When Horizon Zero Dawn hits PlayStation 4 in less than two weeks, it won’t include random lightning strikes that could hit anyone in the game – including Aloy – because Guerrilla Games deemed them unfair.
In an interview with Official PlayStation Magazine, Game Director Mathijs de Jonge explained why Horizon’s “very elaborate weather system” won’t include damaging lightning strikes:
We had some prototypes, for example, we had some lightning strikes that would randomly hit enemies or randomly hit the player. But it just felt unfair because you have no control over it, it just naturally happens and suddenly you have a lot of damage. So we took that out in the end.
Instead of hurting you, the weather system is designed to impair your vision and affect Aloy’s animations and speech. “We have – in a region that you haven’t played yet – we have dust storms as well, which really limit the visibility down,” de Jonge added.
de Jonge also discussed the removal of lightning strikes on Twitter, saying, “It didn’t make it more challenging, just unfair, we focussed our efforts on the friction with the roaming machines.”
Horizon’s custom HUD settings allow you to toggle things like the compass, XP bar, reticule, and more, but when asked if you could turn off the main mission marker in the final game, de Jonge said, “Currently no.”
Would you have preferred random lightning strikes?
[Source: Official PlayStation Magazine, GamesRadar, Mathijs de Jonge (Twitter 1, 2, 3)]
