Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered Review

Walking Aloy to a cliff edge and staring into the vast open world, I felt a comforting sense of déjà vu. In playing the opening hours of Horizon: Zero Dawn Remastered, it struck me that I’ve rarely left its world alone since first stepping foot into the post-apocalyptic wilds seven years ago. Across Zero Dawn, its excellent sequel Forbidden West, and their respective add-ons, I’ve probably spent more time with Aloy than any other character in recent years. Still, there I was, ready — and more than willing — to experience her adventure, and this world, all over again.

I’ll be the first to admit that I didn’t think Horizon: Zero Dawn needed a remaster. The original game looks great to this day, especially with the improved performance offered by playing it on PlayStation 5. Even after playing this, I stand by that. However, there’s no doubt that the development teams at Guerilla Games and PlaySation’s port perfectionists Nixxes have done an incredible job of revitalising what is, for my money, one of the best open worlds in video games.

The environments have that little bit more detail and the world as a whole pops more: the foliage is dense and lush, the lighting and reflections are vastly improved, and villages and other hubs bustle with even more people. Even paths through heavy snow appear more natural. Such changes are minimal but impactful and mean that Horizon: Zero Dawn Remastered more closely resembles Horizon: Forbidden West when it comes to detail. The world just feels more alive.  

What’s not minimal are the improvements to cutscenes, The development team returned to the original motion capture to update so many dialogue sequences. Gone are the often lifeless and jarring character interactions of the original. Instead, characters animate more naturally.  Camera angles and lighting are improved too. All of this makes even the smallest interaction with side characters more engaging and adds a touch more weight and nuance to bigger story points.

Some of that is down to the improvements to how the game sounds too. There are notable changes to the game’s audio mix. Noticeably, grass crunches beneath Aloy’s feet, the wind rushes by, and the distinctive sounds of enemies in and out of combat can be heard all around you when they’re close. All of this adds to the overall immersion of Horizon: Zero Dawn Remastered and, as someone who doesn’t always notice these things, the enhancement is clear.

Essentially, Horizon: Zero Dawn Remastered allows newcomers (and, to a lesser degree, returning players) to feel less of the original game’s rough edges, making the experience with the franchise as a whole just a little more seamless.

Underneath the improved visuals, the original skeleton of Horizon: Zero Dawn remains. This is not a remake, after all. Therefore, it is missing some of Forbidden West’s quality-of-life improvements and the game’s true age — even though it’s not that old — does show through every so often. The melee combat still feels clunky, and the climbing does feel a touch stiffer than I recall from the sequel. Speaking of which, forgetting that I didn’t have Forbidden West’s Shield Wing glider and watching Aloy plummet to her death from the top of a mountain was a mistake I made more often than I’d like to admit. 

The super-fast loading times occasionally meant that I could see characters awkwardly moving into position in the background of a scene, or there were split-second cuts to black during a scene where a loading screen may have once been. There are also some peculiar physics issues every so often, but it’s all largely forgivable in the grand scheme of things.

However, rushing through the wilds and wielding Aloy’s bow in battle feels as fluid as ever, especially with the newly added DualSense features. As subtle as they are, the haptics really do add to the overall experience. The majority of moment-to-moment gameplay feels smooth — especially in ‘Performance’ mode on PlayStation 5 which trades some of the game’s improved resolution for a 60 frames-per-second gameplay experience. This is how I played the vast majority of the game and I couldn’t fault it. 

The gameplay loop of taking down machines and stripping them for parts never got old. So despite my attempts to walk the game’s golden path and stick to the main questline, I quickly found myself crouched on top of a cliff shooting fire arrows at unsuspecting Grazers and watching them detonate, or stealthily dispatching every bandit from a camp with satisfying headshots. I immediately remembered why and how I’d spent hundreds of hours with this game and its sequel over the years.  Is it a giant map filled with a checklist of busy work? Sure! However, it’s also one of the most fun, fascinating, varied, and detailed open worlds to explore. Meticulously taking down the cast of behemoth robots, (re)learning their strengths and weaknesses, and attempting new strategies, it’s just a joy to play.

It’s also worth noting that if you already own the game — and PlayStation has given it away a few times by now — then it’s also only a £10/$10/€10 upgrade. Save data from the PS4 version also transfers over, meaning that you can immediately jump into that New Game+ run you’ve been putting off too. Although, a PSA for the trophy hunters out there: trophies won’t automatically ‘pop’ after your transfer (as they did for Spider-Man: Remastered, etc) so starting a new game might be the way to go.

I suppose the big question is, “Is Horizon: Zero Dawn Remastered worth it?”. For new players, the answer is an emphatic yes. If you’ve waited to experience Horizon or played Forbidden West and wanted to go back, this is the ultimate version of this game — with no exceptions. However, as I said at the beginning of this review, I was sceptical about it as a returning fan. Yet, here I am, tens of hours later a believer — praise All-Mother! Horizon: Zero Dawn Remastered is absolutely worth it. Although, admittedly, I might not be so emphatic had PlayStation not played nice with the cheaper upgrade path. 

A necessary upgrade? Perhaps not. Especially given the myriad enhancements the original game saw in its lifetime. Despite this, there’s no doubt that Horizon: Zero Dawn Remastered is the best way to experience one of PlayStation’s best games and it’s hard to look past that.