When Guerrilla Games first announced the delay of Horizon Zero Dawn to 2017, they said it “affords us the extra time required to deliver fully on our ambitious vision.” Speaking with GameSpot, Director Mathijs de Jonge explained that the additional months will be all about polish:
It’s all polish. We have this open world. It’s very big. We have a lot of quests; we have a lot of different regions as well. We have a lot of different Machines. Just playtesting this, it’s very, very time-consuming. We have so many components. We just want to raise the quality on the different areas.
After revealing that Horizon Zero Dawn is currently in pre-alpha, giving them enough time to raise the quality, de Jonge said, “[The delay was] mainly because it’s such a big game. We are a team of 200 people now, but there’s just a lot of content we need to look at and evaluate and keep improving.”
de Jonge also answered some questions on Twitter, and we’ve placed some of the info below:
- There are geese, boars, rabbits, fish, and more in the game, and you can hunt them for food, crafting, and trading.
- Protagonist Aloy can swim, “but some waters are dangerous..”
- “Some machines you can hack and use as mounts, others you switch faction. All tied to a player progression system.”
- They aren’t talking about gameplay length yet, “but there is plenty to explore and do in Horizon, it is not a small game.”
- As seen in the gameplay footage, “there are several heavy weapons you can retrieve from machines dead or alive.”
- Asked whether animals can escape being tied down by the rope caster, he replied, “Machines will break loose from tie down when damaged. Also, size determines the # of ropes required for a tie down.”
- After someone noticed that Aloy wears different outfits, de Jonge said, “Merchants sell outfits that are Tribe/region based. Outfits can be enhanced using modifications found in machines.”
Horizon Zero Dawn will be released on February 28, 2017 in North America and March 1, 2017 in Europe for PlayStation 4. You can read our preview from E3 2016 over here.
[Source: GameSpot, Mathijs de Jonge (Twitter 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)]
