Horizon: Zero Dawn Remastered is finally out, people! I took the original for a spin earlier in October. You can check out how it holds up today and my impressions right here. Anyway, that’s old news since Sony announced the remaster at their September State of Play. I’m sure the more burning questions for you might be: “Another remaster for a recent game? Why?”. Let’s just say it’s a bit more than a basic remaster, as you can see in the extensive footage below.
As you might notice, a lot of work has been done on this project to give it a fresh look for PlayStation 5 and PC players alike. And we’ll go a bit more in-depth about it in this article.
Julian Huijbregts, Communications Manager for Nixxes (the studio behind the remaster) helps us understand more about the changes from the remaster in his PlayStation Blog post prior to the launch of the game. Examples of the upgrades for the game include:
– Overhauling the nature present in the game.
– The foliage being brought up to the same standard as the game’s sequel Horizon: Forbidden West.
– Enhancing the living world – they revisited villages, outposts etc. and made them look more… well, alive. This resulted in more NPCs and more live breathed into the world.
And these are just a few of the changes that make Horizon: Zero Dawn Remastered more than just a remaster.
Horizon: Zero Dawn Remastered – The Reality Upon Launching
Okay, okay. We’re all familiar in some capacity with a few of the changes now. So it doesn’t come as a surprise when you see much better graphics the instant you boot up the game. Here is a bit of footage that I captured from the remaster in the quality mode:
The changes aren’t just graphical. The game feels better and smoother to play, without completely overhauling the mechanics from the original. The level cap is higher. And if you don’t want to go on a gathering spree and simply want to import a New Game+ save file and have fun with it, you’re allowed to do just that. If you’re used to the accessibility features from Horizon: Forbidden West, they are very much similar for this remaster.
Alrighty. What’s the TL;DR?
The original Horizon was excellent and the Frozen Wilds expansion added even more great content to it. Some people even say the game didn’t need a remaster. But when we look at wha’ts been done, it is simply more than a basic remaster. Now it runs and feels as good as more recent sequel.
Yet, is worth the the £44.99/$49.99 price tag? If you’re new to the series, totally go for the prettier, shinier, and smoother experience. If you already own it, the £10/$10 might be worth it for you. As far as I know, I got the upgrade and I don’t regret it one bit. What we have is a positive example of how to tackle a remaster.
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