The reviews are in for Guerrilla Games’ “Horizon: Forbidden West” and the verdict is a serious game of the year contender.
With over 90 reviews clocked on Metacritic, the title is currently scoring an 89/100 – exactly the same as its predecessor “Horizon: Zero Dawn” and on par with recent GOTY nominees and winners like “It Takes Two” and “Psychonauts 2” along with just beating out the likes of “Deathloop,” “Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart,” “Metroid Dread” and “Ghost of Tsushima: Director’s Cut”.
It also presently holds the best reviews of any new game on any platform so far this year, and second-best of any game behind only the “God of War” on PC port and just above the “Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves” remaster.
Criticisms in some reviews go toward frustration over some of the game mechanics not offering enough freedom, most notably the climbing and the use of the new grappling hook. While many praise it as bigger, better and more varied than its predecessor, others say it still feels like more of the same even if it’s more polished.
The review come as details about the compromises made to get the title working on PS4 have been revealed (via ResetEra). First off, no version of the game reportedly utilises raytracing.
The PS5 version offers two modes – resolution mode at native 4K (2160p)/30fps, and performance mode at checkerboarded 1800p/60fps. On PS4 and PS4 Pro however, the resolution sacrifice is much more apparent with the standard PS4 version offering 1080p/30fps whilst the PS4 Pro is at 1800p/30fps – both checkerboarded resolution.
Aside from resolution the PS5 version offers better textures, higher density of vegetation, better draw distance and anisotropic filtering, additional shadows, more complex lighting effects and load times seven times faster.
It has also been revealed ‘Zero Dawn’ has sold over 20 million copies total across formats since its release for PS4 in 2017 and PC in 2020. “Horizon: Forbidden West” will be released exclusively for PlayStation in stores and on digital this Friday with a PC release date yet to be determined (a PC version has not been announced as yet).
