Guerrilla Games set itself up with an uncommon problem when growing Horizon Forbidden West, which comes out on Friday, February 18th. According to the sport’s director and technical director, Guerrilla was properly conscious of the PS5 and far of its capabilities when it began engaged on Forbidden West in 2018. But, the corporate additionally deliberate to make the sport work on the PS4, a console that turns 9 years previous this fall.

It’s common for video games to be launched on each consoles, however Forbidden West is notable for being a very huge and detailed sport, maybe essentially the most superior title but to return out on the PS5. In a dialog with Engadget, sport director Mathijs de Jonge and technical director Michiel van der Leeuw mentioned Guerrilla’s course of for ensuring that the sport labored for the PS4 whereas concurrently exhibiting off the whole lot the PS5 is able to.

“We knew it was going to be tricky making something that would make the PlayStation 5 shine, but also be really rewarding for people who have PlayStation 4,” mentioned van der Leeuw. “So we’re very happy that we knew about the PS5’s capabilities very early on, because that meant we could plan for how we’re going to make this distinction.”

The most instantly apparent distinction between the 2 variations is visible constancy, with the PS5 focusing on 4K decision (lowered to a checkerboard-upscaled 1800p when working in 60 fps “performance” mode). “From the start, we targeted having higher-fidelity characters, high-fidelity environments, higher-fidelity vegetation, everything, just for the PS5,” van der Leeuw mentioned. “So you’ll just see different models for the PS4 version, but with the same sort of atmosphere throughout the game.”

The realities of play-testing throughout a worldwide pandemic truly offered Guerrilla loads of alternatives to get suggestions on the PS4 expertise. “It was really difficult for us, the pandemic just hit us while we’re in peak production,” van der Leeuw added. But Guerrilla was in a position to make use of Sony’s PlayStation Now sport streaming expertise to ship early builds of the sport to PS4 play testers. “Because of the pandemic, we had to switch to remote play testing,” mentioned de Jonge. Sony would have carried out that with the PS5, however it wasn’t potential to have individuals into their places of work throughout the pandemic.

The upshot of this was that Guerrilla had to ensure the PS4 model was getting loads of consideration all through the event course of. “It was a big advantage, in a way, that we did have the PlayStation 4,” de Jonge mentioned, “because that meant we really had to get the build in a good state rather than just focusing on the PS5 version.”

While the workforce was aware of creating issues work for the PS4 all through the sport’s growth, additionally they have been painstaking about having the PS5 model stand out visually. “We’d look at screenshots for every single thing on-screen, whether it was the grass, the sky, the leaves, the cloth, the hair – everything should have something where if you look at the screenshots, you’d feel like this is definitely the PS5 version,” van der Leeuw mentioned.

While improved constancy and body price have been apparent issues to count on within the PS5 model, Guerrilla put a variety of thought into how the PS5’s controller might be a differentiator – however it was considerably of a balancing act getting the expertise proper. “In our early prototypes, I remember that we set the [adaptive trigger] values relatively high,” de Jonge mentioned, “and I remember that after a few minutes we already felt some fatigue with the triggers. And then we started adding the haptic feedback. And then you have to balance how much haptic you have versus how much pressure you put on the triggers.”

Somewhat surprisingly, the workforce engaged on haptics is separate from the workforce engaged on the adaptive triggers. “Haptics are handled in our studio by the audio design designers, but the adaptive triggers are handled by our game designers,” de Jonge mentioned. Obviously, no a part of sport design occurs in a vacuum, however he particularly cites the collaboration between these groups as one thing he was pleased with within the growth course of.

The finish result’s one thing that doesn’t scream out to you as an enormous replace, however a skillfully executed part that helps Horizon Forbidden West shine on the PS5. “I think it was great to see also how we could [use haptics and adaptive triggers] make the different weapons stand out, sort of give them their own character,” de Jonge mentioned. “So it really feels different when you use a slingshot versus when you fire an arrow using a bow.”

Like most video games particularly constructed for the PS5, Horizon Forbidden West masses shortly, due to the console’s built-in SSD. With such a large map to discover, near-instantaneous loading (like whenever you quick journey) is a big high quality of life enchancment. But van de Leeuw mentioned these optimizations are extra than simply having a quick drive. “You don’t realize how easily games are bottlenecked,” he mentioned. “If you run a PC game on a very fast SSD, it doesn’t automatically load in like seven seconds. There’s so much work we had to do.”

The finish result’s a sport so fast that the event workforce needed to revamp the guidelines that seem on loading screens. “In Horizon Zero Dawn, we called it fast travel, but it could take maybe a minute to actually load,” de Jonge mentioned. “With the PS5, it’s maybe four or five seconds, it loads so quickly that players can’t even read the hints.” But from testing, Guerrilla knew that gamers got here to depend on these hints, in order that they determined to gradual issues down only a bit. “We had to add a very simple feature where it hangs on the loading screen for enough time so you can actually read at least one hint while it loads.” Of course, individuals who need to velocity by issues can simply mash X or flip off the pause in settings in order that the sport masses up as quick as potential.

While Engadget hasn’t examined Horizon Forbidden West on the PS4 but, early reports indicate that Guerrilla stuck the landing, constructing a sport that doesn’t really feel compromised on the PS4 that also exhibits off the ability of the PS5. “I’m quite happy how it turned out,” mentioned van der Leeuw. “I’m very proud of the PS5 version. But the PS4 version has the same sort of atmosphere, same sort of feel. Of course, it’s a generation older, but it holds up, I think, quite well.”