Moving Through Ruins and Encountering Entropy in the Horizon Video Games

Abstract

Ruins are increasingly sites of interest in popular culture and scholarly settings, with recent academic thought surrounding ruination frequently crossing disciplinary lines. This includes work by human geographers reflecting on their experiences of walking through ruinous landscapes. By turning attention to the work of Tim Edensor and Jonathan Brettell, this article considers their ideas in the context of contemporary video games, using textual analysis to unpack the fantastical futures of Guerrilla Games’ Horizon Zero Dawn (2017) and its recent sequel Horizon Forbidden West (2022). Horizon Zero Dawn has been described as a ‘techno-fantasy’ (Maher n.p.), blending elements from classic fantasy novels and post-apocalypse film (Hudgins n.p.). These open-world role playing games are set in a post-apocalyptic United States, amidst landscapes strewn with debris left behind by the Old Ones. The player takes control of an outcast named Aloy, who sets out to solve the mysteries of the Old Ones and their technology, all while directing her on quests through a world overrun by strange animal-like machines. In considering the ruins of the Horizon games, this article develops the ideas of others: “that ruins might be one avenue through which to detect critical potential in games” (Fraser 178). On the whole, this article examines how Edensor’s and Brettell’s experiences of ruins compare to those in computer-generated settings, while thinking more broadly about the differences and similarities between physical and virtual ruins. In doing so, specific attention is given to how players traverse Horizon’s ruins, how game design curates the players’ experiences of ruination, and how encountering entropy provides an opportunity to reflect upon the future. Beyond these discussions, this article works to demonstrate the utility of fantasy media in interdisciplinary work, arguing that Horizon offers players an opportunity to engage with distinct entropic landscapes and to reflect on Earth’s ecological well-being.