A fan of Guerilla Games' Horizon series has shared a collection of images that imagine different creatures taking the form of the mechanical beasts that define the games. Impressively, these pieces are all AI generated, although they do show some of the limitations of these types of automated art programs by seeming to have some difficulty with completely understanding the prompt right away.
Originally shared to the Horizon subreddit, Reddit user hefeglass posted a collection of nine of these AI generated animal machines, all created through the software Stable Diffusion. The post has received quite a bit of attention from the Horizon fan-base, with most replies commenting on how impressive the artwork looks.
The images themselves show an interesting possible future for the Horizon series, with a collection of animals being turned into giant machines for Aloy to hunt and harvest. One impressive example would be the rabbit-based machine, which appears to grow the size of the original creature into a towering enemy that could use its powerful legs to stomp around a battlefield. Each of these images bring their own unique spin on the art-style of the Horizon series, with some machines appearing like the type that could make for a nice traveling companion, and others being intimidating bosses.
Of course, as is often the case for AI art, there is a certain degree of flaw to the overall designs that comes as a reality of using an automated program instead of hiring a human artist. Specifically, with these designs trying to emulate the machines from Horizon, it is strange to see what appears to be fur and even scales on several images, including the aforementioned rabbit machine. It's a minor imperfection that shows the limitations of AI art programs, but it does still work to suit the purposes of fans like hefeglass who are just looking to see some simple concepts come to life.
It can't be understated how impressive some of these images look, with many having an imposing feeling that almost combines Horizon: Forbidden West with Shadow of the Colossus thanks to the scope of some of these machines. The capabilities of AI art to bring these types of ideas to life from simple prompts is incredible to see in action with these types of images. That being said, the relative newness of these programs are still controversial among artists, including those who make fan-art of titles like Horizon: Forbidden West. So, it might still be best for fans to approach programs like Stable Diffusion carefully, and ensuring that the artists whose art is being fed into these systems consent to their styles being utilized.
Horizon: Forbidden West is available now for PS4 and PS5.