Horizon: Zero Dawn, the upcoming PS4 exclusive from Guerrilla Games, is a very different type of game than we’ve come to expect from the Cambridge-based studio. Known mostly for the Killzone franchise, their games have till now been heavily focused on guns, grit, and men-driven action but as you’ll soon learn in a week’s time, Horizon is nothing like that. Instead, Horizon features a lush, open world game led by Aloy. Unfortunately, the fact that a AAA game featuring a female heroine is news and controversial for some in 2017 is frankly a bit sad and paints you a picture of where video game culture still lies.

At the same time, the fact that many have embraced it with beautiful cosplay like that from Anne Torstensen and that despite the risk of it, Guerrilla Games moved forward with Aloy as the lead, is also encouraging. In the same breath, the studio hasn’t been shy about their initial caution towards casting a female lead and the back and forth the studio went through before fully committing, which on its own is also refreshing. It’s so easy to come ahead of this story with how they always wanted a female lead which even if true, does a disservice to them and the hard work they had to go through to make it a reality. After all, a AAA game doesn’t pay for itself.

Luckily for Guerrilla Games, their vision lined up entirely with how Sony sees the future. Here is Sony Interactive Entertainment UK’s product manager, Jon Edwards:

 Guerrilla Games has talked about this in the past and they were very much focused on creating a curious and determined character that was believable in this new world – it just so happened that the character ended up being female. Aloy is spirited, adventurous and driven to figure out the challenges that she comes across in this post-apocalyptic world inhabited by machines, you really buy into her as a tribal hunter and we think that the players will really enjoy playing as her. She’s a PlayStation icon of the future. 

What I most like about how Guerrilla Games has developed Horizon is that the fact that Aloy being a female is part of the story line. It’s so easy to create the next Hitman game and replace the lead with a woman but that does little to talk about the human condition and how men and women see and experience the world differently. Rest assured that Uncharted would and should be a very different game if the lead were a woman and Horizon is exactly that – a game from a very different perspective that us gamers don’t often get to experience outside of different character skins.

Instead the tale Horizon tells is informed by Aloy and part of that is being a woman, and to know that Sony recognizes this is empowering. After all, some of the most creative people in gaming today include the likes of Amy Hennig who led Uncharted 1-3 and anything the industry can to do not just normalize women as leads, but to encourage their involvement in the creation process as well is a positive for all gamers.

You can read the full piece at MCV UK.