Horizon: Zero Dawn is fast becoming one of the most exciting future prospects on PS4. With a heroine inspired by Ygritte from Game Of Thrones and Ripley from the Alien films - as well as a development team bolstered by ex-Bethesda and CD Projekt RED staffers - it's basically the Enslaved sequel we wantedin all but name. And yet despite coming from the studio that gave us the delicately-monikered Killzone series, its new action-RPG will totally shun ballistic boom sticks all together.
In the latest issue of Edge, game director Mathijs De Jonge explains the decision was one vital to retaining Horizon's unique personality: "What we saw with these prototypes was that as soon as you give someone a machine gun, it’s just spray and pray," he says. "It just becomes a cover shooter. We wanted the player to feel primitive, so we decided that the tribes would have very limited knowledge of technology. They don’t understand what’s going on with these machines, or how they work."
To prove the point, Guerilla even showed Edge a four-year-old prototype featuring a Killzone 3 character model taking on an early version of the Thunderjaw (the T-rex-esque robo dinosaur Aloy faced off against in that memorable E3 demo). In this simulation the player had a machine gun instead of a bow and arrow, which immediately removed much the big dino mech's potent threat.
Want more info on Guerilla's latest project? The latest issue of Edge, with Horizon: Zero Dawn on the cover, is out now. Download it here or subscribeto future issues.
