Horizon Forbidden West is slated to be one of 2022’s largest releases for the PlayStation family of consoles, with it coming to both PS4 and PS5. Most of Horizon Forbidden West‘s previews have naturally been shown on PS5, but fortunately, Guerrilla offers some new images of the game running on the PS4.
It was a bit of a surprise when Guerrilla and PlayStation announced that Horizon Forbidden West was coming to both PS4 and PS5. After previous statements by PlayStation regarding its belief in gaming generations, PS5 owners have been unsure of the console’s necessity. In the case of Horizon Forbidden West, Guerrilla have detailed some of the differences between the two console versions, noting that the game was developed using PS4 hardware, but PS5 players will have more visual enhancements.
Guerrilla’s new images of Horizon Forbidden West on PS4 show just how beautiful the game is on the older system. The images can be found in a tweet from the official Guerrilla account, it writing, “We’ve showed you a lot of footage of #HorizonForbiddenWest on PS5 so far, but the game also looks — and plays — stunning on the PlayStation 4.” There are four images for fans to analyze, two of which show Aloy in the game’s forest biomes that are dense with flora and foliage, while the other two are previews of desert environments, with plenty of sand and haze.
Looking more closely into the pictures, some of the technical aspects of Horizon Forbidden West on PS4 can be seen. The image of Aloy riding on a mount through a puddle gives a preview of the game’s reflection technology, with it not having the detail of ray-tracing, but is certainly using some sort of reflection mapping as the light of the mount can be seen in the water below. Throughout all of the pictures is evidence of the game’s impressive draw distance as well as a multitude of lighting effects, from god rays breaking through trees, mist and haze layering utop canopies, and the distortion of windswept sand.
After continued PS5 previews, it is comforting to see just how beautiful Horizon Forbidden West is turning out on PS4. Though this version will obviously lack some of the visual and technical features of its sister on PS5, at least from a graphical standpoint, the PS4 version seems to be headed in the right direction. Naturally, there will be those who will “believe it when they see it,” when footage of the game on the PS4 finally gets out or until they get their hands on it themselves. If players thought PS4 fans were loud before, Horizon Forbidden West might kick it to another level.
Horizon Forbidden West launches on February 18, 2022 on PS4 and PS5.
