Horizon Zero Dawn

Horizon Zero Dawn is an action role-playing game played from a third-person view. The player controls Aloy, a huntress who ventures through a post-apocalyptic land ruled by machine creatures. These machines and human enemies, like bandits and cultists, are the game's main types of enemies. Aloy can dodge, sprint, slide, or roll to evade her enemies.

Armed with a spear for melee combat, Aloy can also shoot enemies with bows and arrows, set traps such as tripwires, harpoon them to the ground to restrict their movement, or slingshot explosives at them. Different ammunition types offer specialised utility. For example, some arrows help the player dismantle a machine's offensive capabilities by tearing off specific components and disabling weapons, while others can burn or stun enemies. Weapons can also be modified to enhance their qualities such as increasing their damage output or improving their handling.

The story is set in a post-apocalyptic Western United States in the 31st century. Humans live in scattered, primitive tribes with varying levels of technological development. Their technologically-advanced predecessors are remembered as the "Old Ones". Large robotic machines dominate the Earth.

For the most part, they coexist peacefully with humans, who occasionally hunt them for parts. However, a phenomenon known as the "Derangement" caused machines to become more aggressive toward humans, and caused larger and deadlier machines to appear. The surviving humans are divided into distinct cultures, ranging from the mountain-dwelling, matriarchal Nora hunter-gatherers to the Carja, an empire of desert-dwelling city builders.

Guerrilla Games began developing Horizon following the release of Killzone 3 in 2011. In late 2010, Guerrilla solicited ideas from everyone in the studio as to what their next game would be. There were few guidelines other than no puzzle or racing games. Around 40 pitches were made, and among these was Horizon Zero Dawn, pitched by art director Jan-Bart van Beek, which game director Mathijs de Jonge considered "the most risky" of the concepts.

Guerrilla co-founder and managing director Hermen Hulst said a big part of the decision was to move away from the dystopian, gritty tone of the Killzone franchise to a game that was more beautiful and vibrant. Horizon was also chosen because their parent company Sony did not have a western role-playing video game (RPG) in its portfolio at the time. The concept was defined by three pillars: a lush, documentary-style nature setting, robotic dinosaurs, and a red-headed lead character. Development was put on hold briefly when the game Enslaved: Odyssey to the West (2010) released, as it featured a similar post-apocalyptic setting and red-headed protagonist.

Horizon Zero Dawn received "generally favourable" reception according to the review aggregator website Metacritic, while 94% of critics recommended the game according to OpenCritic. Critics generally agreed that it was visually impressive with a familiar gameplay design.

The combat received generally positive reviews. Dan Silver from The Guardian described combat as "endurably exhilarating", and liked how each machine required different tactical approaches. Peter Brown from GameSpot found the machine design to be creative and liked how the game gradually introduced more complex variants as the player became more proficient in combat. Their distinct attack patterns were also praised for contributing to combat variety.

Guerrilla announced a sequel titled Horizon Forbidden West in June 2020 at the PlayStation 5 reveal event. The game was released on 18 February 2022 for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, and was ported to Windows on 21 March 2024 The story takes place six months after the conclusion of Zero Dawn. In the game, Aloy ventures into the Forbidden West and uncovers the origin of the extinction signal that triggers the activation of HADES. Ashly Burch reprises her role as Aloy, while Carrie-Anne Moss and Angela Bassett are among the new cast members.

Guerilla enlisted UK-based Studio Gobo as a co-development partner in January 2023 to expand the Horizon universe. Lego Horizon Adventures was announced on 7 June 2024 and released on 14 November for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Windows. Key cast members from Zero Dawn return to reprise their roles, but the role of Sylens was recast following the death of Lance Reddick in March 2023, with Tim Russ playing the character in the game. Lego Horizon Adventures reshapes the story of Zero Dawn in an upbeat and family-friendly way, with the team significantly downplaying the apocalyptic story.