Hermen Hulst talks about RPGs, open worlds and what’s in store for Horizon: Zero Dawn

Horizon: Zero Dawn is staging itself to be one of the most visually stunning games to come to console in the recent future. A new IP from Killzone creators Guerrilla Games, HZD blends action and RPG elements to deliver a customizable and immersive world for players to explore.

While Guerrilla Games has defined itself in the past as a shooter oriented company, Horizon marks a massive departure from that and co-founder Hermen Hulst sat down with GamesRadar to expand on the company’s shift.

“The question is what is a game that ‘suits’ Guerrilla from a development perspective? From a core capabilities and a skillset perspective? So we received a wide range of concepts back from the team. There were probably about 35 or 40 that we reviewed, and we looked at certain trends in them and certain core elements, and we decided to take some of that forward into a prototyping stage.”

Hulst also explained that while the team very much considers Horizon to be an RPG, it isn’t the hard and fast Skyrim or Witcher style, “I guess you’re wondering where we are on that spectrum of, on the one side more action-orientated games like Assassin’s Creed, and on the other hand you have your Elder Scrolls and these kinds of series. I think we’re in-between. We have elements in both directions, and that probably puts us somewhere in between. It’s really difficult to talk about how deep the role-playing experience is without being able to show it yet, because people start speculating on it too much. Once we have something to show we’ll talk about it in more detail.”