Guerrilla Games’ radical departure from its Killzone heritage will be infused with many of the gameplay elements associated with the likes of Assassin’s Creed and Skyrim, according to Managing Director Hermen Hulst, who touched upon Horizon: Zero Dawn‘s claim to the genre with GamesRadar.
With the term encompassing such a broad range of titles in the modern industry, Hulst attempted to focus on Zero Dawn’s RPG credentials, and where the bold new IP falls on this spectrum.
“I guess you’re wondering where we are on that spectrum of, on the one side more action-orientated games like Assassin’s Creed, and on the other hand you have your Elder Scrolls and these kinds of series. I think we’re in-between. We have elements in both directions, and that probably puts us somewhere in between.”
Despite a strong E3 showing, there’s been little-to-no information released for Horizon: Zero Dawn. That’s to be expected, considering that the open-world title is still at least a year out, but even still, fans are eager to learn more about Aloy and the lush world of the studio’s post-post-apocalypse.
One thing that is clear, though, is how the game subtly encourages players to experiment with new gameplay styles. Much like the second E3 demo illustrated, users can opt to slink around environments undetected or go in guns blazing, laying down an array of booby traps in order to complete one of the side missions. Doing so will of course attract attention, with the towering Thunder Jaw rampaging onto the scene before Aloy collecting her precious resources.
With word of a crafting system and numerous quests to explore, Guerrilla Games’ new IP is an RPG by definition, but how far the creative team plan to commit to that category remains to be seen.
At the time of writing, Horizon: Zero Dawn is expected to launch exclusively for PlayStation 4 at some point in 2016.
