Tencent's Light of Motiram is such a Horizon Zero Dawn rip-off, they're hard to tell apart

[midian182]

WTF?! We've seen plenty of games in the past that have been similar to other big titles. You could go so far as calling some of them clones, or even rip-offs. Then there's Tencent developer Polaris Quest's Light of Motiram, a game that looks so similar to Guerrilla's Horizon adventures you'd be forgiven for assuming it was a new entry in the beloved franchise.

Light of Motiram's lengthy new trailer certainly gives the impression that it is set in the Horizon universe. There's the wild jungle, mountain, and desert environments dotted with dilapidated modern buildings, a young, red-haired female protagonist, the post-apocalyptic vibe, and even the music sounds similar. Then the robotic dinosaurs appear and one can imagine Sony's lawyers rubbing their hands together with glee; the designs are so similar it's comical. Don't forget the near-identical weapons, flight and riding mechanics, etc., etc.

There are supposedly some differences between Light of Motiram and Horizon Zero Dawn/Forbidden West. The former includes a freeform building system for players to create their own strongholds and shelters. The survival elements and training the mechanical creatures is said to be much more in-depth. The game is actually described as an "open-world survival crafting game," as opposed to "blatant rip-off."

There's even multiplayer for up to ten people and crossplay: Light of Motiram is coming to PC, PS5, and, strangely, Android and iOS.

It's fair to say that Motiram is more of a copyright infringement of the Horizon games than Palworld is of Pokémon Go, and that led to a patent infringement lawsuit by Nintendo and The Pokemon Company against creator Poket Pair.

What seems very surprising here, however, is that PlayStation has been publishing trailers for Light of Motiram on its Chinese accounts on Weibo and Bilibili. According to Push Square, PlayStation also mentioned 'more cooperation' with the game in the future.

Light of Motiram still doesn't have a release date, but it has listings on Steam and the Epic Games Store. For those interested, here are the minimum and recommended specs.

Minimum:

• Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
• OS: Windows 10, 64-bit or higher
• Processor: Intel Core i5 6600K or equivalent
• Memory: 8 GB RAM
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 5GB or equivalent
• DirectX: Version 12
• Network: Broadband Internet connection
• Storage: 30 GB available space

Recommended:

• Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
• OS: Windows 10, 64-bit or higher
• Processor: Intel Core i7 9700 or equivalent
• Memory: 16 GB RAM
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 3060 Ti or equivalent
• DirectX: Version 12
• Network: Broadband Internet connection
• Storage: 30 GB available space

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Tencent's Light of Motiram is such a Horizon Zero Dawn rip-off, they're hard to tell apart

 

[OortCloud]

To spend that much time developing a product and yet be unable to come up with a single original thought is really tragic. Given that they clearly have no real creativity, you know the story and characters will be utter dogsh1t.

 

[The Talking Tech]

But Sony is OK to let the rip-off release without a legal issue as long as it releases on PlayStation.

Everything company has a price I guess.

 

[Jarenien]

They aren't even close to the same, not even remotely. Author be still drunk the day after turkey day it seems...

 

[OortCloud]

They aren't even close to the same, not even remotely. Author be still drunk the day after turkey day it seems...

I thought that until I watched the anounce trailer... Even the music now sounds the same.

 

[m4a4]

The only real part that felt like Horizon was the tribal human outfits. Otherwise, there isn't too much difference to expect with a futuristic world that has sentient robot animals. It isn't enough for me to bother calling it a rip-off.

After playing HZD (and hating it towards the end), maybe this will be interesting, since I do otherwise like Monster Hunter. Lets see if their wide range of mechanics and inspirations can meld together into a good game.

 

[wildfirede]

There is a 35kg body mass difference between this and Horizon.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Meh. Western studios have done nothing but rehash their same leftovers for the last decade. At least if the Chinese do ti,t he story might be interesting? HZD bored me to death.

To spend that much time developing a product and yet be unable to come up with a single original thought is really tragic. Given that they clearly have no real creativity, you know the story and characters will be utter dogsh1t.

But enough about games from Sony.

 

[VitalyT]

For Chinese, the notion of copyright doesn’t compute.

 

[Eldrach]

If Sony releases trailers - it could be that Tencent is paying them a license fee for 3d models and other copyrighted parts.
Sony is looking at new revenue streams, licensing could be one of them

 

[unoficialoficial]

For Chinese, the notion of copyright doesn’t compute.

{The Withcer – Dark Souls – Dragon Age – Elder Scrolls -Ghost of Tsushima – Neoh – Sekiro ...}
{Cyberpunk 2077 – Fallout – Deus Ex – Observer – System Shock}
{Fifa - Pro Evolution Soccer - World Soccer League - Virtua Striker -Dream League Soccer }
{Mechwarrior – MechAssault – Battletech – Armored Core - Titanfall}
{Fortnite – Pubg - Z1 Battle Royale – Apex Legends – Team Fortress}
{Call of Duty – CounterStrike – Battlefield}
{all pool games, all pinball games, all strategy games are similar}

Copyright pertains to the implementation of an idea, not just the idea itself. It is very difficult to find a game that does not have any similarities, as there are thousands of games.

 

[pcnthuziast]

#hitpiece
Try waiting to play the game yourself and writing an actual review. This isn't journalism lads.

 

[Starfals]

Lol, this trailer is 100% horizon for sure. Its pretty shocking if the game ends up looking close to this.. I wonder what Sony can do about it? China usually doesn't care about drama when they copy stuff ;p

 

[toooooot]

To spend that much time developing a product and yet be unable to come up with a single original thought is really tragic. Given that they clearly have no real creativity, you know the story and characters will be utter dogsh1t.

If it sells well in China, it is acceptable.

 

[Atmajaya2020]

As long as the gameplay is good, doesn't require a PC with unreasonable specs, runs smoothly without hiccups, and is affordable, then, for some gamers, it might not be a big deal..

 

[EdmondRC]

Looks to me more like a BOTW gameplay with the Horizon aesthetic. Let's see the Chinese take on this, might be fun. Though, I will say the aesthetic is a little too close to Horizon for comfort.