Guerrilla Games has reassured fans that Horizon Forbidden West‘s PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 versions will be “equally immersive” despite the former having the advantage of newer hardware and the DualSense controller.
While it’s understandable that some features won’t be possible on the PS4, the last-gen version won’t be “compromised.” This is welcome news considering Sony’s initial stance on cross-gen releases. The company later reversed course, and announced that Horizon Forbidden West will be built from the ground up for the PS5 as players expressed concerns about the game being held back by older hardware.
“We actually developed and tested the game simultaneously on both PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, because it’s very important to us as a studio to ensure PlayStation 4 players get an equally immersive experience,” lead character artist Bastien Ramisse wrote on the PlayStation Blog. “With our knowledge from Horizon Zero Dawn, we knew that we still had some unexplored resources that could push the realism and quality of our character assets forward; it’s great to now be able to tap into that knowledge and experience for the sequel.”
Ramisse added that Aloy’s facial and body capture accuracy have been improved vastly.
“From an artistic point of view, Horizon Forbidden West really stands on the shoulders of a successfully established design foundation in Horizon Zero Dawn,” he continued. “The most noticeable differences and improvements for Aloy in terms of technology is the push of facial and body capture accuracy, allowing more realistic shapes and surface details on characters as well as the careful increase of polygon density to capture handmade and used outfits.”
Horizon Forbidden West will release on February 18, 2022.
[Source: PS Blog]
