Smart, efficient, compassionate, surprisingly tech-savvy and a natural beauty, Aloy quickly shot to stardom as a face of the PlayStation brand following her debut in Horizon Zero Dawn. Aloy’s life and achievements would also see her respected as an action hero, a feminist icon and a proud member of the LGBTQ+ community.
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Origins
Aloy was included in the original pitch for Horizon Zero Dawn and considered one of the three “pillars” for the game’s foundation. She was created as a character who could provide many tactical options in battle. As a hunter at heart, she has little compassion for machines beyond a “hunter’s respect”. She also has an earthy personality, disliking comfort or ease, and tends to be blunt yet civil and efficient in how she addresses issues.
Guerrilla Games always envisioned Horizon Zero Dawn as starring a strong female character, with game director Mathijs de Jonge citing Sarah Connor from Terminator, Ellen Ripley from Alien, and Ygritte from Game of Thrones as influences. Sony decided to do rigorous market testing, believing that adding a female lead might be a “risk”, but approved her as the lead role.
The developers were aware of the modern strong female character cliché and tried to make a more human character with a more interesting personality. Aloy’s physical likeness was modelled after Dutch actress Hannah Hoekstra, while her voice is provided by American voice actress Ashly Burch.
Aloy’s unusual name has several meanings. It is a reference to the 1895 book, The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, where the main character of the novel travels forward in time, meeting an advanced species of humans known as the Eloi. The names ‘Aloy’ and ‘Rost’ recall the words ‘alloy’ and ‘rust’, with metal being an important theme in the games. Also, ‘Aloy’ is a shortened form of ‘Aloysio’ and ‘Aloysius’, both of which are derived from Old High German, meaning “Great warrior”; A fitting description of Aloy’s character.
Story: Born From The Mountain
Aloy is first introduced as an infant who has been entrusted to Rost’s care, a man who has been cast out by the Nora tribe. Six years later, while exploring on her own, she falls into a forbidden bunker that was created by ancient humans. While trying to escape from the ruined facility, she discovers an augmented reality device known as a ‘Focus’ before being rescued by Rost. Despite his misgivings, Rost allows her to keep the Focus, which she soon develops an affinity for, using it to map her surroundings.
The next morning, while learning to hunt with Rost, she uses the Focus to rescue Teb, an injured member of the Nora tribe who has recklessly fallen into the path of machines. Aloy expresses the desire to learn the identity of her mother, and Rost suggests training to compete in the Proving, a coming-of-age ritual that would not only allow her entry into the Nora, but grant her the answers she seeks as a boon if she wins.
Twelve years later, Aloy has become a skilled warrior and huntress due to her intensive training. She attends the Proving, winning the competition and being declared a Nora. Before she can ask about her parents, the tribe is attacked by a group of cultists led by the fanatical Helis, who seek to destroy the Nora. Most of her fellow warriors are murdered, but Helis hesitates when stabbing Aloy and is attacked by Rost, who then sacrifices himself to save her.
After burying Rost, Aloy enters All-Mother Mountain, and one of the tribe’s elders explains that Aloy was actually found in front of another bunker inside the mountain, and their disagreement over whether she was a good or evil omen led to her exile. Aloy’s Focus reveals that Helis was given orders to locate an older woman who looks just like her. Aloy is declared a Seeker and sets out to avenge the attack on the tribe.
Eventually, she is contacted by a man named Sylens, who reveals that the older woman is Dr. Elisabet Sobeck. Aloy’s genetic profile allows her to access the headquarters of Faro Automated Solutions, where she sees that Elisabet was a skilled scientist who was called in to try to stop a rogue swarm of self-replicating combat robots.
The robots used biomass as fuel and ultimately consumed all life on Earth due to the company’s CEO, Ted Faro, refusing to allow any backdoor access into the machines. Aloy then sets out to discover what her relationship may be to the enigmatic Elisabet, and what she had planned to do to stop the rise of the machines, in what was referred to as “Project Zero Dawn.”
Legacy
Aloy was ranked as one of the best video game characters of the 2010s by Polygon staff with Colin Campbell praising the character by stating that “She’s pragmatic but compassionate, iron-willed but open-minded. In a 31st-century world with its own norms and taboos, particularly around gender, Aloy refuses to let anyone else tell her how to live.” Paste magazine writer Holly Green included Aloy as one of the best new game characters of 2017.
TheGamer also included Aloy in their “Iconic Video Game Characters”, stating that “Aloy is one of the best protagonists of the last decade, of which there are many to choose from, mostly because of her strong-willed nature and ability to act strong in difficult situations”. Aloy’s story about her origins resonated with Sam Loveridge of GamesRadar+ and inspired her to seek out her own birth parents. Lucas Sullivan, also writing for GamesRadar+, called her “one of gaming’s greatest female leads”.
Ashly Burch, the voice actress for Aloy, won an award for “best gaming performance” at the 35th Golden Joystick Awards. She thanked the developers, saying that playing the character made her a “braver and stronger woman”, and that she hoped Aloy would be inspiring to other women. The writing, design, and vocal/motion-capture performance of Aloy has been nominated for “Outstanding Achievement in Character” twice at the D.I.C.E. Awards, one each for Horizon Zero Dawn in 2018 and Horizon Forbidden West in 2023.
Aloy has appeared in other media outside of the Horizon games. She is a playable character in the PlayStation 4 version of Monster Hunter: World and makes a cameo appearance in Astro’s Playroom and Astro Bot, as well as Death Stranding, and Fall Guys. Aloy was added to Fortnite Battle Royale on April 15th, 2021, for the ‘Primal’ event. A limited time Aloy Cup was available to PlayStation players, while a ‘Team Up!’ mode with Lara Croft from Tomb Raider was added. In September 2021, Aloy was given out as a free collaboration character for PS4 and PS5 players of Genshin Impact, while players on other platforms received her free for a limited time in October 2021.
