Horizon Forbidden West perpetuates Orientalist stereotypes

The world of the 31st century Horizon Forbidden Westit is supposed to have a post-racial nature. A terraforming AI called GAIA, which was created after human civilisation had been completely destroyed by self-replicating machine plagues, rebuilt Earth with all the genetic diversity and without any of the historical structures or societal structure that underpinned racism. It’s a clever narrative move to let the developers pack the game with people of all skin colors, a fact that has been routinely lauded as progressive by some critics and gamers.

[Ed. note: Spoilers follow for Horizon Forbidden West.]

It’s all fine and dandy and it makes perfect sense in the context of the story. This is where a multitude of racism tropes emerge. Forbidden West’s world. There’s a stereotypical angry Black woman named Regalla, for example, who leads a rebel army and would rather die than seek peace. There’s also constant belittling between tribes, who call each other “savage” or “uncivilized” — terms loaded with racial undertones. There’s also plenty of Orientalism.

In a much-too-short summary, Orientalism is a type of racism in which “the West” — generally understood as Europe and North America — projects savagery and beauty onto “the East,” or the Orient. This allows Western imagination to see “Eastern” cultures and people as both alluring and a threat to Western civilization. The Orient is flexible and moves depending on European and American obsessions and war efforts; its definition really depends on who’s asking, and when they’re asking. The vague notion of “the East” can be North Africa during the colonial occupation of Algeria; it can be China before and after the Opium Wars; it can be Vietnam, Japan, Korea, or many other places, depending on U.S. militaristic interests. Examples of the West’s fearful fascination with an Orient abound.

Image: Guerilla Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment via Polygon

There’s both a literal imperial exploitation and an aesthetic exploitation at work in Orientalism. There are real wars and conflicts that follow Orientalist logic. If someone reasons that they are more civilized and democratic than a group of “Orientals,” conquering them becomes necessary to defend the Western way of life and prove its supremacy. In the second, “Eastern” styles (and people) are seen as redemptive for a bland Western aesthetic, and are then appropriated and fetishized to restimulate Western taste.

Orientalism is a core part of Forbidden West’s narrative of exploring exotic lands. Protagonist Aloy’s Orient is the “Forbidden West” itself: the present-day southwestern U.S. and California, filled as they are with foreign tribes, religions, and customs. Aloy, a white (and explorer) in this morass is both a savior and an explorer. Only she understands what is at stake in the world, and she has to spend time in the petty politics of a bunch of tribes in order to convince them that the problems she’s facing are more severe than theirs.

Orientalism is also a common theme throughout the country. Forbidden West’s world-building. Take the “Golden Pagoda” that Aloy discovers in “The Sea of Sands” quest in the main campaign. When she’s rebuilding GAIA’s system, she must recover several sub-AIs that have fled and hidden across the Western U.S. Aloy explores the ruins of the Las Vegas Strip, complete with the remnants of the Bellagio, Caesars Palace, and, strangely, a pagoda.

As far as I can tell, the pagoda doesn’t actually exist in present-day Las Vegas. However, it could be named and designed after a famous restaurant in Los Angeles’ old Chinatown, which was once called the Golden Pagoda. This mission will bring you to the face of a random assortment of images that might be found in an American Chinese restaurant. A lot of red is evident: red decorations, lanterns and a hanging red dragon from the ceiling. Aloy, the white male excavators that she has previously assisted, are rewarded with an enormous light show and a flying neon dragon.

The quest itself is Orientalist in nature — the excavators recover “embers” to put on strobe light shows, with the intention of making the ruins of Las Vegas into a 31st-century tourist attraction. The excavators are inspired by the captivating visuals of neon and dragons, which is fertile ground for starting a business.

Image: Guerilla Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment via Polygon

Later in the game, Aloy discovers the final resting place of Ted Faro (the first game’s main antagonist) below San Francisco’s Transamerica Pyramid. He’s the ruler of the “pyramid,” a survival bunker that he named Thebes, and his name is Faro. It’s a bit on the nose.

The basement of the pyramid contains a multistory metallic statue of Faro, and you find out that back during the 21st-century plague that he caused, he actually tried to prolong his life and became a monster — a mummy, if you will. Egyptian mythological imagery, including an Eye of Horus, is peppered throughout the quest, reducing religiously significant images and rituals to mere aesthetic texture for the game’s villain.

We now reach the war elephant. Aloy’s first encounter with a Tenakth rebel faction, led by Regalla (voiced Angela Bassett), is a surprise that they are able to bypass machines. She’s even more concerned when she stumbles upon the rebels riding a Tremortusk, a massive mechanical elephant.

The hallmark of terrifying machines is Horizon Forbidden West’s world, and the Tremortusk is one that Guerrilla Games is clearly extremely proud of. The studio highlighted it in the game’s story trailer, and included a Tremortusk figurine, complete with rebel riders, in the collector’s edition.

Image: Guerrilla Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment via Polygon

The Orient’s most prominent symbol is the elephant. American and European mythologies about the Orient often depict elephant taming as a common practice. While elephants were used in combat by people in India, Africa and Southeast Asia, it was not uncommon for the West to import elephants from India in order to satisfy its curiosity about colonial India.

Take into account also Nations of the East, a sculpture group by three white male American sculptors from the 1915 San Francisco world’s fair, which actually centers a man riding an adorned elephant. The sculptures are all racial caricatures of “the East” — the elephant is flanked by stereotyped “Buddhist” monks on foot, “Mongol” men on horses, and “Middle Eastern” men on camels. It is strikingly identical to the Tremortusk’s mounted elephant. These unreasoning rebels will ride on a Tremortusk Forbidden WestAloy repeated and persisted Orientalist tropes until they were defeated.

I’m not suggesting that Guerrilla Games made these aesthetic choices with malice; I’m arguing that the choices end up being impactful regardless, both in what they convey to the player, and how the resultant symbolism fits in with our world. Played Horizon Forbidden WestI was asked to join Aloy in her quest to save the Earth. In order to advance in the game I was required to role-play various forms of cultural violence. I found and fuelled a lot of my racism as an Asian American. Even though Aloy’s world is supposedly post-racial, its developers still repeat Orientalist tropes in their design choices, which paint Asian cultures, and therefore people, as perpetually foreign, mysterious, and threatening.

Horizon Forbidden West’s world is filled with thoughtful details about what a rebuilt society could look like. The microcosms of culture in each tribe’s unique temperament, rituals, and obsessions are all carefully chosen and developed. Guerrilla Games’ imagination is on incredible display in so many facets of the game that it’s all the more disappointing to see the studio fail, once again, to shake off so many of the racialized underpinnings of our world.