The Horizon series has only consisted of singleplayer games up to this point, but it seems the franchise will be dipping its toes into the multiplayer genre soon. Guerrilla Games, the PlayStation-owned studio behind the series, is currently working on a live service game set in the world of the franchise, and it’s said to be somewhat similar to Monster Hunter in terms of gameplay. In addition to this, another, separate Horizon MMO is reportedly being developed by NCSoft, a South Korean company best known for its work on live service titles like City of Heroes and Blade & Soul.
Not much is known about either of the two upcoming Horizon games, but that’s because they haven’t been formally announced yet. Guerrilla confirmed that it was indeed working on a multiplayer Horizon title with a “unique stylized look” back in late 2022, but NCSoft hasn’t officially acknowledged the existence of its Horizon MMO. It’s not clear how the MMO in question will differentiate itself from Guerrilla’s multiplayer Horizon project, but if it does see the light of day, then NCSoft will need to carefully balance a lot of features and avoid the same mistakes that other singleplayer franchises, like Fallout, made when transitioning to the MMO genre.
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NCSoft’s Horizon MMO Needs to Avoid Making the Same Mistakes that Fallout 76 Made
Fallout 76 Was Widely Panned at Launch Due to its Lack of NPCs
The Fallout series, much like Horizon, has only consisted of single-player games throughout most of its existence. 2018’s Fallout 76, however, is the first (and, so far, only) entry in the franchise that has attempted to place the Fallout formula into a multiplayer-only live service game. Fallout 76 is a full-on MMO, and it was developed by Bethesda Game Studios, a company that previously had no experience in the multiplayer genre. Although the game is quite popular these days, it was nothing short of a disaster when it was first released.
Early reviews for Fallout 76 were widely negative, and for good reason. The game was not only riddled with bugs – far more than the average Bethesda title – it also had little-to-no content to speak of. To make matters worse, the small amount of content that was present in the game wasn’t on par with previous Bethesda titles in terms of quality. Perhaps the biggest issue with Fallout 76, though, was its lack of NPCs at launch. Unlike every prior installment in the Fallout series, there were barely any humans in the game, aside from other players. The only NPCs it did have were, for the most part, robot vendors.
The Fallout series has long been defined by its role-playing elements, emphasis on choice and consequence, and robust dialogue options; all of which cannot really exist without NPCs. It’s no wonder, then, that many fans criticized Bethesda’s decision to get rid of them in Fallout 76. To them, removing NPCs was akin to removing Fallout‘s identity. In the end, Fallout 76 received so much backlash for this particular omission that Bethesda decided to change course and add human NPCs in the game’s 2020 Wastelanders update.
NCSoft Needs to Balance the Number of NPCs in the Horizon MMO
The failures of Fallout 76 should serve as a lesson for NCSoft and its upcoming Horizon MMO. If it wants the game to have a successful launch, the company needs to avoid treading the same path that Bethesda’s Fallout MMO walked, especially when it comes to NPCs. While the Horizon games are not traditional, choice-driven RPGs in the same way that the Fallout games are, dialogue and NPCs still play a big role in them. As such, a Horizon game without NPCs wouldn’t really feel like a Horizon game.
With that being said, adding too many NPCs to the Horizon MMO can also be a problem. Since it’s a multiplayer-focused title that takes place in a post-apocalyptic environment, NCSoft will likely have to limit the number of NPCs in the game in order to place emphasis on the players themselves. If the Horizon MMO finds the right balance between the number of NPCs, it will become a lot more immersive as a result.
- Released
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February 18, 2022
- ESRB
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T for Teen: Blood, Language, Use of Alcohol, Violence