Horizon Hunters Gathering has been getting a lot of potentially unwarranted criticism online ever since its initial announcement. That has led to many perhaps overlooking some of its more interesting and potentially excellent qualities. Of course, we’ve seen this all before with Concord, a game that, despite its obvious flaws, had a lot of potential to offer the over-saturated live service genre something new and innovative. Perhaps this is why I feel it is important to highlight what Horizon Hunters Gathering is doing right, if, at the very least, to let people know what they may be missing out on if they overlook the title based purely on looks and initial impressions.
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Crucially, I want to highlight Horizon Hunters Gathering’s single-player mode, something that was brushed over just a tad in the game’s announcement trailer. It is offering the live-service space and its legions of dedicated fans a feature it doesn’t get all too often, ensuring that, at the very least, it’s attempting to do something a little fresh. Well, that’s not entirely true, as the move to add a story mode feels lifted straight out of the playbook of the extremely successful live service title that won everyone over back in 2024, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2. Don’t mistake that as a criticism, however, as the inclusion of a single-player mode could single-handedly save the game.
Horizon Hunters Gathering’s Single-Player Mode Enhances The Live Service Elements
Horizon Hunters Gathering has many issues, that’s undeniable, but one thing it has seemingly nailed is the inclusion of a single-player story mode. Unlike Concord, which promised a sprawling epic narrative without any ways of meaningfully engaging or interacting with it, Horizon Hunters Gathering, in the spirit of the original series, features missions players can enjoy with friends or alone with two NPCs by their side. This is important for two crucial reasons, both of which will ensure Hunters Gathering enjoys long-term success.
The inclusion of a story mode not only helps players feel more connected with the world they’re inhabiting, but it also gives them ways of engaging with the heroes they’ll be potentially playing as for years to come. It affords newer players a chance to get to grips with the frantic combat seen in the multiplayer-focused modes, while offering long-term fans more ways of immersing themselves in the Horizon universe. As Guerrilla Games continues to add more heroes across the game’s, hopefully, long lifetime, players will have ways to learn their mechanics and playstyle through the ongoing narrative, and new players will have an easy onboarding method to ensure they don’t get overwhelmed.
That story is also what will ultimately make players care enough to want to keep coming back. This is what made the smash-hit Space Marine 2 so successful, at least in my opinion, that its developer, Saber Interactive, announced that Space Marine 3 is already in development, as well as an additional season of content coming to the game. Its main story established a foundation from which Saber could build upon, introducing key characters players would be controlling in its ever-evolving co-op mode, as well as context for why they’re continuing to return.
If you didn’t care about Titus and his crew, or about the plight of the Recidious System’s many planets besieged by Chaos forces and Tyranid swarms, then you’d have to rely solely on the compelling gameplay to keep you engaged. While Space Marine 2’s combat is incredibly satisfying, the narrative context helps to keep it feeling fresh and meaningful, rather than something you’re wasting time on. Horizon Hunters Gathering’s adoption of this concept ensures that PlayStation’s narrative-focused fans will find something to enjoy, while those looking for an immersive live service to dedicate themselves to will have a plethora of reasons to return beyond more heroes and modes being added.
Horizon Hunters Gathering’s Story Mode Could Keep It Going After Servers Are Shut Down
One of the most frustrating aspects of live service games is their quick and permanent untimely deaths. We’ve lost some truly great games, from The Crew to the surprisingly underrated hero shooter, Battleborn, merely because the servers were pulled, and developers never implemented a way to continue playing once they go offline. So many experiences and works of art that are the result of dedicated, hardworking developers become lost media, forever destined to be a vague memory in the minds of those who had the great fortune of playing them.
The inclusion of a solo mode in Horizon Hunters Gathering promises to allow players to keep playing it long after it inevitably gets shut down. Should the negative first impressions doom it to a Concord-esque fate, then at least those who actually enjoy what it has to offer will be able to play it after PlayStation gets cold feet and pulls the plug. I find it genuinely upsetting that I have no way of playing Concord or seeing what its world had to offer because, during its development, no one considered the possibility of it being a commercial failure.
To be absolutely clear, neither PlayStation nor Guerrilla Games has confirmed an offline mode. The game’s website merely states you’ll need PlayStation Plus to access the online content, and that you can play solo with two NPCs. However, I would hope that, after the loss of Concord and the many cancelled PlayStation projects, Sony won’t want its latest title within the storied and popular Horizon series to merely fade into obscurity once the money starts drying up.
Regardless, Horizon Hunters Gathering’s dedication to its story could be its saving grace, both long-term with the inclusion of an offline mode, and short-term with the missions allowing players to get to know the characters and world they’re potentially going to dedicate so much of their time to. This blend of story and multiplayer content in a live service game feels like the next step in the genre; it ensures it draws every type of player, convinces people to stick around once they’re invested, and offers new players a clear onboarding process after years of updates. It saw the likes of Genshin Impact rise to meteoric success and maintain it for years, so there’s no reason it can’t work for PlayStation’s latest entry. Here’s hoping Horizon Hunters Gathering can survive long enough to see if it works.
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Official art by Bastien Lecouffe-Deharme -
A photo of the Retrovolt Arcade taken in 2017, showing several classic arcade cabinets and stools. -
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