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In Horizon Forbidden West, Aloy and her friends ‘save a dying planet’

New story trailer shows a blighted post-apocalyptic world

Nicole Clark (she/her) is a culture editor at Polygon, and a critic covering internet culture, video games, books, and TV, with work in the NY Times, Vice, and Catapult.

Horizon Forbidden West, the follow-up to the well-received Horizon Zero Dawn, is less than a month away. On Wednesday, developer Guerrilla Games shared a story trailer for Horizon Forbidden West, which digs into the game’s narrative, including the new challenges and mysteries Aloy faces, and the allies she’ll get to face them with.

In Forbidden West, Aloy continues to fight through the post-apocalypse, littered with deadly machine foes and warring human factions. Humanity faces a new threat: a terrible blight that promises starvation, unless someone intervenes. Aloy heads west to find answers and encounters a fearsome band of rebels, led by Regalla, as well as terrifying new machines — a number of which are working together with humans. Aloy must solve these mysteries to save humanity.

The story trailer — made from a mix of cutscenes and gameplay — once again shows off a number of Aloy’s new abilities, initially shared in a 14-minute gameplay reveal in October. In the story trailer, she grapples across crumbling buildings, uses her new Breath of the Wild-like glider, dives into the sea, and fights machines and humans alike.

The trailer also reveals new information about the game’s supporting characters. Sylens will return; new characters Hekarro, the Chief of the Tenakth tribe, and Tilda, whose backstory is one of the game’s mysteries, will be introduced. Aloy will also get allies in Horizon Forbidden West. In the trailer, she is accompanied by crowd-favorites Varl (son of Nora War-Chief Sona) and Erend (captain of the Carja Sun-King Avad’s Vanguard). Aloy will also have allies in new characters Zo, Alva, and Kotallo, according to the PlayStation Blog.

Horizon Forbidden West launches Feb. 18 on PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4.

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