For those that paid attention nearly a week ago, developer Guerrilla Games hosted a Horizon Forbidden West State of Play to introduce a full-length demo of the upcoming sequel. But, the gameplay is all that players left with at the time. Although many viewers anticipated a release date like with the Dying Light 2 & Far Cry 6 presentations offered, the launch date is still undetermined for the time being.
But, the rich footage of the game running on PlayStation 5 does give a lot of insight on the direction the game will be heading. However, it should still be noted the game is also a PlayStation 4 title as well. And gathered that it will be a cross-generation release, many questions how the game will execute when it does ship. Especially when learning the demo only performed at 30 frames per second at the time.
Speaking with Game Informer, it is revealed that Horizon Forbidden West is developed for PlayStation 4. However, PlayStation 5 users can also find ways to take advantage of the game when running on the new hardware as well. You can view the segment of the interview in the video below:
“A lot of the development has taken place on the PlayStation 4 and a lot of playtesting has been done on PlayStation 4 – so we are ensuring that the owners of that console have a great experience and that it will look fantastical on that console,” . For the PlayStation 5 we can go much further, of course, visually we can add a lot more detail. Graphically, the rendering technique for the underwater scenes is special on the PlayStation 5; it has extra details and extra systems like the wave technique is better on that system as well.
“But for the- lighting on Aloy on the PlayStation 5 is also has more definition. We use a special cinematic lighting rig that is on the PlayStation 4 it’s only used in cutscenes because the game is not running and we have more processing power in those scenes. But for the PlayStation 5 we have plenty of processing power so we can have that lighting rig always available.”
Additionally, there is a separate interview with YouTuber Julien Chièze, which translated by ResetEra poster Slaythe, discloses that Horizon Forbidden West will perform at 60 frames per second uniquely to PlayStation 5. It is unsure is there will be PlayStation 4 Pro features for the game that will differentiate the performance for the game currently.
Recently, it was revealed that more PlayStation 5-defining titles are being turned into cross-generation releases. In that, both God of War: Ragnarok & Gran Turismo 7 are to release on both PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 now. You can read the full report by heading here.
What interests you most about the new details for Horizon Forbidden West?
Horizon Forbidden West arrives sometime in late 2021 for PlayStation 4 & PlayStation 5.
