Horizon: Call Of The Mountain is a solid spin-off to the critically-acclaimed PlayStation exclusive that does a great job of adapting the Horizon formula for VR. Along with introducing more immersive climbing, combat, and exploration mechanics, the game includes several nods to previous games in the series.
Many of these are surface-level, such as a brief cameo from Aloy herself, while others require more in-depth knowledge of Horizon’s extensive lore, world design, and gameplay systems. For avid fans, these minor yet noticeable details in Call of the Mountain will stick out like a sore thumb.
10 The Story Overlaps With Horizon Zero Dawn
Anyone who paid close attention to Aloy’s dialogue during her appearance in Call of the Mountain will recall that she mentions going to Sunfall and Marad prior to being asked to help capture Dervahl in Meridian. This is significant as it clues you into when Call of the Mountain’s story is meant to take place.
Based on Aloy’s dialogue, the game is set between two missions in Horizon Zero Dawn. Furthermore, while Ryas is ultimately successful in his mission to defeat Asera and stop the Tallnecks, no mention of these events appears in Zero Dawn as Aloy wasn’t around to witness the final outcome.
9 Call Of The Mountain Is A Lot More Linear
A large part of the Horizon games’ appeal stems from being able to explore expansive open worlds teeming with both danger and discovery. In this regard, Call of the Mountain is quite limited as the story provides little to no room for venturing off the beaten path.
You can chalk this up to the nature of VR, which favors shorter experiences with streamlined gameplay and progression. With that said, there are some cleverly hidden areas you can discover by poking around environments that will yield additional resources and world-building elements.
8 Climbing Is Made More Tedious
Like many video games, climbing in Horizon Zero Dawn is fairly straightforward—find a climbable wall, go towards it, and voilà! Your character starts to ascend. However, climbing in Call of the Mountain is much more involved as you’re forced to use gestures to get Ryas to latch onto cracks and ledges.
To make matters worse, this is all done at a painstakingly slow speed that can make the process of climbing in Call of the Mountain feel rather tedious compared to other Horizon games. While this is arguably more accurate to real-world climbing, at the end of the day, video games are about having fun.
7 Stealth Is Practically Non-Existent
Stealth is another mechanic that’s noticeably different in Call of the Mountain. In Horizon and Forbidden West, you’re able to sneak around environments by hiding in tall grass as you set up traps and plan out your strategy before engaging in combat.
In contrast, the vast majority of Call of the Mountain’s fights drop you right into the middle of an arena where you’ll have to contest with machines for survival. Other than a few sections where you can take out enemies covertly, fights are usually fast-paced.
6 Fights End Much More Quickly
Speaking of the flow of combat in Call of the Mountain, Horizon fans will pick up on just how quickly skirmishes tend to end compared to other games in the series. Similar to the game’s on-rail design, this distinction is most likely the result of having to account for VR environments that are relatively smaller in scale.
To this point, the vast majority of fights in Call of the Mountain are set in confined spaces with minimal cover that’s easily destroyed by machine attacks. To stay alive, Ryas must deal with threats quickly and efficiently, leading to shorter, more chaotic battles that end just as abruptly as they start.
5 Crafting Arrows Is Easier Than Ever
Crafting is a significant part of prepping for any boss fight in Zero Dawn and Forbidden West as you have to gather the necessary materials to make various potions, traps, and arrows. Call of the Mountain drastically speeds up this process by requiring only one material per ammo type.
Since environments are usually stuffed to the brim with sparkers, canisters, and other crafting materials, it’s simply a matter of checking every barrel or container until you have what you need. On top of that, the physical act of crafting is much simpler as Ryas can make new arrowheads on the fly.
4 Combat Is More Immersive
After growing accustomed to the series’ third-person camera throughout the first two games, Call of the Mountain’s switch to a first-person perspective is a remarkable difference. Despite being the standard for most VR experiences, the scale of Horizon’s environments and enemies can leave you at a loss for words.
The first time you encounter a Thunderjaw is nothing short of epic and helps set the tone for the rest of the game. This persists throughout Call of the Mountain’s combat, particularly when drawing your bow and arrow using the DualShock 5’s adaptive triggers and haptic feedback.
3 Aloy Looks Shorter Than In Past Games
One thing fans were quick to point out about Aloy’s appearance in Call of the Mountain is just how short she appears to be compared to Ryas. While this does line up with the character’s canonical height of 5’6’’, it can feel jarring the first time you encounter her.
Perceived differences like this are nothing new to VR, which is known to distort the size and scale of objects, characters, and environments to maximize immersion and realism, at least in most cases. Either that or Ryas is just a giant.
2 Asera Didn’t Really Fall To Her Death
First debuting in the Horizon Zero Dawn comic series, Asera would go on to become the main villain of both Forbidden West and Call of the Mountain. This is an interesting detail as the character is shown to have died at the end of the game’s story after the platform she and Ryas are standing on collapses.
However, fans will already know she isn’t actually dead as Forbidden West takes place after Call of the Mountain’s story. This adds a level of mystery to her fate following her supposed death while filling in some of the gaps between Zero Dawn and Forbidden West.
1 The Sundom Is Even More Beautiful In VR
To wrap things up, it’s worth highlighting just how impressive Call of the Mountain’s rendering of the Sundom looks in VR. While awe-inspiring environments are far from an oddity in VR games, Call of the Mountain takes the series’ vibrant post-apocalyptic setting to new heights.
A lot of this comes down to the game’s emphasis on verticality, as Ryas is constantly scaling mountains to reach new vantage points throughout his adventure. As a reward for coming along, you as the player are treated to some of the most stunning backdrops and atmospheric environments the medium has ever seen.