Horizon Zero Dawn was one of 2017's early highlights, prompting some people, myself included, to wonder if any subsequent title would be able to challenge it for game of the year, a question that flounders in a post-Breath-of-the-Wild and post-Persona-5 world.
Still, though, there was something magical about putting a bronze-age civilization against futuristic robotic dinosaurs, and many critics latched onto and praised that aspect. So it's a good thing Horizon Zero Dawn went through substantial changes since its concept stage.
As revealed in an interview, seen above, recently published by Sony where Naughty Dog Director Neil Druckmann sat down with Guerilla Games Managing director Herman Hulst, Horizon Zero Dawn was originally designed to have Aloy making use of M82s and other high-powered weaponry, including sub machine guns.
This is doubling confounding, given that Aloy and the bronze-age civilization was the plan all along. So, while Horizon Zero Dawn would have been a very different game with guns, it still would have had the same setting and general story. Just that guns survived.
That does raise an interesting question as to what happened to all the guns in Horizon Zero Dawn, but that's neither here nor there.