PlayStation Studios holds the keys to a staggering number of franchises, but the company really, really wants you to know about Horizon.

That’s the impression I’ve been getting ever since Horizon Zero Dawn debuted on the PlayStation 4 back in 2017, with the company catapulting protagonist Aloy to the front of as many marketing campaigns as possible since. Perhaps that’s down to Hermen Hulst moving from developer Guerilla Games up the ladder to become the boss of Sony’s first-party output, but whatever the case, the franchise is here to stay.

And, while we’re due a blocky version of Aloy’s adventures this year with LEGO Horizon Adventures, we’ve also got a drop-dead gorgeous remaster of the PS4 original coming to PlayStation 5.

If you’ve not caught up with Aloy and her robot-slaying bow skills, Horizon: Zero Dawn Remastered offers the best opportunity to do so as one of the best PS5 games of recent years. If you’re a seasoned member of the tribe, however, you may find less to enjoy. 

A post-post-apocalypse, again 

It’s worth noting that attaching ‘Remastered’ to the title of the base game actually feels a little like a misnomer in this context. This is far more impressive than a new lick of paint over the first, original version of the game. That’s not to say it isn’t drastically prettier (which I’ll come to shortly), but if you’re expecting the game to feel a little less special based on that title, you may be surprised.

Within ten minutes, I played as a young Aloy wandering the subterranean halls of a lab that’s been buried for centuries. Aside from the way the light bounces off the water, reflecting intricately across the walls, when Aloy first grabs her Focus (the gadget she uses to navigate the world), the way its purple-hued UI contrasts with the cavernous corridors made me sit forward in my chair.

Exteriors also showcase a significant glow-up. I found there to be more dynamic lighting and lens flare on display, both from the sunlight over mountains and trees and from the angry eye of the Watcher machines, but it’s the foliage that feels most impressive.

Aloy walks through it as it sways and reacts to her movements, and she reaches out her hands to touch it in return. Cutscene motion capture has been redone in many spots (at least according to Sony), but some slightly iffy animations with the younger Aloy feel a little off, notably when she falls awkwardly into the aforementioned lab.

That’s alleviated after the time jump that sees her reintroduced as an adult, however, and from that moment on you’d struggle to tell the difference between this remaster and the second game in the series, 2022’s Horizon Forbidden West.

It’s not just Aloy that sees a glow-up, either. Her mentor, Rost, has more detail in his character model, with a more realistic beard than I remember in 2017, and while some unnamed non-player characters (NPCs) look much the same, all named characters have drastically improved detail in their features and clothing, right down to stitching on outfits.

That extends to the machines that roam the world, too, with everything from the Watcher to the Thunderjaw to the Stormbird having clearer, more mechanical details like robotic sinews and circuitry.

Time for another look

Sure, it’s prettier than the 2017 original, but Zero Dawn was never a slouch in the visual department. In fact, the reason fewer people were talking about it was likely its awkward release timing alongside the Nintendo Switch and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - another open-world game that enjoyed the benefit of being attached to an established franchise.

With that in mind, this remaster marks a great opportunity to look at Zero Dawn free of those contemporaneous comparisons, and it’s remarkable just how well the game’s underlying mechanics hold up.

It’s a game full of satisfying moments, most notably in combat. Whacking a robot to see its armor plating fly off and sparks fly remains just as enjoyable now as it was in 2017, and while stealth remains a formulaic process of wandering between patches of long grass, there’s something so kinetic about Zero Dawn’s bow and trap combo that makes it no wonder Sony is reportedly working on a game-as-a-service within this universe.

Using the tripcaster to fell a colossal mechanical beast, or sliding away from a Strider while triggering slow motion to fire a fire arrow at the canister on its back are made more tactile by the improved rumble and haptic triggers of the DualSense wireless controller this time around, and while the sound of the Focus through the controller speakers still feels a little annoying at times, the whole thing tickles the brain so nicely that I’d suggest Horizon is to third-person combat what Destiny is to first-person shooters. 

Everything is executed to such an impressive level of finesse that I can see myself grinding levels to earn skills for Aloy all over again, and that’s even with features from the sequel missing like vertical traps and a charged spear attack. That means coming back from Forbidden West doesn’t feel as jarring as it could have done, and if you’ve not played Zero Dawn before playing the sequel then there’s never been a better time. 

A big part of why it feels so good to play is the performance mode options, which are pretty much a straight transplant from Horizon Forbidden West. Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered runs in 4K in Favor Resolution mode but can run in Favor Performance Mode at 30, 40, and 60 frames per second (FPS) modes with tradeoffs at each level on PC, while the PS5 version offers just a 60 FPS version. 

I will say that while Resolution mode is often my preference for increased detail, the Performance mode quickly became my standard way to enjoy the remaster. That’s mostly down to the increased fluidity which can be felt throughout just about any animation, whether it’s Aloy running or aiming her bow. Whichever mode I tested, however, I didn’t see frame drops of any real consequence, nor any major drop in visual fidelity.

The only real disappointment when returning from the sequel is that Horizon Zero Dawn’s world is noticeably flatter in terms of topography. There are still hills and craggy cliffs to climb, but Forbidden West added more in the way of verticality to its terrain which makes things feel a little less varied here.

"I’ve been here before"

Horizon: Zero Dawn Remastered is £45 / $50 for anyone jumping in for the first time, but if you already own it you’ll get it for just £10 / $10. For that, it’s hard not to be tempted given what’s on offer visually, and given it’s been free on various PlayStation promotions in the past, you may be surprised to know you already have access to it.

This Remaster also includes the Frozen Wilds expansion which adds a new region, quests, and skills for Aloy to unlock, making it a truly complete edition - except we’ve already had a Complete Edition… and a PS5 performance patch, too.

That might mean you’re less excited to go back than you otherwise would have been, but you can import your save if you left off at any point prior. The process is very simple, and leans on cloud saves too - I was grateful to have found some old saves from back in 2018 that I could use to get back to some of the game’s most impressive machines. You can also start a New Game+ from your prior save. The Photo Mode is also great, offering a whole host of options with which I snagged the majority of the shots in this review and it’s easy to dive in and out of it from the pause menu. 

Your level of enjoyment in Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered will likely depend on how much time you’ve spent with it before. If it turned you into a lifelong fan of Aloy’s adventures, then you’ll undoubtedly pay the modest fee for a visually stunning facelift of the first chapter. If you finished it and put it down, there may be less reason for you to return.

You’ll be disappointed if you’re looking for new content, but that’s not what this Remaster is about. It’s a stunning game, and if you want to revisit the game - or you missed Frozen Wilds and want to see that in all its glory - then this is the definitive and best-looking version of the game to play now. 

Should you play Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered?

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Accessibility

Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered follows on from Forbidden West with an array of accessibility features including remappable buttons, hold/press options for commands, adjustable weapon wheel speed, and co-pilot functionality to allow a second controller to be used to mirror controls. There are also a series of difficulty settings to make the game easier or more challenging, including modifiers to damage dealt, damage taken, and an auto heal option.

You can opt to have quest destinations automatically show on screen or to be able to explore and find them by yourself, while subtitles are offered in multiple sizes and with or without backgrounds. Tinnitus sounds can also be switched off entirely, and there are audio and vibration cues when action prompts are shown on screen.

The biggest omission, however, is colorblind modes. While these were added post-launch with Forbidden West, they’re simply not here in Zero Dawn Remastered. Here’s hoping it’s patched in soon.

How I reviewed Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered

I played the game from the beginning for around 10 hours, before jumping into a late game save from the PS4 version to tackle bigger, endgame-level machines for a further five hours.

I spent half of the time in Performance mode, and the other half in the quality mode to test the differences between them. All of this was done on a base (launch) PlayStation 5 console with a Sky Glass 4K TV and the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7P. 

In retrospect, Life is Strange: Double Exposure seems like an almost impossible sequel for developer Deck Nine to create. Even if that’s not the case, it’s hard to argue that the one we received is a success.

Who is Max Caufield? That depends on the decisions you made playing the first episodic supernatural adventure game. Don’t Nod’s 2013 success with the original Life is Strange was a lightning bolt, an episodic coming-of-age story driven by the emotional impulses of both the player and Max acting as one. Returning to Arcadia Bay and meeting your lost friend culminating in a decision to save her life and destroy your hometown or allow her to die to save it, commits the first game to a contained but forceful and emotional arc about the morality of controlling the fates of others.

In Life is Strange: Double Exposure, Max is no longer the teenager we once knew. She’s an adult, a photographer-in-residence, and a teacher at Caledon University in Vermont. She has a new life. She can’t use her rewind powers anymore to turn back time, but she’s seemingly settled in a new home and has two close friends in the geeky astronomer Moses and Safi, a poet and undergraduate.

One night, after watching a meteor shower on the snowy observatory rooftop, Safi leaves to take a phone call only to be shot dead in the night by a mystery assailant. Shocked by trauma, Max discovers a new ability to switch between a timeline where she lives and one where she dies, and uses this ability to try and understand her death, who killed her, and perhaps even save her.

Scars of the Past

Make no mistake, my disappointment with Life is Strange: Double Exposure doesn’t come from a disdain for the decision not to bring back fan-favorite Chloe, Max’s romantic interest from the first game. While there has been some controversy over this decision, as she fails to make an appearance regardless of whether you let her live or die in the first game, this is not what holds things back narratively.

The overhanging cloud of Arcadia Bay, and the gulf between the state of reality where Chloe lives and dies, are so massive that attempting to tell a story that fails to commit to making one ending canon (or possibly both) results in a game that seems unable to move beyond history to explore who Max is today. Max claims that she has moved on, but the game inherently can’t. The result hamstrings the story from developing in certain directions at risk of contradicting either ending while stopping it from really having anything interesting to say by the time credits roll.

The result is a big disconnect between Max and the player. You may remember the events of the first game, and they may influence the way you act here, but the story can't acknowledge them. The loss of your friend and love interest, or the loss of an entire town, are major events that should define Max but are entirely absent aside from a few easter eggs.

Narrative aside, there are also some problems with the mechanics this time around. Rather than a rewind ability like in the original game, Max discovers an evolution of her powers that allows her to jump between two timelines; her own, and another where Safi is still alive. What could be a tool to play with the morals of jumping between both to manipulate dual versions of these characters instead feels like annoying busywork.

In the moment-to-moment action, the power is surprisingly limited. You can’t switch timelines at will, nor integrate your experiences and knowledge from each timeline into gameplay without the game prompting you first. This means you’re left running backwards and forwards to find the spot to jump, and are left with little reason to even think about using the power without being prompted first unless you want to seek out collectible photos. It’s exhausting rather than interesting.

Compared to how much time travel was an active part of the narrative, the timeline-shifting powers merely dilute the characters we interact with. We barely get to know any of them before the major inciting incident and the resulting timeline split creates two versions of every character which prevents us from getting to know them deeply. Amanda is positioned as a love interest, but the interactions with this simultaneously disinterested and intrigued rural lesbian in differing timelines left me unable to understand who she was, or even care about learning more.

No matter how disinterested I acted in both timelines, Vinh also would not stop acting flirtatiously and I soon wanted to file a restraining order. Conversations and relationships between characters are a major step down from the last Deck Nine installment, Life is Strange True Colors.

What is it all for?

Safi’s death and the mystery behind that should draw you in but we barely know Safi before her death. I spent multiple episodes effectively trying to save a girl that I knew nothing about. Even when you do learn more about her past through our investigation and other events, much of her past remains obscured in a way that leaves her feeling like more of a plot device than a real friend. Major story decisions I made involving her character felt cold and meaningless.

It’s hard not to see this as a missed opportunity. The franchise has continued Max’s story before, albeit in comic form. It even integrates multiple timelines and shifting powers. While this comic begins continuing the story from the perspective of one ending (the destruction of Arcadia Bay), it also uses multiple timelines to its advantage, and in doing so creates a canon where both endings can exist.

By embracing the difficult decision, rather than trying to avoid it, it’s possible to more deeply introspect on Max as a character in a way that not only keeps you invested, but even makes you reconsider what was truly the right thing to do.

Does this mean that the game should have merely remade the comics? No! But it shows that committing to the impossible choice of the past rather than trying to skirt around it allows you to explore these characters in the depth they deserve.

Life is Strange: Double Exposure is trapped by continuity. The past makes us who we are, but we are not defined by it. It’s a shame that developer Deck Nine didn't get the memo.

Should I play Life is Strange: Double Exposure?

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Accessibility 

Life is Strange: Double Exposure offers extensive accessibility settings and content warnings for transphobia, mentions of suicide, blood, loud noises, and more. Accessibility includes obvious things like subtitles, but also a camera assist, the ability to skip some gameplay, longer choice times, reduced motion, simple power effects to avoid flashing lights, and alternate controls for anything that needs multiple button presses.

How I reviewed Life is Strange: Double Exposure

I played Life is Strange: Double Exposure on a launch model PS5 using a DualSense Wireless Controller and an ASUS VG27AQL1A gaming monitor. For audio, I utilized a wireless headphone adapter and played the game using Apple AirPods Max. It took just shy of 10 hours to complete the five episodes and reach the ending.

First reviewed October 2024.