Key findings
- During this month's State of Play, Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered was announced, which will feature various improvements such as updated character models.
- However, shortly after the game's release, Aloy's redesigned character model was criticized for its slickness, as it was said to look worse than the PS4 model.
- Jan-Bart van Beek, art director of Horizon Zero Dawn, later defended the remake model on Twitter, claiming that the remake's motion blur was the reason for the model's lower level of detail.
Earlier this week, during PlayStation's State of Play presentation, the release of Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered was finally confirmed. It's a remaster that feels a little pointless and that literally no one asked for. To convince skeptical fans that this remaster is necessary, a number of features and improvements were shown off in the game's trailer, including higher fidelity, DualSense support, and improved character models.
While it may seem unnecessary, there is no denying that Horizon Zero Dawn has never looked shinier, yet it seems as though the Improved character models are not well received on social mediaShortly after the trailer for Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered went live, a comparison photo was created that attracted a lot of attention, with many claiming that Aloy's character model actually looks better on the PS4.
Much of the criticism seems to be directed at the smoothing out of Aloy's character model, which looked much rougher in the PS4 version. In fact, there are quite a few comparisons to the “yassified” and AI versions of Aloy that were circulating just before Horizon Forbidden West's release, when people applied makeup and cosmetics to a character who is essentially a cavewoman.
Horizon Zero Dawn developer defends Aloy's revised model
While Aloy's new look may make those people happy, the more normal folks among the game's fans are clearly not thrilled with Aloy's fancy, revamped model. However, Jan-Bart van Beek, art director of Guerrilla Games and Horizon Zero Dawn, has attempted to address some of these criticisms via his Twitter account and explain some of the changes that have been made.
In the post, van Beek explains that Guerrilla adopted the Aloy model used in Horizon Forbidden West for this remaster, which has benefited from technological improvements since the release of Zero Dawn. He also claims that Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered features improved character lighting to match Forbidden West, as well as better skin tones and hair shaders.
As for the smooth/blurry nature of the criticized screenshot, van Beek claims that this is a result of motion blur, which is not used in the PS4 version of the game. In a follow-up tweet, van Beek shares a direct shot of Aloy's skin/pore texture in the remaster to prove his point, claiming that a combination of motion blur and YouTube compression “is not good for PS5 screenshots.”
While it probably won't silence Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered's biggest critics, it's interesting to hear just how much engineering went into this remaster. We won't have to wait too long to get our hands on it either, as Horizon Forbidden West is out on October 31st.
