Written spoilers for the end of Horizon Zero Dawn may have leaked, seven weeks before the game hits PS4, which means it’s time for those sensitive to such information to pay very close attention to the sites they visit between now and the Horizon Zero Dawn release date.
Warning: This story includes major spoilers for Horizon Zero Dawn. If you don’t want to see them, it’s probably best to stop reading now.
Details on the alleged ending were posted to NeoGAF on Monday morning and attributed to a recent series of mock Horizon Zero Dawn reviews. The user who published the leaks, vivekTO, claims to have seen the spoilers on 4Chan; the anonymous image-hosting service that has yielded countless leaks (both real and fake) over the years. Guerrilla Games, the studio behind Horizon Zero Dawn, has yet to comment on the leaks or ask for the thread to be pulled; however, doing either would likely be interpreted as confirmation of the leak’s accuracy. That said, the alleged ending posted to NeoGAF doesn’t seem out of the realm of possibility. In some cases, it leans on information we already know to be true from existing interviews and promotional materials.
Responses to the leak have been mixed. Plenty of people are disappointed by the alleged finish. But there are just as many fans quick to say the ending isn’t nearly as important to them as the journey. If the gameplay in Horizon Zero Dawn is satisfying, many fans don’t care whether or not they know how the game will end before it’s even on store shelves. That said, we’ve also tried to be courteous to those who don’t want to know any major plot points before launch.
If you don’t want to know what allegedly happens at the end of Horizon Zero Dawn, do not scroll past the puppy gifs below. You’ve been warned (twice).
Here’s what vivekTO says we’ll learn at the end of Horizon Zero Dawn:
The story twist is that this is the second cycle in this world. The main character, Aloy, discovers by visiting the Ancient Ruins of civilization at the end of the game that the 'humans' you see walking around, including you, are simply bio-machines from the first cycle that used biomatter to replicate, like humans reproduce. Humanity has been gone EVEN LONGER than we, the players, think at first. The corruption is never fully explained, it's just established that it's from an unknown source within the ruins, but there's a hint it might have more importance in a sequel. The ending has Aloy basically choose between wiping out the robots or the bio-machines, since the robots were initially programmed by the original humans to wipe out the living creatures the bio-machines that yearned to live like humans hundreds of thousands of years ago feed off.
Zero Dawn is the name of the software found in a huge building in the Ancient Ruins that can shut off the beings roaming the world or your own race
