While main series protagonist Aloy will feature in some form, PSVR2 launch game Horizon Call of the Mountain places you in the shoes of a new character: Shadow Carja soldier Ryas. A new PlayStation Blog post has detailed more of his backstory ahead of the title's 22nd February 2023 launch, revealing how he has purposefully gotten himself captured so he can atone for his sins.
Ryas was one of the soldiers on the wrong end of Mad Sun-King Jiran's demise at the hands of his son Avad, so he helped to form the Carja in Shadow tribe following the brutal Red Raids. In an effort to regain his honour, Ryas will help Sun-King Avad by investigating a new threat in the post-apocalyptic universe. Along the way, the new protagonist will meet both new friends and former foes who will struggle to get to grips with the fact Ryas is now fighting on their side.
Narrative director Ben McCaw said: "We took the Horizon experience and built it from the ground up for VR. And for this, we felt we needed a new protagonist. As a master climber, hunter, and explorer, Ryas offers the perfect viewpoint of the sweeping vistas and dangerous wilds of Horizon."
We recently posted a Horizon Call of the Mountain PSVR2 Preview, in which we described the game as the headset's showpiece title due to its graphical upgrade over games on the original PSVR headset and how involved the gameplay loop seems to be. "It's easy to see why Sony has positioned Horizon Call of the Mountain as the premier PSVR2 title, outside of the obvious fact it's developed in-house. With the Horizon IP backing it, the new headset releases with a fantastic experience set around the same time as Zero Dawn and Forbidden West."
[source blog.playstation.com]
Comments 7
As a big Horizon fan, I'm really looking forward to this game and embedding myself in the world with VR.
I'm not expecting it to be as good as the mainline entries, but I'm hoping for a memorable experience.
I was a big fan of the first game and have mixed feelings over the sequel, though I will return to it. I do have this bundle preordered as I do like the world and creatures and a more streamlined experience will suit me. Oh and it looks absolutely stunning and seems to have the little details like you being able to put your hand in the water and "feel" it through the controllers. I'm looking forward to this
Not really a massive Horizon fan (got the plat for the first, but the second just looked like more of the same). Am insanely hyped for this though. VR just makes everything better.
I couldn't care less about the characters in Horizon tbf, so I doubt this game will change that. All I care about is that the gameplay is good.
I like the background story for this. Definitely makes it more "connected" to the main plots than I expected, where I imagined you'd just be some random Nora brave doing their own thing because the important people are off doing something else and they don't care about the Holos.
The immersion breaker is we won't have those gauntlets described in one of the notes left in HZD that let you feel things
in VR.
My only worry is it sounds like this game, even though it's a "full" game, won't really be a true full featured game still and will still lean into being a tech demo like the VR worlds games, that are good, but limit gameplay in order to be accessible for new VR players. My expectation is I'll like it as a VR experience but wish it could have been more, with the tech demo gloves taken off.
I haven't tried VR yet, would love to get a PSVR2 demo to potentially add it to the list of purchases to make later this year. Does anyone know if Gamestop or other retailers will have demo stations available, and if not, what is the best way to try it myself without buying the headset?
Shame we won't get to see the main character's face much, outside of certain cutscenes probably.
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