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Guerrilla Games shows off Aloy’s combat fluidity and the upcoming AI enemy combat and hearing improvements in Horizon Forbidden West.
Fans of Horizon Forbben West have received regular updates on the game as its release date draws closer. Community Lead Bo De Vries is back with another blog post, this time with in-depth explanations from some of the developers on the combat and enemy interactions in Horizon forbidden to the west.
The beginning of the new blog post focuses on Aloy’s stealth fight. Guerrilla Games intends to bring more fluidity and versatility to all of Aloy’s combat decisions and associated animations. His new combat abilities are meant to add another layer to Aloy’s story and development according to Richard Oud, director of gameplay animation for Horizon forbidden to the west. New clips in the blog post show Aloy smoothly stringing together attacks, showing off his athleticism, fighting skills, and gadget skills, all in one take.
In the new clips, Aloy adapts his newfound versatility to combat on humans and machines. These combat enhancements are not one-sided, however, as enemy AI is designed to better respond to the threat that Aloy is. Human AI will be able to search for her as a group, instead of breaking up and being easily selected. The machines will read and react as well. The example given by senior AI programmer Arjen Beij states that machines capable of swimming will pursue Aloy if she dives into the water and attacks. A clip in the blog post shows this as Aloy must dodge a machine rushing after her. If there is a mixed team of humans and enemy machines, the humans will react accordingly if they stumble upon an allied machine downed by Aloy.
With all the visual layers added, the team at Guerrilla Games also improved the in-game audio to match. Specifically, with the Machine, enemies are all built with unique sound cues for different situations. Machines that are passive or not alerted by Aloy will sound very different from their combat sounds. The player will also be able to hear unique audio cues when fighting machines for melee attacks and ranged attacks and learn to adapt to the threat of multiple machines. More audio cues will be heard in the gaming world, and not just for the gamer. Human Enemy AI will be programmed to better hear the wayward arrows in the game world and will react accordingly.
However, Aloy’s new fighting sense won’t be native when fans first get their hands on the game. As Animation Director Richard Oud continues, the fluidity of Aloy’s combat will be tied to the skill tree in Horizon forbidden to the west. The extra layers of skills, along with armor mods, value boosts, and crafting tables, are sure to create more unique experiences for fans.
Horizon forbidden to the west will be released on February 18, 2022 for PS4 and PS5.
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