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One of the most disappointing announcements at the most recent PlayStation State of Play was undoubtedly the reveal of Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered. Announced before the awesome-looking Ghost of Yotei, the paid remaster received much criticism from fans.
However, some social media users have used an image comparison to push the story that the new remaster is graphically inferior to the PS4 original. In response, a developer for the new PS5 game has pushed back.
Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered vs PS4
Responding to an image comparison on Twitter, studio and art director at Guerilla Games, Jan-Bart van Beek criticised the viral comparison. The developer explained the new remaster has multiple improvements over its PlayStation 4 original and that the comparison was misleading.
“We brought over Aloy’s model from Forbidden West. We also reworked the character lighting to match the look of HFW and improve skin tones. Hair shaders are also improved,” the developer explained. “The slight blurring you see between PS4 and PS5 is because the PS4 image here has motion blur turned off.”
As for complaints of Aloy’s new “supermodel” look, Van Beek explained that this is simply down to more advanced technology.
“We rescanned her face with Trilaterals 4D scanning technology for HFW,” they explained. “It also massively upgraded her facial rig.”
A sign of issues to come
One of the biggest issues with PlayStation’s current wave of remasters is the fact that games from the last generation still look phenomenal. Similarly to The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered, Horizon Forbidden Dawn’s remaster doesn’t have a noticeable improvement for casual gamers to care about.
While very nitpicky gamers will care about grass density improvements or slightly improved faces, the vast majority are content with the game’s PS4 visuals. Unlike games like Epic Mickey Rebrushed or Diablo 2 Resurrected, the leap just isn’t there.
As games continues to move forward with only minor increases in visual fidelity, this issue will only get more prevalent. Hopefully, this will mean less remasters and more original games.
Nevertheless, Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered does look better than the PS4 version in a number of key areas. That doesn’t mean anyone will really care.
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