A Clawstrider dinosaur has been spotted in Sydney’s Royal Botanic Garden, clocking in at three metres tall and seven metres long. We suspect it has formed a nest somewhere in the Royal Botanic Garden and that it is at large.
Please, for your own safety, do not approach the Clawstrider. OK, I’m obviously kidding, it’s completely safe.
No it’s not a real, living dinosaur, it’s a statue of a Clawstrider, a robotic dinosaur from Horizon Forbidden West, a PlayStation exclusive videogame that launched today.
The Clawstrider is, believe it or not, intended to be one of the smaller mechasaurs in Horizon Forbidden West. Resembling a Dromaeosaur, the Clawstrider runs on its two back legs, often travelling in packs and is known for its agility.
The dinosaur is native to the Forbidden West region of the Horizon universe, which translates to California, though several thousand years into the future.
Robotic dinosaurs thousands of years in the future? Well, Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West are both unique in that they tell a story of a world that’s post-post-apocalyptic. De-pocalyptic, perhaps?
In the Horizon realm, the world has already gone through an apocalypse and the humans are rebuilding in nations and tribes. At the time of the apocalypse, humanity was an advanced species with powerful technology, which makes up a huge part of the games.
If you’re interested in facing the beast, visitors to the Clawstrider at Sydney’s Royal Botanic Garden can win prizes (a hidden code on the Clawstrider will score you a copy of Horizon Forbidden West on PS5, but there’s only one code to be found, and you can also score some goodies by sharing your pics with the dinosaur on Instagram or Twitter).
Something is on the… Horizon. All will be revealed tomorrow. #HorizonForbiddenWest pic.twitter.com/dXFbjf3q7z
— PlayStationAU (@PlayStationAU) February 16, 2022
The last time a big pop culture thing like this came to Sydney, it was the creepy doll from Squid Game, just in time for Halloween last year. It’s a cute marketing gimmick and really just a bit of harmless fun. Anyway, yeah, go check out the Clawstrider if you’re in Sydney. It’ll hang around until February 22, before it goes and nests in another city.
Horizon Forbidden West is available on PS4 and PS5 from today.