Horizon Forbidden West: A Look at How the Decima Engine Has Evolved Graphically

MP1st takes an in-depth look at Horizon Forbidden West and how it evolves the Decima Engine comparing it to Death Stranding, and Horizon Zero Dawn.

[MeatyUrologist]

Interesting read. I love to see how these artists and technical wizards iterate and improve with each release. I wish more game companies would focus on making huge improvements like these instead of the nearly unnoticeable changes we see yearly in some series (I'm looking at you The Show).

Overall, FW is a visual masterpiece. I've never by so wowed by nearly every aspect of a game visually. The only thing I really hope they add is something like a darker night mode. Nights in the game just don't hold a candle to days visually, and it seems like they tried to hard to give them character with weird colored filters and fog everywhere. Would love to see at least an occasionally clear black sky instead of purple, blue, or pink glowing hazy nights.

[excaliburps]

Well, The Show is a sports-sim, so most of the changes are gameplay-related which what sports fans want, no?

That said, I do get where you're coming from. Forbidden West is a huge graphical leap graphically. Like, it's hard to not be in awe of just how good it looks. Imagine once we have proper PS5-only games made? Daaaaamn!

[MeatyUrologist]

Well I myself am a pretty big sports fan, and have not bought a version of the Show in 5 years. I have tried them, but with little to no visual upgrades, and only minor tweaks to gameplay and modes, I just can't see paying full price for essentially roster updates. You are correct though that most of the die hards just buy them every year regardless, so why would the devs ever go above and beyond?

[ABizzel1]

Not that I'm in favor of sports game similarity, because I personally think they're one of the biggest rip-offs in gaming being the same thing every year....at full price...instead of being a GaaS at this point with Seasons and updated rosters....

That being said you cannot compare the evolution of an annual game that has the exact same environments every year, hundreds / thousands of the same character models, and that have to be released across several platforms across multiple different architecture, to a game(s) that have 3 - 5 year development cycles.

There's only so much you can do with the same Stadium, same Grass, same crowd, etc... On top of that they have to do face scans / renders of hundreds of new players each year. The only areas these games can improve in graphically from game to fame during a generation would be dynamic lighting / ray tracing, and introducing dynamic weather systems.

These games need one true graphics update a few of years into the next-gen of consoles to take advantage of the new performance gains, because for the first 3+ years they still have to run on the last-gen as well. Not to mention MLB is probably the best looking Sports games out of all of them (excluding racing games).

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

[Nitrowolf2]

Yeah FBW looks amazing

I disagree on the night visuals, I think this is one of the better games out that that handles night visuals very well

[gamesftw250]

can't wait to see what the next version brings, its going to be fantastic.

[LonDonE]

This game is STAGGERING! LIKE seriously, from the art, to lighting, to alpha effects, particles, and the soundtrack wow unbelievable how good it looks and runs.
Imagine when guerilla start making PS5 native games? My god they will kill it.

This is why i buy playstation consoles, those first party playstation single player epic adventures.

Not going to lie, i play and own all platforms, but when are we going to see some top tier games like this on series x? I really want to see the devs flex that power.
All through the generations, playstation exclusives always delivers and always look incredible! I want Microsoft to nurture thier talent and let them take thier time to release mind blowing experiences.

Halo was good but didn't wow me, i wss hoping to see a graphical master piece. Ms really need to hire the talent to make the series x sing.
This game also looks great on ps4.
Infact when i first saw footage of it abd ghost of sushima i didnt believe it was ps4 and thought they were next gen games!
That's the effect i want with xbox exclusives.

Forza horizon is top but what other franchise on xbox is a graphical masterpiece or a masterpiece overall? I am tired of waiting for ms, the devs and studios under ms need to get thier shizzle together.
People can downvote all they want, but no one can deny sony studios games turns heads! Thats what i want from xbox studio's too.

Anyway game is a stunner and fires on all cylinders.
Loving it so far

[MeatyUrologist]

I realize it is a personal preference thing, but I just prefer nights in games to be....dark. FW makes it look pretty at night with colorful, pastel fog and skies, but I think it would be cool to occasionally have a clear, dark night. Maybe I'll tweak my TV settings and see what I can come up with.

[quenomamen]

You Leave COD out of this. Lol

[Viljong]

It is the most beatiful game ive ever seen. The world is so full and Rich. The machines feel very threating as they charge you and destroy enviroment as they tumble. the audio with avr surround 7.1 is very good, superb good. Good surround audio gives more immersion than any graphical trick. Most of all it is very addicting with brilliant story.

[Jin_Sakai]

This game is visually stunning. I love the moss and ambient sounds of nature. The water is some of the best I’ve ever seen in a game and the mountains with clouds atop are beautiful. This is easily the best looking game I’ve ever played.

[z2g]

Overall I think the game looks good. The plants etc look especially nice. The one thing that surprises me tho, especially on ps5 is how much pop-in there is - mostly in the vegetation. Aside from that tho it’s pretty nice. To me tho the most graphically impressive game I have played on ps5 so far is still Ratchet and Clank. That game truly feels like a next gen game.

[ClayRules2012]

That doesn’t surprise me (only because I think it was the guys at Digital Foundry who mentioned the pop in on 5) but yeah. Nonetheless, I do think it’s gorgeous, from what my fiancé and I have discovered of the world so far, early on. I don’t doubt it’ll impress us all the more when we discover more open world locations, which will I’m sure stun and eyes will melt haha. The original Horizon was like James Cameron’s Avatar to me, with its lighting system, colors, and dense foliage, and FW (while being cross gen, still is a stunner and closer to that film than ever before, I believe.

Having said that, I agree. Currently, Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart really is the most graphically impressive (Next Gen) and Pixar like game I’ve seen and played so far on PS5. It genuinely feels Next Gen. Insomniac did wonders with that game, a technical marvel. I can’t fathom how Spider-Man 2 and Wolverine will look, being that Insomniac was really their first piece of art to showcase their talent on the PS5 hardware.

[Gamingisfornerds]

Such a great looking game. Fantastic art and the engine seems so well made.

[burakbuff]

I'm looking community-created screenshots in last two days. Game looks great, photo mod is outstanding and lighting is the real key. Guerrilla Games has done incredible job on that. Also game's itself is great too.