It’s difficult to assess a remastered video game on its own merits. It is, after all, a game you already have an opinion on. And a new package, no matter how shiny the wrapping paper, is unlikely to change what you feel about what’s inside. A remaster then must bring a meaningful new way to play an older game, that helps it find a new audience and rekindles the love for the original game in the hearts of returning players. In the past few years, however, the purpose of a remaster has been diluted to near nothingness. Barely old games, perfectly accessible and in no need of a facelift, have been dressed up and wheeled out, promising upgrades and additions that do little to justify the second life of an already alive and well thing.
And no publisher is perhaps as guilty of releasing unnecessary remasters and remakes as Sony. In the absence of new titles on the PlayStation 5, the company has opted to fill the void with remastered contemporary games. Earlier this year, Sony remastered The Last of Us Part 2, a game that already looked like a million dollars and ran at 60fps on the PS5. Now, it’s back with a remaster of Horizon Zero Dawn, a game that already looked like a million dollars and ran at 60fps on the PS5. The remastered version of the game, released October 31 on PC and PS5, adds a thick layer of visual enhancements on the original’s environments, settlements and characters, both human and mechanical. There’s stunning new lighting and hours of new motion capture data that livens up stiff character conversations from the original game.
To be honest, the graphical uplift is considerable — Nixxes Software has done an incredible job of updating the 2017 game and bringing it closer to its 2022 sequel, Horizon Forbidden West. An almost smothering level of detail now clings to every frame; characters look much more expressive, the natural environment explodes in your face, and the world comes alive in a new light. More urgently, the game expands the breadth of accessibility options and game settings, opening itself up to more players and more ways to play. On a technical level, Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered is undeniably impressive. And a $10 upgrade path (Rs. 500 in India) for the owners of the original game on PC and PS4 makes this easy to recommend. But beyond its vain upgrades, you’d have to squint hard to find reasonable justifications for remastering a game that holds up perfectly well on its own.
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The natural world in Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered is stunning to behold
Photo Credit: Sony/ Screenshot – Manas Mitul
Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered lets you import your save files from the original game on PS4. So, when I booted it up, I quickly loaded up my older save — I’d finished the game on PS4 years ago — and started a New Game+ run with unlocked gear and skill upgrades from my previous playthrough. Right when you start, the visual upgrade jumps off the screen. This is not a case where you can compare frames from the original game and its remaster and be underwhelmed. Here, the difference is almost night and day. Nixxes has pushed Zero Dawn to as close as it can be to Forbidden West. It’s not quite at the level of the sequel, understandably, but it’s also often hard to tell that it isn’t.
The most striking change arrives to the natural world of Horizon Forbidden West. Both Horizon games, aside from being good video games, also work as anthems for nature and its endless bounty. The games feature diverse biomes of true wilderness; lush forests and their mossy understorey, parched deserts and their prickly dressing, and towering mountains and their slow-covered slopes — all rendered in digital perfection. In Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, the original game’s flora gets a steroid injection. Foliage is fuller, thicker, greener. Enhanced textures add an impossible level of detail to trees and terrain. And consequently, walking around in the game world is now even more immersive than before.
Walking around in world of Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered is immersive
Photo Credit: Sony/ Screenshot – Manas Mitul
The world of Horizon is less post-apocalyptic and more post-reclamation. The human civilisation and the markers of its progress and dominion are in ruins and nature has taken over. In the remastered version of the game, that overgrowth is now much more dense. There are more plants, shrubs, flowers and trees and bushes on your screen and they’re just as detailed as they are in Forbidden West. The graphical quality of water bodies is now at the level of the sequel, too. In the original Horizon Zero Dawn, streams, lakes and rivers appeared muddy and flat. Here, they feature more detailed and accurate reflections and ripples. Smaller environmental details have been added, too. Snow now sticks to your clothing during a storm; the same goes for your interaction with mud and water.
Outposts and settlements feel more alive, too. There are more NPCs in the streets, all of them a little more alive than they were in the original game. The buildings feature enhanced textures, all of it lit in golden sun that now lights up areas, both outdoors and indoors, more accurately. Walking around in the now bustling capital city of Meridian is indeed an overhauled experience. And the character models, especially Aloy, are richer, too. Aloy’s appearance from Forbidden West has been ported over to the remaster, and while that deviates slightly from how we saw her in the original game, the detailed facial expressions, along with new motion capture data, elevate the storytelling, especially in a game packed with conversations, cutscenes and dialogue options.
Cities and settlements are denser and more detailed in the remaster
Photo Credit: Sony/ Screenshot – Manas Mitul
These graphical improvements are appreciated and admittedly enhance the experience of a game that wore its visuals on its sleeve to begin with. They say gameplay is king, and caring about graphics has always invited scorn from enthusiasts. But in modern games, visuals have become a crucial vehicle for storytelling. Take Red Dead Redemption 2, for instance. While its gameplay systems are thin, its stunning recreation of the American frontier forms the core of the experience. Horizon games, too, lean heavily on visual storytelling, evoking a sense of place and time with their maximalist presentation. So, a remaster that doubles down on the details is only strengthening its credentials.
But then is that varnish bringing a meaningful improvement to the game’s experience? Is Horizon Forbidden West a better game now because it’s prettier? The answer is no. The merits of Horizon Forbidden West Remastered are still very much borrowed over from the original game. And it’s safe to say that no one really asked for an enhanced version of a game that already looks and plays fine on both PlayStation and PC.
Horizon Zero Dawn is prettier, but not better for it
Photo Credit: Sony/ Screenshot – Manas Mitul
In terms of story and gameplay, Horizon Forbidden West Remastered is of course not bringing anything new to the table. The narrative delivery is improved because of new motion capture data for characters, but gameplay enhancements seen in Forbidden West do not make their way to the Zero Dawn remaster. Beyond the impressive graphical upgrade and a new suite of game options now available, the new version of the game is only as good as the original — which still makes it pretty good. Horizon Zero Dawn was one of the best games on the PS4. It took an intriguing premise and a fascinating setting and delivered a bold narrative that put the natural world at odds with a military industrial complex armed with powerful artificial intelligence.
That story resonates seven years later, too. But, as expected, the remaster retains the original’s flaws, as well. Aloy, while being sympathetic and fierce, is largely one-note and uninteresting. And barring one stellar non-player character, the rest of the cast remains forgettable, too — just with more detailed character models. The story itself often borders on incredulity, but I enjoyed some of the silly sci-fi leanings back when I first played the game, and I liked them all these years later, too. The same goes for gameplay. The closest comparison to Horizon’s combat experience is perhaps Monster Hunter; you’re running, jumping and rolling around a giant dinosaur trying to make you its lunch. It’s kinetic, frantic and fun, and every encounter can be perilous.
More detailed character models and new motion capture data liven up conversations
Photo Credit: Sony/ Screenshot – Manas Mitul
But Monster Hunter gives you more options for how you go about slaying said dino. Horizon Zero Dawn, on the other hand, can end up feeling repetitive. With its combat landscape limited to archery — even though the game provides you several different types of bows and slings, the game’s encounters, while being perilous, also end up feeling practised. The sequel, Forbidden West, while maintaining the essence of the combat from the first game, added a bit of necessary depth to how you approached your killer robot dinosaurs and proceeded to take them down. The remaster doesn’t port over those improvements to Zero Dawn. But that’s a minor gripe in an otherwise near perfect new version of a game that remains robust in 2024, seven years after its original release.
Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, however, does bring over the expanded list of menu options, including a detailed set of accessibility settings, from Forbidden West. The new settings let you tinker and tweak your experience on a deeper level, allowing you to tailor the game to your liking, to some limit. The game also gets three graphics modes on PS5 — a 30fps Resolution mode that opts for higher fidelity, a 60fps Performance mode that favours higher framerate by lowering the resolution, and a middle-of-the road 40fps Balanced mode only on supported displays. I stuck to the Performance mode for smoother gameplay, and my experience was consistent on PS5.
Tallnecks are just as majestic as ever
Photo Credit: Sony/ Screenshot – Manas Mitul
Are the game’s graphical enhancements, technical robustness and expanded options then worth the upgrade? Despite my qualms about not-so-old titles like Horizon Zero Dawn getting a remaster, Nixxes’ latest effort is undeniably stunning in its own right, even when it stands on the shoulders of the excellent original. A $10 upgrade cost is a fair ask from existing owners of the game, considering the breadth of improvements present in the game and the very apparent labour it must have required from the developers.
And if you’ve never played the original game, Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered is, simply put, the best way to experience it. The merits of the remaster notwithstanding, Sony’s decisions ahead of launching the new version do deserve criticism. Before the remaster came out, the publisher delisted the original version of the game from PC storefronts and quietly doubled the price of the title on PlayStation Store, so that new players couldn’t get the game at its long-reduced price and pay $10 to upgrade to the remastered version. These choices are disappointing and somewhat sully an otherwise excellent, if unnecessary release. And even though recent remakes and remasters have been marked by an industry-wide banality, Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered is admittedly a thing of beauty.
Pros
- Stunning graphical upgrade
- Improved character models
- Expanded options and accessibility settings
- Near flawless performance on PS5
- $10 upgrade path
Cons
- Ultimately unnecessary
- Lack of gameplay improvements
Rating (out of 10): 8
Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered released on PC and PS5.
The game is priced at Rs. 2,999 on PlayStation Store for PS5, and Steam and Epic Games Store for PC. Players who already own Horizon Zero Dawn on PS4 or PC can upgrade to the remastered version for Rs. 500.