Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered review — Even more gorgeous

Seven years ago, we were introduced to Aloy’s story, a girl outcast at birth who dedicates her whole life to understanding more of the crazy world around her. Little did she know, she’d become a beacon of light, an image of strength and resilience. Now you can go back and play her origin story again, remastered with incredible detail and fidelity by Guerilla Games in partnership with Nixxes. Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered breathes new life into this instant classic, making it feel like you’re playing it for the very first time.

The narrative contents have been left unchanged, with around 20 hours for the main game and 7 hours for the DLC. It’s still the same Horizon Zero Dawn from 2017 (our review here), with a post-apocalyptic world of machine-infested wilderness. However, the remaster does contain new motion capture scenes that provide more natural and engaging character interactions as well as a plethora of other enhancements and even parts of the game being rebuilt using the newer systems seen in Horizon Forbidden West (our review here).

Horizon Zero Dawn already looked beautiful as it was, and this remaster only makes stunning landscapes and character animations even more dazzling. The game environment sees original terrain materials being replaced by their Horizon Forbidden West counterparts, while other assets, like some of the floors, were completely remade with higher-resolution textures and materials. The volumetric effects and cloud system borrowed from Forbidden West add an extra layer of atmospheric beauty as well. 

Character models have also received attention, with improved skin textures and more realistic clothing materials, but not to the exact quality that Forbidden West achieves. Over 10 hours of additional motion capture, as well as some repurposed animations, help to make characters more lively, including additional facial animations during conversations, smoother movement and combat, and even how characters react to weather, including NPCs, who were originally unfazed.

The inclusion of quality-of-life improvements and accessibility options from Forbidden West is a welcome addition, allowing you to tailor your experience to your preferences. You can toggle gameplay modifiers, turn on quest pathfinding, or tweak the weapon wheel slowdown time, along with more graphics options. The only accessibility setting that is still neglected is the lack of adjustments to text, aside from subtitles. It would be much appreciated if games would include an option that boldens text, alongside making it bigger as well.

The Remastered edition comes in at a beefy 85.18 GB on the PS5 whereas the original PS4 edition was only 48.18 in size. Load times are unfortunately nothing to write home about, as it takes 13-14 seconds to load in, even with the PS5’s SSD. For reference though, loading the PS4 version takes 23-24 seconds, so there is improvement. Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered offers three modes: Performance targeting 60 fps, Graphics targeting 4K visuals but 30 fps, and Balanced, which targets 40 fps. Balanced mode must be utilized with a VRR enabled monitor. That being said, we still prefer performance mode all the way.

Out of the box, the remaster contains everything that was already in the original: photo mode, new game plus, as well as the Frozen Wilds expansion. As with most Sony first party games, HZD Remastered comes with full 3D audio and DualSense support, with haptic feedback from drawing Aloy’s bow. The trophy list remains the same, but you can get another platinum! You can even import your PS4 save file and start right back where you left off! If you’re on the fence about this purchase, just know that it’s only a $10 upgrade if you own the PlayStation 4 version. It makes it even more worthwhile if you were able to snag Horizon Zero Dawn for free when Sony gave it out during the pandemic. Even if not, the game is priced at a reasonable $49.99!

Nixxes has done a fantastic job with this remaster on all accounts: visuals, audio, and performance. Just remember folks, this is Horizon Zero Dawn, not Horizon Forbidden West. There is no Shieldwing in the first game, so don’t go jumping off cliffs to your death! For now, these are our thoughts on the PS5 version of the game, but stay tuned for our additional coverage and review on the PC version!

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