Right after a feast in honor of the third birthday of Guerilla's post-apocalyptic Action/RPG, the head of Friv2Online Studios officially confirmed that Horizon Zero Dawn is finally coming to PC. We went on an expedition to the lands of Nora and are ready to tell you how one of the most high-profile PS4 exclusives has adapted in unfamiliar conditions.
Project Horizon was Guerilla's next major work after the five parts of the famous Killzone console series. Back in 2005, after the successful launch of the futuristic shooter on the second-generation Playstation, Sony Computer Entertainment acquired the Dutch studio to further develop exclusives for its platform.
Killzone: Shadow Fall, which was included in the PS4 launch lineup, was almost completely inferior to its predecessors. Interestingly enough, it was the story, characters and location development that were criticized first of all - later on, these very elements of the friv game became the property of Horizon and brought the project several prestigious awards.
Unlike Death Stranding, which has also moved to PC not so long ago, showing us the possibilities of the modified Decima engine, the new incarnation of Horizon did not receive any exclusive content and visually the friv game remained almost identical to the original. Nevertheless, the developers added some nice modifications: today we're going to analyze them.
I dare to assume that for almost three and a half years, most of the players somehow got to know about what's going on in Horizon. However, we won't exclude those who are especially resistant to spoilers, so before sharing my impressions of the PC version of the friv game, I'll briefly go over the main plot and gameplay.
The uprising of the machines threw the technology-obsessed society back to the primitive era. For generations, the tribalized remnants of humanity rose from their knees, re-learning the wisdom of farming, gathering and the art of primitive hunting, including the new, iron beast, with which the communities learned to coexist over time.
The architecture, customs and amulets of the local inhabitants have a collective image of indigenous peoples from all over the world. At the same time, local craftsmen have found a use for fragments of machines, using steel plates as decorations for clothing or sewing impact-resistant armor.
All that remains of a once advanced civilization has turned into rusted ruins densely covered with ivy and moss. The story of what really happened to mankind eventually became the legends of the local peoples, which the older generations pass on to the younger ones by word of mouth. And robots that have lost central control have become part of the ecosystem, mimicking animals and their prehistoric lizard ancestors.
The friv game introduces us to the motherless girl Ela, who is raised from infancy by an outcast named Rast. According to the laws of Nora, the outcasts doomed to a reclusive lifestyle are forbidden any social interaction with tribesmen. They are ignored and despised, which does not suit the inquisitive child - Eloi decides to become the strongest warrior to undergo a special initiation rite, to become part of society and finally shed light on the mystery of his origin.
Under the supervision of an experienced mentor, the girl's childhood is spent in daily training until the cherished day of initiation comes. Eloi, who has grown up and gained experience, goes to the village to compete with the best applicants from the tribe, but at the decisive moment the Nora settlement is attacked....
The action unfolds in a spacious world rich in activity and interesting places. It is noteworthy that the universe has a well-developed history, but it will be fully revealed only to inquisitive players - among the destroyed buildings and in the abandoned underground complexes there is a huge amount of data from different time periods, which are to be found and collected together.
To help the explorers, a special device is attached, which Eloi discovered as a child when she fell into the untraveled ruins. Visor, attached to the girl's temple, is able to collect and analyze data from the surrounding world, check with the ancient database and project details about any new find in the augmented reality mode.
The game even provides special points of interest, so-called viewpoints, where the visor can recreate the whole picture of the past era over the dilapidated ruins.
The gameplay in many aspects resembles the latest Tomb Rider games. Eloi knows how to use climbing ropes, walk on ropes, climb extreme ledges, is fluent with a bow, is trained to make ammunition from improvised means and is well versed in herbs. There is no intrusive stamina meter - roll and dangle on steep cliffs as much as you like.
In battles, the girl uses a spear, as well as several types of modifiable small arms, in which the primitivism of a slingshot or bow is elegantly combined with futuristic elements, such as explosive tips or freezing bombs, parts for which Eloi gets from defeated robots.
To unlock the full potential of the heroine is called the talent branch, which hides the most delicious gameplay features that were so eloquently shown to us in the trailers a few years ago: hidden kills, powerful kills, taming skills, the very slow-mo in flight/sliding/aiming. Thanks to them, fights with large opponents in Horizon take on an unparalleled flavor.
Unfortunately, the friv game has a very weak AI. Be ready to play along with your opponents to avoid ridiculous situations. Mobs leave the battle on any convenient occasion, they have serious problems with overcoming complex landscapes. An archer-sniper can easily pick apart a group of enemies from a hill, and they may not even notice his presence.
But if you manage to refrain from playing on the technical vulnerabilities of enemies, you will notice interesting features in the behavior of robots. For example, herd animals can get scared of you, start running or panic and try to take numbers, and predators interact with each other and change tactics in battle, switching to firearms if necessary.
Another weakness of Horizon is the side quests and activities. Most of them are rather boring and uncomplicated. However, this is completely covered by the main plot branch, filled with the most interesting characters and non-linear narration. It is the main quest that sets the pace of all your endeavors, gives meaning to every action of Eloi and convincingly illustrates the integrity of the world - the scenario of the game is so nourishing that it becomes almost impossible to tear yourself away from Horizon.
It should be understood that Horizon was created a few years ago and is not without some assumptions, which, as I see it, are made for the sake of performance on consoles. In particular - to draw a complex world. In this respect, the friv game surpasses even Death Stranding. The Decima engine once again impresses with the detail and speed of landscape processing. And instead of blurring only slightly fogs up the backdrops, which makes most of the panoramas look natural and strikingly beautiful.
No matter how fast you move through the locations, no matter where you climb, the world densely dotted with vegetation is revealed evenly and in detail. Another thing is textures, which have not been finalized since the friv game appeared on PS4. Bald areas of the surface, that from afar can spoil any well-composed frame, rocks, grass and foliage a little tired, take it as a given. If you don't dwell on the little things, they won't prevent you from enjoying the breathtaking scenery at all.
The age of the game has also left a small imprint on the overall design of the human models, but the detailing of the faces is beyond praise. Whether it's facial expression patterns, drawing of hairs, age furrows or Eloi's charming freckles - everything is done with jewelry-like meticulousness, breathing life into each character.
Things are not the best with fluid animations and large-scale fade-outs. One of the innovations for PC was tightened reflections on the surface of water, and it somewhat smoothed the overall impression. Nevertheless, it's better to take a glimpse of fast-flowing rivers, ponds and waterfalls.
Alas, ambient occlusion doesn't impress with its quality either. Despite the fact that the shadows in Horizon Zero Dawn clearly follow the sun, they themselves are quite uncertain, and on bad weather days or in shaded areas the overall balance of light contrasts strongly with the lack of natural gloom and dark spots - for lack of them the picture (thankfully, it doesn't happen often) sharply loses depth, and also emphasizes the imperfection of landscape textures.
But the developers added dynamic vegetation to the friv game, and now moving objects, as well as the effects of explosions, confidently waving numerous blades of grass around. Together with the leaves swaying in the wind, stunning lighting and wonderfully designed sky, you can admire the panoramas in Horizon endlessly.
The animations look pretty decent. Eloi reacts to changes in the weather, extending his palms to the rain, climbs and slides down slopes, trying to keep his balance, realistically treads on different surfaces and reacts vividly in dialogs. Body language is a bit inferior to facial expressions, but still performed at a commendable level.
One of the most important features of the PC version was the unlocked frame rate. For 30 FPS the game asks for a minimum of 8 gigabytes of RAM, a card no worse than GTX 780 and a processor no weaker than i5-2500K. To achieve 60 FPS at resolutions from 1080p publishers recommend 16 gigabytes of RAM, a graphics card equivalent to GTX 1060 and a processor level i7-4770K.
On the configuration with AMD Ryzen 5 3600, GeForce RTX 2070 Super and SSD in QHD resolution at maximum settings (you can expand up to 4K), if the system requirements are optimal, the friv game produces almost stable FPS. Short-term sags occur only when approaching densely populated areas dotted with buildings and inhabitants.
The load is evenly distributed on the processor, RAM and video memory, without reaching peak values. A couple of times when trying to enter the game, an error related to a memory dump popped up, but then did not repeat.
The PC version of Horizon weighs about 67 gigabytes, supports ultra-wide 32:9 formats, and allows users to customize the controls in detail. The game accepts keyboard and mouse, DualShock 4, Xbox and Steam controllers. Playing on a keyboard is surprisingly enjoyable, but I'd still recommend using gamepads for extra immersiveness.
Another feature of the port is the ability to manually customize graphics and display elements. Disabling some items will make life much easier for underpowered computers. There are also tools for performance testing and HDR activation - one of the distinctive features of Horizon is the impressive support for extended brightness range.
Horizon Zero Dawn came to PC in its full incarnation - Complete Edition, which in addition to the main chapter includes The Frozen Wilds and several unique sets of clothes and weapons, which can be easily found in the section of crates with goodies from the traders encountered in the world.
It's not so young anymore, but it will give a head start to most of its modern counterparts (if there are any at all). She is not without her faults, but her virtues are disproportionately greater. Its world is a delight to the discerning eye, its heroes for a long time fall into the soul, and the plot and dynamics will allow you to tirelessly enjoy the gameplay for dozens of hours.
Horizon will fit equally appropriately into the collection of those players who prefer to explore the open world on their own, and those who are focused on plot markers. Adaptive difficulty will reward everyone according to their needs, and conservative requirements and flexible settings will allow you to run the friv game on systems with four years of endurance almost without any problems.