Good news! There are now two whole Horizon multiplayer games in development. The first is Horizon: Steel Frontiers, which is being developed by NCSoft and set to release on both mobile and PC at some point this year. Expect some pretty aggressive monetisation (given the developer) as you explore a new region known as the Deadlands either alone or with a squad of friends by your side.
The second, revealed just last week, is developed internally at Guerrilla Games and known as Horizon Hunters Gathering. It’s coming to consoles and feels like a multiplayer experience akin to something like Dauntless or Elden Ring Nightreign. I’m not convinced it isn’t going to simply crash and burn as Concord did, but there is something infinitely more appealing and original about this cel-shaded concept of hunting robots with your fellow hunters. Let’s dive into what it’s all about and whether it can eventually stick the landing.
What Is Horizon Hunters Gathering All About?
I think I’m immediately more positive about the existence of Horizon Hunters Gathering due to the fact that it isn’t a live service hero shooter. Instead, it seems to have taken an aspect that many of us enjoyed from the single-player Horizon titles — hunting giant monsters — and tries to make that compelling with a few friends by your side.
Except you’re no longer playing as Aloy, instead stepping into the shoes of original characters, each with their own unique skills and abilities. Just like Nightreign, you will be sent out into biomes and tasked with taking on all manner of beasties. The elevator pitch immediately makes sense, even to someone who might not have played Horizon before.
What makes me most curious though is that, judging by the reveal trailer at least, is that the moment-to-moment combat no longer revolves around the consistent removal of mechanical components in order to weaken your opponents and turn their weapons against them. At the very least, it doesn’t appear that this new Spider-Verse-esque aesthetic accommodates that.
Guerrilla describes combat as “tactical, reactive, and skill-based” as each hero possesses a weapon which can be used in specific environmental circumstances. One character wielding a spear can jump into the air and fly towards the fray before making a breezy escape, while another uses a large hammer with a longer animation wind-up. Those wielding bows will be attacking from range and targeting specific parts of enemies to aid in taking them down.
The gameplay trailer features players scanning enemies and recognising components of certain monsters, but they no longer appear to glow nor are they begging to be detached.
And Does It Have A Chance At Success?
Characters aren’t confined by classes either, and prior to a hunt, you can pick whether you want to play a damage, tank, or support role, with individual abilities changing depending on what choice you make. And similar to Nightreign, the build system adopts a roguelike twist in the midst of hunts as you unlock microskills that can be applied to both your character and equipment. This way, every run should, in theory, be different and stop you from doing all the same things over and over again.
One of the best things about Nightreign is the open-ended nature of each run. There is an end goal determined by your team, but otherwise, you are free to roam large expanses of the map in search of upgrades, weapons, and loot. Hunters Gathering appears to be going in a similar direction. Yes, you need to slay a certain monster in each match, but how you end up going about that is all up to you. There might be some optional objectives to conquer, parts of the map that promise especially beneficial upgrades, or maybe you just fancy exploring.
In the context of the Horizon universe, with new characters working together, this sounds like a fun time, but it will all come down to the execution and how exactly Guerilla plans to offer support in the long-run. Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier confirmed recently that this has been the studio’s primary project, and Horizon 3 is still a ways off from release. So, if you’re after more of Horizon’s oversaturated post-apocalyptic universe, Hunters Gathering might be your only option. But hey, at least it’s imitating underrated multiplayer gems like Dauntless over an unrelenting barrage of hero shooters flooding the market right now.
But that sadly doesn’t change the fact that players are going to go into Hunters Gathering on the defensive. Over the past console generation — except unexpected hits like Helldivers 2 — we have been burned again and again by games like this. One taking place in an excellent universe previously defined by single-player experiences is going to be fighting an uphill battle from the very beginning.
If Guerilla wants us to stick around. Heck, if it wants us to care at all, it needs to provide something different, innovative, and instantly fun.
I’ve a potentially misguided feeling in my stomach that it might actually stand a chance, and I’ll be there on day one to find out.
Horizon Hunters Gathering
- Publisher(s)
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Sony Interactive Entertainment, PlayStation Publishing
- Multiplayer
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Online Co-Op
- Cross-Platform Play
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Full
- Franchise
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Horizon
- Number of Players
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1-3 players
