At long last, fans have gotten a look at Horizon Forbidden West gameplay, thanks to the recent PlayStation State of Play focused on the new Guerrilla Games title. Although its gameplay is predictably similar to that of Zero Dawn, Horizon Forbidden West has some new features, including underwater exploration, additions to Aloy's arsenal of weapons, and a HUD feature that improves climbing mechanics over the previous game.
Many open-world games that allow the player to climb around the environment have an obnoxious habit of painting every ledge the exact same color. Zero Dawn was no exception; everywhere Aloy could climb was littered with bright yellow rocks, ledges, and climbing equipment. Horizon Forbidden West has done away with this, much to the benefit of the game's environmental design, and its solution to players not knowing where to climb comes via a more elegant, in-universe mechanic.
The State of Play gameplay reveal shows Aloy's Focus, her high-tech earpiece, is now capable of quickly scanning the environment to highlight climbable surfaces with a holographic projection. Although a minor change, not having the landscape littered with oddly colored handholds will greatly improve upon an already beautiful game.
Horizon Forbidden West's Traversal Changes
Guerrilla Games appears to have put a lot of work into giving traversal more variety in Horizon Forbidden West. The first game let players ride a few of the machines, but that was it, outside of traveling on foot and climbing. Aloy will now be able to explore underwater, equipping a breathing device to indefinitely remain below the surface of Forbidden West's gorgeous water textures. The underwater areas - at least the one shown off in the gameplay video - look incredibly detailed and will no doubt lead to plenty of submerged ruins to explore.
Although many Zero Dawn fans were hoping for flying mounts in Horizon Forbidden West, there has still not been any confirmation of that potential feature. Aloy is, however, capable of taking to the skies in a different way. Taking a note from Breath of the Wild's paraglider, which seems to have popularized the mechanic in open-world games, Aloy uses a futuristic device called a Shieldwing to safely float to the ground. Combining the Shieldwing with another new, grappling hook-like device, the Pullcaster, will vastly improve Aloy's maneuverability. Though not a radical departure from the gameplay of Zero Dawn, Horizon Forbidden West's traversal options look to be significant evolution on the formula.