Guerrilla Games is staffing up, and the details of their job openings indicate their unannounced project is Horizon Zero Dawn 2. One listing in particular mentions the series by name and all but confirms the Amsterdam studio is hard at work on a sequel to one of 2017's bets-reviewed games.
Seeking a Technical Vegetation Artist, the listing says, "within Guerrilla, we have four teams dedicated to creating the stunning environments of Horizon [and] one team focuses on the creation of lush and stunning vegetation." The listing further explains that the Technical Vegetation Artist they're seeking will work on "the creation of vegetation assets that are used to dress the game world."
Though it's not a formal reveal, this news does follow an apparent slip of the tongue in April this year when voice actor Janina Gavankar, who played the lead in Star Wars Battlefront 2 and Tatai in Horizon's 'The Frozen Wilds' DLC, mentioned to a fan that the game was in production and that she knows "some secrets."
Horizon Zero Dawn released in 2017 to rave reviews, boasting an 89 OpenCritic score with 96% of critics recommending it. The open world title was considered at the time to be a risky project for the studio, who had previously worked mostly on the Killzone series, but their sandbox world was a hit with fans and critics alike thanks to its interesting sci-fi world and deep combat mechanics that oscillates between being the hunter and the hunted. It got a major DLC expansion in 'The Frozen Wilds' at the end of 2017, which upped the difficulty of some combat encounters and was once again a critical hit, garnering an 84 OpenCritic score
A sequel has never appeared unlikely, with the story universe set up to support more of Aloy's adventures, and some now expect the game is targeting a launch window of this time next year to coincide with the PS5 launch.
