There’s a roaring in the distance. Trees are trembling. Billowing smoke swirls around the tip of the Mountain, electricity crackling through it. Deep inside is a secret - one that you’re going to help Aloy uncover. November 7th 2017 will see the release of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Horizon Zero Dawn’s first DLC, which sends the flame-haired Seeker, hunter, and unstoppable force of nature to what looks like Ban-Ur,ജ the homeland of the mystical Banuk tribe. She’s heard of some kind of mystery that waits inside the Mountain, and although the trailer is barely 2 minutes long, we’ve gleaned some key details from it. Forget all the words, and take away just these two: Yellowstone. Bear. Ahem - or maybe that should be ‘gorilla’. The arguments for either animal are convincing to say the least...
Most of the details you can guess: there’s a new map, new weapons, and new settlements. of hunting in the lush post-post apocalyptic w✅orld awaits, with Guerrilla’s Managing Director calling the DLC “very substantial”. Now all the obvious stuff is out of the way, let’s get to the really intriguing bits - namely the Banuk and their homestead of Ban-Ur.&nbsꦍp;
Yellowstone National Park is home, sweet home
"Guerrill𓆉a might have dropped a substantial hint about how big the Frozen Wilds map will be."
Siluk, a member of the Banuk tribe, mentions to Aloy during the events of Horizon that recently there’s been trouble in his homelands. Proud hunters and the more spiritual shamans are arguing about how to respond to the changing world around them. It’s likely that this is referencing the Corruption - the virus created by the rogue AI Hades that turns robot animals from tame to ferocious - with the hunters advocating ‘neutralising’ the threat with a metric ton of♛ arrows. I doubt the Shamans (bearing in mind the Banuk people believe they can live in spiritual harmony with the robots) are of the same opinion, hence why some have been exiled from Yellowstone/Ban-Ur by their own tribe. Yet in the trailer we see the Mountain Aloy is eager to delve inside, which closely resembles the famous Devils Tower. Only thing is, that giant rocky outcropping is 361 miles away from Yellowstone National Park. Either the game designers have exercised their creative licence to bring it a bit closer, or it’s a completely new mountain created during the apocalypse by whatever lies beneath.
If it’s the Devils Tower that tourists from all over the globe are familiar with, Guerrilla might have dropped a substantial hint about how big the Frozen Wilds map will be. A with - quite frankly - incredibly impressive diligence worked out that Horizon’s map is about 415 miles wide (on a 107.5:1 scale to real life). With the distance from Yellowstone to Devils Tower being 361 miles, we could be looking at a map only slightly smaller than the full game, which is intoxicating. So much space! Just think of all the quests that could be squirrelled away in its corners. Or it’s a completely new map, with a landmark that just happens to look astonishingly like the towering rock formation Wyoming is famous for. Minu🥂s the crackling electrical smoke, of course. Regardless of whether t♍he mountain is real or not, whatever monstrosity that’s guarding it isn’t happy. Which leads me nicely onto...
Beware the beast
When even a Thunderjaw’s eyes turn amber at the sound of this unknown monster’s roar, you know you’re in trouble. The only time that robots turned on robots in the original game is when Aloy overrides one of their own, so to have something mechanical trigger the Thunderjaw’s fight instinct is extraordinary. It also probably doesn’t bode well fo꧋r Alo🐟y either, as anything dangerous enough to make the apex predator get on the defensive sure as hell isn’t going to go down quietly. Or easily. Just take a look at it in action:
One thing we can be 100% certain about is that this robot has never been seen before. It has broad shoulders on a short body, a bulky belly, and a relatively small head that looks to be split in the middle like Horizon’s Scrapper robot. Sure, it would be pleasantly fitting for it to be a bear seeing as Yellowstone is full of the fluffy, teethy predators. Native American lore also says Devils Tower was created by a bear clawing up its side, so it would make sense. Yet study this gif🐭 for a moment:
The wide, heavy belly that hangs below the shoulders, and the way the robot moves by simultaneously pushing off its hind legs makes it looks suspiciously like a gorilla. The reaching digits on its left hand as it lands in the snow also look like fingers rather than paws, which would fit the idea of an ape. Either way, there’s a glint of blue on its black (rather than green, which is typically the colour of blaze) so whatever the giant mechanised creature is, it’s probably got a frosty attack that uses the sparkling azure chillwater. The fact Aloy is decked o🦋ut in her ridiculously strong Shieldweaver armour subtly implies that we could also be seeing the introduction of a New Game+ mode, with an extra hard difficulty for those of you who want to put her skills to the test. That’s good news. I promise.
What do you think? Is it a bear or gorilla that’s lurking in the electrical smoke - or something completely different? Let us know your theories in the comments below!
While here at GamꦗesRadar, Zoe was a features writer and video presenter for us. She's since flown the coop and gone on to work at Eurogamer where she's a video producer, and also runs her own Twitch and YouTube channels. She 🔜specialises in huge open-world games, true crime, and lore deep-dives.
