expansion called ''Burning Shores'' was released on April 19, 2023, exclusively for the [=PlayStation=] 5 version. The announcement trailer can be seen [[https://youtube.com/watch?v=ShJuY6Zl2Aw here.]] A complete edition including both the base game and the DLC was released for the [=PlayStation=] 5 on October 6, 2023 released on Platform/{{Steam}} and the Epic Games Store on March 21, 2024.

A DLC expansion called ''Burning Shores'' was released on April 19, 2023, exclusively for the [=PlayStation=] 5 version. The announcement trailer can be seen [[https://youtube.com/watch?v=ShJuY6Zl2Aw here.]] A complete edition including both the base game and the DLC was released for the [=PlayStation=] 5 on October 6, 2023 and is scheduled for release on Platform/{{Steam}} and the Epic Games Store on March 21, 2024.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Regalla's rebellion has been quelched, ensuring the treaty between the Tenakth and the Carja. [[KarmaHoudiniWarranty The Zeniths have been defeated once and for all]] and with their copy of APOLLO recovered, the Old Ones' knowledge is now freely accessible to those who know of it, GAIA having enough processing power to rein in the runaway terraforming system and push back the planet's collapse. However, HEPHAESTUS is still on the loose and was given a temporary power-boost from being in the Odyssey's systems, allowing the derangement to persist and more deadly hunter-killer machines to be built. A colonialist empire known as the Quen has access to the knowledge that Aloy gave Alva, including the existence of Aloy herself, GAIA, and the Zenith's technology. Not only that, but a newer, infinitely more deadly AI is on its way to Earth, Aloy and her team having very little time to prepare for it.]]

* BatmanGambit: [[spoiler:Sylens's whole plan relies on stirring up a Tenakth rebellion by giving them override technology by proxy in exchange for them assaulting the Zenith's Specter army and the two of them wiping each other out. He also planned for the Zeniths to capture Aloy and use her to rebuild GAIA since she has Elisabet Sobeck's DNA. His plan starts falling apart when he finds out the Zeniths ''already'' have a clone, [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim so they just try to kill Aloy instead since she's interfering with their own plans]]]].

* ArmCannon: Aloy comes across a [[ClarkesThirdLaw Zenith]] personal weapon called the Specter Gauntlet, which initially is capable of firing an explosive FlechetteStorm that can potentially [[HomingProjectile zero in]] on a target you designate with the stamina-based special ability. A later upgrade acquired expands its capabilities to include a [[MagneticWeapon rail gun]] with [[ArmorPiercingAttack armor-piercing qualities]] that does extra damage to designated targets instead of homing in and the ability to [[OneHitPolykill shoot through multiple targets when fully charged]].

* AnAesop:
** Even if you feel you can do everything to finish an essential task or mission, that doesn’t mean you can do that mission yourself. Your friends will always be there for you to get the job done.
** While it is ok to care about the whole world, you should also care about the individual people as well.
** Don't think a person is based on someone who came before them. They are their own person no matter what.

* BrokenPedestal: Downplayed with Alva. The Quen are a culture of {{Precursor Worship}}pers that acknowledge their ancestors as humans with advanced technology, yet they still revere them as though they were prophets and saints. When Aloy invites her to the Base, she learns from their data about the truth behind Ted Faro and Far Zenith and realizes how inaccurate their culture was on the matter. Downplayed later on when Aloy and Alva recover the Leviathan data, and Alva learns about [[HonestCorporateExecutive Eileen Sasaki]] and the efforts she took to undo the mistakes of her father. Eventually she comes to the conclusion that the Ancestors were neither flawless paragons nor evil demons; [[AnAesop they were complicated human beings doing the best they could, just like her]].

A DLC expansion called ''Burning Shores'' was released on April 19, 2023, exclusively for the [=PlayStation=] 5 version. The announcement trailer can be seen [[https://youtube.com/watch?v=ShJuY6Zl2Aw here.]] A complete edition including both the base game and the DLC was released for the [=PlayStation=] 5 on October 6, 2023 and is scheduled for release on Platform/{{Steam}} in early 2024.

Announced during the Platform/PlayStation5 reveal event on June 11, 2020, ''Horizon Forbidden West'' is the sequel to 2017's ''VideoGame/HorizonZeroDawn'', and the second game in the ''VideoGame/{{Horizon}}'' series. The game sees the return of its original protagonist, Aloy, as she strikes out into the [[TitleDrop Forbidden West]], the mysterious land far beyond the world she knows, from which none have returned before.

* PhysicalGod: The Utaru believe their Land-Gods to be unique and powerful fertility deities which till the land outside Plainsong so it can be suitable for farming as a gift to the agrarian Utaru for taking care of them. What they actually are is a group of docile Plowhorns which don't attack humans when provoked. However, the Derangement has caused them to abandon their posts and get lost all over Utaru territory, with Fa being [[spoiler:recalled by HEPHAESTUS to Cauldron TAU and being remade into a deadly Grimhorn]]. An extensive questline involves Aloy helping Zo find and reboot all the Land-Gods so that they can return to their duties and make the lands around Plainsong flourish once more.

** [[spoiler:GAIA]] estimates that the extinction signal came from [[spoiler:Sirius as it is 8.611 light-years away, matching the signal distance. While Sirius is indeed 8.611 light-years away from Earth at present, [[https://www.constellation-guide.com/sirius-the-dog-star/ it is moving closer]] to our solar system at a rate of 5.5 km/s. Given the Horizon series takes place 1000 years in the future, Sirius would have moved approximately .018 light-years closer to Earth in that time. Thus the signal would have traveled s slightly shorter distance of 8.593 light-years.]]

** [[spoiler:GAIA's]] logical deduction of the extinction signal's origin. [[spoiler:She notes the curiously long duration of the signal's transmission, and interprets that duration as an expression of the lightyears of distance that the signal would have needed to travel. GAIA states that the signal was received for 8.611 years, and makes the logical conclusion that it came from Far Zenith given their prior goal to establish a colony on a star at that precise distance. She even mentions that it would have taken another 8.611 years for Zenith to confirm that the signal had been received and enacted successfully, which accounts for the twenty-year gap between the initial transmission and the Zenith's arrival.]] However, [[WritersCannotDoMath this doesn't actually add up]]. [[spoiler:The game acts as though the moment the off-switch gets flipped, any residual transmission would be erased from the vacuum of space instantaneously. In the scenario that GAIA posits, Earth would have received the transmission for 17.222 years.]]
*** Additionally, [[spoiler:GAIA starts out by saying how the signal was 8.611 years old by the time it reached Earth. She states this as though it was a known fact, rather than an inference from the signal's duration. Unless the signal included some sort of timestamp in its contents, there would be no way to directly measure how old the signal was.]]
*** Finally, [[spoiler:while Sirius, the star Far Zenith journeyed to, is indeed 8.611 light-years away from Earth at present, [[https://www.constellation-guide.com/sirius-the-dog-star/ it is moving closer]] to our solar system at a rate of 5.5 km/s. Given the Horizon series takes place 1000 years in the future, Sirius would have moved approximately .018 light-years closer to Earth in that time. Thus the signal would have traveled s slightly shorter distance of 8.593 light-years.]]

Announced during the UsefulNotes/PlayStation5 reveal event on June 11, 2020, ''Horizon Forbidden West'' is the sequel to 2017's ''VideoGame/HorizonZeroDawn'', and the second game in the ''VideoGame/{{Horizon}}'' series. The game sees the return of its original protagonist, Aloy, as she strikes out into the [[TitleDrop Forbidden West]], the mysterious land far beyond the world she knows, from which none have returned before.

Initially set to come out in 2021, the game was delayed and instead came out on February 18, 2022 on both the UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 and [=PlayStation=] 5. The announcement trailer can be seen [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lq594XmpPBg here]], and a developer message - [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIyz_7Hz3U4 here]]. The State of Play Gameplay Reveal can be found [[https://youtu.be/wQATS4HOxdo here]]. The Story Trailer can be found [[https://youtu.be/UxDWGW7Z67I here]]

A DLC expansion called ''Burning Shores'' was released on April 19, 2023, exclusively for the [=PlayStation=] 5 version. The announcement trailer can be seen [[https://youtube.com/watch?v=ShJuY6Zl2Aw here.]] A complete edition including both the base game and the DLC was released for the [=PlayStation=] 5 on October 6, 2023 and is scheduled for release on UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} in early 2024.

** From a fast travel perspective, this is what happens when you get access to [[spoiler:The Base]] at the end of the game's first act. Normally you have to use either a Fast Travel Pack or get to a Campfire to Fast Travel. However, fast travel via [[spoiler:The Base]] is free from ''anywhere on the map'', and it drops you off right next to a Campfire. Thus you can fast travel anywhere for free by going to [[spoiler:The Base]] first and then using the Campfires there to zip to where you ''really'' wanted to go. This is even better on the UsefulNotes/PlayStation5 thanks to the system's extremely short load times.

* GottaCatchThemAll: [[spoiler:Early on Aloy finds that the last surviving backup of GAIA doesn't have clean copies of the subordinate [=AIs=], so she goes on a quest to track down the rogue copies in the hopes that she can rebuild GAIA from the pieces. It's also {{Subverted}}, as moments before she found said copy, she found and permanently deleted HADES from the container Sylens trapped him inside, meaning she ''can't'' assemble all the sub-functions anymore. That said, since the biosphere is functioning perfectly well for human life, with the ecological collapse being more due to the lack of oversight from GAIA's governing intelligence, HADES' purpose to [[NecessaryEvil reset the failed biosphere]] had become obsolete, and since he's been heavily altered by the Extinction signal that caused the whole mess, plugging HADES back into a 'clean' copy of GAIA was arguably too great a risk to take. By the end of the game, she has successfully captured, repaired and reintegrated all of the subordinate [=AIs=] apart from HEPHAESTUS (which she was forced to release after capturing in order to fight Zenith) and the now-extinct HADES back into GAIA.]]

** This also turns out to be the reason for his [[spoiler:apparent betrayal of Aloy in the HADES proving ground and actions behind arming and encouraging the Tenakth CivilWar. Sylens is aware of Far Zenith's existence, their arrival on Earth and, more importantly, the fact that the [[TheDreaded Nemesis AI]] they created is the cause of the current environmental collapse and HADES's attempts to reboot the biosphere, all in an attempt to destroy the Earth before its creators can take refuge on it. The AI is so powerful and single-minded in its pursuit of Far Zenith that attempting to fight it off with Earth's technological levels is a fool's errand. Sylens therefore aims to hijack Far Zenith's plans to rebuild the GAIA terraforming system and then flee Earth, first by luring Far Zenith to the proving grounds whilst Aloy's inside, counting on them [[CantKillYouStillNeedYou needing her to access the gene-locked facilities]] housing the scattered AIs, whilst also working on weaponry that can bypass Far Zenith's shields and aiding Regalla in performing a HostileTakeover of the Tenakth clans, creating an army of machine-riders he can equip with his experimental weaponry and send against Far Zenith once they've assembled GAIA again, which will result in [[{{NecessaryEvil}} mass casualties]]. In his ideal scenario, Sylens can successfully rescue Aloy from her captivity, steal the complete GAIA system and then flee Earth on Far Zenith's ship to a distant planet that can be used to re-create humanity. It's a fairly selfish plan, all things considered, but as Sylens sees it, there's no hope of successfully fighting off Nemesis even if the world unites, and if he stays then Earth and all its people will be wiped out, so he's acting in favor of trying to preserve human existence, even going out of his way to manipulate [[YouAreACreditToYourRace Aloy]] into a position where she'd have a chance to escape the oncoming destruction as well, despite her survival ultimately being optional for his end-goal.]] Aloy doesn't even ultimately hold it against him when she finds out the truth and just bids him farewell, accepting that Sylens' decisions were [[PragmaticVillainy brutally pragmatic]], but ultimately have [[WellIntentionedExtremist humanity's best interests]] at heart overall.

** When exploring one of the southwestern corners of the map, Aloy can come across a fox sitting under a tree on the side of the road. Said fox won't run away, and moves off in a certain direction if Aloy approaches on foot. Following the fox will leads to a crude shrine fashioned in the shape of a fox deity. If Aloy scans said fox, the focus designates it as '[[VideoGame/{{GhostOfTsushima}} Inari]]', and a similar musical sting plays when she finds the shrine as when Jin locates a Fox Shrine.

** Each Cauldron has a seemingly unopenable door with a [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZelda Triforce]] marking on it. Pressing the sequence for Zelda's Lullaby on the D-Pad will open the door, revealing a room with some loot in it. Several of them will have Aloy directly quoting the games when she enters them, including [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZelda it's dangerous to go alone"]] and [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask "you've met with a terrible fate"]]. These references nod to ''Zero Dawn'' releasing a week before ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild''.

* TooCleverByHalf: [[spoiler:Sylens lures Aloy into an Old Ones facility that houses a backup copy of GAIA, then sends out an anonymous signal that summons the mysterious masters who sent that signal that self-actualised GAIA's sub functions to the same location. Sylens later admits that he intended Aloy to become their captive, removing her interference from [[NecessaryEvil his plans]] whilst he prepared an army of fanatics to assault the Zenith base with weapons designed to bypass their technological superiority-- an undertaking that would have required mass casualties, and thus not one Aloy would have allowed to happen. He assumed that they would [[CantKillYouStillNeedYou spare Aloy]], her genetic code being the proverbial key to accessing the terraforming system, but he clearly never anticipated that the masters would have the ability to create their ''own clone'' of Elizabet. Upon discovering Aloy, their leader considers having one clone of the deceased scientist to be 'enough trouble' and orders [[TheBrute Erik]] to kill her on the spot]].

* ScatterbrainedSenior: "In The Fog" is a sidequest that deals with a lowland Tenakth named Fenirra asking you to find her father Garokkah out in the forest, who in all but name has dementia or Alzheimer's of some kind, and attacked his own daughter after forgetting who she was. He keeps forgetting where and when he is and sometimes thinks that he's [[ShellShockedVeteran once again a soldier fighting the Desert Clan during the Clan Wars decades prior]], causing him to get lost in the forest. Garokkah describes it like a fog taking over his memory, making it hard for him to tell what's real, and explains that Tenakth normally die in battle long before he does, so he didn't realize what was happening to him because there's no precedent for what to do with the elderly in his community. The quest ends on a bittersweet note, with him entering his daughter's care full-time while she fully realizes he's slipping away from her, and one day will do so entirely.

* HopelessBossFight: Aloy has handled machines the size of small hills, insane cultists out for her blood, and destroyed hundreds of mechanical and organic enemies in her way throughout her adventures thus far, but she finds herself ''hopelessly outmatched'' against [[spoiler:Erik Visser, TheBrute of Far Zenith: the mysterious masters that apparently sent the signal that caused GAIA's sub-functions to become self-aware and caused the derangement. Not only is he clad in a full-body [[ArmourOfInvincibility forcefield]] that she can't even scratch, his strength and speed is enhanced by technology that is so advanced [[SufficientlyAdvancedTechnology it borders on magic]]. Erik can leap around the arena in a single bound, use SpontaneousWeaponCreation as well as levitate and generate electric explosions. Aloy ultimately has to find a way to collapse the arena to [[RunOrDie flee]] rather than beat him, and she's only able to do so because Erik is clearly not taking their '[[CurbStompBattle fight]]' seriously in the slightest, [[PsychopathicManchild childishly taunting her]] to focus on hitting him rather than their surroundings]].