The developer of Horizon Forbidden West has revealed that, while the game will certainly look good on the PlayStation 4, it will look even better on the PlayStation 5. At a surprise State of Play in May, fans eagerly anticipating Guerilla Games’ PlayStation-exclusive Horizon Forbidden West were treated to almost 15 minutes of new gameplay footage. This footage showed off the upcoming open-world adventure, and the visuals were breathtakingly beautiful.
While the Horizon Forbidden West State of Play showed off more of what players can expect when they are reunited with Aloy next, including her incredible new gadgets and weaponry, many were left in awe by the jaw-dropping, but hostile, world that needs to be traversed throughout the game. The underwater sequences in particular drew plenty of admiration from fans. While Aloy was able to hide in water in the game’s successor, Horizon Zero Dawn, she was unable to explore beneath the surface any further.
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Following on from the State of Play, the developers for Horizon Forbidden West have confirmed that, while the game will still be beautiful on the PlayStation 4, the new tech of the PlayStation 5 has allowed them to take the game’s visuals that extra bit further. Speaking to Game Informer, Horizon Forbidden West’s game director Mathijs de Jonge stated that “visually we can add a lot more detail (on the PS5). Graphically, the rendering technique for the underwater sequences is special on the PlayStation 5. It has extra details and extra systems, like the wave technique.” Even when Aloy is not in the water during Horizon Forbidden West, however, the PlayStation 5 will still offer a more advanced graphical performance to the PlayStation 4. This is thanks to a special cinematic lighting rig that the developers used during the game’s development. While this rig is still used on the PlayStation 4 version of Horizon Forbidden West, it is restricted to the game’s cutscenes due to the limited processing power of the PS4 hardware.
During the interview, de Jong did reiterate that a lot of the development for Horizon Forbidden West has taken place on the PlayStation 4, along with the playtesting. The director stated that the teams have worked to ensure that PS4 players will still get a great-looking and fun game. This is in keeping with a lot of other games that were originally due to be PlayStation 5 exclusives on their release. Other AAA titles such as God of War 2 and Gran Turismo 7 are also being launched on the PlayStation 4 in the future. This is likely a decision that has been made due to the ongoing shortages of PlayStation 5s, which is predicted to extend on into 2022.
Making games such as Horizon Forbidden West accessible to more people in the future, as well as keeping them still visually pleasing to those in possession of older consoles is a wise move from developers. However, and as is understandably expected, the current generation of consoles will still have an additional edge when it comes to the game’s graphics, thanks to the advances in the technology available.
Horizon Forbidden West will release on the PlayStation 5 and the PlayStation 4.
Source: Game Informer/Youtube
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