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Up until just a few weeks ago, everything looked set for Horizon Forbidden West to bookend the PS5's first year on the market. While nothing has been confirmed by Sony yet, several credible leaks have suggested that the game will now slip out of its highly anticipated 2021 release window. Part of the reason why fans will no doubt be disappointed by this development, if and when that news officially drops, can be attributed to the engrossing sci-fi-infused lore that ran through the core of the original Horizon Zero Dawn.
Having established a universe around the premise of humanity rebuilding itself following the fall of civilization, Guerrilla Games left aspects of the backstory surrounding these events intentionally vague within that game. What's more, upon the conclusion of Aloy's coming-of-age origin story, a lot of the answers that were placed on the metaphorical table actually opened the door to even more questions. Labeled as the Old Ones by the tribes that popped up after their extinction, whenever Horizon Forbidden West releases, it's hoped that the studio will peel back the curtain on some of the most pressing secrets surrounding these now ancient humans.
Who Keeps Trying to End the World
One of the most obvious secrets surrounding the Old Ones that's been teased several times by Guerrilla Games already is the identity of the person or thing that keeps trying to eradicate all organic life on Earth. As of the conclusion of Horizon Zero Dawn, there have now been at least two known instances when off-screen forces have made a play for the end of the world, with this endgame in mind. Considering the first of these occurred a thousand years before the events of Aloy's life, during the reign of the first human civilization, it stands to reason that the pair might not only be connected but that whatever is causing the catastrophes could potentially be from that time period as well.
From what's been established in-universe from a lore perspective, it's known that the civilization of the Old Ones was in complete disarray in the final years of their existence, long before the killer robots actually went rogue. Between widespread unemployment, unstoppable climate change, countless wars, and corporate monopolies, the advanced human civilization that existed in 2064 was all but doomed to fall. What ultimately proved to be the final straw that broke the metaphorical camel's back, however, was the swarm of advanced self-replicating robots that gained free will.
In the short span of just 15 months, the newly independent Faro Automated Solutions-built robots were able to make the planet completely uninhabitable for organic organisms to survive by the year 2066. Collectively dubbed the Faro Plague, it's unclear though as to how the machines were able to experience their sentience-granting glitch, other than the fact that it's been established that the mega-corporation itself played no part in the process. That leaves the door suspiciously adjacent for Guerrilla Games to establish an antagonistic big-bad for Aloy to face in a dramatic conclusion to her story, be it another sentient artificial intelligence, or a group of people frozen in stasis who have been silently pulling the strings since the time of the Old Ones.
Project Zero Dawn and GAIA
How the Faro robots were able to gain free will before their planet-destroying quest is only the first of a long list of Old Ones themed lore secrets, that populate the Horizon timeline. One of the most significant pieces of their history in particular that's endured into the present-day 31st century, remains a mystery despite having already proven to be both a source of support and hindrance to Aloy. Created by Dr. Elisabet Sobek, the titular Project Zero Dawn found at the core of the first game was developed in the twilight months of the Old Ones' society, as a failsafe intended to restore the planet once the biomass consuming machines had been deactivated by the same program.
Project Zero Dawn was designed as a terraforming system capable of restoring the Earth to its former glory, a function that it ultimately and succeeded in achieving in a grossly unfortunate way. Featuring a global network of bunkers capable of cloning organisms, the entire process was overseen by the benevolent GAIA artificial intelligence, appropriately named after Ancient Greece's mythical Mother Nature-like deity. Even though the supercomputer was able to complete its task and populate the planet with animals and a tribal human society, plenty of questions still remain regarding the specific function and future of 7 of its named functions. That's because, following the transmission of an unknown signal from another yet to be explored source, GAIA's components gained independence. An event that notably mirrors the original robot outbreak.
There are many artificial intelligences in the world of Horizon aside from GAIA, such as HADES, the franchise's primary robo-apocalypse-loving antagonist, and HEPHAESTUS, the robot builder. But there are many more in existence that could be expounded upon, such as many of GAIA's subordinate functions. Beyond the secrets locked behind the functions of these remaining subroutines, and how they're celebrating their own independence, questions over the source of the signal that set off the franchise's main narrative remain as well. With several initiatives of the Old Ones having reared their heads already, there's a chance that more are waiting in the wings alongside some benevolent faction of their society that's endured since the 21st century.
The Secret Technology of the Old Ones
Even though the humans known as the Old Ones are only a few short decades removed from the real world, the technology that they've already been shown to have created feels light years ahead of what's on offer in reality right now. This becomes abundantly clear whilst looking at the origin of Aloy herself, considering the franchise's protagonist is actually the full-functioning clone of the aforementioned Dr. Elisabet Sobeck. Naturally, this begs the question of just how technologically advanced the Old Ones were, and what other currently unseen technology they created before their downfall. Being a game steeped in sci-fi traditions and lore, the secrets that await players within Horizon Forbidden West could be world-shattering on all fronts. Everything from space travel to cyborgs could theoretically make sense within the universe.
While they might not have been able to prevent their civilization from being ripped apart in a short amount of time, the Old Ones' capacity to essentially create life leaves the door open for all manner of secrets to be spilled in the upcoming sequel. With the ability to freeze humans in stasis for hundreds of years having already been teased by Guerrilla Games several times already, there's every possibility that some of the Old Ones might feature directly in Horizon Forbidden West to reveal these first hand. Having created the robots that continue to ravage the landscape, it seems suspicious that Ted Faro's current whereabouts were left open-ended during his holographic attempts to bury the evidence of his wrong-doing during the first game, as one example.
Horizon Forbidden West is set to release in late 2021 for PS4 and PS5.