Summary
Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered was finally confirmedduringPlayStation’sState of Play showcase earlier this week, a remaster that feels a little pointless andquite literally nobody was asking for. In an attempt to try to convince skeptical fans that this remaster was necessary, a bunch of features and improvements were shown off in the game’s trailer, including higher fidelity, DualSense support, and upgraded character models.
While it may seem unnecessary, you’re able to’t deny thatHorizon Zero Dawnhas never looked shinier, yet it appears as though theupgraded character models aren’t going down very well on social media. Shortly after the trailer for Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered went live, a comparison photo was made which has picked up a lot of attention, as many are claiming that Aloy’s character model on the PS4 actually looks better.
A lot of the criticism appears to be aimed at the smoothing of Aloy’s character model, which looked a lot rougher in the PS4 version. In fact, there are quite a lot of comparisons tothe “yassified” and AI versions of Aloythat were floating around close to the release of Horizon Forbidden West, as people applied make-up and cosmetics to a character that is essentially a cavewoman.
Horizon Zero Dawn Dev Defends Aloy’s Remastered Model
While Aloy’s new look might make those particular people happy, the more normal people among the game’s fans clearly aren’t keen on Aloy’s fancy remastered model. However, Guerrilla Games and Horizon Zero Dawn art director Jan-Bart van Beek has been attempting to address some of this criticism via his Twitter account, explaining some of the changes that have been made.
In the post, van Beek explains that Guerrilla brought over the Aloy model used in Horizon Forbidden West for this remaster, which has benefited from improvements in technology since the release of Zero Dawn. He also claims that Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered has improved character lighting to make it match Forbidden West, as well as better skin tones and hair shaders.
As for the smooth/blurry nature of the screenshot being criticized, van Beek claims that this is a result of motion blur, which isn’t used in the PS4 version of the game.In a follow-up tweet, van Beek shares a direct capture of Aloy’s skin/pore structure in the remaster to prove his point, claiming that a combination of motion blur and YouTube compression “is not kind to PS5 screenshots.”
While it will probably do little to silence Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered’s biggest critics, it’s interesting to hear how much tech has gone into this remaster. We won’t have to wait too long to get our hands on it either, as Horizon Forbidden West is launching on October 31.
