One of Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered's biggest glow-ups is because of a malfunction in the original that got missed because the open world was too big for Guerrilla to check everywhere

Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered – a shiny new version of Guerrilla Games' 2017 open-world adventure – is right around the corner, and it turns out that one of its greatest glow-ups is actually the result of a lighting malfunction from the original being fixed.

Even though the original game isn't all that old, certain comparisons show that there's a pretty noticeable visual difference between it and the 2024 version, like this one highlighted by a fan on Twitter below. The two screenshots are taken in the exact same location and at the same time of day, but in the remaster, everything looks far more crisp and vibrant, with the greenery in particular really standing out. Responding to this, Guerrilla Games' studio and art director Jan-Bart van Beek has explained why there's been such a change. 

"Horizon Zero Dawn was our first open-world game," he begins. "It featured locations over a 30+ square kilometer area in a 24-hour light cycle. It was extremely hard to check every nook and cranny of the world to see if the lighting functioned correctly. This was a location that malfunctioned."

Does that mean that all of the other locations with malfunctioning lighting have been fixed in the remaster, too? "We can only hope," Guerrilla's studio director teases with a wink. Fingers crossed – it'd certainly help justify it getting a remastered version less than eight years after its original launch, even if that feels like an age in comparison to The Last of Us Part 2's three and a half year wait for a glow-up. 

Horizon: Zero Dawn developer's next game may be Horizon Online as a third single-player game looks "a ways off."