{
"post": {
"title": "Detailed comparison between HZD Original and HZD Remastered",
"selftext": "Nixxes and Guerrilla have revealed a lot of new images of HZDR in the new blog post detailing the changes they made. I was inspired to see just how big these changes are and decided to find all of the locations from the screenshots to recreate them as closely as possible, even considering FOV and time of day. The results are quite surprising. Hope you enjoy.\n\n[ORIGINAL](https://preview.redd.it/g43qdm1z7cwd1.png?width=3832&format=png&auto=webp&s=a32a72448cf6faa53734135149c47e6e88a49c0b)\n\nIn the original, everything has this orange tint to it. The poor global illumination results in the textures' colors barely being visible and appearing much more washed out and orange (This is especially visible in the almost grey looking foliage on top of the arch to the right and the store banners in the background, which all look as if they were orange). The ground texture is basic and flat, it has no depth to it. All of the shadows, highlights and details appear to be painted on by the artists. There are almost no NPCs visible, no one doing any tasks or anything.\n\n[REMASTERED](https://preview.redd.it/nsab1bae8cwd1.jpg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1a4474cd255b512338431300ee58b252fbe54393)\n\nNow, the scene is lit much better. The orange tint is gone entirely and all of the colors now appear exactly as they are. The increase in light bounces and the enhanced AO make every detail pop a lot more and the overall clarity has improved significantly. The scene has a lot more depth than in the original, which is especially noticeable when looking at the contrast between arch to the right and the bigger arch behind it. Before, everything appeared to glow slightly, as if it was lit by a non-existent light source, resulting in both arches looking like they're almost equally far away from Aloy, making the scene look flat. In the remaster however, the front arch is now properly dark and doesn't appear directly illuminated by the sun, resulting in much more depth.\n\nThe amount of NPCs has also increased significantly. Most of them appear to be dynamic, not static, meaning that they move around or complete tasks of sorts.\n\n[ORIGINAL](https://preview.redd.it/d8vw0ci08cwd1.png?width=3840&format=png&auto=webp&s=5bed44bd58d26f3e72c178e435933cd2018a7b40)\n\nThis shot from the original looks entirely flat. None of the wooden beams cast shadows, there's almost no ambient occlusion and the ground soil doesn't react properly to the light source.\n\n[REMASTERED](https://preview.redd.it/ek342htf8cwd1.jpg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=377f9d9e4681023768890669b27d44f029c41699)\n\nThe wooden beams actually cast shadows now, the stacked Shell-Walker crates no longer look like they're illuminated by a non-existent light source and the ground Soil now appears to be fully modeled, thus resulting in proper light interaction. There's also a new volumetric fog present, which greatly enhances the mood of the scene.\n\n[ORIGINAL](https://preview.redd.it/dwk2by028cwd1.png?width=3829&format=png&auto=webp&s=aa29b62c03ed4e7d5bd07148ed647da9aecad37a)\n\nThe rocks next to the river, as well as the terrain in the background and to the right barely have any detail. The lighting is way to smooth, resulting in a massive loss of detail. The water barely reflects anything and doesn't even look like water. The bush inbetween the two waterfalls looks like it's floating.\n\n[REMASTERED](https://preview.redd.it/k8m4xdfh8cwd1.jpg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ac5f5667ae1103f158d97a73da50093040c10594)\n\nThe terrain now has a lot more detail and the increase in lighting samples and light bounces makes all of that detail clearly visible. The plants next to the river have significantly improved quality and the rocks are now covered in ultra-high-fidelity moss. The weird fog at the waterfalls is gone and the bush no longer looks like it's floating.\n\n[ORIGINAL](https://preview.redd.it/v7cr92j38cwd1.png?width=3840&format=png&auto=webp&s=24e90aff54b18732bfcaa0379ed20eaf644970c9)\n\nThe lighting is extremely flat here. There's no clear seperation between the individual planes that make up the building. The brick walls have no depth, as they're simply just textures slapped onto a flat surface. This is especially noticeable when looking at the brick column to the right. The lamps emit way too much light, they almost look as bright as they'd look at night time. This also results in the roofing above the door being lit from underneath, making the image look flat.\n\n[REMASTERED](https://preview.redd.it/2j1da94j8cwd1.jpg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=484b33309b8b64eaf1c29d6be510537fe9896954)\n\nThe bricks are fully modeled now, no longer just a texture. The enhanced lighting, AO and PBR materials now clearly seperate the individual parts of the building, resulting in the building no longer looking like it consists of just a singular chunk. This is especially obvious when looking at the windows above the door. The lamps now emit a much more believable amount of light.\n\n[ORIGINAL](https://preview.redd.it/c7bc5k068cwd1.png?width=3840&format=png&auto=webp&s=436b835f2e7eb59885431016aeaab53d7ab0c5fe)\n\nThe reflections in the lake are extremely poor, it barely even looks like water. The trees in the distance and even those relatively close to the camera don't look very believable.\n\n[REMASTERED](https://preview.redd.it/hivmcpyk8cwd1.jpg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8399036d0ec56a96c7139bf6df15c6d3db3c7e4e)\n\nThe reflections in the lake are extremely accurate now. The foliage quality (especially the yellow flowers) has been improved significantly. The texture of the boulder on the left is way more detailed now. The tree models have been upgraded significantly (look at the trees behind Aloy). There's new clouds hanging inbetween the mountaintops. The clouds now appear to cast shadows on the mountains and terrain.\n\n[ORIGINAL](https://preview.redd.it/emoeetf78cwd1.png?width=3840&format=png&auto=webp&s=62df01297698e74348888832f5802fc815f552bd)\n\nThe skin looks like wax. The hair looks wet and muddy, especially the beard. The materials and lighting on his outfit look flat and wooden. This screenshot was taken when he says \"explosions\".\n\n[REMASTERED](https://preview.redd.it/ng34lljm8cwd1.jpg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=12dc9fa5c070ce08c0652e90a6c0d63b900256ae)\n\nThe skin detail has been enhanced significantly. In fact, it's possible that they've updated the face geometry entirely. The detail on his clothes pops a lot more and especially the metal pipes on his left shoulder actually look like metal now. SSS (SubSurface Scattering) has been added to the skin shader, greatly enhancing the believability and realism of the character model. But the biggest improvement must be in the hair quality. Just look at his beard. And this screenshot was also taken when he says \"explosions\". A great example of just how incredible the new conversation animations are.\n\n[ORIGINAL](https://preview.redd.it/ff43jvj98cwd1.png?width=3840&format=png&auto=webp&s=181a935142ec3bc05cf506be9f299ca471fac3a4)\n\nThis comparison is similar to the first one. There's barely no depth or contrast, the foliage looks grey and lifeless. The floor lacks any significant detail.\n\n[REMASTERED](https://preview.redd.it/ncl6rfjo8cwd1.jpg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=daa124ae2bbe805da9bc3bbd2ee9e341d556486c)\n\nI mean... what do I even have to say? The opposite of everything mentioned above. The foliage is much more detailed and abundant (especially on top of the arch) and, thanks to the lighting, is actually green now. There's much greater depth and the ground is incredibly believable and detailed now.\n\nFor $10? I'm all in. This is, at least in my eyes, an upgrade as big as some remakes nowadays. Almost every single texture and model has been overhauled, new assets, NPCs and foliage were placed, there's over 10 hours of new dialogue animations and the lighting system has been completely redone.\n\nThis is so worth those 10 bucks.\n\nEdit #7: I've decided to compile all of the edits into one to save space and keep the post readable.\nI've seen some people complaining about me being too harsh on the original and making \"ridiculous statements to prop up the remaster\". I guess those people just don't know how a comparison works.\nAnd it's not like I work for Guerrilla's marketing team. There's no reason for me to intentionally make badmouth the original further to market the remaster. Like, yeah, I totally spent over 10 hours creating this post for all of you with the only purpose of hating on my favorite game of all time that I have put hundreds of hours into and taken countless photo mode screenshots in because why not. Makes sense.\nBut on a more serious note, let's compare this to a professional comparison, Digital Foundry's latest video. In it, they use nearly identical wording and phrasing, sometimes even going beyond what I said. They used words like \"ugly\", \"a lot of garbage that occured [...]\", \"flat\", \"almost completely fake\", and they also pointed out the orange tint and flat lighting, just like I did. Because that's how a comparison works. You compare two things and accurately describe the differences, based on facts. And it's not like Digital Foundry's just hating on the original. In fact, the reviewer himself thinks the original still looks good. It's based on facts. It's a fact that the original lighting often looked very flat. It's a fact that the water didn't really look like water. It's a fact that the orange tint and especially the old lighting made all of the colours look washed out. And it's a fact that the old lighting was too smooth, it literally uses less samples and mostly no PBR materials. Just like it's a fact that the faces looked a little like wax and unrealistic. \nBut that doesn't mean that the game looks bad. In fact, the original looks STUNNING. But COMPARED to the remaster, those things look worse. I'm sorry, but that's how a comparison works.\nImagine a masterpiece of a movie. The sequel comes out and it's somehow even better. When comparing the two, there will of course be things that are \"a lot better\". That means that in the original, those things are \"a lot worse\". But it's still a masterpiece.\nAnd if it feels like I'm exaggerating, then that's because the improvement is ESPECIALLY big in the remaster. And I have to convey that with facts.\nIn a comparison, if the one is \"better\", then the other is \"worse\". \nAnd if one is \"a lot better\", the other is \"a lot worse\". It's not an exaggeration, it's a fact.\nI love the original just as much as you do, I get lost in it's beautiful world every single time. I understand what you mean. But please don't attack me for it. I'm not a professional, this is not an ad and I'm not getting paid. I'm just an indie game dev and 3d artist who just so happens to know a bit about lighting and graphics who decided to make a post for her favorite community just for fun.\n\nAnd to everyone else, thank you for all of the support, positivity and love! We've reached over 1.7k upvotes across 4 different subreddits, over 550 comments, 7 total awards and over half a million views!\nThank you so much! You're amazing!!!! ❤️",
"url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/horizon/comments/1g9pfk3/detailed_comparison_between_hzd_original_and_hzd/"
},
"comments": [
{
"body": "They took 7 years old game and said \"Fuck it, might as well do a complete makeover of graphics in it. And charge owners of the original $10 only!\". NGL, Nixxes has cooked like always.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "The $10 to upgrade is awesome. Rockstar would put that out for $60.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Yeah I can't believe they released that lazy $50 PS4 port. Literally is 60 fps nothing else touched.. tf..",
"replies": [
{
"body": "I'm on your side but IIRC they updated some textures or graphical stuff too. Albeit it isn't much from what I've been able to glance. \nAlmost 15, year old game and they could have done more. But TakeTwo is just as evil as the other scum publishers."
}
]
},
{
"body": "EA would $70 for the base and $100 for the base+ $10 worth of microtransaction currency and a flimsy poster",
"replies": [
{
"body": "[deleted]",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Nice try EA spokesperson /s"
},
{
"body": "I think EA is one of the few Companies that learns from their large debacles. After Battlefront they really got better. Apart from Fifa of course, but that is another thing entirely."
},
{}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "You misspelled Bethesda (yes I own 5 versions of Skyrim)"
},
{
"body": "You're right, this remaster is worth 10 dollars, not like take two cash grabbers."
}
]
},
{
"body": "I bought it for $10 by sheer coincidence the night before they announced the remaster.\n\nWorth the $10 upgrade for haptic feedback on the PS5 controller."
},
{
"body": "Been playing hfw on pc and nixxes did an awesome port. This upgrade looks really good. Can’t wait to finally play it.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "I'd have to get a new PC before hand, as my current barely run HFW xD. Will pre-order HZDR anyway."
}
]
},
{
"body": "And yet folks think this should be free to previous owners XD",
"replies": [
{
"body": "I'm not surprised it's not free. It's not a simple high-res texture pack, like most other remasters."
}
]
},
{
"body": "> Nixxes has cooked like always.\n\nLooks like 4K texture maps and parallax lighting is back on the menu boys!"
},
{
"body": "$10 upgrade is only for those who bought it for the PS5 right?",
"replies": [
{
"body": "no, on steam is also $10"
},
{
"body": "It's $10 for every owner of the OG HZD, including PC.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "On my PS5 it's still telling me the remastered game is $70 CAD. Maybe I just gotta wait or something.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "If you have it physical you'll need to wait until launch to get the upgrade.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Ahhhhhh that makes a lot of sense now. Release date is in like a week so it won't show up for me until then."
}
]
}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "I got it back on the PS4 and it's showing £10 for me on my PS5. I think it's that price for those who bought it from PS4 store, steam and the epic store. Not for gog though."
},
{
"body": "I got the free HZD PS4 game Sony gave all PS5 owners back during the pandemic and was able to upgrade that to the remaster for $10"
}
]
},
{
"body": "It looks like no need to use Reshade in order to get rid of the orange tint. Nice! Too bad we still need it with HFW."
},
{
"body": "I'm playing through the original just now, are saves going to be transferable to the remaster?",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Yep, it's already confirmed that you'll be able to use the saves from the OG HZD.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Sweet!"
}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "Why play the new version when it looks worse in ever scene though? Not sure how they \"cooked\" unless you meant theyre getting cooked?"
}
]
},
{
"body": "All of this plus, I assume, 120hz modes and good haptic feedback, improved headphone audio, I mean why are people upset about this?",
"replies": [
{
"body": "For PC players at least, the added forced PSN account requirement means that a lot of the current owners of the game cannot upgrade due to their nation not being supported by PSN",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Well that’s definitely a problem, I hope it gets resolved",
"replies": [
{
"body": "There’s nothing to resolve, it’s intended. As a PC player, I don’t mind because they started adding trophies to the PC versions and I’ve only had to login once.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Sounds like that is something that needs to be addressed for countries where the game is for sale but not playable",
"replies": [
{
"body": "That was only for one game - Helldivers 2. Since been resolved (after appropriate criticism). Games are unavailable where PlayStation is unavailable.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Keyword *was*. \n\nAs more PlayStation remastered games get released, the issue will get worse.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "That is implying that they make it so that way you can buy the new version but not log in which was the issue with hell divers 2. As long as they make it clear that it is now a requirement then it should not be a fucking issue. It's a PlayStation game. They can do what they want with their game as long as it's not scammy and stupid.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "It kinda is the issue because they arbitrarily block 2/3rd of the world from buying it. Might not be prohibited but it is still shitty.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "I would argue that that's just a bad business decision then and that's on them to choose to do or not do. Sure, it sucks for the people that might want to play this game and now can't, but it's not worth I don't know petitioning over. In my opinion, at some point they're going to realize that sales have dropped because people can't buy a game in a country where they can't have PlayStation Network",
"replies": [
{}
]
}
]
}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "It's also an issue now for Horizon, as territories where Zero Dawn was previously available for sale can no longer purchase it, because the original version has been delisted, and the only way to now purchase the game is through the remaster",
"replies": [
{
"body": "But it's not like they're updating the original version to acquire the PS login. So people who already own the game can still play the game that they bought. People not being able to now buy the game is annoying sure but it's not as big of an issue if they could buy it and then not play it"
}
]
},
{
"body": "That's not a solution."
}
]
}
]
}
]
}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "Uh, I'm not sure where you're getting 120hz from. Sure it's still using the original game but with all the improved character models, there's no way this'll not be locked to 60 at the most",
"replies": [
{
"body": "I’m getting it from Horizon Forbidden West which has a >60fps option and a 40fps fidelity option"
}
]
},
{
"body": "Probably most people forget that this a 7 years old game. Myself included, it really seems much more recent. Watching those screenshots, though I remembered how much more impressed I was from forbidden west's graphics. Especially the faces. Faces were quite bad back in zero fawn tbh even for 2017"
},
{
"body": "The upset isn’t now, it’s from before we knew anything."
},
{}
]
},
{
"body": "I am going to cry every day until this remaster drops. I am ready. My body is ready. I want to wallow in this splendour",
"replies": [
{
"body": "It's already out man",
"replies": [
{}
]
},
{}
]
},
{
"body": "I don't mind praising the new one, but don't criticize the original too much. It was 2017, the thing had to work on 4 year old console and it was the first project of this scale for the studio. At the time it was a miracle it was able to run stable without issues.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "I'm not criticizing the old one, I'm just pointing out the things that were improved in the remaster."
},
{
"body": "Probably showing my age but whenever there’s a remaster comparison (whether it’s Ninja Gaiden on Xbox, TLOU on PS3, HZD on PS4 or many more besides), my first reaction is always a renewed appreciation of the incredible quality achieved on the old consoles.\n\nI can’t help but be amazed at how well many original releases hold up 10, 15, 20 years later."
},
{
"body": "On the other hand, a quality difference could even be felt within the game itself, when they dropped the DLC and you transition from main game to the snowy Banuk area. The difference kind of stood out a lot."
}
]
},
{
"body": "Thank you for the work you put into this! Just for fun, I created image sliders for a couple:\n\nMeridian 1: https://imgsli.com/MzEwODcy\n\nMountains: https://imgsli.com/MzEwODcz\n\nHunting Grounds: https://imgsli.com/MzEwODc0\n\nCauldron: https://imgsli.com/MzEwODc1",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Those are pretty cool, thanks for making those!"
},
{
"body": "Thx my friend, i was trying to slide the images in the post 😂\nThis looks so good!"
},
{
"body": "Thanks for making them, but even more for making me aware of the site where this can be done!"
},
{
"body": "How do you do that??",
"replies": [
{
"body": "It seems that the site where the links point to is where you can make them.\n\nhttps://imgsli.com/"
}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "Thanks for this comparison. I didn't realized out washed out some of the scenes looked. I will definitely get my $10 upgrade. At first I didn't see why they wanted to remaster but it looks like a quality effort. Hopefully they will continue to remaster some older games like Infamous or Syphon Filter."
},
{
"body": "Above all else, I like how Nixes directly consulted the original concept art that GG produced, some of which was never fully realized for the final game, and updated and incorporated those missing or limited elements such that the world space of Horizon doesn’t just simply reflect their own ideals, but in fact fulfills the vision that the creators had always intended."
},
{
"body": "I have genuinely seen some people complaining about how there’s \"literally no difference\", are they blind?",
"replies": [
{
"body": "That'll be the Horizon Hatedom Club, they love to hate Horizon :D"
},
{
"body": "Blind haters, maybe."
}
]
},
{
"body": "Such a great comparison! While I can't deny a lot of the graphical improvements I do feel like I'm going to miss certain aspects. There's a certain tone they managed to achieve in the original which was beautiful but bleak - a reflection of the state of the Horizon world . \n\nPersonally I feel a lot of the colours in the original played an important role in setting the mood of a particular area, in the same way a film might use colours.\n\nIt seems to me like the remaster has just gone for \"as nice looking as possible\" instead of choosing a more stylistic approach.\n\nI'm still going to play it heaps either way.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "I think they managed to capture that original feel really well. And Nixxes even stated that they looked at the original concept art and reworked some areas based on it to bring the visuals even closer to Guerrilla's original vision.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "I'm certainly excited to play through NG+ on it. I'm guessing they'll fix the HDR implementation too.\n\nAlthough I'm hesitant to say it'll be better in every regard - I have seen some comparisons from sources like Digital Foundry that make me a little worried, like this screenshot for instance where baby Aloy's head is lit from every direction in the remaster:\nhttps://imgur.com/a/3ErejU8\n\nDigital Foundry has a great discussion about it on their podcast too:\nhttps://youtu.be/93Ld8qx6vEU\n\nBut guess we'll have to wait for release to see how it really is."
}
]
},
{
"body": "Some portions of HZD feel genuinely atmospheric, eerie, and cold. I’m curious if the remaster will retain that as HFW had a different tone. (Genuinely excited for it though)"
},
{
"body": "Yeah I kind of love the orange tint Meridian has it really adds to the aesthetic. When I think of Meridian I always associate it with red and orange tones. They could lessen the filter without completely removing it."
},
{
"body": "I share the same feeling about the colour palette being changed, makes it look less distinct compared to FW."
}
]
},
{
"body": "A barely seen reddit post is selling me more on this than the actual blog post. Why the hell didn't Sony include original pics in their blog?\n\nTheir reticence to admit the old versions (like on ps5 vs ps5 pro) have some big flaws is irritating. They could sell a lot more if they did.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "I'm trying to spread these comparisons as far as possible to reach the maximum amount of people. So far, it's been going pretty good with Nixxes even reposting one of my comparisons earlier today on X."
}
]
},
{
"body": "The amount of work put into this remaster is amazing, great post too!",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Thanks!"
}
]
},
{
"body": "</girly scream of anticipation>"
},
{
"body": "lol it’s hilarious the post says “light is super flat” “water quality is extremely poor” “shadows are very low quality”. Fuck offfff when I bought complete edition for 9.99 in December 2019 I was blown away by the quality of the graphics, explosions, light and everything. It was gorgeous, it’s still gorgeous.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Yeah those are ridiculous statements to prop up the remaster. I agree it is impressive and worth 10 bucks but they kind of lost the art direction"
},
{
"body": "Compared to the remaster. Of course the original looks good. But that's just what it looks like compared to the remaster."
},
{
"body": "No one is saying it wasn’t gorgeous. It absolutely was and still is, but it cannot in good faith be denied that significant technical/graphical advances have been made in the last 7 years and it definitely shows in the little we’ve seen of the remaster so far.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "\"no one is saying\"? Dude, he legit wrote \"low quality/extremely poor\" etc.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Compared to the remaster, yes. Because that's how a comparison works. If something is \"better\" in the remaster, the correct wording to use for the original is \"worse\". If something is \"much better\" in the remaster, it's \"much worse\" in the original. No one's saying the original as a whole looked bad, in fact, it's still absolutely gorgeous. \n\nOn the other hand, HZD's water rendering was bad, even for it's time and budget. That's just something you gotta accept, it just doesn't mean that you *have to hate* how it looks. But the statement that the water is \"low quality\" is factually correct, but even more so when COMPARING it to the remaster. This is a *comparison* post, after all. \n\nAnd the low amount of light bounces that results in way too smooth lighting is just a technical limitation they had. It's not a criticism, I'm just pointing it out to highlight what has changed.\n\nBesides, what reason would I have to spend hours creating this post just to hate on my favorite game of all time?\n\nThat's just how a comparison works, sorry. If you don't believe me, in Digital Foundry's comparison video, they use words such as \"ugly\" and \"a lot of garbage\" when talking about the original, especially the water rendering. And that's coming from someone who also thinks the original still is a gorgeous game.\n\nAnd who's \"he\"?"
},
{}
]
}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": ">This is so worth those 10 bucks.\n\nJust shame it's unavailable to me and many because of PSN.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Yeah, but that's not an issue exclusive to the remaster, but to PlayStation on PC as a whole. It's a real bummer. To get your hopes up, I think you might be able to purchase it on GOG instead, without the PSN requirement, that would be for full price, however.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Gog version won´t receive the update",
"replies": [
{}
]
},
{
"body": "Fortunately I had HZD already so at least original version is playable for me.\n\n\n>PlayStation on PC as a whole\n\n\nBut for years it was fine. Only recently PS started adding PSN to everything everywhere."
}
]
},
{
"body": "Why they'd ever think to make a single player game have an online PSN requirement, especially on steam at that, is baffling\n\nSo pointless, blocking many countries from getting access whilst not having any benefits for the consumer I could think of"
},
{
"body": "I may get downvote or not but knowing this is a common issue and having a record of Sony releases on PC I would say it's completely justifiable for you to just wait a little and the cracked version of the game which is pretty quick because Sony doesn't add DRMs in PC.\n\nNot saying that you should but it's unavailable in your region so you weren't going to buy anyway."
}
]
},
{
"body": "I don't care, I'm excited as shit. And hell yes it's worth $10!",
"replies": [
{
"body": "It's worth it just to fix the lip synch in my mind. How that got released without ever fixing that is crazy."
}
]
},
{
"body": ">The reflections in the lake are extremely poor, it barely even looks like water. \nbarely even looks like water. \n\nBut why exaggerate?",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Probably a shill"
},
{}
]
},
{
"body": "Are the old pictures from the PS4 version. Maybe i recall it wrong but I remember the PC version to look a lot better than in your screenshots. Nice improvements still!",
"replies": [
{
"body": "No, that's the PC version on the \"Original\" preset, which imitates the PS4 version in terms of settings. The \"Ultra\" preset actually doesn't even improve that much. It does look better, but not a lot. Only slightly. It only slightly bumps up the shadow resolution, draw distances and Loads, but that's about it. The biggest changes you're gonna see are in draw distance."
}
]
},
{
"body": "To your first point, I do want to emphasize that I don't think the orange tint was too bad, or universal. Meridian in particular was often very orange but that was I think the tint was overlaid to enhance that desert atmosphere and all the sandstone Meridian seems to be built with. But if you ran around the Embrace for instance, you didn't have that orange feel.\n\nThe orange tint would then get particularly dark at certain times of the day. And I think that was a function of the environment getting particularly dark while the game's sun was setting or rising. At night the lighting shifts again, and I don't recall the orange being as prominent.\n\nWhich isn't to say that the Remaster hasn't fiddled with the lighting. I do think it looks more vibrant and dynamic. But Meridian only looked very dark and washed out in orange in very specific circumstances even in the OG.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "If you play around with the time of day in photo mode a bit, you can see that the orange tint is always present, it just gets more obvious the darker it is. And the overly excessive and inaccurate lighting just made everything look orange and flat.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Oh I agree the tint is somewhat always there in Meridian and the desert biomes. But it is only super prominent at certain times of the day. And we might still have some level of orange tinting in the remaster.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Yeah, that's also kinda what I meant. However, it's unlikely that we'll have that same kind of orange tint in the remaster since both of these screenshots were recorded at the same time of day and the orange tint is clearly not present."
}
]
}
]
},
{}
]
},
{
"body": "these comparison is so good\n\nits funny to think that some people ( specially twitter people ) will still say \"the original is better\", \"remastered too dark\" 😅"
},
{
"body": "I love how much brighter and less orange things are. Very much looking forward to playing through the remaster and seeing how it compares. Glad I just replayed the original a couple months ago."
},
{
"body": "I am sooooo ready for this remaster to come out. The Frozen Wilds are going to look PHENOMENAL, and I already have so many photos up there... I'm going to need more gallery room 😅"
},
{
"body": "I like more of the color temperature in the original one"
},
{
"body": "This looks more like a remake than a remastered"
},
{
"body": "I'll be honest and say that I didn't think too much about the improvements when it was first announced. I play on mouse and keyboard and Zero Dawn has some issues recognizing certain keybinds (I'm left-handed so I mirror wasd on the other side of the keyboard) while Forbidden West has no issues at all so when I saw that I'd be able to remap the controls similarly to HFW it was an instant buy but now I've been playing a lot of Forbidden West these past few days and I can't wait to see the rest of the improvements too."
},
{
"body": "You've done a great job! Thank you. It's strange that Sony / Guerrilla still didn't make this comparison. It should be their main marketing tactic.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Thanks! Also got no idea why they aren't using comparisons for marketing purposes."
}
]
},
{
"body": "Thank you for the detailed descriptions between the pairs of screenshots. I don’t know if it’s because I started gaming on an Apple IIe and am easily impressed or what but I definitely wasn’t quite grasping the impact of the differences. Like, I could tell the remaster is better but I wasn’t quite noticing WHY. So thank you for explaining! I already paid for the remaster but if I had been on the fence, this would have sold me on it.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "I'm a game dev and 3d artist myself, so I happen to know quite a bit about lighting and tech in games. I read about all of the new tech they introduced on their blog post and felt inspired to find those changes within the screenshots."
}
]
},
{
"body": "I think a majority of the hate for this is because there are other older games that could have gotten the remaster first. The original zero dawn is literally my favorite game ever but I still think it was a little early for a real remaster like this when something like bloodbourne which sold decently has had calls to be redone for years"
},
{
"body": "Amazing. I'm excited for the remaster. This post is practically free advertisement for why it feels necessary despite all of the early backlash saying it wasn't and no one asked for it. \n\nI asked for it, and boy, does it look like I'm getting everything I wished for! \n\nGood work on putting this together!"
},
{
"body": "I've seen some things that make me a bit sad though. While it definitely looks much better in a lot of places, like a lot of remasters it kinda gets rid of that muted colour where it fits in areas for something way too colourful where it does not fit at all.\n\nMass Effect 1 and Halo 1 remasters for example took it a bit too far on the lighting.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "From what I can tell, the Post-Processing is still different and unique for all of the individual areas and settlements in the game. Nixxes didn't get completely rid of it, they just changed it. They've even said that they've looked at the original concept art for the game and brought the remaster more in line with it. So it's actually closer to Guerrilla's vision than the original.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "This is totally something I’d love to see someone like @janbartvanbeek answer on Twitter… how much of the original game art direction was due to technical limitations and is now being updated vs what are things they just wanted to match FW more."
}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "The remaster released and magically the original has awful graphics… now. And back then it was said that graphics were wonderful."
},
{
"body": "I might have to play this remaster... It looks so gorgeous in comparison... And upgrade like this for 10€ is pretty amazing imo"
},
{
"body": "They look great but the Meridian one specially is mind blowing."
},
{
"body": "Well, maybe I’m gonna spend 10$ after all."
},
{
"body": "I never realized all of the orange, wow"
},
{
"body": "I have the original on PS4 and never finished it - I'll probably try it again with the remaster on PC, thanks to this post. Wish I could port over my saves though."
},
{
"body": "Appreciate all the work that you have done on this comparison. Thank You.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Thank you!"
}
]
},
{
"body": "Just a question out of interest: how/why did you get early access?",
"replies": [
{
"body": "I didn't, all of the screenshots from the remaster are from the most recent PlayStation blog post by Nixxes and Guerrilla.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Ah, and you recreated them on the old version on PC, got it.\n\nThanks, great job! I‘m looking forward to playing"
}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "Good job, nice comparison!",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Thanks!"
}
]
},
{
"body": "</girly scream of anticipation>"
},
{
"body": "Oh yay. . . I love machine light glare that spans the entire screen. It was my favorite feature in HFW."
},
{
"body": "Holy shit the difference is Insane",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Ikr?"
}
]
},
{
"body": "please cross post this in the playstation sub so they will shut up about “there being no difference” and “not worth making a remaster of a 7 year old game”. the changes look stunning and the 31st can’t come soon enough",
"replies": [
{
"body": "I will!"
}
]
},
{
"body": "Reposted it on the PlayStation subreddit because someone mentioned that it might shut up everyone there saying there's no difference 😅",
"replies": [
{}
]
},
{
"body": "Will we be able to import saves from the original for New Game +? I would assume not, but that would be nice.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Yes, you will. Nixxes has confirmed that old save files are compatible.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Wow. Yeah, this is fantastic. Been wanting to play back through so my gf can watch the story for the first time but without having to grind through leveling up. Access to that save *with* the remaster is going to really enhance that experience. Amazing news, and an amazing deal."
}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "i may have justified getting a monitor upgrade simply for this game, sure 1080p would've still looked great but what's the harm in going up to 1440p???"
},
{
"body": "Easily one of the best games over made. Can’t wait to play the new version."
},
{
"body": "I don’t love that they seemed to increase the background haze (just like in HFW) but everything else is simply wonderful!"
},
{
"body": "Definitely something I’d consider buying on sale for $20 or $30 to play again. Looks amazing"
},
{
"body": "The real question for me now is it worth of upgrading to PS5 Pro to enjoy this even more?"
},
{
"body": "ngl i love the golden hour glow in much of the original. i'm still gonna get the upgrade but i'm glad i'll be able to keep the original, too"
},
{
"body": "Thanks for this in-depth comparison! The new graphics are certainly amazing and I would love to get the upgrade, but the necessary PSN account is absolute shit.\n\n\nI don't believe in verbally censoring myself so I'm just going to call it what it is.\n\n\nI do have a PSN account but the forced connection does not sit well with me.\n\n\nPersonally, I'm not going to buy the upgrade unless Sony goes back on this stupid policy."
},
{
"body": "Ok, I wasn't going to originally but this convinced me, I'm finishing Forbidden West then getting the Remaster. Those shot comparisons are absolutely GORGEOUS! The difference is INSANE, I already loved the visuals and graphics from the original but omg the remaster adds SO much."
},
{
"body": "Honestly, it looks way better than it used to. \nShame I won't be able to purchase the upgrade since Sony decided my country is not worth it.\n\nThey're making me sail."
},
{
"body": "PC Master Rice here ;) \n\nMakes total sense for PS4 -> 5/Pro. I wonder if some of it is necessary for the PC? Mocap and extra NPCs &c aside, we had a lot of updates that smoothed out the bumps from the substandard initial port.\n\nDont get me wrong, I'm grateful and I've already reached DEFCON: ShutUpAndTakeMyMoney.\n\nMy only feedback would be that now the faces have lost some of their weathered / weatherbeaten look. People's faces in snowy climates with clear skies get sunburnt! And it's supposed to be a harsh existence. Everyone with facial hair looks like they've just come straight from the barber. Guessing there might be a mod to de-Hollywood it sooner or later. \n\nActually, will mods will work with Remastered?! Guessing not if PSN account mandatory... Meh, it's not like there were tons of good ones unless you wanted ones that, erm, took things away, if you catch my nudity. I mean bewbs. I mean drift.\n\n[Ninja edit: Phone autocorrected \"PC Master Race\" but I'm leaving it because I'm hungry.]"
},
{
"body": "Great work!\n\nRegarding the potentially updated character geometry, I think they probably created new in-game character models from the original high-quality sculpts. Those original sculpts should still hold up really well."
},
{
"body": "I do see that remaster has significant changes in graphic department… however this game has zero replayability value. I started it some time ago, but when I finish it I most likely will never pick it up again…",
"replies": [
{
"body": "If that's how it is for you, then that's ok. But there's also millions that think otherwise. Everyone has their own opinion on every game.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "„Milions” is overstatement. Well we will see after the sales data is released.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "HZD sold over 25 million units, excluding everyone who got it for free.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Im talking about remaster my man.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "And I was talking about the original when I said that others don't think so. Others who played the original.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Lanny, i played the original… buying a game does not constitute its replayability value. I doubt sales for remaster will be anywhere near. Those who played it once already won’t be interested to just look at better graphics and the same story all over again.\n\nWell let’s agree to disagree on that one.",
"replies": [
{}
]
}
]
}
]
}
]
}
]
}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "Wonder how the difference between PS5 & PS5 Pro because I don't plan on getting a Pro."
},
{
"body": "The traversal is just so bad. I’ll get this tho"
},
{
"body": "Nice comparisons OP."
},
{
"body": "Any other suggestions for other subreddits I should share this on?"
},
{
"body": "This post made me preorder the remaster. It is priced only $6 (India) since I already have this game for free during the covid offer."
},
{
"body": "While I can clearly see there is a difference, the originals look like they had some sort of reshade color filter on them and they just removed that filter for the remaster.\n\nWhat improvments does the PC version have over the PS5 or is this another example of\n\nHigh settings = console\n\nUltra settings = 3% better than console at 30% the frame rate hit."
},
{
"body": "Does the remaster have the same option for gyro aiming that HFW has? I would buy the upgrade to play it again on PS5 (have it from the giveaway but never played on PlayStation), I actually played the original on steam deck because I could map in gyro aiming with bow.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "In case anyone else cares, the DF video does indeed show that the controls page now features an option for \"motion aiming\", so along with the full suite of dualsense features HZDR does have gyro aiming. I'll be picking this up."
}
]
},
{
"body": "Thanks man! Im sold, already got my upgrade preordered"
},
{
"body": "Such a high-quality post, with not only the excellent screenshot recreations but the detailed breakdowns as well. Thanks for sharing!"
},
{
"body": "I thought the remake was a silly idea. Glad to be proven wrong."
},
{
"body": "It looks as good as forbidden west almost. I’m super excited for the remaster, might even do a NG+ run of forbidden west right after but that might be too big of a commitment"
},
{
"body": "Looks hella good but doesnt make the farcry gameplay any better."
},
{
"body": "So happy about the NPC improvements in particular, I've always found them a bit creepy looking. Meeting Petra is a bit jarring in Zero Dawn after having seen her in Forbidden West."
},
{
"body": "It would be nice to put this on GOG, as well. Cause a lot of people bought it form there."
},
{
"body": "I'm a first time player for this. Never played it before."
},
{
"body": "Any extra quests or secret stuff in remaster",
"replies": [
{
"body": "There's a new outfit from Forbidden West and new accessibility features like turning off pick up animations."
}
]
},
{
"body": "the facial models look considerably better. I personally prefer the \"unrealistic stylized\" lighting of the original but it looks like they want to make it look more realistic."
},
{
"body": "Man i wish they could add limitless arrows and bombs and ammunition when starting a new game + it would be both cool and not have to worry about wasting arrows and it would be less streeing to make more arrows when wasting it unnecessarily on machines when saving it on bigger ones"
},
{
"body": "Hair and skin looks so much better in the original it's not even funny."
},
{
"body": "damn now i am considering getting the upgrade and playing it"
},
{
"body": "I like it. I’m definitely gonna replay it but I hope the night is really dark still"
},
{
"body": "That should put those naysayers that there's no difference."
},
{
"body": "Thanks for the comparisons. Remaster looks great."
},
{
"body": "Wow great comparison. Seems like a straight upgrade to me."
},
{
"body": "Great job and thank you for the effort you put into this. It’s definitely worth the 10 dollars to upgrade to remastered edition."
},
{
"body": "Really goes to show how much foliage and lighting can do for a game, ik its on an upgraded version of the same engine but holy smokes does it look great!"
},
{
"body": "Can’t wait to see my master carja armor in much better quality. It favor outfit out of both games."
},
{
"body": "awesome"
},
{
"body": "I'm actually so excited to see Meridian in the remaster because sometimes when i'm reminded that the Carja think Meridian is so amazing, I think ' this did not live up to hype' and I understand that to Tribal world (and to the Carja since it means so much to them) that Meridian would be this amazing place but it just looked bad to me. But now in the remaster, it actually looks like a proper city of the sun. I know the graphics were worse back then but i'm just saying."
},
{
"body": "That's really impressive, I know which version I'll be replaying before 3 comes out. "
},
{
"body": "The lighting and removal of the orange tint make such a massive difference by itself"
},
{
"body": "Wow. This is a work of love by Guerilla and Nixxes."
},
{
"body": "[deleted]",
"replies": [
{
"body": ">For some reason I feel like our brains remember these things as being better than they actually were.\n\nPart of this is the nostalgia factor, but also consider that the game is eight years old; benchmarks were a lot lower back then. I remember Zero Dawn looking great, but when I go back to it now there are things that really negatively stick out, especially after being spoiled by the gorgeous PS5 version of Forbidden West. Motion blur, low FOV, shit lighting, 30 fps, and the infamously bad facial animation."
}
]
},
{
"body": "It's actually crazy. This is an actual remaster. It really passes as a remake. Remasters usually have the bare minimum changes to textures, just bumped resolution (if that) and 60 fps. They did not take the lazy route with this one. Instant cop for $10. Hope they make a good chunk of money for this project."
},
{
"body": "This is a fabulous post!\n\nI love the comparisons you've pointed out with pics. I am now twice as excited to be playing this game :D"
},
{
"body": "Definitely worth the $10 upgrade if you ask me"
},
{
"body": "Did they add in the Gryo support for firing arrows?"
},
{
"body": "I am going to buy a new physical copy just to support this business strategy of treating customers right. This needs to be encouraged, a remake should cost a lot less for existing customers."
},
{
"body": "I wish they added some content. \nSome Huntsville the fireclaw in frozen wilds or the apex machines in hfw."
},
{
"body": "In the end what you call improvement, in my opinion is all about preferences ;)\n\nFor example I prefer the orange, more reddish colours in the original, the play with shadows and the texture on clothes, that I can't see in the remaster anymore.\n\nI still bought the remaster because there are also things I liked like Aloys face and I'm interested in the video sequences. It' more 50/50 what I like in both of the games ;)",
"replies": [
{}
]
},
{}
]
}