TEST Horizon Forbidden West: the PS4 is fighting for its life, once again

Horizon Forbidden West was entitled to a communication mainly centered on the PS5 edition. But let’s not forget one thing, this new adventure is also available on “old gen”, namely the PS4. Thus, we dusted off our old platform to see if the title had something to amuse and excite players. We are not going to come back to this odyssey (you can read our impressions of the PS5 version available at the bottom of this test), but we focus on the technical part. A disaster in sight or good work done by Guerrilla Games ?

The experience remains intact and the adventure is striking and spellbinding.

First of all, know that the studio leaves no choice, visual parameters are not included. No “Resolution” or “Performance”, a very specific rendering is imposed, period. The first pixels appear in the image and I have to say it’s really beautiful. So yes, it’s not as glitzy as it is on PS5, which is entitled to much more detailed textures and more striking light effects, but it’s not as appalling as we thought. The environments are rich and the flora and fauna entertain the pupils without difficulty. The developers had to make some concessions, with reduced rendering for certain elements, such as depth of field, NPC clothing, hairaloy, but the result is really good from what we can see. The HDR parameter is there (phew), so if you have a suitable screen, it brings natural lighting. It’s really clean.

In addition, Horizon Forbidden West runs around 30 fps on PS4. We didn’t notice any slowdowns, but we do feel like a blur filter is added when the screen is a bit submerged and the action is intense (drop in resolution?). Unsurprisingly, and just like the first episode, the clipping invites himself to the party. Several sets, on the horizon, suddenly appear during our escapades; this is much more important when we move quickly on the back of a machine. Of the’aliasing is also visible on some contours, but nothing too bad. Loading times can be annoying. The reason ? They can appear in-game without warning (a black screen for a few seconds), to load environments, textures, characters, enemies, etc. The map of the worldwhich we access by pressing the touchpad, takes a long time to appear. Why ? Great question… It’s a bit annoying, especially since we use it constantly; Strongly a patch to solve this problem.

Despite its impurities, Horizon Forbidden West on PS4 is really enjoyable. Unsurprisingly, the console spits out its lungs and literally becomes a fighter plane so much the fans turn to the maximum; impossible to hear the TV, that is to say. But the experience remains intact, and the adventure is striking and spellbinding. Of course, if you have a PS5, we advise you to play it on this platform (especially since theupgrade PS4 to PS5 is free).

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