Sony: Horizon's Aloy Is a PlayStation Icon of the Future

A rising star female protagonist should have no problem gaining traction and winning people over if she's born from a solid game and surrounding world. Of course there will be the minorities who will dismiss her because she's female, but a good game and protagonist are what they are and it's hard to throw too much hate when the quality speaks for itself. In my opinion Horizon to include Aloy will turn out just fine.

@get2sammyb What's the story w/ DLC or season pass on this game, Nintendo irked me today w/ Zelda.

I'm sure Aloy can become big, but what ever happened to her spiritual successor Nariko? Wasn't she supposed to be the next Dante? I miss her and her sister.

Playstation usually have a new mascot every generation, like crash & spyro on ps1, kratos on ps2, nathan drake and sackboy on ps3, kat & aloy on psvita/ps4.

When I'm giving the choice to play as a female in a RPG I do about 90% of the time.

I love that they went with a strong female protagonist.

Not a fan of the visual design of the humans in this game (the robots look great, though!), and Aloy in particular is somewhat odd looking.

It IS nice to get some variation in a lead of a Western AAA game, though. Give the Angry White Males a rest for a while. With Aloy and Ellie, it's time for Angry White Females! Not a huge shift, but it's better than enduring another Joel, Kratos, Geralt, etc.

@rjejr I loved Heavenly Sword back in the day. Wish it's sequel didn't get cancelled.

On topic, It's great that PlayStation are behind Horizon and it's heroine, but they're pushing it so hard that it'll bite pretty hard if the game doesn't go over well. I'm excited for it, but the level of hype is pretty ridiculous.

Yo, get hype for Playstation All-Stars 2!

Who was Nathan until Uncharted 2? Granted, the character was created with the first one, but he became iconic with No. 2.

@DerMeister
The fact that they're releasing review embargos a week before launch has me optimistic.

The pandering is strong in this one, I'm pretty sure we'll see some article titles like this when it's released:

"This strong woman is the new face of Playstation, and it matters"

• Jezebel

@rjejr
That would be her antecessor/predecessor though

I love the fact she's a female protagonist and the whole ethnic vibe to tribes and how people look is cool, too. Some diversity in game characters is always welcome and I think it's a nice juxtaposition against the machines.

Is Aloy and icon already? Not yet, give her time and then call her that.

I hate it when companies decide what / who is going to be the stars of the future. The game buyers will do that.

All the kinda "forced" hype around this game is making me think of that time Sony got behind that certain game released in the last year and well, look how that turned out.

Graphically, It does look incredible, but for some reason everything about the game leaves me feeling stone cold, It all just seems so cold and cynically engineered to become "the next big thing" and thats a thing that usually happens naturally, not forced upon like this seems to be.

For my post-apocolyptic mech arse kicking female lead I'd choose Trip from Enslaved.

The gaming community will decide over time if a game is great, or so and so is an icon. I'm just having difficulty Sony telling us what we should be thinking. I hope it's a success as Sony clearly have alot riding on Horizon but deep down I can't help feel it won't be as bigger commercial success as they hoped. Ofcourse only time will tell.

Sony taking a leaf from Ubisoft's book of deciding what is "iconic".

If Samus did it in 1986 Sony has no reason to cock this up.

My hype level for this game is minus 5%. No matter what anybody writes or says, Killzone shadow fall was an absolute dog so I couldn't get any less excited about this one. Hopefully they can prove me wrong but its all coming across a bit pants so far. Im all for female leads, my cmdr Shepherd and Destiny characters were all girls so as long as the characters great then I have no issue. As for the rest of the game, it just doesn't tickle my pickle.

Really want this game but the switch and BotW will be my game for the next while. So gonna hold off for a month or two. I really hope this will be a huge success for Sony. It looks amazing!

Of course Aloy could become 'iconic' for Playstation but I doubt that will happen with just 1 game. Visually she certainly has what it takes and we are already seeing her impact in 'cosplay'.

The game will define Aloy and her backstory and character, give her more sense of personality and character. As long as the game delivers on its potential, Aloy could well become an icon. However I can't think of any game that led to a gaming icon after just 1 game and can't see that happening with this either. If they are talking about Aloy becoming an icon, that would indicate they have more planned for the franchise...

I thought everybody and their mother was excited for this game?! I've certainly pre-ordered it, the combat vid sold it for me.

@JoeBlogs "honestly reckon if Sony came out with a better than life VR headset (like in Red Dwarf) the too-cool-for-school crowd would still find a reason not to get excited."

Fair point, but its not exactly a better than life headset. We are talking about Patsy Palmer taking on robot dinosaurs with a bow and arrow. The concept is rubbish imo and doesn't get me excited like gt sport / ff15 / mass effect / sonic mania / wipeout omega / persona 5 etc. Its seems to me its designed to appeal to a more casual player, the exact demographic courted by Ubisoft. I'm probably wrong and props for them building as new IP.

@JoeBlogs I would argue that Sonic wasn't an icon after 1game but all the marketing and pushing that Sega did to try and make Sonic an Icon. It was contrived to rival Mario rather than let the game create the icon status - it was helped that the game turned out well of course and went on to create a big franchise - outside of gaming too with Cartoons and Merchandise. Certainly not too young to remember 'Sonic' - maybe too old and senile now - LOL!!

@get2sammyb I certainly wouldn't call Joel and Ellie iconic - at least not yet. They could well be on their way to reaching that status but 'Iconic' is too soon. At most I would say these have reached 'famous' status but not yet 'Iconic'

@themcnoisy

Got to agree with you. I'd love to be proved incorrect, but I get a real sense that people are swallowing a whole lot of hype that won't deliver. Nothing I've seen of Horizon has impressed me much, bar the visuals. It all seemed very same-y to me gameplay-wise before they released the first proper story trailer, and when that came out what was shown was incredibly cut and paste. I just can't help think it'll be 40+ hours of rinse and repeat.

@rjejr I loved that game so much i would love to see a new one. And she was nothing like Dante i liked her way more with a so much better backstory.

@get2sammyb No DLC? Thanks sammy. Means I'll be playing this before Zelda then, was a coin toss until yesterday. Though I'm guessing there will be, they are just smart enough to avoid the dreaded "Day 1 DLC" hate. Maybe late March they'll announce some minor character story DLC like the pig-guy got in Enslaved, that seems to be popular these days.

You or Shogun reviewing it? Seems more his type of game but you seem more excited.

@Flaming_Kaiser Well Nariko was nothing like Dante but she was created to be the next Dante. Wait, no, not Dante, Kratos, "Goddess of war". Sorry, my mistake, wrong franchise antihero. But my point still stands, she was supposed to be the PS3 launch star who had her own series. Instead she got 1 seriously horrible CGI film. So I'll believe Aoly gets big after she does.

@themcnoisy You had me at Patsy Palmer taking on robot dinosaurs. I'd love the end of game boss to be robot Pat Butcher.

Glad my pre-order is already in...

@get2sammyb If Bloodbourne 2 was announced, as soon as people recognised the world, there would be a big cheer too but you wouldn't say the lead character was 'iconic' - at least not yet.

Personally I think there is a difference between an 'iconic' character and characters in a 'great game'. I would expect a big cheer for 'the Last of Us 2' even if they opted to switch lead characters.

For me 'iconic' characters are bigger than the game(s) they are in. Not every Mario, Sonic, Lara Croft etc games have all been 'great'. These have all also had outings in other media - cartoons, films etc too. I don't doubt that Joel and Ellie are, at most, famous within the PS community, maybe even within the gaming community because they 'starred' in one of the best games in recent times, but iconic... Not yet!

@get2sammyb "As for the review, I'm doing it."

That's good. This is the first "adult" game my 14 yr old has wanted to play. Not that he hasn't been gaming since he's 2, starting w/ a lot Godzilla StE on PS2 and DAMM on Gamecube, but he's a really big Nintendo fan. Nothing wrong w/ that' he's played a lot of great games, but this is first more photorealistic "brown" game for lack of a better term. He still likes the look of Zelda more, but I'm excited he's branching out.

Give it a couple of games then she may become the face of playstation but not yet, not after one game.

@get2sammyb Hunger Games

Man, you better go back and delete that, you're going to get crucified on here if enough people read that. I get it, but you know I ain't most people. Oops too late, and I knew what you meant.

Oh, funny thing, and if this is a coincidence that's some bloody crazy synchronicity right there so maybe I mentioned it on Twitter, but my wife and I just started watching the HG movies w/ our 2 boys 2 weeks ago, we're doing 1 each weekend thru Feb.

Did you cover the map leak on here 5 days ago like the rest of the internet?

@get2sammyb Man, you better delete that comment twice. You're killing me w/ laughter. I think it's ROFOL or something. I'm watching it w/ my kids telling them this is their life the next 4 years, prepare to fight. Fahrenheit 451 and 1984 next. I'll have them read 1984. Too young for Brazil.

@get2sammyb It's great if you're a 16 year old girl, or my wife. The whole thing just strikes me as a post apocalyptic Gilmore Girls w/ a bad plot device. Not sure you guys get GG over there, but it was a great TV show I never watched b/c I was never a teenage girl, but had I been 1 I would have VCR'd every episode.

I'm glad you like HG, but this sites core audience is 25-35yr old male gamers. Do you still even have any women working here? I liked the 1 woman who did obscure JRPG stuffbuthavne' tseen her in at least 18 months. And I'm not sure of any female commenters 100%, no one even comes to mind as a maybe. It's the anti-HG audience.

Though I think I was mainly laughing b/c you seemed genuinely enthusiastic about something - unbridled joy in that simple sentence - it made me happy. You know I still miss the "yo" at the end of every other sentence.

Oh, BTW, you ever get the Win 10 PC audio working?

Would rather kat from GR but that ship has probably sailed.

Better hope it happens since Drake has hung up his adventuring boots and I'm not convinced going The Last of Us: Kratos and Son Edition is the right choice for God War. I think GT 6 seriously hurt the Gran Turismo brand and Sony did nothing to try and build Gravity Rush up. There's still Joel and Ellie, but they do need company.

@rjejr
Heavenly Sword was like 5 hours long. A great 5 hours, but I think that hurt it as did the pre-release comparisons to God of War with some going as far as to refer to the game (sometimes in a mocking fashion) as 'Goddess of War.' PS3 didn't have the greatest reputation back in 2007 either, another thing that didn't work in the game's favor. I miss Nariko as well, though. Very likeable character.

@adf86
Going right up against a new Zelda game is a problem. I'm concerned even if Horizon reviews extremely well it won't be enough to overcome the inevitable comparisons and get the attention it deserves.

@rjejr awesome game!

@Gamer83 "Heavenly Sword was like 5 hours long."

Really good point. You read anything about the game length on this one? I thought I had this game figured out but FFXV is messing w/ my perceptions of games. 44 hours for the first 8 chapters, 4 hours for the next 4, now I've spent 30 hours doing sidequests in chapter 14 before going off to face the boss. So Horizon could be a 12 hour linear story or a 30 hour open world time sink. But I won't hazard a guess, I'll be reading sammy's review first.

@rjejr
I have no idea about this game's length, I'm sure some reviews will mention it, then I'll add 10 hours to that because with these kind of games I explore every part of the world so it takes me longer to get through than most people.

aloy's likeness is based on dutch actress hannah hoekstra. prototyping on this began about 7 years, it wouldn't surprise me if this was pushing a 9-digit development cost - perhaps why there is such a massive marketing campaign. games like gravity rush and last guardian have relatively modest budgets by comparison, so selling a few hundred thousand is probably enough.. this will probably need to sell 4m+.

i'm really looking forward to it, but i'm not sure what i want from it. open word games often lose narrative focus by simply allowing to you explore everywhere and anywhere and giving you a boatload of busywork stuff to do. as i'm currently playing skyrim and seeing exactly that problem, i'm hoping horizon is a lot better focused. at the same time, it's such an amazing looking world, the level of detail is incredible, that it would be a disappointment to waste it on a 10-hour A-to-B campaign.

@Gamer83 I really think this and Zelda are very different. The only thing they have in common is the open world RPG genre. The combat of Horizon though seems far more complex and varied where as Zelda has more emphasis on 'puzzles' - having the right gear to move/manipulate objects to get to the 'treasure'.

I haven't seen whether Zelda (well Link) has much in the way of an upgrade path. The world seems more empty too in terms of inhabitants and enemies. The weapons, whilst I guess similar in essence do have stats but whether or not you can craft ammo or upgrade/modify weapons, I don't know.

I don't think Horizon will be the most complex RPG but more so than Zelda with more emphasis on Action. The two games may share a similar genre but the game-play and emphasis on various aspects (like combat, RPG elements - upgrades, skills etc) are different. Its like comparing Titanfall 2 to Battlefield 1 because both are FPS games or Burnout with Project Cars as they are both 'racing' games.

As for 'game' length, they recently held an event and spent the first few hours playing the opening of the game before jumping ahead several hours worth to around level 7/8ish to get some experience of the open world, combat etc. I wouldn't be surprised if the 'main' storyline is around 30hrs-ish but with all the side quests etc I wouldn't be surprised if you could easily sink 100hrs+ into the game.

"no one knew who Joel and Ellie were five years ago"

Err... who?

I'm sure she's capable of becoming an icon, but these things can't be forced.

@rjejr I loved the story of Heavenly Sword I would love to see her return like some God. And i liked her more then Kratos her reasons where way more rightous.

@Mahe I guess you live under a rock.