I put my spear down with a little bit of sadness in my eyes. Another chapter of a great story is finished and now we have to wait once again to unluck big mysteries and eventually maybe visit other places. What is so special about this game that you just do not want to leave the world of Horizon?

Is it the story? For many of us - pretty good - but for sure you can find a little bit of here and there that can slightly dissapoint or at least raise an eyebrow.

Is it the player experience? Could be? Gameplay and exploring is great. Who doesn't like freely climbing mountains with a little wind the hair?

Is it the biomes, the machines, the tribes, the symbiosis, and the relationship within the whole ecosystem? Certainly - at least for us, artists. The graphics is just gorgeous, breath-taking.

Just because we love post-apocalyptic themes.

The symbiosis

Nature has flourished, robots roam the ruined cities, and humans hide in caves and mountains. Did you ever think about how would the world look like if all creatures, plants, and machines not only existed side-by-side but were actually intertwined? That’s the main concept of living machines as represented in the world of Horizon Zero Dawn and Forbidden West.

When you start to play Horizon Zero Dawn you are slowly introduced to a different world than you are used to. Undeniably we have robots and machines, post-apocalyptic scripts, and bad AI taking over the world. But Horizon has a very unique concept, one that we didn’t see yet (correct me if I’m wrong, I didn’t play all games, see all movies or read all books). As you are following the story of the main character Aloy, you start to notice the connection between life  and synthetic life.

In Zero Dawn, which is the first game, machines have been adapted and evolved to fit the natural environment in which they live. They are designed to integrate into the biomes, requiring the same basic skills and behaviors for survival as other creatures naturally known to us from the real world. In a way, machines become an integral part of the food chain and the environment in which they exist. Acting as predators, scavengers, and important sources of “food” or food collectors for larger creatures.