Horizon Zero Dawn Remaster Adding 'Significantly' More NPCs to Make Towns Feel More Alive on Top of Other Improvements

ign.com:

Horizon: Zero Dawn was developed by Guerrilla Games, and its remaster is being worked on by them as well. But today, the remaster's co-developer Nixxes stepped into the spotlight on the PlayStation blog to highlight a number of improvements we'll see in the remaster, including the addition of lots of new NPCs.

The post breaks down a number of updates to the game, perhaps the most notable of which is that Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered will "significantly boost the number of non-player characters." This doesn't mean more quests or story, but it does mean that villages and camps will have more folks just wandering around, attending to their business. Brian van Nunen, senior technical game designer at Nixxes, offered more details and what I find to be a delightful example of this:

Let's hear it for feeding the geese!

More NPCs isn't the only change players will see. The blog also goes into detail about how foliage is being overhauled to be more dense, realistic, and closer to the original concept art. Terrain, too, is being updated, including snow and sand that actually moves as it's disturbed. This was a feature in the Frozen Wilds expansion, but in the remaster we'll see it elsewhere.

In addition to these improvements, Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered benefits from 10 additional hours of motion capture data for various characters, which Nixxes says will make conversations seem livelier and closer to those in Forbidden West. Mark Bazelmans, senior technical artist, has a really fascinating explanation for how all this data was incorporated into the massive game:

And there's more. The blog post goes over details to how lighting was improved, both world and cinematic, and how character models were updated to have more detail to hair, skin, and oufits. Aloy has peach fuzz, and apparently you can see it. And while before only Aloy would react to the environment and weather, now both her and her companions will react when it's too hot or cold.

If you're a sicko for fascinating,