Horizon: Zero Dawn will not have any lightning strikes although it has a dynamic and diverse weather system. The Lightning strikes have been removed from the finished game. Director Mathijs de Jonge speaks about the game’s complex weather system just over a week from the title’s release date.
The developers have decided to remove the naturalistic lightning strikes from the massive open-world game. Mathijs de Jonge, in an interview with Official PlayStation Magazine, explains that the game originally had the possibility of lightning strikes that were random and could hit both players and enemies at any point in the game. However, after much discussion among the development team, they had decided against incorporating this feature.
The weather system for Horizon: Zero Dawn is more about atmosphere rather than acts of God. The weather can affect the gameplay in several and different ways. De Jonge further explained that gamers may find their vision impaired at some points of the game such as during nighttime. The ferocious mechanical enemies are harder to see when it is dark but will also generate more sparks and lights when shot to help with visibility.
The game director also stated that in a region of the game, dust storms will be present and will partially blind players as they pass through this area. It will be just as inconvenient to players as a lightning bolt but will be less threatening and probably just as inconvenient as a storm at a bad time, as reported by GameRant.
Mathijs de Jonge stated that the development team felt that it would just be unfair to the players if lightning strikes will be incorporated because players have no control over it. It just happens naturally and randomly. So, in the end, the developers decided to take the lightning strikes out of the game as reported by GamesRadar
