Aloy and the revolution

If the video game were an algebraic operation, the best way to measure its success would be directly proportional to the amount of cosplayers – that is, those fans who dress like the characters of that video game – who wander among the stands of fairs and gatherings for fans and amateurs. Those of Aloy, protagonist of Horizon Zero Dawn, there are thousands: long red hair, leather skirt, leather necklaces intertwined with an anodized cable and the majestic wooden arch embellished with metal plates that our heroine wields to survive a world that has rejected her are, in fact, the peculiar characteristics that have appeared in thousands of posts and thousands of memes on the Internet for the past five years. Since when Horizon Zero Dawn saw the light in 2017 exclusively for PlayStation 4 it was immediately clear, in fact, that Guerrilla and PlayStation had hit the mark by weaving a post-apocalyptic story around a leader who, with courage and self-denial, struggles to rebuild her past and free herself from the condition of being marginalized. We are in 3039, human civilization has almost disappeared, hundreds of robots threaten the equilibrium of a world regressed to the primitive stage, and the orphan Aloy grows up trying to save a humanity reduced to small disintegrated units, to knots of people who would like to find the strength to fight automatons to regain control of a dying world. Aloy is the answer to their prayers: thanks to her emotional intelligence and her charisma, Aloy manages not only to use all her strength to save their lives, but also to reassemble the pieces of a puzzle that will help her and the player to finally see clearly, to understand why she is she was forced to live as an outcast and discover her true identity.

Horizon Forbidden West, the new chapter of the saga out on February 18 exclusive to PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, the story continues following Aloy in the Forbidden West, a barren and hostile land that the protagonist will face to find a cure for the Earth and ensure that humans survive extinction. «The community around Horizon over time it has gotten bigger and bigger, and I am honored to say that, to date, we have sold over 20 million copies, which is incredible “, she explains in video call. Angie SmetsStudio Director & Executive Producer of Guerrilla Games, the company that developed the saga of Horizon.

The most striking thing about Aloy is, above all, her emancipation from any representative stereotype: experts know well how much women in video games have struggled to get out of the dimension of sexualization that forged them as aesthetically perfect and responding to a certain masculine imaginary, with pronounced breasts, full lips and a narrow waist. With her freckled cheeks and her stern look, Aloy has managed to redeem an industry that is finally free from labels: Aloy is neither mother nor spouse, nor supporting actor or helper, but a strong and courageous woman who, in a world where gender differences no longer exist, uses her weapons to discover herself, taking with her all her weaknesses, fears and reservations that belong to the psychological complexity of mankind. “From the point of view of writing, we have always been interested in the interiority of the characters. What are their deepest desires, their conflicts and the forces that move their actions, “he says Annie Kitainsenior writer of the Horizon.

“The fact that Aloy is an outcast from birth creates a strong emotional connection with the player, because she brings him into a new world by putting himself in the shoes of a heroine who is trying to understand why she was abandoned and why she doesn’t have a mother. . His journey through Zero Dawn it is a constant search for those answers. In Forbidden West we tried to stay as faithful as possible to what the players loved about Aloy in Zero Dawn, that is, the fact that he is strong, compassionate, intelligent and curious ». The choice to model Aloy’s features on those of Dutch actress Hannah Hoekstra and to have her speak with the voice of Ashly Burch, who dubbed her both in Zero Dawn both in Forbidden Westdid nothing but confer three-dimensionality and depth to a character who has managed to captivate not only the male audience, but also the female one, traditionally considered detached from the world of video games. “It is deeply wrong to think that players are always and only males,” explains Smets. “If we look at the most recent PlayStation statistics we find, in fact, that about 42 percent of the players are women. I firmly believe that we have managed to create a character that players like regardless of whether they are male or female ». The condition of marginalization and the way of dealing with the loneliness that Aloy was forced to are, for Kitain, just some of the elements that arouse empathy in the players, together with the compassionate nature that leads the heroine to help all those who suffer and need the intervention of her. “There are many peculiarities that allow people to identify with her, including his sense of humor. ‘