Horizon Forbidden West's machines will be far more agile and dangerous

Fortunately, so will our red-haired Nora Brave.

Horizon Forbidden West’s menagerie of machines will be more dangerous than ever, according to a new developer blog post.

According to a new post on the PlayStation Blog, the machines will be made more capable and “mobile in almost every way you can imagine – jumping, swimming, clinging to surfaces.” The details come from Guerilla Games' principal machine designer Blake Politeski, who detailed how the robotic creatures of Forbidden West have been designed and upgraded.

Horizon Forbidden west machines more mobile blog post
 
© Guerilla Games

Anyone who took on all of Horizon Zero Dawn’s challenging Cauldrons will likely remember having to dodge between the hounding snaps and strikes of Thunderjaws, Ravagers, and a whole lot more in frenzied battles. Adding even more mobile foes into the mix sounds like a swift recipe for an Aloy dinner, but thankfully, our heroine has learned a few new tricks as well.

“We’re also focusing more on Aloy’s ability to survey and plan an encounter before engaging, as well as her ability to escape if things don’t go as planned,” Blake explains.

Along with tools like the Pullcaster and Smoke bombs shown in the game’s State of Play this year, Aloy will be able and encouraged to plan around different machine behaviours. Observing a target instead of rushing in may result in the player figuring out an optimal time to engage.

“Machines in the Forbidden West are more dangerous, but the player can understand their behavior and predict their movements through audio cues,” the post explains. “For example, a machine will have specific sounds for idling, alerting others, and initiating attacks.”

Those Pterosaur style Sunwings we've seen? They need to land and recharge, offering Aloy a chance to strike while they’re vulnerable. Other creatures will throw up dust while harvesting, providing cover for Aloy to sneak around or in for a critical strike. Preparation, it seems, is key. 

Thankfully, we’ll still have the chance to unlock override codes in Forbidden West, allowing us to turn hostile machines to our side. In some cases, like with the raptor-esque Clawstrider, Aloy will even be able to ride on them.

You can read the full developer blog post on the PlayStation Blog here. We’ve also rounded up a list of all the new tools and machines we know about so far for Horizon Forbidden West, so feel free to scan it and plan your strategies for each machine type ahead of the game’s release.

Horizon Forbidden West is due to be released on February 18, 2022 for PS5 and PS4.

Associate Editor

Henry Stenhouse serves an eternal punishment as the Associate Editor of AllGamers. He spent his younger life studying the laws of physics, even going so far as to complete a PhD in the subject before video games stole his soul. Confess your love of Super Smash Bros. via email at henry@moonrock.biz, or catch him on Twitter.

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