Has Aloy-t changed in this remaster?
Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered features over 10 hours of re-recorded conversation, mocap and countless graphical improvements that bring the game to the same visual fidelity as its critically acclaimed sequel Horizon Forbidden West. The game’s lush world includes frozen mountains, dense jungles, and arid deserts with stunning new visuals and 4K graphics and travelling between settlements is now lightning-fast. The story’s many compelling characters have been upgraded, bringing them in line with current generation advances in character models and rendering. We hope that improved animation, lightning, textures and more will make new and existing fans excited to dive into the action.
The original Horizon Zero Dawn launched back in 2017 and was a big hit for Guerilla who would go on to expand the game with its sequel Forbidden West and its DLC add-on Burning Shores, both of which I reviewed previously. I did play the original game and thought it was superb with it’s beautiful setting, great controls, memorable characters and overall great gameplay. But is a remaster necessary?
The original game still looks amazing, but I’m more than impressed with what developer Nixxes has done to breathe new life into the remaster. It updates character models to their Forbidden West counterparts, ups the resolution and makes great use of the DualSense controller. The last point is something that I was originally impressed with when Forbidden West launched, so I’m glad to see that the haptic feedback and adaptive triggers are nicely used in the remaster.
Load times are incredibly short, even for fast-travel. I’m still not a fan of having to craft a fast-travel kit, but supplies are mostly plentiful so it’s not a huge deal. The upgrade costs £10 for those who own the original game, which I think is a damn good deal for the work that Nixxes have put in here. My only criticism is that this like the Until Dawn remake doesn’t use any Hints, which could have come in handy for collectibles that are well hidden. You can import your PS4 save if you want to simply get a bunch of trophies (or maybe a Platinum if you’ve done them all already), it’s really up to you.
I was impressed that they managed to re-record over 10 hours of voice-work and mocap, though obviously not for the character Slyens due to the tragic death of the great actor Lance Reddick last year. Besides that, the visual upgrade and the DualSense support, there isn’t anything new here. That’s not a terrible thing when you think of the upgrade cost, but I guess it might have been nice to have a single Remaster-exclusive side-quest or something.
The Verdict
Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered is the ultimate version of Guerilla’s 2017 hit. It looks incredible, runs smoothly and handles even better with the DualSense. The upgrade fee is definitely work the price of admission here with all the improvements they’ve made and while it would have been nice to have a little bit more, I can’t be mad when it looks and feels this good to play.