Guerrilla Games' action RPGHorizon Zero Dawnwas a captivating first entry to the science fiction series, and its follow-upHorizon Forbidden Westwas equally well-received. Taking place in a futuristic world that saw humanity going back to basics in a post-apocalyptic landscape that they shared with a variety of robotic creatures, theHorizonseries presented players with an exciting new setting. Alongside its entertaining and creative combat,Horizon Zero DawnandHorizon Forbidden Westalso introduced Aloy, the compelling protagonist whose enthralling personal quest drives the narrative of each game.
The young Nora Hunter is a fascinating character and joins a growing list of great female protagonists who front action games. Aloy’s popularity quickly grew after her debut inHorizon Zero Dawnand continued after the release ofHorizon Forbidden West,and she’s now become a central figure in Sony’s esteemed roster that encompasses its many franchises. Guerrilla Games has already confirmed thatAloy’s story inHorizonwill be a trilogy, which gives hope that the next game will address some aspects of Aloy’s character development, including her increased volatility inHorizon Forbidden West.
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Aloy’s Acclimatization To Violence In The Horizon Games
When players first meetAloy at the start ofHorizon Zero Dawn, she’s an outcast who’s desperate to prove herself to the Nora tribe who labeled her an outsider. Although she’s spent most of her life training to win the Proving and is undoubtedly a skilled fighter, Aloy still doesn’t have much experience in combat or killing. As events unfold, Aloy enters increasingly difficult, dangerous situations and inevitably resorts to violence to survive. However, her characterization in the first game shows her as relatively reluctant to use violence, but this starts to change in the next title.
Horizon Forbidden Westkicks things up a notchon many levels, adding more characters, tribes, machine types, and expansive new areas. Traveling across the Forbidden West, Aloy and her allies encounter many life-threatening circumstances and challenging environments, including new ecosystems to adapt to and even powerful interstellar colonists to contend with. The threats may have escalated, but so have Aloy’s responses, asHorizon Forbidden Westpresents the protagonist as much more aggressive and happy to casually throw out violent threats toward her enemies.
How Horizon 3 Should Approach Aloy’s Aggression
In many ways, it makes sense that Aloy’s hesitancy toward violence has diminished between the two games, given that she finds herself again and again in increasingly harsh conditions. Aloy almost single-handedly tackles many large-scale threats and dangers, and this doesn’t leave a lot of room for a multitude of non-violent responses. However, althoughHorizon Forbidden Westshows how Aloy is more prone to threatening behavior and hostility, there isn’t a lot of reflection on it.Horizon 3has the opportunity to center this throughAloy’s character developmentand meditate on how her relationship with violence has shifted over the course of the trilogy.
Similar titles that have centered on strong female characters that constantly find themselves in difficult survival situations – like Lara Croft in the recentSurvivorTrilogy orEllie inThe Last of Us– handle this change in different ways. Lara Croft goes from an inexperienced explorer in 2013’sTomb Raiderto a skilled killing machine with little regard for her actions in 2019’sShadow of the Tomb Raider, but this shift has negative consequences for the character and the world around her. Ellie’s journey inThe Last of UsandThe Last of Us 2is equally fraught and increasingly characterized by brutality, but the series does a masterful job of exploring this.Horizon 3needs a reckoning for how Aloy has changed to give her journey nuance, and it can’t afford to ignore her growth fromHorizon Zero DawntoHorizon Forbidden West.
Horizon Forbidden Westis available now on PS4 and PS5.
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