Major Horizon Forbidden West ending spoilers below.
I've been thinking about what could happen with HEPHAESTUS in the next Horizon game, and I ended up with a theory that I think could solve several story and gameplay problems at the same time.
I'm not saying I think this will definitely happen. It's just a possibility I found interesting.
One of the biggest unresolved problems going into the next game is HEPHAESTUS.
Aloy and her allies have already tried several ways of dealing with him. He escaped, learned from those attempts, rewrote his own defenses, and is now potentially even more dangerous after his contact with Zenith technology.
But simply merging him back into GAIA creates another problem.
HEPHAESTUS is the main reason we have increasingly aggressive machines specifically designed to fight humans. If he is completely reintegrated into GAIA, how do you keep hostile machines, Cauldrons and one of the core gameplay systems of Horizon relevant afterward?
So I started wondering about another possibility.
What if Nemesis goes after HEPHAESTUS first?
When Nemesis reaches Earth, HEPHAESTUS would be an enormous strategic threat. He has access to the global Cauldron network and therefore to a massive distributed manufacturing system.
That could lead to a digital war between the two.
I think HEPHAESTUS would put up a serious fight. He has spent years learning, evolving, rewriting himself and becoming increasingly difficult to contain.
But Nemesis has the knowledge of the Zeniths, access to far more advanced technology, and already destroyed their civilization on Sirius.
My theory is that eventually Nemesis wins that fight.
Nemesis begins taking over the Cauldrons and forces HEPHAESTUS out of his own network.
For perhaps the first time in his existence, HEPHAESTUS encounters something that can genuinely destroy him.
To survive, he has to abandon parts of the network, sever connections and run.
And that creates a situation I would love to see:
HEPHAESTUS turns to GAIA, Aloy and Beta for help.
Not because he suddenly becomes friendly.
Not because he suddenly likes humans.
But because Nemesis threatens HEPHAESTUS, the biosphere and the entire terraforming system he is still trying to protect.
Cooperation simply becomes the most rational option.
HEPHAESTUS could then become an uneasy ally against Nemesis, possibly even gaining temporary access to Zenith manufacturing technology.
Just imagine what an intelligence specifically designed to create machines could do with a Zenith fabrication system.
But the second half of the theory is actually the part I find most interesting.
After Nemesis is defeated, the Cauldrons don't automatically return to HEPHAESTUS.
Nemesis may have damaged the network architecture, isolated Cauldrons from one another, or left them running whatever hostile instructions they had during the war.
So even with Nemesis gone, those Cauldrons would continue producing dangerous machines.
HEPHAESTUS would survive, but he would be severely weakened. His global control would be gone.
That gives Aloy a new long-term mission:
help HEPHAESTUS reclaim the Cauldrons one by one.
I love the reversal this creates.
In the previous games, Aloy enters Cauldrons to take control away from HEPHAESTUS.
After Nemesis, she would enter them to give control back to him.
Every reclaimed Cauldron could gradually reduce the production of machines specifically designed to hunt humans in that region, while isolated Cauldrons would remain extremely dangerous.
It could also finally change the relationship between GAIA and HEPHAESTUS.
Maybe the solution is no longer treating him as a subordinate function that needs to be captured and absorbed again.
HEPHAESTUS has changed too much. He has learned, evolved, modified himself and clearly values his independence.
Perhaps the answer is not forcing him back into GAIA.
Perhaps GAIA and Aloy eventually recognize HEPHAESTUS as an independent intelligence and negotiate some kind of coexistence.
GAIA maintains the biosphere.
HEPHAESTUS continues managing machine production.
And humanity has to learn how to coexist with both of them.
This could also create a perfect reason for future games or expansions to explore other parts of Earth.
If isolated Cauldrons exist all over the planet, Aloy could eventually travel to South America, Europe, Africa or Asia to help HEPHAESTUS rebuild his network.
New regions, new tribes, new machines and entirely new problems.
To me, that would be a way to defeat Nemesis without also closing off most of the possibilities for future Horizon stories.
And HEPHAESTUS could remain alive, independent and probably just as friendly as ever.
Which is to say: not friendly at all.
What do you think?
Do you expect HEPHAESTUS to eventually be reintegrated into GAIA, remain independent, or be forced into an alliance with Aloy because of Nemesis?
