Horizon Forbidden West Director Reveals Why They Chose the Setting They Did

Horizon Forbidden West is set six months after the events of the first game, Horizon Zero Dawn, and it's taking players to a new location. If you haven't seen or read much about the game, it's taking PS4 and PS5 players to the west coast. So far, we haven't seen much of its map, which is said to be a bit bigger than the map of the first game. What we have seen is the game's take on what a post-apocalyptic San Francisco looks like, and it looks great, though all players can talk about right now is the design of Aloy.

That said, during a recent interview, the game's narrative director Benjamin McCaw shed light on why the team at Guerrilla Games chose this specific setting, noting the west coast "felt like a natural extension" of what the team did in the first game.

"The presence of iconic American landmarks is part of Horizon's DNA. And the idea of seeing a post-apocalyptic San Francisco overgrown with beautiful nature and full of deadly machines just felt like a natural extension of what we did in the first game," said de McCaw while speaking to Hardware Zone. "That said, the mysterious frontier of the Forbidden West includes much, much more than just San Francisco. What you saw in the demo only scratches the surface. Aloy is going to explore many more locations during her epic journey across the open world."

For now, it remains to be seen just how much of the west coast the game explores, but it sounds like the team at Guerrilla Games has some surprises in store.

Horizon Forbidden West is currently slated to release sometime later this year via the PS4 and PS5, however, PlayStation has confirmed this isn't set in stone quite yet.

"Horizon Forbidden West continues six months after the events of Horizon Zero Dawn," reads an official pitch of the game. "Aloy, a machine hunter, has travelled west to investigate a mysterious and deadly blight. In these uncharted lands, she will meet strange new tribes and encounter ever more deadly machines. Together with old friends and new companions, she must brave this dangerous frontier to find the answers she needs to save life on Earth."