Horizon: Zero Dawn Trailer Looks at Aloy's Abilities
By Weston Albert 27 February 2017
A new trailer for Horizon: Zero Dawn has debuted, with this one taking a closer look at how players can take advantage of Aloy’s abilities. With Horizon: Zero Dawn being an action RPG, there is a large skill tree that players can invest in, focusing on different skills depending on their play style.
As seen in the trailer below, there are three sections that players can choose skills from: Prowler, Brave, and Forager. Skills in the Brave section appear to focus on beefing up the physical qualities of the protagonist Aloy, like a perk that allows her to move faster while wielding a heavy weapon, one that increases her level of Concentration, and another that allows her to slot two arrows in her bow on a single shot. The Prowler section leans more towards stealth kills and attacks, like Hunter Reflexes, which slows down time when Aloy aims her bow. Other Prowler abilities include Silent Strike, a silent takedown ability, and Strike From Above, which will allow Aloy to jump down on top of an enemy and attack it.
According to the developers at Guerilla Games, Horizon: Zero Dawn does not have predefined classes, so abilities can be chosen from across all three sections to build the version of Aloy each player desires. The way players will do that is by gaining experience, which will further unlock the skill tree as players progress through the game.
Aloy’s abilities highlight the action RPG nature of Horizon: Zero Dawn, which Guerilla Games says was a source of discussion during development regarding how many elements of RPG the game would have versus a straight action game experience. The studio’s managing direction Hermen Hulst defines it as “an RPG that plays like an action game” saying that the action is fluid but the character progression and experience system fits it firmly into the RPG genre.
Players will be able to test out Aloy’s abilities for themselves when the game launches tomorrow—or 9 p.m. for those on the West Coast. The game is receiving postitive reviews, with Game Rant giving it a 4.5 out of 5.
This has the potential to be a big new franchise for PlayStation, and one research firm has the game pinned to sell more than 8 million copies. The game is a PS4-exclusive, and speaking of exclusives, it contains some Easter eggs for another upcoming PlayStation-exclusive, Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding, which is using the same game engine that Guerilla developed for Horizon: Zero Dawn.
Horizon: Zero Dawn launches exclusively on PlayStation 4 February 28 in the US and March 1 in Europe.
