In addition to better textures and busier scenes, the lighting has been completely redone, and now it pops off the screen to an astonishing degree. Take this shot of the Meridian marketplace – it’s heaving with activity now, and its lit properly to illuminate the entire scene:
Image: Reddit
The comparisons caught the attention of Guerrilla bigwig Jan-Bart Van Beek, who explained the original game was his team’s “first open world game” and thus it was “really hard to check every nook and cranny of the world to see if the lighting functioned correctly”. Nixxes has fixed all that.
While the original is still a handsome game, it’s alarming just how much the remaster improves. Take a look at this scene for a glimpse of the dramatic increase in texture quality:
And now compare this sprawling landscape. With the introduction of Horizon Forbidden West’s dynamic cloud technology, the whole scene just looks much more lush and atmospheric:
Image: Reddit
Considering this is just a $10 upgrade for existing owners, we think Guerrilla and Nixxes have done an outstanding job here. The improvements are obvious, and while you may have very little desire to replay Horizon Zero Dawn right now, it’s nice to know a higher quality version will exist on PS5, ready for when you want to revisit it.
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[source reddit.com]
