Horizon Zero Dawn was a big deal back on the PS4. A gorgeous, expansive and narratively charmless open-world game, it marked Guerilla Games’ transition from “the Killzone guys” to one of Sony’s biggest first-party development teams. Hunting robot dinosaurs was one of those gaming premises that was sheer gold. So one cross-gen sequel, a cancelled TV show and an upcoming LEGO game later, the original has been remade for the PS5 and PC and dubbed Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered. With the original PS4 version already having a significant performance boost on the PS5, what exactly does this remaster offer?
Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered – A Zero Sum Game
It’s worth doubling down on this very point: it’s gorgeous. Incredible landscapes, stunning lighting and much-improved character models and motion capture all make this a fantastic visual experience. The game has been visually brought up to a comparable level to Horizon Forbidden West. Aside from that, the experience is more or less the same.
The haptic feedback on the controller has been integrated and 3D audio implementation is nice but that’s more or less it. Therein lies the paradox of these remasters. They simultaneously don’t change enough to disrupt the core experience of the original game but also don’t have enough new to be exciting.
‘Allo Aloy
As far as the rest of the game, GamEir’s review of the original release holds up. An open-world adventure where techno-cavewoman Aloy has to uncover the hidden truths behind her world by shooting lots of robots and humans with a bow. Some of the other weapons are creative and interesting to implement in tougher battles. The tripcaster allows you to set rope traps and pin enemies down for example. Against multiple enemies, these encounters become quickly frustrating but when the combat clicks it’s quite thrilling. The emphasis on researching enemy weaknesses is key to success, blindly attacking some foes will lead to almost endless bouts. The story is fairly dull and predictable, characterisation thin so if anything this glow-up will help distract from those shortcomings.
So is Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered worth it? It depends. For new players, this is undoubtedly the best way to experience the game for the first time. For returning players, that this is a relatively cheap upgrade is an enticing reason to return to Aloy’s first adventure but is hardly essential. The Frozen Wilds expansion is included so if nothing else this is the final word on Horizon Zero Dawn. Well, until the PlayStation 6 at least.
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