Horizon Zero Dawn™ Remastered Review Summary

Significantly improved, modern visuals: The remaster significantly enhances the game's visuals, bringing them closer to the level of *Forbidden West*. This includes improved textures, lighting, character models, and animations, resulting in a more immersive and visually stunning experience. The improvements are so significant that the game feels fresh and modern, even for those familiar with the original.

Captivating story, immersive world: The game features a captivating story, immersive world-building, and engaging gameplay mechanics. The world is vast and detailed, with diverse biomes and interesting lore. The combat system is fun and rewarding, and the characters are well-developed and memorable, creating a truly immersive and enjoyable experience.

Enjoyable, addictive gameplay loop: The game is enjoyable and addictive, with solid mechanics and a fun gameplay loop. Many reviewers noted that they replayed the game multiple times, indicating a high level of satisfaction with the core gameplay experience. The game is also praised for its accessibility and lack of overly political content.

Fantastic story, great characters: The game is a fantastic experience, with a rich and engaging story and well-developed characters. The remaster brings the game to the same audiovisual level as its successor, *Horizon Forbidden West*, noticeably improving the visual quality. Many reviewers expressed their love for the game and its protagonist, Aloy.

Rewarding, strategic combat system: The combat system is a blend of precision and strategy, offering a diverse range of tools and approaches for defeating enemies. The game emphasizes a hunter-like approach, requiring players to strategically plan and utilize their resources. The combat is rewarding and appropriately challenging, with a good amount of depth and variety.

Unnecessary remaster, minimal improvements: Many reviewers question the necessity and value of the remaster, citing minimal improvements, a lack of substantial changes, and the persistence of original issues. The requirement for a PSN account is also a major point of contention, especially for a single-player game, with some reviewers suspecting the remaster is primarily for profit.

Uninspired, repetitive, and generic gameplay: The game suffers from a multitude of issues that detract from the overall experience. These include a slow start, a predictable and uninspired story, repetitive gameplay, uninteresting characters, and a formulaic open-world design. The combat system is simplistic and lacks depth, and the game feels like a generic, mass-produced product.

Frequent crashes and technical issues: Numerous reviewers reported experiencing various technical issues, including minor bugs, frequent crashes, freezing, and instability. These problems can occur randomly and in various situations, sometimes rendering the game unplayable. The prevalence of these issues significantly impacts the player experience.

Broken controller support, unresponsiveness: Many reviewers reported significant issues with controller support, particularly with PS5 and Xbox controllers. These issues include unresponsive buttons, the inability to use weapons (especially the bow), and general unreliability, making the game difficult or impossible to play with a controller.

Significant audio issues, missing sounds: Reviewers have reported significant audio issues, including missing sound effects, dialogue, and music, as well as poor audio quality and mixing. These problems occur during both gameplay and cutscenes, breaking immersion and detracting from the overall experience.

Varied weapons, limited guidance: The game offers a variety of weapons and ammo types, encouraging diverse combat approaches. However, some reviewers note a lack of guidance on weapon usage and that some weapons are not particularly impactful. The bow is the primary weapon.

Large, somewhat generic open-world: The game features a large open world for exploration. Some reviewers find the open-world structure generic, while others appreciate the scenery and freedom of exploration. The game world allows players to ride machines across diverse landscapes.

Numerous, sometimes tedious sidequests: The game features numerous side quests that offer XP, items, and background story. However, some reviewers find many of these quests to be fetch quests that feel like a chore, indicating inconsistent quality.

Gameplay unchanged from original: Many reviewers note that the core gameplay remains largely unchanged from the original Horizon Zero Dawn. This point is particularly relevant for those considering the remaster, as it highlights the lack of significant gameplay enhancements.

Interesting lore, tedious dialogues: The game features an interesting intertwining of past and present story elements, with collectibles providing additional lore. However, some reviewers find many dialogues boring and tedious, leading to skipping them.

Smooth performance on modern PCs: Many reviewers report smooth performance on modern hardware, often exceeding 60 FPS at high settings and resolutions. FSR and DLSS technologies further enhance performance, allowing for high visual fidelity without significant frame rate drops.

Inconsistent performance, crashes reported: Some users are experiencing performance issues such as stuttering, frame drops, and crashes, even on systems that meet or exceed the recommended specifications. These issues appear to be inconsistent, with some users reporting flawless performance while others struggle to maintain a stable frame rate.

Audio and location-specific issues: Some players have reported audio issues, such as stuttering, delays, and distortion. Additionally, some users have noted significant frame rate drops in specific areas like Meridian, even with DLSS and frame generation enabled.

Good Steam Deck performance: The remastered version runs well on Steam Deck, generally averaging around 30 FPS. The game is stable and visually acceptable on the platform, making it a viable option for portable play.

Fantastic and improved performance: The game's performance is generally considered fantastic and has improved significantly compared to the original. Reviewers have reported achieving high frame rates at various resolutions and settings with different graphics cards.

$10 upgrade worth it: The $10 upgrade is considered worthwhile for owners of the original game, especially for visual enhancements and replayability. Some reviewers suggest waiting for a sale if purchasing the game for the first time or if not owning the original.

Highly recommended masterpiece: The game is highly recommended as a masterpiece with a captivating story, engaging gameplay, and stunning visuals. Reviewers suggest it's a must-play for both newcomers and fans of open-world adventure games, often recommending it as a starting point before playing the sequel, Forbidden West.

Unplayable due to technical issues: Many reviewers cannot recommend the game in its current state due to technical issues such as audio glitches, performance problems, and game-breaking bugs. They advise waiting for patches and fixes before purchasing, as the issues significantly detract from the experience.

Wait for a sale: Reviewers suggest waiting for a sale before purchasing the game, especially for new players. The game is recommended at full price for first-time players, but only at a discount for those who like open worlds with lots of activities and fun combat.

Play the sequel, Forbidden West: Reviewers recommend playing Forbidden West, the sequel, for a more comfortable and improved experience. Some suggest upgrading to experience Zero Dawn with the visual style of Forbidden West, while others recommend sticking with the original if their PC can't handle the sequel.

PSN account requirement is controversial: The game requires a PSN account, which may be a point of contention for some players, especially those in unsupported countries. Some reviewers believe complaints about the PSN link are unwarranted, as it's common for formerly PS exclusive games. PSN doesn't add any value for PC players since there are already Steam achievements and no multiplayer.

Praised as an excellent game: Many reviewers found Horizon Zero Dawn to be an excellent game with a well-crafted universe, great graphics, and good characters. Some reviewers were initially reluctant but were drawn in by the animal robots and the interestingly told story. Some consider it among their top games of all time.

Remaster quality is debated: Reactions to the Remastered version are mixed. Some appreciate the graphical and technical improvements, while others question the need for a remaster, suggesting the original version was sufficient. The install size is basically doubled despite there not being that much of a visual difference.

Includes expansion, cheap upgrade: The game includes the additional expansion. The upgrade is only $10 if you own the previous version. Achievements are identical to the Complete Edition but do not carry over, requiring players to unlock them again.

Average game time, vast content: Reviewers report that the game has an average game time and a vast amount of content to collect and complete.