Horizon's co-op game may be a shameless Monster Hunter-like, but it's enough to get me excited about a new PlayStation live service for once

Even though I've put hundreds of hours into the Horizon series' post-apocalyptic open worlds, and many times that across my favorite online games, the prospect of turning Horizon into a series I play alongside friends always made me sceptical. With Horizon Hunters Gathering, I am so in – whether I like it or not.

Don't get me wrong, Horizon Hunters Gathering is very clearly just a shameless take on Monster Hunter Wilds and the rest of that iconic monster battling RPG, but in the Horizon universe instead. Even so, it's not a genre with a lot of competition (and yes, I did actually quite like Dauntless while it lasted), and Horizon already has enough crossover design-wise with Monster Hunter to make the genre feel like a natural fit – this is a format far from having to be crowbarred in to fit alongside the rest of Horizon.

Machine hunter

It's not just that Aloy's adventures through Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West have her battling huge dinosaur-like machines – the mechanical wildlife having risen from the ashes of an apocalyptic world reset to zero – they've always been the best bit. To be honest, one of my gripes with Forbidden West as a sequel was an over-reliance on fights against humanoid enemies and more traditionally sci-fi threats instead. It's the detailed battles with hulking machine creatures that force Aloy to pick them apart piece by piece – be they snarling piston-faced T-Rex-like creatures of earth-shaking metal-domed tortoises – that have always stolen the show in Horizon. It's always been met with favorable Monster Hunter comparisons ever since the first game on PS4.

So, when tackling a co-op take on the series, why not embrace those best bits? Seemingly, that's exactly what Horizon Hunters Gathering is doing, a new threat of powered-up machine creatures forcing hunters to come together from all corners of Horizon's world to stop the threat (and even in the Horizon games, Aloy's lone wolf adventuring is something of an anomaly).

It's a simple premise that allows for the easy injection of multiple scenarios for monst– erm– machine hunting, and provides ample excuse for different hunter classes to rock up for players to control. These classes include ones that echo some of the many weapon sets Aloy uses in the main series, as well as some fresher ways to tackle mechanical enemies, from those with heavier weapons to those with tools inspired by other cultures. You won't be able to swap on the fly, instead forcing you to commit to learning the intricacies of each class' weapons and how they can work together with other players, but I like the sound of exploring the depth of specific weapon types rather than always chasing something different (how much loot will annoy me, though, remains to be seen).

Which means that Horizon Hunters Gathering is also an excellent excuse to explore new aspects of Horizon lore beyond what Aloy has personally come face-to-face with – in fact, that's one of the things I like the most about the underrated Horizon Call of the Mountain VR game as well. I even like the look of the super stylized, more cartoony visuals – a far cry from the almost photo-realistic high-definition of Horizon Forbidden West, but one that ensures this co-op adventure can carve its own identity while still building on Horizon's core visual motifs.

Hunts are split into separate regions, and while details of what a front-to-back quest plays like isn't fully clear for every mission type so far, they seem to drop you into the confines of each biome, having you work together to track down and defeat your quarry whether that's above ground, or even fighting though one of the machine factory Cauldrons that dot the land. Both are distinct mission types for launch, with Machine Incursion having you face down several above ground threats, and Cauldron Descent being based around taking the fight into the mechanical bowels themselves.

It's certainly very Monster Hunter, but also has the chance to mimic Horizon's open world exploration in smaller scale, learning and mastering the shape of environments meaning your own knowledge could become as much a tool of the hunt as your actual gear. Naturally, it's also one of many ways Horizon Hunters Gathering could grow in future as well – it seems well scoped to support lots of mission types at launch with plenty of potential to bolt more on in future. I just hope the mission types don't prove to be too prescriptive, and are able to embrace Horizon's literal worldbuilding at their best. Yes, here I actually want to make sure it's more Monster Hunter if possible – I know what I like. Let me play in that world.

Considering I've remained deeply sceptical of PlayStation's live service offering since Concord was shuttered within a week of its launch, a story that will annoyingly overshadow the fact it was actually a very solid and good game (if not a great one), that had room to grow, I'm surprised to say I'm really excited to see more from Horizon Hunters Gathering.

Horizon Hunters Gathering's inspirations may be obvious, but with how cleanly the hunting loop seems to fit into the world of Horizon it feels like a natural extension, what I've seen so far has me eager to get my hands on a controller and to learn more about Horizon's world through these new perspectives. More than simply forcing a live service online game onto a franchise that feels like it doesn't fit, it seems like Guerilla is approaching this in a way that respects Horizon as a world. Time will tell if it works out, but making even me curious after being burned before is definitely a good sign for now.

Take a look at our best co-op games list for more adventures together!