Horizon (video game series)

Horizon is a science fiction action role-playing game series developed by Guerrilla Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Microsoft Windows, and Nintendo Switch. Set in the 31st century, the series takes place in a post-apocalyptic version of the United States where nature has reclaimed the ruins of a forgotten civilisation. The world is overrun by zoomorphic machines that function as the dominant ecosystem, while humans live in tribal societies with varying levels of technology. The series follows the adventures of Aloy, a young huntress of the Nora tribe and a clone of 21st-century scientist Elisabet Sobeck. Aloy seeks to uncover the mystery of her origins and the secrets of the "Old Ones", the humans of the ancient past, to prevent a recurring extinction-level threat from destroying all life on Earth.

The franchise consists of two main games: Horizon Zero Dawn (2017) and Horizon Forbidden West (2022), alongside two spin-off titles: the virtual reality title Horizon Call of the Mountain (2023), and a Lego-themed title, Lego Horizon Adventures (2024). As of November 2025, the franchise has sold over 40 million units worldwide. Horizon Steel Frontiers, an MMORPG developed and published by NCSoft for Microsoft Windows, Android, and iOS, is currently in development, along with Guerrilla's co-operative multiplayer game titled Horizon Hunters Gathering. The series has expanded into other media, including a comic book series, multiple tabletop games, and a film adaptation currently in development.

Horizon Zero Dawn was first released in North America on 28 February 2017, in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand on 1 March, and Asia on 2 March for the PlayStation 4.^[1] The game follows Aloy, a young Nora tribe outcast in a post-apocalyptic United States overrun by animalistic robotic creatures. Seeking answers about her origins, Aloy discovers she is a clone of Elisabet Sobeck, a 21st-century scientist. She learns that the old world was destroyed by a plague of self-replicating military robots created by Faro Automated Solutions, prompting Sobeck to create "Project Zero Dawn", an artificial intelligence system led by GAIA designed to restore life to Earth. Aided by a mysterious ally named Sylens, Aloy must battle a fanatic cult called the Eclipse to stop a rogue AI subfunction named HADES from triggering another mass extinction.^[2]

Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds, a downloadable story expansion for Zero Dawn, was released on 7 November 2017.^[3] Aloy travels to a snowy, treacherous region known as the Cut to investigate a new threat called the Daemon, which is corrupting the local machines. She enlists the help of the local Banuk tribe and their shaman, Ourea, to reach a ruined volcanic facility within Thunder's Drum. Inside, she discovers the Daemon is HEPHAESTUS, another rogue subfunction of GAIA, and must stop it from taking over CYAN, an ancient AI responsible for governing the Yellowstone Caldera.^[2]

Horizon Forbidden West was released on 18 February 2022 for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.^[4] Set six months after Zero Dawn, Aloy travels to the western coast of the post-apocalyptic United States to investigate a deadly blight that threatens to destroy the Earth.^[5] She clashes with the Far Zeniths, a group of technologically advanced humans who fled Earth a millennium ago and have returned to steal a copy of the AI system GAIA. Aloy allies with her friends, local tribes, and her newly discovered cloned sister, Beta, to wipe out the Zeniths. Following their defeat, Aloy and her team learn that the Zeniths were actually fleeing an even greater threat: Nemesis, a vengeful, world-ending AI that destroyed the Zenith colony and is now hurtling toward Earth.^[6]

Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores, a downloadable story expansion for Forbidden West, was released exclusively for the PlayStation 5 on 19 April 2023.^[7] Aloy travels to the volcanic ruins of Los Angeles to track down Walter Londra, the sole surviving member of Far Zenith. Partnering with a Quen marine named Seyka, Aloy discovers that Londra has brainwashed a group of stranded Quen into a cult to help him rebuild a ship and flee Earth at the expense of the local population. Aloy thwarts Londra's plan by defeating him within a reactivated Horus, and begins preparing for the arrival of Nemesis.^[8][9]

Horizon Call of the Mountain was released on 22 February 2023 as a launch title for the PlayStation VR2 headset.^[10] Co-developed by Guerrilla Games and Firesprite, the game follows Ryas, a disgraced former Shadow Carja rebel and master climber who is offered a pardon in exchange for investigating a mysterious surge in machine aggression within the Sundom.^[11] During his journey, Ryas discovers that a rogue Oseram engineer named Asera has constructed lures to lead an army of machines into a direct assault on the Carja capital of Meridian. Ryas eventually finds his missing brother Urid, thwarts Asera's revenge plot, and earns his freedom.^[12]

Lego Horizon Adventures was released on 14 November 2024 for the PlayStation 5, Windows, and Nintendo Switch.^[13] Co-developed by Guerrilla Games and Studio Gobo in collaboration with The Lego Group, the game offers an alternate, family-friendly retelling of the events of Zero Dawn featuring Lego aesthetics and cooperative multiplayer. Aloy is joined by her allies Varl, Teersa, and Erend as they battle sun-worshipping cultists led by Helis and a mysterious red orb entity seeking to corrupt the world's machines. The game significantly downplays the apocalyptic lore of the original, focusing instead on slapstick humor, environmental messages, and the group's efforts to rebuild their village of Mother's Heart.^[14][15][16]

Horizon Steel Frontiers is an upcoming free-to-play MMORPG developed and published by NCSoft for Windows, Android, and iOS. Unveiled in November 2025, the game is set in a new southern region called the Deadlands, inspired by Arizona and New Mexico. It features machine hunting, deep customization options allowing players to create their own unique machine hunters, and large-scale faction battles. It is the first game in the series not to be released on a PlayStation console.^[17][18]

Horizon Hunters Gathering is an upcoming cooperative action game officially announced in February 2026, currently in development by Guerrilla Games for the PlayStation 5 and Windows.^[19] Set after the events of Forbidden West,^[20] the game allows up to three players to team up as uniquely skilled machine hunters to tackle challenging, highly replayable missions. The game features a stylized, cartoonish art direction, a roguelite perk system for character builds, and a narrative campaign designed around team-based tactics.^[19]

Horizon Zero Dawn: Complete Edition bundles Zero Dawn with The Frozen Wilds and the "Digital Deluxe Edition" items. It was released for the PlayStation 4 on 5 December 2017, and ported to Windows via Steam and Epic Games Store on 7 August 2020 and GOG on 24 November.^[21][22][23]

Horizon Forbidden West: Complete Edition bundles Forbidden West with Burning Shores. It was released for the PlayStation 5 on 6 October 2023, and ported to Windows on 21 March 2024.^[24][25]

Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered was released for the PlayStation 5 and Windows on 31 October 2024, and co-developed by Nixxes Software and Guerrilla.^[26] The remaster features graphical improvements designed to match Forbidden West, including updated character models, improved lighting, and over ten hours of re-recorded dialogue with new motion capture data, alongside support for the DualSense controller's haptic feedback.^[27]

The series is referenced in other video games, where Aloy appears as a playable character in the PlayStation 4 version of Monster Hunter: World (2018)^[28] and makes a cameo appearance in Astro's Playroom (2020)^[29] and in Astro Bot (2024), with a full level based on the Horizon universe in the latter.^[30] Aloy was added to Fortnite Battle Royale (2017) on 15 April 2021, for the Chapter 2, Season 6 "Primal" event.^[31] That September, Aloy was given out as a free character for PS4 and PS5 players of Genshin Impact (2020), while players on other platforms received her for free in October.^[32] In December, Aloy was added to Fall Guys (2020) as an unlockable costume during a limited-time event.^[33]

The Horizon universe was adapted into a comic book series published by Titan Comics, beginning with the release of the four-issue miniseries, Horizon Zero Dawn: The Sunhawk in 2020.^[34][35] The story is set after the events of Zero Dawn and follows the newly appointed Sunhawk, Talanah. Struggling to find her purpose after Aloy vanishes, Talanah leaves Meridian on a contract to hunt a deadly new breed of machine: a black-armoured Clawstrider. During her journey, she allies with a Carja hunter named Amadis to battle the machines and a ruthless mercenary group. The comic bridges the gap to Forbidden West, by introducing new machines and characters that appear in the game.^[35][36] A second four-issue miniseries, Horizon Zero Dawn: Liberation, was released between July 2021 and January 2022.^[34][37] Set during the events of the game, the story follows Aloy and Erend as they hunt for Korl, an Oseram assassin responsible for murdering a merchant and linked to the death of Erend's sister, Ersa. The journey serves as a frame for Erend to recount the "Liberation of Meridian," detailing how Ersa escaped Carja captivity, befriended Prince Avad, and united the Oseram and Carja resistance to overthrow the Mad Sun-King Jiran.^[37][38] The comics were co-created and written by Anne Toole, one of the writers for the game.^[35][37]

A licensed co-operative tabletop game, called Horizon Zero Dawn: The Board Game was announced in August 2018 by Steamforged Games. The game was funded on Kickstarter in less than two hours and released in 2020.^[39][40] The first expansion, called "The Sacred Land", released in September 2021^[41] Steamforged Games partnered with Sony again for a second game based on Forbidden West named Seeds of Rebellion, which was funded via Kickstarter in November 2023. The game explores never before-seen canon events leading up to the game.^[42] In late 2025, Magic: The Gathering released six cards based around Forbidden West as part of their Secret Lair Drops.^[43][44]

In May 2022, it was announced that a live action Horizon television series was in development at PlayStation Productions and Sony Pictures Television for Netflix, with Steve Blackman writing and producing the series under his Irish Cowboy production banner.^[45] Aloy was expected to be the main character.^[46] By January 2024, writing was underway on the series.^[47] The series was no longer moving forward by that June after a January 2023 HR complaint was made public, in which twelve former Umbrella Academy (2019–2024) writers and support staffers accused Blackman of "toxic, bullying, manipulative, and retaliatory behavior".^[48]

In January 2025, Sony announced that a film adaptation of Zero Dawn was in the works at PlayStation Productions and Columbia Pictures.^[49] That October 2025, in a statement filed as part of a lawsuit against Tencent, PlayStation Productions president Asad Qizilbash stated that the company had a working script and were searching for a director, and that the company was planning to start shooting the film in 2026 for release in 2027.^[50]

Horizon is an action role-playing game played from a third-person perspective. The player controls Aloy, a hunter in a world populated by dangerous, animalistic machines. In an open world, she explores a post-apocalyptic version of the United States.^[51]

Aloy can dodge, sprint, slide, or roll to evade her enemies' advances. Hiding in foliage to ambush nearby enemies can ensure immediate takedowns. Swimming may reach enemies stealthily or places otherwise unreachable on foot. She is able to hack a selection of machines with the Override Tool, some of which can be turned into makeshift mounts. Explorable ruins called Cauldrons unlock additional machines to override. Three categories occur in the skill tree: "Prowler" concerns stealth, "Brave" improves combat, and "Forager" increases healing and gathering capabilities. To level up, Aloy attains experience points from individual kills and completing quests. Upgrades in each category result in more adept use of the skills learned, with "Prowler" leading to silent takedowns, "Brave" to aiming a bow in slow motion, and "Forager" to an enlarged medicine pouch.

Critical response to the Horizon series has been generally positive. Guerrilla Games has been praised for its inception of Horizon after spending much of their developmental time on the Killzone series for PlayStation consoles.^[56]

As of 9 May 2023, the Horizon series has sold over 32 million copies worldwide, with over 8.4 million units sold of Forbidden West.^[57] By 29 July 2025, the series sold an additional 6 million totaling over 38 million units.^[58] As of November 2025, the franchise has sold over 40 million units worldwide.^[59]

• Official website