Guerrilla Games senior producer Mark Norris shared new details with their Paris Games Week demo for Horizon Zero Dawn, finally revealed to the public.
At this point in the game, one of the two tribes that have been revealed has given a specific quest to Aloy. She has to acquire a specific resource from canisters, that she can only get from the machines referred to as grazers.
The HUD include a compass, level and experience bars, and a health bar. The health bar is atypcially shaped like an arrow, fitting the overall aesthetic. Not visible in the demo, but apparently to be revealed later, are the hidden quest markers and quest objectives.
There is a stealth indicator under the compass, because stealth is a huge part of the game. While under tall grass, you can use the indicator to ensure Aloy is safely out of view, as long as you want her to.
Damage values appear when you strike an opponent down, arcade style. Guerrilla refers to them as floating combat text, and they appear alongside the loot menu after every kill. You will want to explore every nook and cranny, as Guerrilla has scattered loot across every inch of the game.
Part of the game involves grinding for resources. When collecting resources from grazers, Aloy’s weapon of choice are explosive tripwires, which she can use on multiple machines at the same time. The machines exhibit herd-like behavior, including fight back, so rather than brute forcing your way through every situation, you can take them down like a hunter.
The end of the demo shows Aloy’s encounter with the Thunderjaw, massive, T-rex like machine armed to the grills with lethal, non-T-rex like weaponry. Thunderjaw’s different body parts have different hurt values. There are identifiable weak points, but to get to them, you need to remove its armor plates. Strike at Thunderjaw’s weak points and you can cause twice the damage, or even setup the final killshot. One very useful strategy is remove Thunderjaw’s disc launcher, to use against it.
Horizon Zero Dawn will be released on the PlayStation 4. Watch the full trailer above.