The release ofHorizon Forbidden Westmarks the long expect homecoming of Aloy five long time afterHorizon Zero Dawnlaunched , and many may demand a refresher on how the story has mould up thus far . Zero Dawnshould be play beforeForbidden West , but that practically duplicate the meter allegiance for the already expansive game the sequel can be when accounting for   all of the side content . Some may have simply never become interested in the first leg of Aloy ’s journey , and others in all probability draw a blank many of the key story heartbeat . Regardless of whether or notZero Dawnhas been played before , here ’s a rundown of all the major info players will need travel intoForbidden West .

TheHorizonseries takes players to the 31st century , withZero Dawnbeginning in the year 3040 . Though not quite to scale , Zero Dawnis set in the part of the United States formerly know as Colorado and Utah , with   parts of Arizona . TheFrozen WildsDLC extends the game cosmos into Wyoming , expanding on one of thebest undecided world designs of recent years . When players accede the dire next ofHorizon , human civilisation has regressed to a tribal res publica . The lush wilderness is also teeming with mechanically skillful lifespan - massive , ancient machine mistily resemble animals .

refer : Horizon : Forbidden West Review - A Superb Sci - Fi Sequel Worth Waiting For

Arthur Morgan, V, and Link over a blurred Elden Ring Background

Aloy belong to the Nora tribe , a matriarchal , isolationistic high society sequestered in its territory know as the Sacred Land . The Nora are distrustful of   the Carja , a more innovative tribe to the Cicily Isabel Fairfield , but the master danger to Nora society is   the now wild machines which turn hostile roughly 20 years prior to the primary events ofZero Dawnin a phenomenon known as the Derangement . These machines are the principal enemies fought by the player inZero DawnandForbidden West , but there are hostile humans too , for   whichForbidden Westhas improvedZero Dawn ’s battle royal armed combat . The Nora are likely to be a rare stack inHorizon Forbidden West , which will take place in the eponymous neighborhood lie westward from Carja territory . Players will explore from the desert of Utah and Nevada to the Pacific seashore in California , with the ruination of San Fransisco being a major landmark .

Aloy & Project Zero Dawn

Much ofHorizon Zero Dawnis pass uncovering the whodunit of the Derangement and Aloy ’s own origins . As a newborn , Aloy was come up inside of the Sacred Mountain , which the Nora conceive house their divinity , the All - female parent . Some believed Aloy to be a approving from   the All - female parent , others viewed the infant as a whammy and Aloy was subsequently given to Rost , an outcast , to be raised . Early in her life , Aloy found a machine called a Focus , an advanced opus of technology from the yesteryear that display entropy about the surrounding surround in holographic projections . AlthoughHorizon Forbidden West ’s gameplay explores   novel features , the Focus is integral to how players ( and by filename extension , Aloy ) interact with the game world .

By theend ofHorizon Zero Dawn ’s tale , Aloy learns that she was bear in the Sacred Mountain , cloned from the transmissible fabric of   a twenty-first century scientist named Elisabet Sobeck as part of an initiative known as Project Zero Dawn . The undertaking was started in reaction to the Faro Plague , in which combat machines contrive by Ted Faro became ego - sufficient by consuming biomass in Holy Order to multiply . Faro had design an improbably complex encoding into his machines , which would take tenner to brute force . pull in that all life on Earth was doomed , Sobeck make an AI , designated GAIA , for the function of cracking the pestilence ’s encryption , shut out down the auto horde , and terraforming the drained Earth and reseed its constitutional   liveliness .

Sylens & GAIA’s Rogue Subordinate Function HADES

Plenty ofZero Dawncharacters will return inHorizon Forbidden West , but Sylens is perhaps the most pertinent to the overarching tale . present as a traveller in search of knowledge , Sylens is one of the few others inHZDto also have a Focus . Although he finally ally with   Aloy , Sylens is ab initio   something of an opposer , in military service to one of GAIA ’s subordinate functions attempting to reactivate the Faro Plague . This subordinate office was bang as HADES , and was originally implemented as a failsafe should the terraforming process need to be restarted . At some period , an unnamed signal turn all of GAIA ’s subordinate functions into full - fledged Army Intelligence themselves , and HADES attempted to eradicate all life once again per its programming .

bear on : Why Horizon Forbidden West Will Likely Release On PC ( & When )

GAIA ego - destroy in lodge to prevent HADES from accessing Zero Dawn ’s terraforming infrastructure .   With GAIA gone , another subordinate - function - turn - AI , HEPHAESTUS , was entirely in charge of creating the car used for the terraforming undertaking . HEPHAESTUS recognized that the fledgling human tribes were hunt theHorizonmachines that evolve based on player action , and re - programmed them for ego - preservation , thus beginning the Derangement . Without access to GAIA ’s social occasion , HADES resolved to reactivate the Faro Plague to accomplish its goals , since the millions of armed combat robots still dwell abeyant , buried under the Earth ’s new growth .

Maelle from Clair Obscur with final boss

HADES foretell Sylens noesis of advanced , lost subjects like calculus and purgative in substitution for his aid in surveying the new world . Sylens duped a secessionist group of Carja , known as the Shadow Carja , into worshipping HADES as the manifestation of their deity , the Buried Shadow . The Eclipse cult was founded by Sylens to aid HADES in its subjugation of the Carja capital of Meridian , near which lay the Spire , a tower antecedently used by GAIA to beam the Faro deactivation code . This plot would climax inHorizon Zero Dawn ’s climactic battle at Meridian , after which HADES had hoped to use the Spire to transmit reactivation code for the Faro Swarm .

Aloy & Sylens Leave For The Forbidden West

Although he setZero Dawn ’s   intact difference of opinion in motion , Sylens had been wander by HADES prior to the slaughter at Aloy ’s Proving , deem him no longer utile . Through   a Focus internet designed under HADES ' direction , Sylens check of Aloy , and used her to further his cognition of the Old Ones . After Aloy defeated HADES at Meridian - using the Master Override Sylens provide her - the remnants of the crippled AI are prove being appropriate by Sylens inHZD ’s last instant . Now in control of the seemingly harmless AI , Sylens lead for the Forbidden West to witness the origin of the signal which raise HADES and the other low-level function into AIs .

Aloy will bump Sylens in the sequel , butHorizon Forbidden West ’s late story trailershows that her journeying to the titulary region begins in a quest to find a resolution to the Red Blight , an bionomical disaster causing widespread famine . She will be joined by allies Erend , Varl , and Talanah , all returning characters fromHorizon Zero Dawn . The Forbidden West was nominate so by the Carja , who lost integral army and one of its Sun - king during an junket into the uncharted neighborhood . It is generally reckon as a dangerous topographic point , and Aloy and Sylens are determine to become embroiled in the politics and warfare of the local tribe as they uncover more secrets of the Old Ones inHorizon Forbidden West .

Next : How Long Horizon Forbidden West Takes To Beat

Although Horizon Forbidden West will have a self-contained story, Zero Dawn provides important background information for its sequel

Prior to Horizon Forbidden West, Aloy learns of her genetic donor, Elisabet Sobeck, and her work on Project Zero Dawn

Sylens returns as a primary antagonist in Horizon Forbidden West

Aloy is searching for a solution to the mysterious blight in Horizon Forbidden West

Gaming

Horizon Zero Dawn