With Horizon Forbidden West well and truly into development, players have been wondering what new dangers are in store for Aloy in the sequel. Guerrilla Games plans to expand the roster of machines in the next installment and has slowly been teasing the new creatures to the public.
The original Horizon Zero Dawn was made famous for its apocalyptic future in which dinosaur and animal-like machines roam the Earth. The Horizon Forbidden West reveal trailer from the PS5 Future of Gaming event showed a number of familiar and new machines that Aloy will be facing in the upcoming sequel. On top of that, Guerrilla Games has been profiling its new creations in a tweet series known as 'Meet the Machines'.
The latest post in the Meet the Machines series has revealed the Sunwing. According to Guerrilla Games, the fast and nimble Sunwings are "acquisition-class machines that use their photovoltaic wings to store energy. On bright days they can be seen hovering high in the air, to catch as much sun as possible."
Sunwings seem to resemble a pterodactyl meets bird creature. Their wings appear to use solar panels to catch energy meaning they will probably be found in high aerial regions of the game. The new lands shown in the Horizon Forbidden West trailer revealed huge areas with high cliffs and peaks, meaning Sunwings are likely to have frequent appearances across the map.
The Meet the Machines series has also showcased two other new machines for Horizon Forbidden West. The Bristlebacks are herd based hog-type machines and the Shellsnappers resemble overly large snapping tortoises. Other new machines can be expected to be revealed in the coming months as the game's release date approaches.
The original Horizon Zero Dawn introduced two types of flying machines. Stormbirds were boss-level beasts who were incredibly difficult to defeat or override. The smaller but more common flying type were Glinthawks, who appeared frequently and in groups but were easier to face in battle. Sunwings seem to be on a similar scale as Glinthawks, but hopefully won't be as annoying in-game.
One of the best features of Horizon Zero Dawn was the ability to override certain machines and use them as mounts to travel around the map quicker. Horizon Forbidden West appears to have an even bigger map than the original and many players are hoping that a flying mount will be introduced to help explore the new areas. Whether this ability will be introduced with the new Sunwings or a different machine is yet to be revealed.
Horizon Forbidden West will be released on the PS5 in 2021.