Horizon Forbidden West: how a PS5 graphics showcase scales down to PS4

We first saw Horizon Forbidden West at the climax of the PlayStation 5 games reveal showcase, a fitting ‘just one more thing’ to an effectively debut for Sony’s vision for the new console’s launch window. It looked phenomenal, it possessed detail beyond anything we’d seen in the prior generation, but a key question had to be asked: how could Guerrilla Games deliver something this good with a title that also had to run on the standard PlayStation 4? With final code in hand, we finally have answers.

How Sony tackles the generation divide is intriguing and similar in some respects to Playground Games’ approach to another cross-gen masterpiece – Forza Horizon 5. There are two distinct tiers of features, one for PS4 consoles, the other for PlayStation 5. Each of these tiers is deployed in two different scenarios: base PS4 and Pro feature a substantially pared back visual experience, running at dynamic 1080p on the standard PS4 and a dynamic 1800p checkerboard on Pro, both operating at 30fps. Meanwhile, the PS5 feature-set is run at native 4K in its 30fps favour resolution mode, dropping to checkerboarded 1800p at 60fps in the favour performance mode (DRS is also implemented on PS5, but quite difficult to pick up on).

So, we have two graphical feature sets: one for PS4 and Pro, another for PlayStation 5. Both of the last-gen machines deliver much the same visual experience, with resolution the only key difference between them. Meanwhile, for PS5, 30fps and 60fps also have the same features, with resolution and frame-rate targets dividing them. Some graphical effects may change in their rendering according to the core resolution, but ultimately, it’s two tiers in total with two implementations per tier.

Performance? It’s actually rather uninteresting – which is a good thing. PlayStation 4 and Pro consoles lock to 30fps more effectively than the first game did, perhaps owing to the implementation of dynamic resolution scaling. Finding frame-drops in gameplay is challenging. The same can be said for PlayStation 5 in both performance and resolution modes: 60fps and 30fps are essentially a lock (cutscenes in performance mode aren’t quite so solid). The most obvious performance issue concerns cutscene transitions between camera angles. There are still some stutters from one cut to the next.