Horizon: Zero Dawn and the Quest for Identity
Trauma with all the fixins
This article contains spoilers for Horizon: Zero Dawn
The best art isn’t a reflection of the times we’re living in. The best art seeks to answer unanswerable questions. On a macro level, what is the meaning of life, of existence? And on the micro level, who am I and why was I born? Depending on your point of view, your faith, your religious beliefs (or lack thereof), you might have some answers that satisfy you. Perhaps your answer fills your soul, but when you explain it to another, they are disturbed. It seems humanity as a whole can’t agree to be civil to one another, let alone agree on the answers that solve the mystery of reality itself. And yet, strangely, these questions remain. They’re necessary, they poke and prod, they frustrate. They force us to look beyond ourselves, assuming we’re not too frightened to do so.
Aloy is the main character in the PS4 game, Horizon: Zero Dawn, and she’s an overcomer. She starts the game as a young girl and an outcast, living with another outcast, her adoptive father, Rost. While both were part of the matriarchal Nora tribe, they’ve been kicked out for unknown reasons. Rost never tells Aloy why he was ousted. Doesn’t matter. He teaches her what’s important for survival: hunting, climbing, stealth, and other well-worn gaming mechanics.
According to Nora tradition, any Nora outcast who wins a yearly contest known as “The Proving” will be welcomed back into the tribe. Aloy could care less about the Nora, but she is interested in answers, the typical ones, the important ones. Who am I? Why was I kicked out of your stupid tribe for jerks? Do I belong to the Nora, or am I part of something bigger?
While Aloy does win The Proving, it comes at a significant cost for her: the loss of Rost, the one figure she looked up to. Now, she’s well and truly alone, welcomed only by a group of people who just days prior viewed her as a wretch.
Circumstances unfold, and Aloy is sent out beyond Nora boundaries (by the Nora matriarchs, ironically) to discover more about who she is and what the hell’s happening in the world at large.
Aloy is not an endearing character, even though the developers really want you to like her. They portray her as kindhearted and giving to the suffering outcasts, and bold and domineering to the wicked. But Aloy only rings true when she’s distrusting of others. That is how a character like her - an outcast loner, raised by a gruff, stubborn man – would actually behave. She doesn’t trust most people, and why would she? Her own tribe banished her as a small child. Her father figure is dead. The world is harsh, and despite all her kindhearted errands for others, Aloy resonates the most when she takes care of Aloy. Self-preservation and all that.
Later in the game, we discover that Aloy is somehow connected to a woman from the past who may or may not have successfully saved humanity from a robot onslaught. Naturally, Aloy is interested in uncovering this woman’s identity and how she, Aloy, relates to her.
Aloy has no identity to call her own. Others thrust identities on her: outcast, Nora warrior, huntress, machine rider, etc, but they all fail to describe who she is. But who is she? The more she explores the world, the more she helps others, the more people want to pin her down. Will Aloy be satisfied when she finds answers about the woman from the past who looks remarkably like her? Aloy doesn’t know herself, so even if the answers brought insight and clarity, she’s still left with the same problem.
By the end of the game, Aloy has learned everything. She’s a genetic clone of Elisabet Sobeck, a scientist who helped save humanity from complete extinction hundreds of years ago. While this sounds noble, and Aloy takes it in stride, she’s back to where she started. Isolated, adrift, unable to really connect with anyone. Are there any other clones out there in this world? The game never says.
Horizon: Zero Dawn is marketed as a heroic tale of a young woman’s quest to learn her identity. But once she finds the truth, the result is tragic. Aloy is not her own person. From the moment she was born as a clone, to when she was ostracized from the tribe as a baby, to helping other people, good, bad, and neutral. Her actions are always the result of others’ actions. Saving others is the right thing to do, so she does it. But does she truly want to be a hero or is she just trying to prove her worth as a human being to others, to herself?
Aloy isn’t a character I particularly like, but I respect her. She’s just looking for answers like the rest of us, a young girl surrounded by people, animals, and wild beast robots, yet forever alone. But she never quits. She never stops moving forward. That’s all any of us can do in life, keep going, even when you want to stop. You might boost your muscles at the gym, but inner strength comes through persevering, enduring, and fighting to make a path for the future, your children and your children’s children. Life’s hard, always. Get up and take the risk, set out on the journey. Maybe you too will one day find yourself.1
*images courtesy of GamesRadar, Techgoondu, Writerly
But even if you don’t, at least you’re probably not a clone. Swings and roundabouts.
Great post!!
I think the thing I appreciated about Horizon over anything else was how the game (for the most part) lets you decide how to approach any given combat situation. I'm not a huge action game fan because I'm not necessarily the twitchiest player, but being able to safely pick off enemies atop a Tallneck or finding a ledge to avoid the gaze of a Sawtooth let me experience the game the way I wanted to.
I saw the title and immediately thought of Flashback: The Quest for Identity. I’ve never played Horizon. I’m sure it’s a good game, but it seems to blend in with a lot of other modern titles these days.