Horizon Hunters Gathering: Everything We Know

Lots of concerning things already with the upcoming Horizon Hunters Gathering. Fully three-player co-op, for starters, already has me worried for Guerrilla Games and whether they are shooting themselves in the foot here. The trailer, while inclusive of in-game story and footage, does little to convince itself of an actual good time. Its successful take might have been how closely it resembles Concord… and we in gaming know how desperate we are to forget that disaster ever happened. 

Still, a little hope can go a long way to pushing the most negatively received product through to the finish line. And who knows, we might be in for a stark surprise by the time the player numbers start rolling in. Before all of that, let’s see exactly what Guerrilla Games have been cooking in our Horizon Hunters Gathering: Everything We Know article.

What is Horizon Hunters Gathering?

Horizon Hunters Gathering is an upcoming co-op action game by Guerrilla Games. Yup, you read that right. It’s fully co-op multiplayer, requiring teaming up with friends against the vile machines of the Horizon universe. This is an all-new game very much related to the Horizon franchise, which, in itself, is an action RPG by Guerrilla Games and Sony. The world will be the same, set in a post-apocalyptic future, where civilization is long gone, nature and tribes thrive, and machines dominate the world. 

The series follows machine hunter Aloy, uncovering mysteries of the past civilization in the two main games: Zero Dawn and Forbidden West. And the two spin-offs: Call of the Mountain VR and LEGO Horizon Adventures. Mind you, an upcoming Horizon Steel Frontiers MMORPG is underway by NCSoft and Guerrilla Games, with the release date still unknown. Anyway, what’s Horizon Hunters Gathering all about?

Story

On your side is a team of machine hunters. On the other are deadly robots terrorizing the world. This is the short and sweet premise behind Horizon Hunters Gathering, which launches players teaming up to take down the robots. The hunters look and play uniquely, with teams of three players. You have colorful faces and styles, brimming with personality. While you cannot create and customize your own character, the featured Axel, Sun, Rem, and more are a pretty exciting bunch, with six total characters planned for launch. Each has unique strengths, whether melee, ranged, or support. And overall, intense combat challenges and high-stakes missions that you and your friends will team up on.

More details will likely be revealed about the new stories Horizon Hunters Gathering will tell. That it’ll have new characters, mysteries, and enemies. In fact, the new game will be a canon entry, and the story at launch will continue to evolve. Through every new location you visit, you’ll discover new stories, challenges, themes, and atmosphere. There’s also a social hub you can customize with couches and all. Here’s where you’ll catch up with your team, acknowledging your best efforts, customizing your crew, buying new gear, and strategizing your next mission.

Gameplay

Machine hunting is at the heart of Horizon Hunters Gathering’s gameplay. And always as a team of up to three. Adversaries are machines, which can come at you in hordes or individual beasts. Your job is to track down the smaller, easier-to-defeat machines and farm loot and resources ahead of hunting mini and big bosses. Every machine hunter has a unique style and story to tell. They’ll have progression paths you can work on leveling up, using a roguelite perk system. The more you play, the more the challenges and world will evolve. And there’s an unfolding story teased set in the Horizon universe.

Development

The development and publishing of Horizon Hunters Gathering is going to be an interesting journey to follow. As soon as the trailer launched, the comment section flooded with negative sentiment about the devs continuing to work on a game that is sure to fail. Nevertheless, Guerrilla Games and Sony are still working on the new co-op action game. Being fully co-op is definitely worrisome, but the devs say they are still working on single-player experiences alongside this project. “Care, ambition, and passion” are the driving values behind this project, and I hope the final product is astounding.

Trailer

The trailer is where you’ll find more concrete information about Horizon Hunters Gathering’s gameplay. It’s unnecessarily long with segments by Guerrilla Studio Director and Horizon Hunters Gathering Game Director. The cinematic trailer itself runs from the 0:56 to the 4:23 mark. But there are also gameplay sneak peak, combat, world, missions, and story segments afterward.

Briefly, combat looks not so different from the Horizon series: tactical, deep, and precise. Multiplayer sections show coordination of attacks between team members. You go through the Machine Incursion game mode, fighting against waves of machines, leading up to a final boss, and with a deadly ring of fire closing in. Cauldron Desert mode, on the other hand, features multiple stages of going through rooms of tough machine encounters and hidden doors with lucrative loot behind them.   

Release Date, Platforms, & Editions

Next steps are joining the Horizon Hunters Gathering playtests, which is currently available to sign up for on the official website. This way, you can become more aware of what’s to come ahead of the unconfirmed release date. This will be revealed via Discord and socials. You can ready your PlayStation 5 and PC consoles for the final launch, with the PlayStation page already out now. 

Some more handy information: Yes, Horizon Hunters Gathering supports cross-play and cross-progression. It’ll support matchmaking based on skill level. While the game is co-op, you can still log in solo and play with two other NPCs. You don’t have to play any of the previous Horizon games to enjoy this one. It’s entirely standalone, although the events in the new game will take place after Horizon Forbidden West. This means you’ll see lots of familiar characters, places, and lore. Lastly, you will need a PlayStation Plus membership to enjoy the online multiplayer mode.