All 3 ‘Horizon’ Games in Order

Horizon is a remarkable game franchise that gained prominence for Guerrilla Games after their Killzone series. The original, Horizon Zero Dawn, became a best-selling PlayStation 4 exclusive, featuring beautiful scenery, a compelling story, and a standout protagonist. The success continued with DLC and a sequel, Horizon Forbidden West, ensuring the franchise’s continued excitement and success.

Since then, the studio released the DLC Horizon Hero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds the same year, a sequel released in 2022, Horizon Forbidden West, and announced upcoming games that already excite the fans of this cool franchise. Horizon franchise has achieved great success, and it seems it won’t stop – this PlayStation exclusive did not disappoint yet. Currently, the Horizon franchise consists of three games and a single DLC.

Editor’s Note: This list was updated in November 2023, the latest released game is Horizon: Call of the Mountain.

Horizon games in order (at glance)

Horizon franchise is fairly new in the gaming industry, and it released two huge games, one DLC, and announced a new project that will be released soon. This is the order of the games at a glance:

• Horizon Zero Dawn (2017)
• Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds (2017) – DLC
• Horizon Forbidden West (2022)
• Horizon Call of the Mountain (2023)

We will discuss released games in more detail without spoiling anyone, mentioning their commercial and critical reactions and some new projects coming soon on our gaming platforms or TV screens.

Horizon games in order (release date)

1. Horizon Zero Dawn (2017)

Horizon Zero Dawn is the first game from the Horizon franchise and one of the most successful PlayStation exclusives in recent years. This 2017 post-apocalyptic game delighted the fans with its unbelievable scenery, characters, voice acting, storyline, and just the overall mood of a game. The Guerilla Games studio pitched the idea to Sony, whose executive admitted they were reluctant to invest in a game with a female protagonist, especially in this scenario – eventually, they let the studio develop the game.

The story is set in the post-apocalyptic United States, more specifically in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming area, in the 31st century. Humans are scattered all over the country, and humankind once again adopted the tribal lifestyle with very few high-tech tools and weapons.

Horizon Zero Dawn could not be better for the players who want to experience a cool cinematic story with great game mechanics and scenery – definitely check it out.

2. Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds (2017) – DLC

This DLC was released a few months after the original game’s release; in November of 2017, The Frozen Wilds DLC expanded on the already rich storyline of Horizon Zero Dawn. This expansion opens up a region called the Cut, a place on the border of Banuk territory that you can access by the mountain pass in the game, just north of the Grave-Hoard.

The region and the quests are accessible throughout the game, but the developers advise the players to complete the DLC when they hit level 30 or higher on their character. The Frozen Wilds is a cool expansion that the fans should check out.

3. Horizon Forbidden West (2022)

As the franchise’s prequel, Horizon Forbidden West is also an open-world action role-playing game developed by the Guerilla Games and published by Sony.

The sequel was a success; fans and critics praised the game’s improvements in the setting, which got much bigger than the previous installment, and overall improvement in every aspect of the Horizon game. If you thought the first game was beautiful, Guerilla Games went further, and both PlayStation 4 and 5, especially the latter one, presented us with the highest graphics possible.

The cast of the voice actors is phenomenal – Angela Bassett, Carrie-Anne Moss, Lance Reddick, and Ashly Burch brought their A-game to this amazing game. The story continues after the events of the first game, more specifically, six months later, when Aloy leads her group on a quest to the arcane frontier known as Forbidden Forest to find the source of the mysterious plague that is killing all it infects.

The conflict continues from the first game, and players must work hard to complete the ultimate mission and save the already suffering human species.

4. Horizon Call of the Mountain (2023)

In ‘Horizon Call of The Mountain’ you are playing as Ryas, a skilled climber and archer equipped with a hunter bow; players navigate a largely linear but explorable world, facing robotic creatures. The storyline involves Ryas investigating aggressive machine attacks, climbing Sunspear Mountain, and searching for his brother Urid with guidance from Aloy. The game also features a scenic mode called “Machine Safari” for landscape exploration.

Where to acquire the Horizon game?

All Horizon games except the last installments are present on all major gaming platforms such as PlayStation, Xbox, and PC and hence can be bought on the digital marketplaces. Horizon: Call of the Mountain is still a PlayStation exclusive and can only be bough on the PlayStation store.

Do you need to play Horizon games in order?

From the first game, as players, we followed the story of Aloy and her journey across the post-apocalyptic United States Mid-West, her goal for survival, and ultimately saving the human race.

The game presented us with what regular humans are dealing with in the post-human world, dealing with vicious machines that became sentient and “free.” To get the full Horizon experience, you should consider playing Horizon games in the release date order, which correlates with the chronological order.

Are Horizon games connected?

Of course, all Horizon games are closely connected since we are following the same story that started in the original installment of Horizon Zero Dawn. Call of the Mountain has another protagonist, but Aloy will still have a great role in the game’s story. We cannot wait!

Will there be more Horizon games and projects?

We don’t have any news regarding the upcoming Horizon installment, but we do know, that a new Horizon Netflix TV show is still developing. Sony is eager for their notable gaming franchises to adapt to small screens. Hopefully, Netflix does a good job adapting the Horizon game and avoids the debacle they received with the recent Resident Evil franchise. Until then, follow our order and indulge yourself in the beautiful post-apocalyptic world of Horizon.

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