Guerrilla Games’Horizonfranchise has turned Aloy into a major PlayStation icon. Her skills with a bow and arrow are just as recognizable as theLeviathan Axe and Blades of Chaos inGod of War, or any number of guns in theRatchet & Clankfranchise. However,Horizon Forbidden Westintroduced a number of improvements to melee combat with Aloy’s trusty spear over its predecessorZero Dawn. While archery is stillHorizon’s bread-and-butter, Azurekka the Enduring is a stand-out NPC fromForbidden Westwhose status could explain more gameplay tweaks in the third title.
There is no official word onHorizon 3, and fans will likely have to wait for that sequel given the five-year gap between 2017’sZero Dawnand 2022’sForbidden West. In the meantime,Sylens voice actor Lance Reddick has teased potential DLC forForbidden West, and Sony’s PlayStation VR 2 headset is going to launch withHorizon Call of the Mountain. The virtual reality spin-off will focus on bow-based combat but not through the eyes of Aloy, meaning she could be training to prepare for the impending threat of Nemesis.Spoilers forHorizon Forbidden Westahead.
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Horizon Forbidden West Uses The Enduring as a Final Test
The main story ofHorizon Forbidden Westsees Aloy leave to explore the titular Forbidden West; a post-post-apocalyptic take on how tribal remnants of humanity rebuilt areas around modern-day Nevada, Utah, and California. Her goal is to find Sylens, who she learns captured the original game’s antagonist - a sentient, rogue AI named HADES. However, the journey becomes more complicated as she discoversSylens wanted to use HADES' knowledgeto deal with an invading force of more advanced old-world humans collectively called the Far Zeniths.
Aloy visits cities and landmarks across the Forbidden West to unite warring members of the Tenakth tribe under Chief Hekarro, while also gathering more rogue AI functions to rebuild the planetary terraforming system GAIA. Side quests can be completed all over the game’s open world, such as gathering map data from giraffe-like robots named Tallnecks, plundering old-world treasures from ruins, and conquering Melee Pits in Tenakth cities. These pits exist to teach playersnew melee combos and techniques introduced byForbidden West, but in terms of narrative they are meant to test Aloy and see if she is worthy to meet an old Tenakth master.
After receiving this quest chain from a faux Melee Pit on the Carja side of the border, specifically inHorizon Forbidden West’s first major settlement Chainscrape, players must receive marks from the Melee Pits in Scalding Spear, The Bulwark, and Thornmarsh. With those accolades in hand she is directed to a standalone home just south of the Ninmah Research Lab where players meet Beta. The Enduring is revealed to be an older woman, one of the oldest Tenakth given their warmongering past, and Aloy can initiate one of the hardest man-versus-man battles in the game to win a damage upgrade for her spear.
Where Nemesis Leaves the Next Horizon Game
Through dialogue options available before and after her fight with The Enduring, Aloy learns she became a recluse after losing all of her loved ones. However, she continued training great warriors who could prove themselves in the Tenakth Melee Pits, including Chief Hekarro. She says the one student she turned away wasRegalla, a secondary antagonist inHorizon Forbidden Westwho initiates the rebellion against Hekarro’s unifying message.
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At the end of their duel Azurekka tells Aloy, “You may not be of my blood, but you are of my blade. Cut from the same steel.” She feels a clear connection with the Savior of Meridian come westward, and Aloy is welcomed back with open arms when she asks if they can train again in the future. This open-ended arrangement is key given Aloy will undoubtedly want to call upon all the help she can get whilepreparing to defeat Nemesis.
The final battle withFar Zenith member Tilda van der Meer, portrayed by Carrie-Anne Moss, sets the stage for this coming encounter. While Aloy’s party first believes the Far Zeniths are returning to Earth so that they can re-terraform the planet after letting their deep-space colony fall to ruin, it turns out they were escaping the destructive force of Nemesis. What began as an experiment to achieve digital immortality led to the creation of an AI amalgam using each Far Zenith member’s memories that became spiteful after the project was abandoned. Nemesis follows the Far Zeniths to Earth, andForbidden Westends with Aloy and her friends recruiting allies.
The Enduring Could Open New Melee Options After Forbidden West
A major part of the story inHorizon Forbidden Westis Aloy opening up to realize she can’t solve every problem on her own, and the friends she recruits talk with their respective tribes. While exploring the post-game Forbidden West, players can find Zo with the Utaru, Kotallo with the Tenakth, Alva with the Quen, and Erend with the burgeoning Oseram settlement Hidden Ember - built over the bones of Las Vegas. It remains to be seen whetherForbidden WestDLC lets Aloy return to the Nora Sacred Lands, but this would make sense as a way of recruitingZero Dawn’s tribes for the impending battle.
Even with a huge force made up of tribes across the new United States, themajor players inHorizon 3will want to be in top shape for combat against whatever futuristic machine monstrosities are built by Nemesis. Aloy constantly makes herself busy, and getting in some training with The Enduring between games could up her proficiency with a spear. In fact, the nextHorizoncould use this master-student dynamic to introduce training with a variety of melee weapon types.
While Aloy’s spear is important for mechanics like overriding machines, Guerrilla Games could get more out of combat by introducing weapons like swords that use new combos - some of which might be more effective at taking down specific machines. The series thrives on archery “puzzle” fights using unique tipped arrows, and thatMonster Hunterphilosophy could carry over to melee weaponsnow that Guerrilla has a stronger grasp on physical combat.
Horizon Forbidden Westis available now on PS4 and PS5.
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