Guerrilla Games and NCSoft have announced Horizon: Steel Frontiers, an MMO take on the PlayStation open world series about taking down huge robo-dinosaurs in a lush post-apocalypse. Similar to the mainline games, the objective is to take down the machines, but this time you'll do so as a fully customizable "machine hunter" in an open world inspired by Arizona and New Mexico.
Curiously, Steel Frontiers is confirmed for PC, Android, and iOS but not PS5, though as Guerilla Games' Jan-Bart van Beek mentions in the video embedded above, it has been "built specifically for mobile". It's also well worth noting that this NCSoft-developed project is distinct from Horizon Online Project, which is an online spin-off Guerilla Games itself is making.
Based on the footage, Steel Frontiers looks pretty good for a mobile game, though that depends on whether you think the Horizon series in general looks good. There are few obvious compromises made when it comes to the equally lush and decrepit open world, and the mechanical beasties look as ornate as usual.
Some loose things I can glean from the video footage: there are mounts, both flyable and grounded. You can leap from your mount onto a Tallneck and commence climbing them with an advantage. Combat is just as much about hitting weak spots as it always has been, and traps are back too. It's possible to have a grappling hook, and to use it to grapple onto flying beasties.
Van Beek said Steel Frontiers is set in a place called the Deathlands, and that players will be "sharing the frontier with thousands of other players, sometimes working together to take down machines, sometimes competing with rival tribes, or fighting over resources."
Executive producer Sung-Gu Lee doesn't mince words when it comes to what the big idea behind Steel Frontiers is: "The core concept of Horizon Steel Frontiers can be summed up in one phrase: the thrill of taking down colossal machines," he said.
He also listed some of the ways combat will deviate from the original games. "Our main focus is designing a new combat experience tailored for MMORPGs," he said. Examples given include, "after destroying a specific part of a machine, you can quickly approach and climb onto it using a Pullcaster, set traps on the damaged part, and inflict status effects. During battle, you can even pick up weapons dropped by the machine, carry them to your mount and use them in subsequent fights."
Korea-based NCSoft is best known for Guild Wars 2 and the Lineage series. It has most recently released Throne and Liberty, and the brawler Battle Crush, which was shut down five months after its release in June 2024. Horizon is a bigger series than you might realise: big enough for it to have sold 38 million copies worldwide, and big enough to have warranted a "slavish clone" courtesy of Tencent (Sony is suing).
No word yet on when Horizon: Steel Frontiers will release, nor whether it'll be a paid affair or free-to-play.
