The Remastered Horizon: Zero Dawn NPCs Look So Much Better

But some of them are still glued to the ground

Aloy has a little think next to Thok, a man who is glued to the ground and needs your help. PS5 screenshot captured by the author.

Open world games demand to be filled full of people. Usually, these hapless NPCs (non-player characters) just wander around and fade into the background like so much noise, but clever writing, memorable side quests, and good performances can elevate them from filler into important characters.

No game understood this mission better than 2022’s Horizon: Forbidden West. Even two years later, it still has some of the most remarkable NPC characters ever crafted for a game. It’s one of those rare titles where everyone animates with the same level of detail you’d expect from major story sequences, even if they’re just a person in a town trying to sell you some new gear or a random bit of food.

The original 2017 game didn’t have anywhere near the same level of animation quality. It’s still a remarkable-looking title, yes, but the NPC characters were heavily criticized for their slightly simple animations even when the game released. They looked extraordinary and state-of-the-art as far as their raw visuals went, but they moved like they were animated by a robot — because they more or less were. The first game relied very heavily on combining a preset library of canned animations with procedural mouth and face movements for…