Earlier this year we saw what could be considered one of the most audacious “inspired by” video games in the industry’s history. While there have been many games that have tried to capture the same magic that the Pokemon series has delivered, Palworld is so close to the source material that the developers are now in a legal dispute.
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If Nintendo is successful, it will set a dangerous precedent for the future of the games industry.
Revealed just a few hours ago, Light of Motiram seems to follow the same formula. Instead of ‘Pokemon with guns’, the game is trying to be ‘Horizon Zero Dawn with survival mechanics’. In fact, the promo image of the game looks almost identical to the one for Horizon Forbidden West. The game has been created by Polaris Quest, a subsidiary of Tencent.
This All Looks Very Familiar
The Steam page for Light of Motiram is now live. The description of the game reads, “In a world overrun by colossal machines, explore the vast open world, build your base of operations, advance technology, train Mechanimals, and take on formidable bosses. Starting from the primitive age, forge a new path of development. Defy the machination, survive with mechanimals.”
From the pictures and videos, these mechanimals look like they’ve been pulled right out of the Horizon series. They are based on real-life animals, and mostly feature a colour palette of grey, black, yellow, and neon blue lights. Even the setting is similar, a post-post apocalypse, where humans are trying to thrive after a major disaster.
The dressing sense and overall style features a mix of primitive garbs laced with futuristic metals that are seemingly mined from these mechanimals – again very similar to Guerrilla Games’ flagship series.
One of the big differences is the inclusion of survival and building mechanics. It seems you’ll need to forage for resources and build a settlement as well. There are also a number of weapon types that you’ll be able to build, and some of these mechanimals will also follow you into battle.
The game will also allow you to team up with up to ten other players to fight mechanimals, hunt for resources, and even team up to build a base.
As if the mechanimal and overall design aesthetic wasn’t worrying enough for Guerrilla Games, that last bit will definitely ruffle some mechanical feathers, due to the long-rumoured Horizon MMO being in the works. Considering Sony considers Aloy one of its biggest mascots, we could be in for another legal battle.
Horizon Forbidden West again follows Aloy as she navigates a post-catastrophic world populated by mechanical fauna. She must travel west into unknown territory in order to find a GAIA backup and save the planet’s biosphere.