The imminent remaster of Horizon Zero Dawn, which was originally released for PC in 2020, will run just fine if you’ve played Horizon Forbidden West. In other words, the recommended system requirements are the same, and you can probably expect Zero Dawn to look more akin to Forbidden West as a result.
The minimum specs for the remaster are higher than the recommended specs for the original, demanding a minimum 16GB RAM, and GPUs several generations younger. If you’re running a long-in-the-tooth PC then you’re probably better off just sticking to the older version. Alas, the only way to buy the older version is to buy it as part of a bundle which is $10 pricier ($49.99 in total) than buying the remaster standalone ($39.99). And no, don’t go scouring third-party key sellers: Sony has basically wiped the standalone original edition of Horizon Zero Dawn off the face of the earth.
What makes an annoyance worse is that the original, non-remastered Horizon Zero Dawn is Steam Deck verified, whereas Horizon Forbidden West is “unsupported”, from which you can infer with decent confidence that the remastered Horizon Zero Dawn will also not be supported (the Steam page currently says that its Steam Deck support is “Unknown”). That doesn’t mean Forbidden West isn’t playable on Deck: our friends at Tom’s Guide got it working.
Anyway, gripes aside here are the Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered system requirements:
| Header Cell – Column 0 | Minimum | Recommended | High | Very High |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Preset | Very Low | Medium | High | Very High |
| Avg Performance | 720p @ 30fps | 1080p @ 60fps | 1440p @ 60fps / 4K @ 30fps | 4K @ 60fps |
| Processor | Intel Core i3-8100 or AMD Ryzen 3 1300X | Intel Core i5-8600 or AMD Ryzen 5 3600 | Intel Core i7-9700 or AMD Ryzen 7 3700X | Intel Core i7-11700 or AMD Ryzen 7 5700X |
| Memory | 16GB RAM | 16GB RAM | 16GB RAM | 16GB RAM |
| Graphics | Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 4GB or AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT 4GB | Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 or AMD Radeon RX 5700 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 or AMD Radeon RX 6800 | Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 or AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT |
| Storage | 135GB | 135GB | 135GB | 135GB |
| OS | Windows 10 64-bit (version 1909 or higher) | Windows 10 64-bit (version 1909 or higher) | Windows 10 64-bit (version 1909 or higher) | Windows 10 64-bit (version 1909 or higher) |
Andy noted that the original would be delisted back in October, presumably in keeping with Sony’s recent requirement of a PSN account for PC games. The announcement in October was also met with some scepticism about the value of a Zero Dawn remaster just four years after the PC release, which was already an upgrade over the original console games, since it’s a pretty good looking game already (albeit in my view stylistically bland, but that’s subjective). Anyway, until Sony remasters or remakes Bloodborne for PC, every Sony PC port will likely be met by derision in some quarters. Because Bloodborne is all that matters, is what I’m saying.
