GAME · 2022 · NETHERLANDS
Horizon Forbidden West
- Developer
- Guerrilla Games, Sony Interactive Entertainment
- Publisher
- Sony Interactive Entertainment
- Platforms
- Microsoft Windows
26 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Nov 2026
26 Interesting Facts About Horizon Forbidden West
Interesting Facts (2)
- #001
Vanity Fair Italy featured Aloy on the cover of its first digital issue dedicated to the game's release, making Aloy the first digital character to appear on the magazine's cover in its history.
- #002
Horizon Forbidden West went down in history as the first PlayStation game to be adapted into a LEGO set; the set, announced on February 15, 2022, includes a Tallneck, a Watcher machine and an Aloy minifigure.
Production Story (13)
- #003
According to Sony documents, development of Horizon Forbidden West lasted five years, peaked at more than 300 full-time employees and cost about US$212 million, ranking it among the most expensive games ever developed.
- #004
For Horizon Forbidden West, Guerrilla aimed to keep the core qualities of the original game and identified three development pillars: strong and memorable characters, exploration that emphasizes the majesty of nature and ancient ruins, and strategic combat.
- #005
Horizon Forbidden West added underwater and aerial exploration so that Aloy would always have a mystery to discover and more to explore, though Guerrilla noted that developing both was technically challenging.
- #006
Horizon Forbidden West's gameplay was built to promote player choice, with new tools for traversal and exploration, multiple solutions to environmental puzzles, support for switching between playstyles, and completely overhauled skill trees. Its Cauldron dungeons were given more varied designs to upset player expectations, with some tied to larger set pieces.
- #007
Horizon Forbidden West features a world slightly larger than that of Zero Dawn, but the studio prioritized density so the space would be filled with content.
- #008
After reviewing player feedback on Zero Dawn, the team behind Horizon Forbidden West made settlements more dynamic with improved animations and better NPC AI patterns and schedules.
- #009
Horizon Forbidden West introduced an improved crowd system with a more diverse range of audio, so each area within a settlement would sound different.
- #010
According to McCaw, writing Aloy's interactions with other characters proved difficult because her unusual upbringing and drive led her to push friends away, believing she had to complete the mission by herself.
- #011
The development team devoted more time to character-driven side quests so that Aloy's relationships with other characters could be deepened.
- #012
Contains a major spoiler — show
Varl was killed off in Horizon Forbidden West because the team considered him the most important figure in Aloy's journey and believed his death would create an emotional low point for the narrative.
- #013
Writing Aloy's relationship with Beta was the script's hardest part; because both are clones of Elisabet Sobeck, the team called their contrasting responses to immense pressure and responsibility the narrative's "heart and soul."
- #014
The Far Zeniths were envisioned by the development team during Horizon Zero Dawn and became the main enemies of Horizon Forbidden West, a direction the team felt the story needed to differ from the earlier game.
- #015
Aerial exploration in Horizon Forbidden West was nearly cut because the team believed the PlayStation 4 version could not support it.
Behind the Scenes (8)
- #016
For Horizon Forbidden West, Guerrilla Games divided its studio into three subteams: Core Design handled combat, player systems and the user interface; Quest Design handled main quests, side quests and tutorials; and World Design built the game world and its activities.
- #017
Quest designer Samantha Schoonen called underwater exploration in Horizon Forbidden West a natural extension for traversing long-lost unknown places, and the team deliberately avoided the oppressive tone common to such levels in other games, focusing instead on agile traversal and stealth.
- #018
For Horizon Forbidden West, the gameplay team translated Aloy's defining qualities — described as smart, fast, agile, precise and resourceful — into gameplay mechanics.
- #019
Horizon Forbidden West wove melee and ranged combat more closely together, with special abilities letting players switch quickly between the two, and gave human enemies greater variety, including armored foes, with more aggressive artificial intelligence.
- #020
Unlike Zero Dawn, where human and machine enemies formed two separate groups, Horizon Forbidden West has Aloy fight human enemies who commandeer machines, and it adds machines such as the Sunwing, inspired by flying reptiles and primitive birds, and the Tremortusk, inspired by mammoths and war elephants.
- #021
In Horizon Forbidden West, each machine type was programmed with behaviors matching its role in an ecosystem, additional textures were added so players could visually identify weak points, more audio cues signal machine actions, and machine hunting became a more integral part of crafting.
- #022
The team deliberately kept Ted Faro's face unseen in Horizon Forbidden West because the game was not meant to be horror, and showing only his silhouette was intended to let players imagine his appearance and make the encounter more frightening.
- #023
Guerrilla spent the first half of Horizon Forbidden West's development pushing the game's visuals for the PlayStation 5, then shifted to the PlayStation 4 version to avoid a significant disparity between them.
Characters & Cast (2)
- #024
According to the team, Horizon Forbidden West's Oseram are social and historically patriarchal, the Utaru are agrarian and more laid-back, and the Tenakth are militant and combat-focused; distinct animations and outfits were created for each tribe.
- #025
Tilda, a surviving Far Zenith member, was conceived as a Dutch technologist, authentication expert and art collector, and the team worked with the Rijksmuseum to pick 10 artworks and recreate them in her mansion in Horizon Forbidden West.
Deeper Meaning (1)
- #026
Writer Benjamin McCaw said that the immense pressure Aloy faced formed a major part of her character arc in Horizon Forbidden West.
Sources & editorial notes
Sources for the entries on this page
- Wikipedia Horizon Forbidden West — Wikipedia
Information from external sources is independently selected, consolidated and edited by Arka Evren. Sources are listed for verification and further reading. Encyclopedia text is used under its licence (CC BY-SA). How we work