Horizon Forbidden West has been available for more than a week now, and PlayStation fans are starting to get a good feel what the game has to offer. However, fans have realized that some content showcased for the game did not make it into the final product. Notably, a mission showcased during PlayStation’s State of Play from May 2021 is not in the actual game. In the mission, developer Guerrilla Games shows Aloy having to save Erend in a battle that involves a Tremortusk. While the area is in the game itself, that exact mission does not appear.
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The absence was discovered and shared by Reddit user jmcc84, who noted their disappointment over the omission. While there has been no word from Guerrilla Games about the change, many Reddit posters noted that the mission was likely never meant to appear in Horizon Forbidden West in the first place; instead, this was likely meant to be a “vertical slice,” which is a portion of a game meant to look like the final product, while not representing what’s in the actual game. One poster also pointed out that the studio did the same thing for Horizon Zero Dawn.
It can be disappointing when a video game developer showcases footage that doesn’t actually appear in the finished game, but there are a lot of gamers that prefer this practice! By releasing vertical slice footage, studios like Guerrilla Games give fans a good idea of what to expect from the gameplay without spoiling parts of the narrative. A lot of fans that watched last year’s State of Play would have likely felt some deja vu while playing through the sequence, but instead they received entirely different content. At the end of the day, this is one decision that probably worked out for the best!
Horizon Forbidden West is available now on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. Readers can check out all of our previous coverage of the game right here.
Are you disappointed that the Erend mission didn’t appear in Horizon Forbidden West? What do you think of the game so far? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk all things gaming!
