With every piece of information that Guerrilla Games reveals, Horizon Forbidden West looks more different from the first game. Aloy has a grappling hook now; the Pullcaster will allow Aloy to ascend to new heights, slip out of the grasp of enemies, and even manipulate her terrain. There's also a plethora of new weapons for Aloy to wield in Horizon Forbidden West, like the Spike Thrower, as well as special attacks like the explosive Resonator Blast. All of these items will come in handy as Aloy encounters a wealth of new enemies, both human and machine, as she explores the Forbidden West.
Of course, Aloy isn't just getting new weapons. Guerrilla has also teased new armor in Horizon Forbidden West, but they're not just tweaked versions of Zero Dawn's armor. In Horizon Forbidden West, the clothes that Aloy wears will apparently modify her skillset and potentially even grant her wholly new skills. In other words, switching between outfits in Horizon Forbidden West will have much bigger implications for Aloy's playstyle than it did in Zero Dawn. Although Guerrilla hasn't been very specific about how outfit skills work and what the new Skill Tree looks like, there's a ton of potential in the coming changes.
How Forbidden West's Outfits Differ From Zero Dawn
In Horizon Zero Dawn, Aloy's outfit options are very straightforward. Generally, they serve a single purpose, which is granting Aloy resistance against one of the six damage types she faces: melee damage, ranged damage, fire, ice, shock, and corruption. Certain outfits can additionally increase Aloy's stealth or provide her with healing over time, but on the whole, Zero Dawn's outfits are purely focused on conditional protection. While that certainly makes them useful and worth collecting, their limited functionality also means outfits are far less exciting to collect than new weapons that introduce new ammo types.
Horizon Forbidden West seemingly aims to change that by overhauling the impact that outfits have on the game. On the PlayStation Blog, Guerrilla Games community lead Bo de Vries recently explained that Horizon Forbidden West's outfits not only protect Aloy, but they're associated with skills. De Vries' description suggests that Aloy might only have certain skills while she's wearing the right outfit, which means every outfit shifts the way Forbidden West plays. Although he wasn't specific about what the attached skills entail, one can imagine Aloy having additional defensive techniques available through one sturdy outfit, then gaining new mobility skills after changing into a second, lighter outfit.
Other PlayStation comments have alternately suggested that Forbidden West's outfits won't always provide Aloy with wholly new skills by themselves, but they'll power up the skills she already has available. In November, PlayStation Europe tweeted that unlocked skills will benefit from Aloy's outfits. Although that would certainly be different from outfits inherently granting skills, it's still in the same vein of outfits modifying what Aloy is capable of. One way or another, outfits will manipulate Aloy's Skill Tree, which is also changing in Horizon Forbidden West.
The Potential Impact on the Skill Tree
De Vries said that the Skill Tree is getting improvements in Horizon Forbidden West, and though he didn't explain how exactly it's changing in the PlayStation Blog, the outfit changes may provide some insight. In saying that Aloy's outfits are connected to skills, it's possible that de Vries meant that Aloy can't unlock certain skills on the Skill Tree until she gets a certain outfit. It'd certainly make some sense with the lore, requiring her to have the right equipment to develop a new skill, but it's possible that outfits are simply meant to enhance skills that players can obtain as they choose.
If outfits have nothing to do with unlocking skills, then their role in powering up skills seems clear. De Vries mentions maximizing skills when mentioning the Skill Tree, which makes it sound like players can put multiple points into Aloy's skills to make them stronger, unlike Horizon Zero Dawn's system where skill points simply unlock abilities. If players do invest in skills multiple times to strengthen them in Horizon Forbidden West, then outfits have a clear role. Armor might boost an unlocked skill by a level or two, letting players get some temporary strength in a niche ability while saving skill points for more precious investments.
A system like that would certainly be an improvement over Horizon Zero Dawn's Skill Tree. While the four categories of Zero Dawn's tree served their purpose, their fairly linear progression wasn't particularly innovative. Horizon Forbidden West would be wise to introduce a Skill Tree with more ways to spend points and more paths that players can choose between after unlocking skills. If the new tree is as complex as that, then Horizon Forbidden West's outfits will be crucial to the player's success, offering ways to cover Aloy's weaknesses or sharpen strengths even further.
Horizon Forbidden West's Positive Growth
So far, players have only had a glimpse at the blueprint of Horizon Forbidden West's new outfit mechanics. As scarce as the details are, though, it certainly sounds like a step in the right direction. Horizon Forbidden West aims to greatly diversify the uses of Aloy's outfits; if every skill in the game has an outfit that bolsters it, then players are far more incentivized to collect a high number of outfits for Aloy, rather than just hanging onto a few pieces of armor with convenient damage resistances. At the same time, outfits will be far more useful than ever, which means getting outfits in Horizon Forbidden West will be much more exciting for players.
Although it's a little surprising to see just how much the Horizon franchise is already changing in its second game, it's a smart move on the part of Guerrilla Games. Now that Horizon has established itself as a potential PlayStation mainstay, Guerrilla needs to both figure out how to keep the franchise fresh and sort out what the long-term core components of Horizon are. The world's characters and backstory have already enchanted a lot of fans who want to see where the game will go. Now it's up to clever mechanical improvements like the new bond between outfits and skills to forge a path toward Horizon's future.
Horizon Forbidden West releases February 18, 2022 for PS4 and PS5.