Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered announced, bringing surprising enhancements

There’s been some discussion surrounding Sony and their penchant for releasing remasters of recent games. Perhaps the most to have received such criticism was the leak that 2017’s Horizon Zero Dawn was being remastered for PS5 and PC. Thanks to the most recent State of Play, this has now been officially confirmed – however, the remaster is bringing some surprising improvements.

As announced during the most recent State of Play, Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered is an upgraded version of the PS4’s 2017 open-world title, set to launch on both PS5 and PC this Halloween.

Given the fact that the game still looked good to this day, especially thanks to the PC release / PS5 60fps patch, the necessity for a remaster is questionable.

That said, it seems the team at Guerrilla Games have done quite a lot to enhance the nearly 8 year old game, with just some of the enhancements including:

“over 10 hours of re-recorded conversation, mocap and countless graphical improvements that bring the game to the same visual fidelity as its critically acclaimed sequel Horizon Forbidden West. The game’s lush world includes frozen mountains, dense jungles, and arid deserts with stunning new visuals and 4K graphics and travelling between settlements is now lightning-fast.”

Beyond this, the remaster also brings further enhancements to character models and rendering as well as animation, lighting, textures and more. Finally, the game’s soundscape has been upgraded to work with the PS5’s Tempest 3D audio, alongside native support for the DualSense controller and all of its features.

As with many games released in recent times, the Horizon Zero Dawn Remaster seems to straddle the line between a typical remaster and remake, offering significant visual improvements while remaining fundamentally the same game.

Those who already own Horizon Zero Dawn can get the remaster for just $9.99 – more than worth it for everything it includes.

KitGuru says: What do you think of the remaster? Did they justify its existence? Should there be a term for this type of enhanced hybrid remaster? Let us know down below.

Become a Patron!