The Sky’s The Limit
Horizon Forbidden West, already a visual marvel on consoles, shines brilliantly on PC thanks to the Nixxes port. This port, similar to their recent work on PlayStation games, maintains the exceptional quality of the PS5 version, and in some cases even surpasses it, depending on the PC’s capabilities. A significant improvement is the addition of real-time rendering options, a welcome feature for PC gamers who enjoy tweaking visuals. This allows for immediate and noticeable changes to the game’s rendering, giving players more control over the visual experience.
Asus Asus TUF GeForce RTX 4090 OC
With the high-end Nvidia RTX 4090, pushing Horizon Forbidden West at maximum settings in 4K is achievable. While maximizing all options delivers a great visual experience, the game takes advantage of various upscaling technologies, including DLSS3, FSR2.2, and XeSS. While improvements over the PS5 are modest, the RTX 4090 can achieve higher texture filtering (16x) compared to the PS5’s 4-8x, better shadows with enhanced filtering, and potentially more objects in the shadow cascade.
Wood For The Trees
Image quality is a key aspect of the PC port. While DLSS can improve upon the game’s native TAA at 4K, the lush foliage and intricate details can sometimes result in flicker and movement artifacts. At 4K, PS5’s Fidelity mode generally exhibits better performance in these areas. Upscaling solutions like FSR 2.2 and XeSS deliver respectable results, yet struggle with the game’s demanding foliage compared to DLSS and the PS5. There are differences in sharpness and minor issues in screen-space reflections. Performance mode on PS5 exhibits similar flaws, thus the RTX 4090 in 4K DLSS Quality mode offers superior visual fidelity and smoothness.
Frames Of Fancy
Different upscaling solutions offer various performance advantages over a native output. The Nvidia DLSS solutions, notably DLSS Quality and DLSS Frame Generation, are generally superior for a 4K target. DLSS Quality mode, on a 4K target from a 2560×1440 base, provides a notable performance boost (about 22%). DLSS Frame Generation can push performance further (up to 35% over native) but with potential artifacts like flicker and blockiness. The game scales remarkably well to different PC resolutions and configurations, maintaining visual fidelity and performance across the spectrum.
What We Said About Horizon Forbidden West
Our initial review of Horizon Forbidden West highlighted its excellent combat, compelling creature design, and engaging open world. We praised its visual fidelity and Aloy’s compelling character arc. Although it didn’t revolutionize the series, it represented a substantial evolution. Overall, we were impressed with Guerrilla Games’ continued evolution, and confident that the Horizon franchise had a bright future.
Score: 9
The 9 score reflects the game’s overall strengths, particularly its excellent visual fidelity, excellent combat and gameplay, and engrossing open world environment on PC.
Coming Down To Earth
The PC port’s performance is noticeably better than the PS4’s equivalent version across most of the PC market. Mid-range PCs like an RTX 4050 can achieve smooth 60fps gameplay with high visual fidelity, superior to the PS4’s experience. While DLSS3 can allow for further performance boosts at the cost of increased input latency, load times on PC are generally faster than on PS4.
The console’s dedicated hardware decompression provides advantages in loading times. PC ports require additional CPU processing and resource uploading, causing differences in loading times. The PS5, despite needing additional work on the PC side, can provide better loading time experiences. The Steam Deck can maintain a playable 30fps, but issues like visual dips and stutters could negatively impact the overall experience. The Steam Deck may also see improvements with dedicated asset tweaks to help its performance.
Summary
Horizon Forbidden West’s PC port showcases impressive visual and performance capabilities. The Nixxes team has skillfully crafted a port that mirrors and sometimes exceeds the visual and performance standards set by the PS5, demonstrating significant effort in addressing the technical challenges of adapting a console-exclusive game to a wide range of PC hardware. The port’s scalability and performance, while not without some minor trade-offs depending on the specific PC, offer a compelling and visually rich experience that most PC users can enjoy.
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