Horizon Zero Dawn is an open-world action RPG set in a far-future Earth where robotic creatures have replaced megafauna and humanity has regressed to tribal civilisation. Developed by Guerrilla Games, it follows Aloy, an outcast hunter unravelling the mysteries of a world she barely understands.
Horizon Zero Dawn was developed by Guerrilla Games and released in 2017, marking a dramatic shift for the studio previously known for the Killzone series. Set roughly a thousand years from now, the game takes place across a lush, overgrown world where vast mechanical creatures — Watchers, Thunderjaws, Stormbirds — roam landscapes that were once human cities. Players control Aloy, a young Nora hunter raised as an outcast, whose search for her origins pulls her into a conspiracy that reaches back to the collapse of modern civilisation.
Horizon is a third-person open-world RPG built around combat, exploration, and a layered crafting system. Fighting machines requires studying their behaviours, exploiting elemental weaknesses, and using a versatile toolkit: bows, slings, tripcasters, and traps all play distinct roles. Machines can be overridden and ridden or turned against other enemies. Outside of combat the game offers dense environmental storytelling through audio logs, datapoints, and ruins that slowly reconstruct the world's history. The open world is large and generously packed with quests, cauldrons, and collectible lore.
The game's greatest strength is its science fiction premise and the slow unravelling of its lore. Aloy's personal story — searching for identity and belonging — runs in parallel with a much larger mystery about extinction, terraforming, and artificial intelligence. The two threads converge in a finale that rewards players who engaged with the scattered environmental storytelling. The writing drew widespread praise for integrating its sci-fi concepts with genuine emotional stakes.
Horizon Zero Dawn was a critical and commercial success on release, selling over ten million copies within its first year. It was praised for its original setting, its protagonist, and its satisfying combat loop. It holds a Metacritic score of 89 on PlayStation 4 and ranked #24 on Edge's 100 Greatest Games (2017). A sequel, Horizon Forbidden West, followed in 2022, and the game was later ported to PC.