Horizon Call of the Mountainis the latest story in theHorizonfranchise, this time following a brand-new protagonist. As the former Shadow Carja Rebel Ryas, players explore the post-apocalyptic world in a new way, with more of a focus on traversal and staged sequences to mesh with VR rather than an open world. But that doesn’t take away fromHorizon Call of the Mountain’s ability to weave in and out of the previously established story, providing further context to the world outside of Aloy’s journey.
Players won’t find a Focus or information on Elisabet Sobeck or Ted Faro here. Instead,Call of the Mountainis a standalone story rooted in the troubling past of the Carja and the Sundom. Despite being the shortest game in the franchise,Call of the Mountainadds much more to the lore ofHorizonthrough new characters, settlements, and some familiar faces.
Spoilers for theHorizonfranchise will be included.
6A New Protagonist
InCall of the Mountain, players take on the role of Ryas, a former Shadow Carja Rebel. Ryas played an instrumental role in the abduction of young Prince Itamen, earning him the title “Itamen’s Shadow.” When the Carja caught up with him, he was handed a prison sentence by the Blameless Marad, a Carja spymaster and Sun-King Avad’s advisor, and imprisoned at Sunstone Rock.
InCall of the Mountain, Marad promises to pardon Ryas if he helps discover why machines are destroying settlements across the Sundom, including Dawn’s Grasp. Marad also wants Ryas to find his brother, Urid, who was initially given the task. He was last seen climbing the Sunspear to look for answers but has yet to return.
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While Ryas' story doesn’t go as deep as Aloy’s inHorizon Zero DawnandHorizon Forbidden West,the way in which the player explores the land as the new protagonist provides lore by seeing its settlements, ruins, and vistas from a different perspective.
5New Characters
Aside from Ryas, there are three new characters for players to get acquainted with inCall of the Mountain. Carja soldiers Hami and Kavad are the first to be encountered, who are tasked with escorting Ryas by boat to Marad to begin his quest. However, they soon have their journey cut short by a couple of Snapmaws, one of which kills Kavad as Ryas tries to rescue him.
Later on, once Ryas has made his way partly up the Sunspear, he meets the climbing partner of Ulrid, an Oseram called Radel. She begrudgingly helps Ryas by creating tools to help him, like climbing pickaxes and grappling equipment. Once Ryas reaches the Nora settlement of Mother’s Tears, he finally finds his missing brother, who helps him in his quest to find exactly what’sluringHorizon’s machines to settlementsacross the Sundom.
4Aloy’s Cameo
It wouldn’t beaHorizongame without a cameo from Aloy, and she pops up for averyshort time after the escort of Ryas goes awry. After being knocked out by Hami, Ryas is awoken by Aloy throwing a bucket of water at him. The Nora warrior just so happens to be passing through (like always) and helps interrogate Ryas once he is brought to Marad by Hami.
Aloy is then tasked with escorting Ryas to the bottom of the Sunspear. However, seeing that Ryas is more than capable of finding the source of whatever is causing the machines to act bizarrely, she informs the former Shadow Carja Rebel that she has more pressing matters to attend to – that being traveling to Sunfall to access the Zero Dawn facility beneath the Citadel.
3The Return Of Asera
Asera briefly appeared in theHorizon Zero Dawncomic series but became a primary antagonist inHorizon Forbidden West. During the Red Raids, she was second-in-command to Dervahl’s gang of freebooters. After Dervahl was captured and sent to The Claim to be sentenced, she took over his gang. InForbidden West, she renamed the group the Sons of Prometheus. Sylens subsequently provided her with the technology to override machines, which she then shared with Regalla’s Rebels.
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InCall of the Mountain, she’s the main antagonist and the source of the machine’s madness. She and the freebooters rigged Old World ruins around the Sundom, including Talonreach, with powerful beacons to lure the machines in. Ryas eventually discovered that she planned on sending Tallneck’s rigged with machine beacons into Meridian so that the city would be attacked by all manner of dangerous machines, including Stormbirds and Thunderjaws.
Ryas and Ulrid thwart these plans, and Asera falls to her death after a platform she and Ryas are on collapses. But as players know, she returns with a vengeance inForbidden West, soCall of the Mountainbridges the gap in Asera’s narrative betweenZero Dawnand its sequel.
2Unseen Locations In The Sundom
Despite taking place in the Sundom, a place that players will be familiar with,Call of the Mountainfeatures a variety of new locations. While Ryas isn’t given the opportunity to explore them as freely as Aloy, the use of VR gives players a pretty detailed insight into these previously unseen areas.
These include the adrenaline-pumping cat-and-mousechase with Thunderjawin Talonreach, the destruction of the Carja settlement, Dawn’s Grasp, and the abandoned Nora settlement of Mother’s Tears. The latter bears significance to Ryas, as he was stationed there as a soldier.
1How Call Of The Mountain Fits Into The Horizon Timeline
PlayStation has confirmed thatCall of the Mountaintakes place “between two missions inHorizon Zero Dawn," referenced by Aloy when she speaks of going to Sunfall and Marad when he recallsAloy’s help in capturing Dervahlin Meridian. This meansCall of the Mountainoccurs between those significant points inZero Dawn’sstory. While Ryas and Urid’s success in taking Asera down and stopping the beacon-rigged Tallnecks isn’t mentioned inZero Dawn, it makes sense as Aloy would have yet to see it happen.
Like Asera, Urid was briefly featured in theHorizon Zero Dawncomic series. However, both Ryas and Urid are mentioned in a datapoint early on inForbidden West. Aloy can find a datapoint in Barren Light written by Nozar Arin Khuvaman, the commander of the Carja garrison of the settlement, that only lets Aloy pass after the Embassy takes place. Titled “Itamen’s Shadow Captured,” Nozar writes of his hope that “Ryas is forgotten forever”, that his “treachery should earn him nothing”, and that he should “rot in the dark”.
Horizon Call of the Mountainis available on PS5 and requires a PSVR 2.
