The Horizon games offer open-world exploration with a main story path, but player freedom in how they progress makes them not entirely linear.
Exploring the vast landscapes and battling mechanical beasts is a hallmark of the Horizon series. But a common question arises: is Horizon game linear? The game presents a structured main story. Players can choose to engage with side quests, explore diverse regions, and pursue activities outside of the primary objectives.
While the core narrative progresses in a defined order, the games encourage player agency and offer diverse paths for completing tasks. This freedom in exploration and progression avoids a strictly linear experience.
Is Horizon Game Linear? Exploring the Open World and Story Paths
Okay, let’s dive into a big question many gamers have: Is Horizon, that game with the awesome robot dinosaurs, linear? When we talk about games being linear, we mean that they follow a set path, like a train on tracks. You go from point A to point B to point C, and that’s pretty much it. But what about Horizon? Well, it’s a bit more complicated than that. It’s not completely linear, but it’s not completely open either. Let’s explore what that means.
What Does Linear Mean in Gaming?
Before we get into Horizon specifically, let’s make sure we understand what “linear” actually means in a video game. A linear game often feels like a movie where you get to control the main character. The story unfolds in a pre-determined way, with limited ability to go off the beaten path. Think of classic platformers where you move from left to right, or many older first-person shooters with a clear level design. You generally move through pre-set spaces in a pre-determined order. This doesn’t mean these games aren’t great – they’re just structured differently!
Here are some key characteristics of a linear game:
- Set Story Path: The game’s story has a clear beginning, middle, and end, and you experience them in a specific order.
- Limited Exploration: You are often guided through levels or areas with walls or invisible barriers that restrict movement.
- Puzzle Progression: You might need to solve puzzles in a specific sequence to move forward.
- Character Growth: Character growth often follows a predetermined path, with skill points allocated along a fixed structure.
What is an Open World Game?
On the opposite end of the spectrum is an open world game. Here, you’re given a huge map that you can roam around more freely. Think of games like Grand Theft Auto, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, or The Witcher 3. In these games, you can often choose to do side quests, explore different areas, and engage with the world in a way that isn’t simply a path from one mission to the next. They often have more freedom with the main story too, allowing you to tackle things in different orders (although many will still have a main story path). In the open world game genre, games do still have the story path, but most open world games don’t confine you to this path.
Here are some key characteristics of an open world game:
- Large, Explorable World: You can freely move across a large game world.
- Non-Linear Gameplay: You can often do side quests, engage in mini-games, and find hidden items as you choose.
- Choice in Narrative Progression: Some open-world games even allow players to tackle main story missions in a different order, or affect the story ending depending on your choices.
- Emphasis on Exploration: Discovering new places, hidden locations, and world lore is a core part of the gameplay experience.
Horizon: A Blending of Both Worlds?
Now, where does Horizon fit into all of this? The Horizon games – Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West – definitely lean more toward the open world side of things. You have a massive map to explore, with a lot of room to run, climb, and even fly in the sequel. You will spend lots of time wandering around, discovering new areas, completing side quests, and hunting for resources. This feeling of exploration is central to the Horizon games experience. However, they also have a pretty clear main story arc that moves the narrative forward. This main story can feel pretty set, making it seem more linear at times.
The Open World Aspects of Horizon
Let’s look at why Horizon feels very much like an open-world game:
- Vast World Map: Both games feature gigantic maps packed with varied environments, from snowy mountains to lush forests to arid deserts. You can go almost anywhere you see (eventually!), making it feel very open.
- Side Quests and Activities: The games are filled with side quests, errands, hunting grounds challenges, relic ruins, and other things to do that aren’t part of the main storyline. These let you explore the world without always sticking to the main path.
- Resource Gathering and Crafting: You spend a lot of time finding resources to craft weapons, ammo, outfits, and other items, which encourages exploration and is a hallmark of open world game design.
- Freedom of Movement: You can run, jump, climb, and in Forbidden West, even glide and swim, which gives you a lot of freedom to get around the world. This movement freedom is much more than typical linear games.
The Linear Elements within Horizon
Even with all that openness, the Horizon games do have aspects that make them feel a bit linear in certain areas, especially in the story:
- Main Storyline Progression: The main story follows a specific path. While you can take breaks to explore or do side quests, you generally have to complete the main story missions in a set order to see the story through to the end.
- Key Story Locations: Certain areas, particularly those associated with the main narrative, must be visited in a specific sequence, and new story missions will not open up until you complete them in that order.
- Character Development: Although you have some say in Aloy’s skill path, story growth is pre-determined. Character development mostly happens within that main story line.
- Cutscenes and Dialogue: The extensive cutscenes and dialogue sequences help advance the story and often put you in places where you can’t freely explore.
A Focus on Story with Room for Exploration
Rather than seeing Horizon as either purely linear or purely open world, it is more accurate to see the game as having an open-world structure with a strong central narrative. The developers clearly wanted a detailed and focused story that they wanted players to experience, but they also wanted the freedom and fun that open world exploration provides. The main story acts as a spine, and the side content is the meat on that spine. It’s the combination of these aspects that makes the game feel both contained and expansive.
How does Horizon’s Structure Impact the Gameplay?
The way Horizon combines open world with linear elements impacts gameplay in many ways:
Freedom vs. Structure
You have the freedom to explore, but the game does nudge you back toward the main story with higher level enemies in certain areas, and story-critical items found in story related locations. This prevents you from running through the whole map at once, and creates a more carefully structured experience. The world opens up more as you complete the main story, which helps keep the experience from feeling overwhelming.
Pacing
The main story missions and side quests keep the action coming at a good pace, but the open world allows for players to set their own pace to some degree. You can slow down to hunt for a certain kind of resource or take a break from the story, then pick up right where you left off.
Worldbuilding
The story and exploration work together to build a rich and engaging world. By engaging with the side quests and locations, you learn more about the lore, the people, and the world that the game has constructed.
Examples within the Game
Early Game
In the early parts of the games, there is a lot more linearity. You are still learning the controls, the rules of the world, and the main character. As you progress and unlock new gear, the world opens more and you get more options for how to approach the world and story.
Main Story Missions
The main story missions can feel very linear. The game often takes you to specific locations for these missions, and may put you into cut scenes and dialogue that move you along in the narrative. These missions do still take place inside an open world map, but they feel more focused and less open when you are on these missions.
Side Content
The side content, which ranges from small quests to clearing out bandit camps, provides a lot of the game’s non-linearity. You can choose what order you want to engage with these activities and they help you feel more free as a player.
Why Does It Matter?
Understanding how Horizon balances open-world and linear elements helps us appreciate how the game was designed. It wasn’t purely one or the other. It chose a path where both elements combine to make the game feel both controlled and open, both focused and full of potential. This balance is actually one of the game’s strengths!
The Benefits of This Balance
- Engaging Story: The story acts as the primary driver, making sure the player has a goal and things to do that fit the overall narrative.
- Sense of Freedom: The open world aspect makes sure the player has the choice to explore, wander, and make the game their own.
- Variety of Gameplay: The combination of the two makes for a varied gameplay loop that provides a great balance between following the story path, and going off on your own adventures.
Is Horizon Game Linear? A Summary
So, is Horizon game linear? The short answer is: no, not completely, but yes, parts of it are! It is more of an open-world game that uses a main storyline to drive player goals. You have a lot of freedom to explore and do side activities, but the main story missions are fairly linear in how you complete them. The blend of these elements creates a unique experience that makes Horizon a fun and engaging game to play. The core strength is in this combination.
It offers a compelling story, an open-world that is fun to explore, and a great balance that will appeal to a lot of different types of players. If you are looking for a game that does not feel like one long path and also does not feel like it is directionless, then Horizon is a perfect fit! So, get out there and explore, hunt, and see where Aloy’s journey takes you!
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Final Thoughts
Horizon games offer a blend of open-world exploration with focused missions. The core story progresses in a set sequence, guiding you. Side activities give some freedom, but they do not change the main narrative.
Therefore, while the world itself provides space, the core question of ‘is horizon game linear’ leads to an answer; yes, it is primarily a linear experience in its main progression. Player choices mostly impact optional content, not the central story arc.
