Horizon Forbidden West expanded the world of Old Ones by introducing Far Zenith and the threat that Aloy and her allies will be facing in the next game, NEMESIS. With an already impressive cast of characters, Far Zenith plays an important role in the game, competing with Aloy in the search for a copy of GAIA and her subordinate functions. Ultimately, it was Far Zenith that warned Aloy of the dangers of NEMESIS in Horizon Forbidden West, and one of its members could have played a huge role in helping players stop the destruction of the planet: Stanley Chen.
The Far Zenith colony was a group of Old World survivors who were able to escape Earth prior to the destruction of their civilization and built a new home in the Sirius system. The group started out as a think tank, with Stanley Chen being one of their most prominent members, and ultimately grew to encompass many more elites who would make up the Far Zenith colony. Ultimately, Far Zenith created a collective consciousness that would evolve into NEMESIS, dooming their colony and giving NEMESIS the power it needed to make the trip to Earth, setting up the Horizon Forbidden West sequel.
Who is Stanley Chen?
Stanley Chen was an Old One inventor and entrepreneur who was not able to bring in investors for his water filtration systems because one of his lawyers leaked his concepts to a competitor. Following this, Chen found himself on the brink of losing everything he owned. He bet the rest of his money on a roulette wheel and won, going from his $88,000 bet all the way up to $3.2 million, which he used to increase his fortune to over $200 billion in just five years, earning him a place among the elite of the Old Ones.
Chen’s water filtration system was eventually used when Las Vegas started to diminish due to the Hot Zone Crisis, saving the city from being abandoned. Once the Faro Plague had gotten out of control, Vegas was lost and Chen decided to place his filtration system on standby in the hopes that future generations would be able to revive it along with the city, which Aloy did in Horizon Forbidden West. Chen was part of the Far Zenith think tank and eventually left for the Sirius System, where he met his demise at the hands of NEMESIS.
Stanley Chen Would Have Helped Aloy
Horizon Forbidden West shed some light on Chen’s personality when Tilda van der Meer recognized him as one of the good ones. When Chen left Earth with the other Far Zenith colonists, he presumably aided in the creation of the Specters and NEMESIS, giving him vital knowledge on both. If Chen had survived and traveled with the other Far Zenith survivors back to Earth, he might have run into Aloy at the ruins of Las Vegas and helped her restore his water filtration system in the hopes that survivors on Earth could use it.
Chen could have also aided in Aloy’s efforts of defeating Far Zenith by giving her the technology that would destroy their armor. With his knowledge of the Specters and NEMESIS, Chen could have also helped Aloy take down the machines and find a weakness for the upcoming threat. Further, Chen could have aided Beta’s escape from the Far Zeniths, and if he learned about her mission early on, he might have pointed Aloy to the location of the GAIA backup file, and her subordinate functions.
While the Far Zeniths that returned to Earth to collect the GAIA backup would have never dreamed of helping Aloy unless it benefited themselves, Chen’s desire to help others would have made him the standout member of the group. His presence in the story could have given Aloy valuable information and tools that she would use to take down the hostile Far Zeniths and their specters, and he could have even mentioned the threat of NEMESIS. Chen ultimately went unused and was killed along with the other Far Zenith members in the Sirius System after NEMESIS turned on them, but he could have heavily influenced the course of events in Horizon Forbidden West.
Horizon Forbidden West is available now for PS4 and PS5.