On June 25, 2020, Guerrilla Games released a tweet titled "Meet the Machines," which detailed the Shellsnapper, one of the new machines coming to Horizon Forbidden West. It was unclear if the tweet would end up a series at the time, but today, Guerrilla has inadvertently confirmed it.
As the name implies, Meet the Machines sees Guerrilla Games giving a brief synopsis of one of the new machine-based enemies coming to Horizon Forbidden West. Today, the developer covered one called the Bristleback.
According to Guerrilla Games, Bristlebacks are herd-based machines, meaning they tend to roam in groups. Unlike some other pack-roaming machines, however, Bristlebacks aren't skittish. In fact, they won't hesitate to get violent with aggressors or anything they perceive to be a threat. They use their tusks with precision when attacking.
The closest animal the new Forbidden West Bristlebacks seem to resemble is the giant forest hogs. Like this animal, Bristlebacks are huge, attack with their tusks, and, as mentioned, move in herds. Most importantly, however, while giant forest hogs aren't domesticated, they can be easily tamed, and Bristlebacks reflect this.
In the Horizon Forbidden West trailer, Sylens watches as a group of individuals use methods similar to Aloy to bring a group of Bristlebacks under their control. From the looks of the scene, Sylens has managed to use Hades to copy Aloy's ability to take control of machines and has taught it to a group of new followers — at least, that's what looks to be going on.
Beyond that, the Bristlebacks share similarities with other Horizon Zero Dawn machines, particularly the Trampler, which seems to take inspiration from buffalos. Tramplers roam around in groups too, and whenever they get attacked, they typically try to work together to run their opponent down.
Despite revealing that this will be an ongoing series, Guerrilla hasn't said when the next Meet the Machines will take place. There's a good chance, though, that the developer will release a tweet for it every four days or every Monday and Thursday, as the first tweet came out last Thursday, while this one was released four days later, on Monday.
Also, like last time, Guerilla Games didn't make any mention of what the next featured machine will be, so every tweet will more or less be a surprise. So far, however, both machines covered have come from the Forbidden West trailer, so it's likely to be one of them.
Horizon Forbidden West releases exclusively for the PlayStation 5 in 2021.