Horizon Zero Dawn fan discovers unused character model turns Aloy into a duck

Date:
Mon, 07 Feb 2022 10:36:56 +0000

Description:
A Redditor has jumped into the game's files and uncovered Duckman.

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Nearly five years after Horizon Zero Dawn first launched on the PS4 , and a year and a half since it was ported to PC, one fan has discovered an unused character model in the games files that replaces protagonist Aloy with an anthropomorphic duck.

The character looks like a test model used in an early build of the game. A plain black human model, its fairly nondescript save for the huge duck head thats poking out of its neck. The character is also wearing a sandwich board that says this is a legacy char[acter] please replace me, and encourages anyone with questions to contact the email address duckman@guerrilla-games.com.

Duckman, as the characters sandwich board suggests hes called, was found by Redditor PortPort_ using a cheat menu mod with the PC version of the game.
The mod lets you tweak Horizon Zero Dawns graphics, change its gameplay features, spawn in NPCs, and rummage around the games files.

_PortPort_ said they were able to swap Aloys character model for this walking duck using the cheat menu, and another Redditor said they were able to find the model after downloading a file manager mod with which to splice the game. so_i_found_this_with_the_cheat_menu_on_pc_has from r/horizon Analysis: devs just wanna have fun

Why this anthropomorphic duck character was ever included in Horizon Zero
Dawn is a mystery, although hes likely nothing more than a leftover character model created as a joke. Despite his sandwich board asking that the legacy character be deleted, the included email address rather suggests Guerrilla Games (or a developer inside the studio, at least) wanted him to be found.

Video game developers often leave small easter eggs in areas that arent accessible to players. Back in 2020, a data miner fully hacked God of Wars camera, letting them move about the world and pause time freely. Not only
were they able to access areas of the map previously cut off from players,
but they also discovered an amusing easter egg - after Baldur is tossed into
a ravine by Kratos at the start of the game he turns around and flips the
bird .

Duckman looks like another funny treat left inside the game by an amused developer. Whats surprising, however, is how long the character has been left waiting. Its been nearly five years since the game first launched, and fans are still finding secrets within it. What other human-animal hybrids lie waiting to be found?

They wont be left plumbing the depths of Zero Dawn much longer though, with its sequel Horizon Forbidden West set to release later this month. The best PS5 games to play right now



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/news/horizon-zero-dawn-fan-discovers-unused-characte r-model-turns-aloy-into-a-duck/


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