Going back to when Horizon Forbidden City was first announced, it wasn’t clear if the game would be coming to Sony’s last-gen PS4, as well as the current-gen PS5. While it’s clear that the game has been optimized for the latest generation of hardware (all trailers so far have focused on PS5 games), PlayStation’s latest gameplay footage shows the game running on the PS4 Pro.
And it looks good. really good. In fact, it’s better than some PS5 games. In a post on the PS Blog, Angie Smets (Studio Director and Executive Producer at Guerrilla Games) posted several clips of the game running on the PS4 Pro, and they’re really impressive. You’ll see a GIF embedded on this page. Given the half-hearted ports of previous-gen games we’ve seen recently on Sony platforms, it’s great to see a new game coming out that aims to “ensure you have the best experience on every platform” (according to the blog). Try ignoring your PS4 fans, as this is likely to put it into overdrive.
The post also states that the game has gone gold, meaning we can expect to see it – eventually – released on its expected release date of February 18, 2022, without any further delays. That’s the date we’ll be able to get it on PS4 and PS5 — no staggered releases here. Sony also confirmed that the PS4 version will get a free PS5 upgrade, which means you can save $10/£10 if you buy the PS4 version. You can read all about it on our Horizon Forbidden West release date and pre-order pages.
Guerilla Games has confirmed that the PlayStation 5 version of the game supports 60fps, and the PS4 version will be capped below that (usually 30fps, but I couldn’t find any direct announcements on the net for that). The PS5 version will also fully support 3D audio and DualSense controllers.
In the game, you will lead Aloy on an adventure along the devastated Pacific Rim of America, slaying mechanical monsters and searching for materials. The map stretches from California on the west coast to Utah (which borders the Sunshine State in the southwestern United States). The area will obviously be larger than what we enjoyed in Horizon Zero Dawn, and from the outside, it will look better too.
I’m excited about this game; earlier this week, I was more excited about how Horizon Forbidden West got me excited about the underwater levels than I’ve been since I was forced to watch Sonic the Hedgehog drown as a kid. We also saw the first gameplay preview of the game’s landing earlier this week.
