Horizon Forbidden West
Lance Reddick, prolific actor in movies, shows and video games, died at the age of 60 earlier this year. It was a tragedy, and his loss was felt in a number of game communities in which he had played a significant role.
One of those was Horizon Zero Dawn/Forbidden West, the Aloy-starring Guerilla franchise which had Reddick playing Sylens, a sometimes ally, sometimes antagonist with one of the most prominent roles in the story. Sylens was fully performance captured, so it was both Reddick’s face and voice in the role, and surely he would have returned for an announced third Horizon game coming in the future.
Guerrilla Games has now honored Lance Reddick with a permanent memorial bearing his name, which you can see above. This is not just an image, it is actually in the game itself. It’s on Widemaw Island at a point opposite the lava river. You can see above where it is on the map below, if you wanted to visit for yourself:
Map
It remains unclear how Sylens will be handled in future Horizon content. Unlike some of his other projects, there’s going to be nothing Reddick has already recorded for that future game, and his story will likely have to end a different way. It’s a major loss for the franchise, and its players.
Horizon
The other, more major role that Lance Reddick has held in the world of gaming is that of Commander Zavala in Destiny over the course of ten years, where rarely a season goes by without Reddick doing new voicework for that role, even as other Hollywood stars have been recast over the years in the game. He repeatedly said he’d play the role indefinitely. As Destiny plans animated live action and animated projects, Reddick no doubt would have been Zavala in those, too.
Unlike Horizon, Destiny 2 is a different case, given that as of this current season, Reddick’s Zavala is still involved with story content and Bungie is using already-recorded lines. It’s been…a little tough for a community that loved him in the role every time he speaks now. It remains to be seen how exactly Destiny will handle Reddick’s passing in the future, in terms of both his character in the game, and how he will no doubt be memorialized in some similar fashion to what we’re seeing here.
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