Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered Is A Worthwhile Upgrade With Greatly Enhanced Visuals and Perfect Performance, New Tech Review Highlights

Oct 23, 2024 at 10:49am EDT
Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered

Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered is a worthwhile upgrade, being a robust remaster that greatly enhances the original game's visuals while introducing options seen in its sequel, according to a new tech review.

The tech experts at Digital Foundry took a good look at the remaster of the first entry in the series by Guerrilla, developed primarily by Nixxes, highlighting how the many improvements included in the game made it a worthwhile upgrade over the original. Like Forbidden West, Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered features three performance options - 30, 40, and 60 FPS - which balance visual quality and resolution to achieve the target framerate. All three modes use dynamic resolution scaling, with quality mode aiming for native 4K resolution and the other modes below 1800p. All three modes are roughly the same, and image quality in performance mode is good enough to make it the recommended display mode for most players. In addition, all three display modes hit their target performance perfectly.

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While the new display modes are welcome, it's the visual changes that make Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered a worthwhile upgrade, according to Digital Foundry. Almost every aspect of the game has been tweaked and improved, from the terrain system and foliage to the detail of man made areas, water rendering, which is not as good as in the sequel but definitely improved over the original, lighting, character models, and animations, especially in dialogue sequence. Audio was also improved, with a new mix featuring better surround and 3D audio support.

Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered launches on October 31st on PC and PlayStation 5. The remaster will be available for only $10 to owners of the original release.

About the author: Francesco De Meo has been covering video games and technology since 2012, starting his career at small outlets like Gamersyndrome and GeekSnack. After joining Wccftech gaming section in 2015, he quickly expanded his video gaming coverage with in-depth reporting, interviews with iconic industry figures such as Grasshopper Manufacture founder and No More Heroes creator Goichi "Suda51" Suda, Resident Evil series creator Shinji Mikami, Team NINJA's president and Nioh series director Fumihiko Yasuda, and Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama, reviews and on-the-ground coverage of major industry events such as Gamescom and E3. When he's not reporting or reviewing, Francesco can be found playing the genres he loves most, spending time with his six cats, reading, writing music, playing guitar and drumming for his progressive rock band.

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