If you have not done the breathtaking trip proposed by Horizon yet: Zero Dawn, you missed something. Aloy’s story and his quest to discover his mysterious past, while taking place in a brilliant amalgam of old civilizations and future utopias, does not look like anything else. You will find that Zero Dawn is regularly found on the list of the best games of the generation of many critics. And if you spend time in his world, it is not difficult to understand why.
But for as much praise received by the GU GUERRILLA GAMES ACTION, it is funny that even, again, see an exclusive IP Sony arriving on the PC is surreal. It’s a good thing, of course. But how many of us had fully canceled the possibility of seeing Kratos, Nathan Drake or Joel Miller ever ornament our desktops? Horizon: Zero Dawn opened the door of his hinges, opening a level of potential almost overwhelming. The question is – what is the height of the bar? Is Horizon the AAA PC port that we were hoping for Sony’s initial exit in an unknown territory?
Well, sometimes.
Horizon: Zero Dawn on PC is right. The vast open landscape that guerrilla games have created is more impressive than ever. So much so that the sprawling desert really becomes the star of the show. The sunlight explodes through the trees. The waters are clear and clear. And a dense and luxuriant foliage covers the earth and gives life to the world in a way that was simply not possible on the PS4. It’s a beautiful game and a brand new way to enjoy something we have been like for years. If you are a franchise veteran or a newcomer, it’s a fantastic way to discover Horizon. Just make sure to bring a robust platform.
The PC with which I played at Zero Dawn is in no way the most incredible machine. But it smokes the minimum requirements needed to perform it successfully. However, reaching a constant rate of 60 frames per second (FPS) was virtually impossible, even with the lowest parameters. A 35 gigabyte hotfix has been published, claiming eliminating multiple obstacles, including non-functional anisotropic filtering, the animations locked at 30 FPS despite all the rest running at a higher frequency of images and shader compilation bugs that cause Plantages. The patch worked, a little. But there are deeply rooted optimization problems in Horizon that will need a lot of time to be eradicated.
You will find all the usual graphics settings ranging from low to Ultra, and if you are not sure what could work best, you have a custom mix of presets based on your hardware. The Adaptive Performance FPS option is interesting if your system can not quite manage horizon requests. Naturally, anyone who is looking for a flawless resolution would not want this option to be activated because it regularly puts the graphical loyalty to maintain the frequency of images. And it sometimes makes things horrible. But the most frustrating is that adaptive performances do not fully adjust the frequency of images. Half of my time spent with Zero Dawn was a carnival set inducing headaches, to switch switches and adjust sliders for the purpose of creating a satisfactory parity between the visual quality and fluidity of the game.
Finally, I threw his arms in the air and proclaimed the defeat. I was just not supposed to play on Horizon beyond the average parameters. By passing high, I found that I could improve performance by playing with things like V-Sync and full-screen mode as opposed to bordered or without window. But that has never been enough to make Zero Dawn work as I hoped. You will need the best high-end systems if you want to play it as you would for most other PC titles. And if you do not have it, the PS4 version is on sale every two months for a fraction of the cost.
It’s always Horizon: Zero Dawn, however. And if you can not run the game as well as you would have hoped, it is in no way a total loss. Exploring the world, control the subtleties of the combat system and discover the mysteries surrounding Aloy and the tribes with which it comes into contact is exhilarating. The way old and new technologies are combined is brilliant, making sure of the most convincing types of characters and enemies you will ever see. The meetings are powerful and, in the greatest difficulties, players will have to understand the strengths and weaknesses of their enemies. It is incredibly gratifying to feel a progression thanks to applicable techniques that you only learn by messing your hands. Especially since most of the time, the imperfection will mean death. For this reason, I found that the analog sticks of a controller were invaluable in combat. Dodge, rolling, aim, follow – all this seemed the opposite of the intuitive on a keyboard, and it did not take long before I beg to go back to a game joystick.
To accompany the gameplay foolishly, there is a wealth of audio engineering that will make you fall the socks. Audio is a fun thing. This is often the most ungrateful work required for the media. If the sound production is irreproachable, you do not necessarily think as much as you would if there was any imperfection. It was the case for me with the original. But now paying attention to these things, I realize how beautiful Zero Dawn is in the ear. Being in nature and hearing the rustle of trees and howling the wind create a superb atmosphere. And the transitions of a serene tranquility with a fierce and aggressive confrontation are entirely intoxicating. Despite excessively frustrating optimization setbacks, there are bright layers to discover here. You just need to overcome growth pains.
If Guerrilla Games hopes to maintain a mastery of the attention of his potential fans, they will have to devote a lot of work to Horizon: Zero Dawn PC. The trip itself is as amazing as ever. And if you have a computer that can run this damn trick, you are in the summum of the series. But for everyone, I am not quite convinced that in its current state, spend additional money on PC edition is totally justified. For now, I quietly keep my distances and I would notify new updates.
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Good
- Beautiful visuals
- Deep parameter options
- Each content element included
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The bad
- Optimization problems
- The keyboard does not translate well
- Unreasonable difficulty to reach 60 fps