One of the best games of 2017 sans Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has got to be Sony’s latest IP Horizon Zero Dawn. During the PlayStation E3 2017 media briefing, Sony revealed a trailer for Horizon Zero Dawn’s first major bit of downloadable content. Titled “The Frozen Wilds,” the DLC appears to take place in a new region full of snow and, of course, deadly robot dinosaurs. Watch out for spoilers for those of you that haven’t completed the game.
The DLC appears to put players back into the shoes of main game protagonist Aloy, though it’s unclear if it takes place during or after the events of the main game. It will be story-based, with up to 10 hours of hunting in the lush post-post apocalyptic world. Look forward to various new weapons, enemies, and types of armor will be available throughout the course of the new content.
https://youtu.be/J5xsS1WZA54
From the video, we can garner that the flame-haired seeker, hunter, and unstoppable force of nature is hending to Ban-Ur, the homeland of the mystical Banuk tribe. She’s heard of some kind of mystery that waits inside the Mountain, and although the trailer is barely 2 minutes long, we’ve gleaned some key details from it. Now, let’s get to the really intriguing bits – namely the Banuk and their homestead of Ban-Ur.
Cold, inhospitable, and deadly: those aren’t words just used to describe Ban-Ur. The Banuk people aren’t the friendliest bunch, greeting Aloy in The Frozen Wilds trailer with a harsh reminder that she’s trespassing on their land. Horizon has a solid history of respecting the history of the locations it visits, as it features faithful representations of monuments ranging from the Air Force Academy to the Pikes Peak Range Riders Memorial.
So it comes as no surprise that they’ve done the same in The Frozen Wilds, as this time Aloy is almost certainly taking a trip to Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Prismatic Spring, as you can see the multicoloured hot spring in the promotional artwork for the DLC. Our names for those stunning sites of natural beauty are foreign to the Banuk, though. To them, it’s Ban-Ur, described by the Carja academic Aram as being dotted with “billows of steam that erupt from the earth”. That description pretty much matches the geysers and hot springs featured in The Frozen Wilds trailer, and the Banuk society is no calmer than the bubbling, scalding water located nearby.
Siluk, a member of the Banuk tribe, mentions to Aloy during the events of Horizon that recently there’s been trouble in his homelands. Proud hunters and the more spiritual shamans are arguing about how to respond to the changing world around them. It’s likely that this is referencing the Corruption – the virus created by the rogue AI Hades that turns robot animals from tame to ferocious – with the hunters advocating ‘neutralising’ the threat with a metric ton of arrows. I doubt the Shamans (bearing in mind the Banuk people believe they can live in spiritual harmony with the robots) are of the same opinion, hence why some have been exiled from Ban-Ur by their own tribe.
Yet in the trailer, we see the mountain Aloy is eager to delve inside, which closely resembles the famous Devils Tower. Only thing is, that giant rocky outcropping is 361 miles away from Yellowstone National Park. Either the game designers have exercised their creative licence to bring it a bit closer, or it’s a completely new mountain created during the apocalypse by whatever lies beneath. If it’s the Devils Tower that tourists from all over the globe are familiar with, Guerrilla might have dropped a substantial hint about how big The Frozen Wilds map will be.
When even a Thunderjaw’s eyes turn amber at the sound of this unknown monster’s roar, you know you’re in trouble. The only time that robots turned on robots in the original game is when Aloy overrides one of their own, so to have something mechanical trigger the Thunderjaw’s fight instinct is extraordinary. It also probably doesn’t bode well for Aloy either, as anything dangerous enough to make the apex predator get on the defensive sure as hell isn’t going to go down quietly. Or easily. One thing we can be 100% certain about is that this robot has never been seen before.
Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds will be out November 7th 2017, exclusively on the PlayStation. The game is out for pre-order in Malaysia for RM79 and Singapore for SGD 26.90. You’ll also receive an additional 20% if you’re a PS Plus Member!
If you have yet to play Horizon Zero Dawn and yes if you play any big game this year it should be this one. PlayStation is releasing their Complete Edition pack which includes the main game as well as The Frozen Wilds DLC on December 5th 2017. The Complete Edition comes with a Horizon Zero Dawn digital art book (yay!) as well as the:
- PlayStation 4 Theme
- Carja Storm Ranger Outfit
- Carja Mighty Bow
- Carja Trader Pack
- Banuk Trailblazer Outfit
- Banuk Culling Bow
- Banuk Traveller Pack
- Nora Keeper Pack
The retail price for the Complete Edition will be RM199 in Malaysia and SGD64.90 for Singapore.
