Horizon's Aloy is Ripley meets Ygritte. "That's where we started" says Guerrilla

So PS4 exclusive Horizon: Zero Dawn from Killzone's Guerrilla Studios was already looking suitably exciting with its hunting, gathering and, oh yes, robotic dinosaurs. Now Guerrilla has been talking to Official PlayStation Magazine about the inspirations for main character Aloy and things are getting even better.

“We felt we had quite an original composition and combination of elements with the robots and the nature, so we also felt like it needed an original and strong character to go with that,” says game director Mathijs de Jonge when asked about influences for their lead. “One of the directions we were very interested in was a character like Sarah Connor in Terminator, Ripley in Alien or, more recently, Ygritte from Game Of Thrones; very strong female characters. That’s where we started.”

It's a great place to start too with the image above clearly showing some Ygritte-shaped influences but these character inspirations thankfully stretch further than just holding a bow and arrow. Aloy's hunting means she regularly takes on enemies such as the 33 foot high Thunderjaw we saw at E3. Yeah, the one with lasers, gatling gun and disc launcher.

If you want to know more than nothing (Jon Snow) about Horizon: Zero Dawn, the full feature is available in the new issue of Official PlayStation Magazine out on Friday. You can buy the new issue on shelves, digitallyorsubscribefor future issues.

Louise Blain

Louise Blain is a journalist and broadcaster specialising in gaming, technology, and entertainment. She is the presenter of BBC Radio 3’s monthly Sound of Gaming show and has a weekly consumer tech slot on BBC Radio Scotland. She can also be found on BBC Radio 4, BBC Five Live, Netflix UK's YouTube Channel, and on The Evolution of Horror podcast. As well as her work on GamesRadar, Louise writes for NME, T3, and TechRadar. When she’s not working, you can probably find her watching horror movies or playing an Assassin’s Creed game and getting distracted by Photo Mode.