Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered

I love the original Horizon Zero Dawn, and I'm a huge fan of its sequel, Forbidden West, which launched last year. Both are superlative adventure titles, with certain stumbles, that feature some of the most inventive and beautifully realized world building seen in games.

The remaster for Zero Dawn attempts to bring the PS4 original to similar ground with its sequel. Mostly by updating character models, environments, and introducing a host of current generation updates to the older title. The thing is, Zero Dawn is still a gorgeous game. One of the most striking titles on the PlayStation 4, and the jump in graphics between generations has reached a point of diminishing returns. Is a remaster truly necessary?

Well, yes and no.

Let's get the obvious out of the way first: Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered is jaw-droppingly gorgeous. Even more so than it used to be. It isn't quite as staggering as Forbidden West, but it's close. As a remaster, it's everything you could hope for on a visual scale.

But it's also something that we might arrogantly take for granted. For the first couple of hours, I kept thinking that this doesn't look all that different from how I remember things. It was only after I went back to my original disc copy of the PS4 version that I noticed just how much had changed.

That's because our emotional memories play tricks on us. Even classic titles from 20 years ago look pristine in our minds, because we associate feelings to them rather than logical memories of polygon counts. Aloy's adventure into the unknown is a sprawling fantasy epic that tugs at the heartstrings. It stirs grand memories because of how effective the gaming experience was.

To fully comprehend and appreciate how much the remaster does, you'd have to compare both versions side by and side, and that's just not feasible. Unlike some remasters, there isn't an opportunity to play with the original visuals turned on, as Zero Dawn is already a demanding title, and switching between remaster and original is not possible.

So, instead, we should appreciate what we have, and that alone is plenty. From new high resolution textures to remade faces and impeccable environmental additions, Zero Dawn looks more vivid and alive than ever before. It's still one of those games that I love to spend time in just to experience the world and atmosphere.

The gameplay itself remains unchanged. Aloy's adventure follows the same path as in the original, with the added inclusion of The Frozen Wilds expansion. Both are fantastic adventures that will easily take you anywhere from 50 to 100 hours to complete. Depending on how much you want to invest in exploration.

I prefer the story and world of Zero Dawn to Forbidden West, mostly because I'm a sucker for stories about hubris and the end of the world. On that front, Zero Dawn presents one of the most harrowing and heartbreaking depictions of the end that I've experienced. In one of the best set pieces of the game, you climb an ancient tower and relive the recordings of those waiting for the end, each one growing more desperate. To this day, after numerous playthroughs, it still makes me emotional.

The adventure itself is just as fun as before. Aloy can hunt, tame, and learn from the mechanical animals in the wild, and there's still a joyous thrill in the hunt. The animations are as gorgeous as ever, and thanks to the remaster, we can enjoy the visuals to a greater degree. The photo mode, already one of the best around, comes to good use here, as I found myself just snapping away at every turn.

If you haven't played Horizon Zero Dawn yet, the remastered edition is an easy recommendation. This was one of the best titles on the PlayStation 4, and between its sequel, it's one of the best ones on the PS5.

Are the changed and updates worth another dip for those who've already played the game? No, I don't think so. Not unless you're a die hard fan of the series, and even then I wouldn't pay full price for it.

But if you can't get enough of Aloy's world, and you just want to experience it in the highest fidelity available, then Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered is well worth the price. You still get a fabulous game, only prettier. That's not nothing.