When it was released in 2017, Horizon Zero Dawn made an immediate splash as a PlayStation 4 bestseller. It also brought Guerilla Games, best known for their Killzone series, attention as a serious developer when it comes to crafting compelling narrative-driven role-playing games.
With the game's sequel, Horizon Forbidden West, releasing on February 18, 2022, Redditors have many expectations for what will or should be in the sequel when it launches for both the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.
One of the most visually-stunning machines in Zero Dawn was the Thunderjaw, also called the T-Rex because its design was based on the dinosaur. Although they loved the new machines that Forbidden West would be introducing, Redditor sarah_Parker492 had high hopes for their return, saying "I still want the T-Rex to come back ... Pls Guerilla."
Thankfully for this Redditor, the return of the Thunderjaw has been officially confirmed, so at least one Redditor's hopes have come true for the game.
Because the Horizon series is "supposed to be a trilogy," Redditor Trick_Enthusiasm has compared the series to Star Wars when trying to predict how the story will unfold in the sequel. Since Forbidden West is the second, The Empire Strikes Back is its analogue in this analysis.
Just as Luke suffered a defeat to Vader, and thereby lost both his hand and his belief that his father was a noble Jedi, so too does Trick expect that "the main characters [will] take a massive loss," perhaps losing a certain power or a reveal that something she believed in was a lie? Considering Aloy has the best narrative of the Zero Dawn characters, it would be a very compelling move for the studio to make.
The physics of underwater gameplay necessarily vary greatly from normal, because in real life the physics of underwater movement varies from that on land. Redditor PinkDragonRS says that "Under water combat is [their] expectation" for a feature in Forbidden West.
Considering Forbidden West is releasing on the PlayStation 4, that places some hardware limitations on what can be done when compared to games only on the ninth-gen PS5, but ambition is a powerful thing. If Guerilla wants to make another splash (no pun intended), this would be a great way to do it, and would even allow them to add hidden secrets like in Horizon Zero Dawn.
Redditor Neireau likewise expected some underwater component to the gameplay, saying "Barring underwater exploration I don’t expect much." But they hope that Forbidden West will include "[optional] customization of weapons."
It's clear that Horizon Zero Dawn has great weapons across three categories of ranged, melee, and stealth weapons allow players to choose their own style, but the ability to modify weapons to favor a certain class would help further individualize play experience. The ability to cosmetically modify weapons would also add a sense of both individuality and ownership the player has during the game.
Considering it merits its own class of weapons in the games, it's no wonder that melee is a common focus of player commentary and expectations with the sequel. In the case of Reddit user Swarley_Games, improvement to the melee-combat system would look "something like Bloodborne that's more complex" while also having "predictable timing," and where achieving critical hits turn the player temporarily invulnerable.
It's hard not to agree that the melee system from Zero Dawn warrants an upgrade, and while Bloodborne may be a game that seems to come up too frequently when comparing game mechanics, in this case, it's definitely appropriate.
In Zero Dawn, it's revealed that a plague manufactured by Faro Automated Solutions wiped out nearly all life on Earth, and that Faro was also responsible for constructing Deathbringers, Corruptors, and Metal Devils. Redditor twofishinaovercoat did some sleuthing and noticed that in a gameplay preview, the Corruption class was missing. "I think if corruption is missing," they said, "that means no [Faro] machines this time."
Not only was this a fair bet from what was seen, but the elimination of the Faro classes from the first game means introductions of new enemies, which fits with Aloy traveling to a new location in the form of the Forbidden West. It's exciting to anticipate what those could be.
For a story-driven game, cutscenes are an invaluable asset to communicating the narrative to players. Great animations grant a video game the cinematic feel and immerse players. Even if only subpar in one aspect, a bad cutscene takes players out of the game.
Even if this might be an unpopular opinion about Horizon Zero Dawn, this was the case for Reddit user slurpyindo, who characterized the cutscenes as "most of the time [the characters] just look around and move their mouths and do nothing else." That's definitely not what a player wants to get from a game that's spent years in development and had hype building up that entire time for it.
When responding to a post asking what fans expected from Forbidden West, Redditor ADovahkiinBosmer put "better climbing" at number one on their list. This user said they "want something similar to what Assassin's Creed has." Their hope is for "open-field freerunning" with options for climbing much more ubiquitous in the world.
Although Bosmer expected to be downvoted for the Assassin's Creed comparison, that is a franchise defined by the climbing mechanic, and although the layout of the levels is different, climbing is already used by Horizon to encourage exploration. No harm in adding more to it.
It's incredibly frustrating when a player does a stealth takedown on one enemy, but in doing so alerts all of the others in the area, which functionally ruins the whole point of a stealth option. Reddit user HoovesCarveCraters has pointed out this very issue with Zero Dawn and hopes that "Chain takedowns (like Far Cry or Ghost of Tsushima)" are introduced.
It definitely "would make stealth more fun," as the Redditor says, but on top of that, the introduction of a new mechanic often leads to new ways of designing a level. Even if it doesn't appear in Forbidden West, it could be added to Horizon 3.
Zero Dawn reveals that the Odyssey was a planned ship for carrying humans off of the dying Earth, but was called off. However, what if this was all a coverup, and the Odyssey project had succeeded and brought some humans off-world?
That's what Redditor Varlinwor conjectured after seeing Forbidden West's story trailer: "I've said it once, and I will say it again: The Odyssey wasn't destroyed, they faked their demise." The idea of a technologically-advanced humanity returning to Earth presents two exciting possibilities: conflict, or subjugation. If this proves true, it would add a new dimension to the franchise's overarching narrative.
