The video game industry is brutally competitive. True, a rising tide lifts all boats, but not all boats are lifted equally. Just ask Guerilla Games.
The first-party Sony studio’s perennial Game of the Year contender, Horizon, has birthed two mainline entries so far: Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West. Most will agree that while not necessarily revolutionary, both games refined the many open-world gameplay elements it took from other franchises and set it against a backdrop widely considered one of the best-looking worlds in gaming.
Although neither game lacks recognition, they suffer from the same “curse.”
Back in February 28, 2017, Horizon Zero Dawn‘s launch was met with open arms by fans on the PlayStation 4 (and PlayStation 4 Pro) by adoring fans who’ve waited for years to meet gaming’s latest female protagonist and immerse themselves in a unique stylized world where man meets nature and machine. But, four days later, everybody forgot about it because The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild came out and basically reinvented the genre.
Three years later, Horizon Zero Dawn came to PC on August 7, 2020, and it immediately suffered from two things: the viral early access success of Fall Guys before to its official release just a few days earlier and the COVID-19 pandemic. It certainly didn’t help that it was PlayStation’s first major foray into porting its first-party exclusives to PC, which meant that it suffered from lack of optimization, among other issues, early on.
As if that wasn’t enough, its sequel, Horizon Forbidden West, was released just a week before Elden Ring – the most GOTY’d game ever.
There’s a clear pattern here and Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition isn’t safe.
The PC port of the critically-acclaimed sequel will launch alongside Dragon’s Dogma 2 and Rise of the Ronin, which are reviewing quite well. Only the former will be available on the PC but it wouldn’t surprise us if no one talked about Horizon Forbidden West once the curtains lift – an unusual if sad situation for such an excellent game. The term “always the bridesmaid and never the bride” somehow applies here, as the Horizon franchise has never had a chance to be the lone star for longer than a week.
At this point, you can’t help but feel for Guerilla Games, the developers who appear to have found their calling after becoming known early on as the makers of visually stunning first-person shooters with mid gameplay.
While the thought of a “curse” is nonsense, it’s fair to wonder why this keeps happening to Horizon.
With Horizon 3 likely coming out in the next few years, we suppose it’s coming out close to either the PC port of Grand Theft Auto 6, which will be delayed at least a year from the console version’s release next year, or The Elder Scrolls 6, a game that may or may not come out in 2028.
