How Guerrilla Games' Horizon Franchise Subverts the Sci-Fi Genre

The Horizon franchise embraces the sci-fi genre, but also subverts it by not glamorizing the idea of taking to the stars and leaving Earth behind.

[CS7]

Great article! Great game series!

[RabbitFly]

The premise og this article does not make sense. Sci-fi has not glamorized space exploration, sure there are some standouts that do, but most true to genre Sci-fi is usually more about the human consequences of technology/progress. It is most often quite dystopian and almost never celebratory.

As such Horizon's reference to space exploration does not buck any trend in Sci-fi. In fact it follows the trope.

I get that this article was supposed to celebrate horizon. Which it deserves. But the superficial nature of that premise stands out to me.

It's like the author thinks all Sci-fi is like star trek, yet still ignoring how much of star trek, while celebratory of space exploration, still tries to warn of the hubris of man.

[kayoss]

The way i interpreted the ending of HFW is that it wasnt space travel that was the consequences of what happened. It was technology that ended up dooming Earth and forcing the survivors to seek out refuge in space. However, it seems like they didnt learn their lesson and because whatever they created became sentient and destroy their "new" world. Forcing them back to Earth. Thats what i got from the ending.

[ravinash]

@ kayoss
Sounds like the original planet of the apes... what year did that come out again?

[RabbitFly]

The moral of Horizon, and most Sci-fi for that matter, is not that technology is to blame, but mankind.

It Just explores the consequences of the hubris of man taken to it's ultimate conclusion through technology. Which, as is common in the genre, we create the means of out own destruction.

Again, my point is merely that this article uses a false premise to create an eye catching headline, and it annoys me. Because it only works if you are ignorant of the premise. So the author is either ignorrant about this topic and should therefore not have presented such a premise, or the author banks on the reader being ignorrant so the premise works. Either way ignorance is spread.

[MrBaskerville]

Haven't played that far, but assume it's something like Dan Simmons' Illium, but probably less interesting. Not a bad thing though, it's hard to compete with the ideas in Simmons Sci-Fi.

[MrBaskerville]

In Illium, peoplr have ascended to the stars. But they left people on earth, who primitive lives with some help from old technology. They have machines that can reconstruct their flesh if they die in an accident. When they turn 30(?) they ascend and join their people in the stars. That's what thet think, in reality they end up on a desolate space station where they are killed by a creature that call itself Caliban. The people in the stars have been gone for a long time and all that is left is remnants of their different projects.

[MrBaskerville]

But illium and Olympos is nowhere near his Hyperion series, which might be up there among the best sci-fi ever written. It's Neuromancer tier stuff, if not better.

[anast]

Blade Runner, Snowpiercer, District 9 and .....there is a metric ton of Earth-bound sci-fi.

[Eonjay]

I feel like Horizon Zero Dawn is a reflection of Jurassic Park where we are the dinosaurs and GAIA/the robots are John Hammond

I feel like Horizon Forbidden West is a reflection of Independence Day where Far Zenith is like the invading aliens with impenetrable Shields.

And finally I feel like the next game let's just call it Nemesis for now is a reflection of The Matrix where the other AIs need to work together to stop Agent Smith.

There are so many approaches the TV show can take on a Sci-fi front. I'm a big sci-fi genre fan so that's why Horizon clicks for me so much.

[BrainSyphoned]

How Earthbound subverts the sci-fi genre

[Demetrius]

This series is still new only 2 games in same with dying light, those 2 companies deserve the success 😎😎😎 atleast they’re trying to make the best of what they have created and staying dedicated unlike the new rockstar and EA

[Sciurus_vulgaris]

A lack of space travel in science fiction is not subversive. Plenty of science fiction games don’t feature space or space travel as a major plot point. Good examples include: Resistance, Gears of War, Fallout, Deus Ex and Cyberpunk.