Tencent’s New Survival Game Strikingly Resembles Horizon Zero Dawn and Palworld

Every year, the gaming industry sees a flood of new titles, leading to inevitable similarities between them. For instance, you might find elements of Doom in Half-Life, or see echoes of SimCity in Cities Skylines. Stalker shares some common threads with Fallout. However, a brand new game from Tencent, the massive company involved in major studios like Ubisoft, Riot, and Paradox, seems to openly showcase its influences. If you’ve tried your hand at Horizon Zero Dawn, Horizon Forbidden West, or even Palworld, their latest release, Light of Motiram, might ring some bells.

In this world, human civilization as we know it has completely crumbled. What’s left is a lush and untamed landscape, crawling with ‘mechanimals’ — massive robotic creatures resembling dinosaurs with a cyberpunk twist. You step into the shoes of a young woman armed with nothing but a bow and arrow, ready to battle, capture, and tame these metal beasts. This adventure mixes elements of crafting, open-world exploration, and survival, but make no mistake, it’s not Horizon Zero Dawn. Light of Motiram, created by Tencent’s Polaris Quest division, just made its debut on Steam.

Visually, Motiram can be easily likened to Sony and Guerilla’s cherished open-world classic. Yet, when you dig into the mechanics, it borrows a bit from Palworld too. You’ll be tasked with resource gathering and constructing your own settlements. But there’s more — you must seek out and tame mechanimals, turning them into trusty allies. Each mechanimal boasts its own special abilities and traits, and you’ll discover diverse species spread across different biomes.

In this game, you have the freedom to venture solo or team up with up to nine friends in cooperative play. Many mechs are quite docile, blending seamlessly into their surroundings. However, to convert the most formidable ones into allies, you’ll first need to take them down in monumental boss battles.

Tencent has been here before. Tarisland, another of their games, was compared to Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, even drawing attention from Warcraft’s executive creative director, Chris Metzen. Light of Motiram unmistakably parallels Horizon Zero Dawn, but based on what Polaris Quest has showcased so far, it seems to play similarly while mixing in some Palworld elements. We’ll see if Sony or Pocketpair — the latter is ironically facing legal challenges from Nintendo over Palworld — feel it’s too reminiscent.

While you’re waiting to find out, why not delve into some of the best open-world games or top crafting games available on PC?

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