In 2017, one of the best-selling games of the PlayStation 4 was released: Horizon Zero Dawn. Building on the success of this new franchise, Sony and Guerrilla have decided to put the cover back this year by offering us a second opus for the series. But one question remains, what really happened between the first two parts of this license?
Yes Horizon Forbidden West sets sail for a new land, the publisher Mana Books has seen fit to allow us to discover some original stories taking place between the two episodes. And the first volume of these comics was released this month, slightly before the release of the title developed by the Dutch studio.
But does this original creation, which came to flesh out the universe of the saga, live up to its ambitions? And above all, do the directors of Guerrilla, whose desire is to expand the universe ofHorizon across multiple media, can be satisfied? Let’s see it all together.
A side-story to connect the two games?
The first thing to know is that this book is subtitled The Falcon-Sun. For those who have pushed the completion of the video game title further than the main plot alone, you will easily have understood an essential point of the story: Aloy is not the central character of this comic.
No, instead the story focuses on Talanah, after the heroine of Meridian manages to defeat Hades with the help of her allies. Despite this victory, many machines continue to threaten hunters around the world. And, in Aloy’s absence, it is her friend who takes care of everyone’s safety.
Yes, but now, some time ago, Talanah and Aloy discovered a new species of machine, much more powerful and dangerous, which preys on humans. Recognizable by their look and their color, these machines are difficult to defeat and will, as you can imagine, be the center of interest in this first original story.
Obviously, and as the story progresses, the reader can discover new characters, while slightly deepening the relationship between the heroine of the present story and the heroine of the original story, although this second does not make only very brief appearances throughout the pages. Nonetheless, Talanah holds the helm very well, proving to be an interesting character to follow.
Successful atmosphere and visuals
Yeah, let’s face it, following a story that puts Aloy in the background to focus on Talanah, that was a pretty bold move. After all, the license is still young and apart from its heroine, the universe ofHorizon has not yet shown its full potential and its secondary characters have remained, as their name suggests, secondary. Therefore, highlighting them may seem risky, but the formula takes quite well here.
This script and these successful characters, the comics probably owe it to Anne Toole, who took care of writing the script for this story. If her name means anything to you, it’s probably because she worked as a screenwriter on Horizon Zero Dawn, just that. As a result, what is presented to us in this adventure fits very well into the game, while remaining pleasant to follow.
A small downside, however, is the pace of the story. We feel that the objective was to complete this story of Talanah in a format that would fit in a single integral. The rhythm is therefore very sustained and certain sequences go much too quickly. Offering a little break time in reading, via a few sets and panorama, would not have been too much. Despite everything, we can say that the content is sufficient on its own.
On the artistic side, Ann Maulina and Bryan Valenza shared the task. The first, an Indonesian artist, tackled the drawings in order to offer us high quality visuals, while the second set out to colorize all this to immerse us in the color palettes of the universe ofHorizon.
Should we fall for Horizon Zero Dawn – La Faucon-Soleil?
As you will have understood, we had a good time reading this story following the defeat of Hades. Despite everything, note that this story adds only a few elements to everything that revolves directly around Aloy. It is therefore not a vital purchase for those for whom games are enough.
Moreover, the ambition of the studio behind Horizon Zero Dawn is clearly to expand the universe of its franchise. This first volume does, but without offering a real gateway to potential new fans. The adventure presented here assumes that the reader has already played and completed the original video game before starting. A very interesting addition to the Mana Books catalog for video game lovers, therefore.
Buy Horizon Zero Dawn – The Sun Falcon on Amazon
Thus, we can end this article on a positive note. For fans of the original title and comic book lovers, this story is recommended because it remains very pleasant to discover, well written and visually well done. Its treatment of characters is also very good. We therefore strongly recommend this reading to all those whom the first part of the saga was able to convince!