The Odyssey is a lesser-known project that was active before the events of Horizon Zero Dawn. Though it began long before Project Zero Dawn was ever conceptualized, the two initiatives were completed at around the same time. The Odyssey project started long before the Faro Plague. Thus, its origins aren’t as straightforward as that of Project Zero Dawn.
Having experienced a change in leadership and waves of public scrutiny, the Odyssey’s conception makes for an interesting story. Though it’s one that ultimately ends in tragedy, at least according to the datapoints in Horizon Zero Dawn.
A Solution to the Climate Crisis
In the 2030s — nearly a millennium before Aloy’s birth — the world was experiencing a global climate crisis. By 2033, the Azores archipelago of Portugal sunk into the sea, and in 2036, the entire landmass of New Zealand followed suit. This led governments and corporations to start taking environmental efforts more seriously. Faro Automated Solutions (FAS) headed the charge in the 2040s, marking the start of the “Claw-back” decade. Another initiative that was born from this decade was the Odyssey project.
A multinational project, the Odyssey was spearheaded by China, India, Japan, the United States, and the Western European Alliance. Its goal was to build a colony spaceship that would be capable of launching into outer space and traveling to another habitable planet. Understandably, this multinational project was met with criticism.
One datapoint contains a direct quote from an Azar Safavi of 1Earth, likely an old-world organization focused on environmental preservation: “The ability to drive the planet nearly to extinction and then even consider leaving it behind is the sole provenance of the obscenely, criminally rich.” The Odyssey team, however, holds that the project is not meant to be “a cosmic escape pod for CEOs,” but rather a last resort for humanity.
The datapoint goes on to explain that the Odyssey coalition has no intention of launching the ship into orbit should the climate crisis be contained. Moreover, considering the sheer size of the project, its completion will likely be very far off, estimated at around 2080. Finally, while the team is open to donations, these will by no means guarantee a seat for the project’s most staunch contributors. In fact, the Odyssey won’t even be for adult passengers. Instead, it will be carrying human embryos that will keep humanity alive on a foreign planet.
One interesting thing to note here is that Samina Edadji, a heritage professional who would later work on Project Zero Dawn, actually contributed to the Odyssey project. She was tasked with developing an archive of human culture referred to as HOMER. This is likely why she was later recruited as one of GAIA’s Alphas.
A Change in Leadership
Despite the multinational coalition’s efforts, the Odyssey project would be discontinued in 2057. A datapoint from that year details how 25 representatives from each of the five nations gathered to announce that the project would be abandoned, along with the partially constructed vessel that was in the Earth’s orbit. The reason for this was vague, with the datapoint citing “terrestrial, all-too-human conflicts.” This most likely refers to the issues that caused client nations to butt heads, hindering the project’s progress and causing undue tension.
The project would remain dormant for a couple of years but be bought by an old-world organization known as the Far Zenith in 2061. A self-proclaimed “futurist consortium,” Far Zenith was said to have had 77 members — each being one of the wealthiest persons in the world at the time. Though the only known member was Danish tech CEO, Osvald Dalgaard, who also served as the group’s spokesperson.
In an interview recorded in a datapoint, Dalgaard describes the Odyssey project as both a performance art, as well as a futurist endeavor. According to him, Far Zenith is devoted not only to preserving humanity’s legacy but also making the world “sexier.” The interviewer admits that they are unsure of what this means then goes on to ask Dalgaard why he thinks Far Zenith will succeed where the multinational coalition failed. To this, the Danish billionaire responds that Far Zenith has already succeeded simply by taking on the Odyssey project and treating it as their triumph. Unfortunately, the rest of the interview is corrupted.
An Attempt To Save Humanity
By 2064, the Faro Plague began spreading through the world, and, in response, Far Zenith doubled down on its efforts to get Odyssey up and running. It and Project Zero Dawn became the initiatives that would most likely save humanity. Far Zenith even extended its help to Elisabet Sobeck’s team.
The organization sent in ectogenic chambers — containers that served as artificial wombs — which were far more advanced than what Sobeck’s team expected. This ensured that GAIA would be able to raise preserved human zygotes when the time came. At some point, Project Zero Dawn might have also offered an early build of APOLLO, as Sobeck later refers to the Odyssey project’s archive as “an alpha-build of APOLLO.”
By 2065, Dalgaard announced that the Odyssey was complete and ready for launch — merely four years after Far Zenith started working on it. The ship would hold 50 to 60 human adults and around 200,000 cryogenically frozen zygotes. Dalgaard also commented on Project Zero Dawn, citing that he hopes it will succeed, but that Far Zenith seeks to ensure humanity’s survival, even if it’s on another planet. It is never revealed who the other 76 members of the organization are, at least in Horizon Zero Dawn.
Later that same year, Sobeck found out about the Odyssey’s unfortunate fate. According to a message sent to the rest of the Alphas, Far Zenith informed her that the ship suffered a catastrophic antimatter containment failure and that everything in the Odyssey was now lost. Her last line is a chilling reminder of what’s at stake: “We must succeed.”
The Odyssey in Horizon Zero Dawn and Beyond
Though the game reports that the Odyssey project was unsuccessful, players have put forward a number of theories positing the idea that the ship — or at least parts of it — survived. Some state that Far Zenith could have lied to Sobeck and that the ship never exploded. However, that begs the question of why the organization would go that far and what they stood to gain from such a lie.
Others believe that the ship did explode, but that APOLLO’s alpha build survived. It could even be the cause of the rogue signal that separated GAIA from the system’s subordinate functions, which then led to HADES’s sentience. Still, this theory also raises some questions, most notably: Why would an early build of APOLLO cause GAIA to malfunction so severely?
Whatever the case, the Odyssey is an excellent piece of lore that could play a major role in Horizon Forbidden West. Though that ultimately depends on what the developers decide to do with it. With just a couple of weeks until the sequel’s release, the community is ecstatic to find out.
Horizon Zero Dawn is available now for PC, PS4, and PS5.