There are a few issues that actually stop the gameplay from working as intended. The list of bugs doesn't end at the graphics department, however. (Also, be sure to update your graphics drivers to the latest versions-using older versions may result in significant artifacting and serious visual glitches, which is a mistake I made when first booting up the game.) The natural environments of Horizon Zero Dawn are quite stunning, and you'll spend a lot of time in Photo Mode. For a vast open world game like Horizon, it's an important graphics setting to use since it provides much more clarity and detail for surfaces in the distance. It's expected that a game of this scale and fidelity would be quite graphically demanding, but what stood out was the inconsistency in performance and the occasional stuttering or hitching.Īnother present bug is that the anisotropic filtering option simply won't work. Here, I would experience drastic drops in frame rate to about 35-40 FPS. While I could maintain around 80 FPS or a bit higher in many open areas, my mileage varied by virtue of the changing density of towns and villages, or the intensity of certain chaotic combat encounters. I also used the ultrawide 2560x1080 (21:9) resolution and set all graphics options to their maximum along with TAA (temporal antialiasing). (You can watch the review of the PS4 version from 2017 in the video above, or read the original Horizon Zero Dawn review.)ĭuring my time playing Horizon on PC, I used a rig equipped with a Core i7-7700K, RTX 2080, 16GB of RAM, and Samsung 970 Pro NVMe SSD-a fairly high-end system. Now Playing: Horizon: Zero Dawn Video Review However, in the current pre-launch phase, performance hiccups and some graphical shortcomings can overshadow these elements.īy clicking 'enter', you agree to GameSpot's That's all part of why a PC version is such a big deal. Remnants of the world's high-tech past with imposing, beastly machines also contrast with the environments in a fascinating way that entices you to uncover more of the story's mysteries. Horizon Zero Dawn is a visually captivating experience its depiction of nature and the wilderness is rich with thick vegetation, vast mountain ranges, and sweeping deserts. After about 12 hours with this version, I've come away with some very mixed results. In my case, I was just hyped to replay one of 2017's standout games with cranked up visuals, higher frame rates, and, in this particular case, keyboard and mouse controls. It may be a little over three years old at this point, but proper PC ports of former exclusives tend to offer an optimal way to play for a mostly new audience. This time, it's the open-world action game Horizon Zero Dawn. It's a pretty big deal that another PlayStation 4 exclusive has made its way to PC.

Horizon zero dawn pc