One of the most controversial announcements from last night's Sony State of Play presentation was undeniably the reveal of Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered. This enhanced version of the 2017 open-world PlayStation game is set to arrive on October 30 and is coming to PlayStation 5 and PC.
While it's easy to dismiss this release as a pointless upgrade, some of the technical information that was recently shared on the PlayStation Blog is actually quite promising. This remaster is being developed by Nixxes, known for high-quality PC ports of PlayStation software including Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut and Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered.
Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered features fully overhauled character interactions, with hours of re-recorded dialogue and remade motion capture scenes. The audio is being upgraded in more subtle ways too, including a new sound mix with full PS5 Tempest 3D Audio Tech and Dolby Atmos support.
Character models have been upgraded too and, while I'm not a huge fan of Aloy's glammed-up new look, they are undeniably higher quality with noticeably better depth and detail. A range of improvements have also been made to the world and overall performance, which the post said aims to "bring the game to the same visual fidelity" as Horizon Forbidden West.
Forests look more lush and vibrant, with more plants and more life-like lighting effects. You can see three images for comparison below, one from Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition, another from Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition, and the last from Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered.
Each focuses some foliage at roughly the same distance from the camera. Although there's not a huge amount in it, Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered does look noticeably better than the original game, especially with regards to detail and anti-aliasing. Of course, these are just promotional shots so I'll be reserving full judgment until I have my hands on a copy of the game,
Even if these visual changes aren't for you, Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered will also offer significantly faster loading times. If this is anything like the jump from Marvel's Spider-Man on PS4 to Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered on PS5, then this alone could be worth the price of admission and a seriously game-changing upgrade that makes one of the best PS4 games event better.
The DualSense Wireless Controller will also be fully supported, with the expected haptic feedback and adaptive trigger features. New accessibility features are also being introduced, such as the option to enable sound and haptic feedback when pickups are nearby plus remappable controls and assist toggles.
It should come as no surprise that Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered will take full advantage of the upcoming PS5 Pro too with even greater framerates and more graphical features. For PC players, expect Nvidia DLSS 3 and AMD FSR 3.1 with frame generation support with further details on the way in the future.
All of this might not be enough to incentivize you to part with $49.99 for a copy if you already own the game but, luckily, there is a pretty reasonably priced upgrade path available for current owners. If you already have a copy of Horizon Zero Dawn on PlayStation or PC, you can pay just $9.99 to upgrade to Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered.
It's hard to complain at that price really and I'll certainly be picking it up when it releases on October 31.
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