On the one hand, the PlayStation 4 version of Horizon Zero Dawn already looked great running on a PS5, and selling a remaster feels a bit like a wasteful attempt to double-dip by Sony. On the other hand, Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered is looking exceptional so far, and might end up being one of the best-looking games on the platform.
Revealed last month at Sony’s latest State of Play, the remaster is being made by Nixxes in collaboration with Guerrilla Games and it offers more than just a smoother framerate and scaled-up resolution. A new PlayStation Blog post went into detail on what other improvements players will find. The highlights include:
- Denser and more diverse foliage
- More NPCs in villages, outposts, and cities
- Completely new rock and floor textures in many regions
- Overhauled conversations with new motion capture recordings
- New and re-balanced lighting in lots of places
- More detailed faces and character reactions to weather
The new post offers a pretty good deep dive into each of these areas with some really interesting comments on craft and how the results were achieved by some of Nixxes’ developers. One of Horizon Zero Dawn’s main selling points is its hyper-detailed world. In addition to importing a bunch of stuff from the sequel, Horizon Forbidden West, the remaster also uses procedural generation to make nature look much richer.
“The riverbanks have also been upgraded with more biodiversity to bring them closer to the original intention as seen in the concept art,” said senior environment artist Patrick Blankenzee. Fellow environment artist Julian Hofman, meanwhile, said the remaster has a “fresh generation of moss,” and I know you’re probably thinking, “Who cares?” but in terms of a game whose best moments are often found in just quietly walking around its hyper-realistic sci-fi landscapes, well, I do!
The prospect of more populated cities also sounds really neat. “We added many more places for NPCs to stand, sit, work and fulfill their needs,” said senior technical game designer Brian van Nunen. “We gave them more varied schedules to increase movement and liveliness in different areas. We also tried to make creative use of existing animations. For example, there is now a woman feeding geese at the well in Meridian, reusing an existing sowing animation.” Yes…ha ha ha…yes!
That’s not to say I’m on board with all of the changes. While it certainly looks like some main characters and NPCs will have better-looking faces this time around, the George Lucas-ification of Aloy’s appearance is a step too far to me. These remasters also have a tendency to wash out the colors and mood of the original in the process of trying to make them look even more realistic. While the remaster looks very impressive in a lot of ways, some of the changes seem to to be the result of artists not knowing when it’s time to just leave their masterpiece alone.
Horizon Zero Dawn Remaster is out on PS5 and PC on October 31. Those who own the PS4 version can upgrade for just $10, though the digital price of the original game was jacked back up to keep anyone from using it to get the new version at a discount. But you can still find used disc versions of the PS4 game for pretty cheap. The PC version is now part of a mandatory bundle as well.
