Horizon Zero Dawn trilogy's final game already has perfect setting, fans agree

Guerrilla Games is beavering away on something, although we don’t actually know what.

In recent years, PlayStation has opted to reveal games much closer to their release dates.

I have to say, it’s working very well. You avoid the disappointment of delays and the likelihood of leaks.

For example, Ghost of Yōtei was announced in late 2024 ahead of its 2025 release - and if you ask me, 12 months is the perfect length of time to build hype without asking too much of fans’ patience.

As such, it’s no real surprise that we don’t know what Guerrilla is working on.

With Horizon Forbidden West having launched three years ago though, I’m imagining it won’t be too long before it’s unveiled what’s in store.

Let’s be honest, it’s practically guaranteed to be a third instalment in the trilogy.

With 2023 bringing us Forbidden West expansion Burning Shores and VR spin-off Call of the Mountain, and there being a multiplayer offering on the way, there’s no way Guerrilla is abandoning this franchise when it’s so close to completing Aloy’s story.

The question is, where could this final chapter take us?

Burning Shores is one of the most stunning expansions I’ve ever played.

Well, fans already have a few different ideas.

“I believe Horizon 3 will be set on the East coast,” Reddit user KebabGud wrote.

“First and foremost, it's important to recognise that the only location we have even remotely been teased is the Quen homelands, but I strongly disagree with the theories that it will be the location of the third game.”

They continued, “My personal theory is that the location will be on the American East coast, primarily stretching from North Carolina up to Maryland and as far inland as West Virginia.”

The user goes on to explain that “at the end of Burning Shores, Walter Londra believed that the key to defeating Nemesis may lie with old world technology that none of the members of Far Zenith knew about”, adding that in the real life US, defence contractors are largely clustered in North Carolina and Virginia.

Logically, it makes sense.

Alex_Masterson added this important tidbit though: “If you look at the map that Sylens is studying at the end of Burning Shores, you will see the locations of four of those five companies [mentioned by Londra] on the map. Two are in the western US, one appears to be in The Claim and one appears to be in Ban-Ur.”

The Claim is widely believed to be somewhere in the region of Idaho or Canada’s British Columbia, while Ban-Ur is to the East although not quite as far as the East coast so that does complicate things slightly.

“As cool as it would be, I don't think we’ll go further east than the Midwest. Plus for locations mentioned or teased since the first game, we still haven’t been to Ban-Ur or Mainspring,” Joe_Khopeshi wrote.

I’m with the majority of fans in thinking that we’re much more likely to visit the Midwest.

The Claim has been mentioned so many times that I can’t see us not exploring there.

All we can hope is that Guerrilla drops a reveal trailer in the next year or so, giving us some crumbs to ponder.