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PS5 Pro Enhanced

Horizon Zero Dawn was originally released early 2017 on PS4 console only. The game had won countless of awards and sold over 24 million copies making it one of the best-selling PS4 games. The critically acclaimed game was first in the series and it was developed by Guerrilla Games that is known for the Killzone games. October 31, 2024 they will release a remastered version of the original game on PS5 console and PC. Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered is also PS5 Pro Enhanced.

Plot

The story of Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered is the very same as the original. The story is set in a post-apocalyptic United States in the 3020s. Aloy, who is an outcast of the community and lives with her foster father, Rost. Soon obtains a device called the Focus, that let her see beyond human eyes. Aloy wants to know who her birth parents are and she goes to search answers she had been always looking for. Rost trains her to survive in the wilds and especially for the Proving, that is a competition that would get her rights to be part of the community again. But mostly what she wants is to meet the Matriarchs, because maybe they know something about her origins.

This is the beginnig of the story and it twist and turns so much more as Aloy gets access to the sacred place and finds out her truth, and then she goes on her adventure through the land. I don’t wanna explain too much about the story as I strongly believe that Aloy’s journey is such epic that players must experience it fully themselves.

As I finished the game I could only say that the story of Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered was exceptional. There’s not just the main story to be followed but countless of side mission that will open up the world even more and the lifes of its people. There are also countless of files player can find that tells about lifes of people before the apocalyptic event which I liked to read.

Gameplay, controls, audio and visuals

Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered has received new things to the original. Here’s what the official PlayStation site says about all of the revamped aspects:

• Denser and more diverse foliage
• More NPCs in villages, outposts, and cities
• Completely new rock and floor textures in many regions
• Overhauled conversations with new motion capture recordings
• New and re-balanced lighting
• More detailed faces

Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered is an action role-playing game played from a third-person view in open world environment. Player controls Aloy and her journey to the places like settlements and other secret places following her missions. The travelling isn’t easy as the world is full of robots that will attack on sight. A long time ago people lost control of their automated military robots, the robots can self-replicate and consume biomass. Aloy have weapons with her, which she can upgrade, and the most important of them being her spear and bow. There are many techniques to kill a robot, it always depends what type of attack the robots are weak to. So with using Focus, player can first scan the enemy and then find its weak spots.

The robots aren’t the only enemies of this post-apocalyptic world; there are evil people as well. Some settlements and communities are peaceful but some are bad and they won’t let anyone near them. But player must go thorugh these parts at times.

As the game is action role-playing, it means there are tons of things to do. Not just main mission and side missions, but hunting animals, robots, finding secrets and items to upgrade Aloy’s weapons, gear and health.

Controlling Aloy was rather easy. What helps the shooting was Aloy’s ability to “slow down time” that gives more time to aim at target. I used this every time it was possible as it has some cooldown time. Aloy can also melee fight with her spear. The game has lots of climbing but it was made easy.

Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered is fully voice acted; all the people, even the ones you cannot interact with might talk to you. I think the voice acting was very good and especially Aloy’s actor was my favourite. The game has good music and it reminded me of movies at times. Sound effect were amazing as well. All the bizarre sounds the robots made especially when attacking made my heart pump every time I had to encounter them.

Visually the game looked the best. It literally was one of the best looking game I have ever played. The game looked breathtaking on my 4K TV. Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered had tons of new things visually, such like more detailed faces, newly balanced lighting, new motion captures, new rock and floor textures, denser and more diverse foliage. Even more NPCs have been added to cities and settlements to make them seem more lively. What I loved was the photo mode, which I used a lot to capture the beautiful places and people.

But with all this said, the visuals still had major issues at times. Sometimes the lipsyncing was off, odd textures could be seen in various places, the lighting flickered oddly, day and night suddenly changed, tons of pop-ups… and the came the crashes. Yes, the game liked to crash a lot and it was annoying. Mind you, this was an early review copy I got so the game might (or will be) getting Day 1 patch that will improve the game. The game offers two options for the visuals: one for Quality (30fps) and one for Performance (60fps). I played this through on Quality mode.

Final verdict

Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered is a good remastered of a masterpiece. It’s about 23 hours long and for doing everything in the game it’s easily double than that. The game plays perfectly, runs smoothly (minus the crashes and grafical bugs. All this likely being fixed with day one patch), sounds and looks amazing, and has a good and unique story and setting. I don’t know what else to say about this game, other than it is a must-play. If you haven’t played this yet, or want to play it again, I do recommend Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered to you. This version also includes The Frozen Wilds DLC.

Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered is available on PS5 (reviewed) and Windows.

(Review copy kindly provided by the publisher)

SCORE:

4/5

“It literally was one of the best looking game I have ever played”

RELEASE DATE: October 31, 2024
GENRE: Action / RPG
DEVELOPER: Guerrilla Games / Nixxes
PUBLISHER: Sony
PLATFORMS: PS5 (reviewed)
Windows

 

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