While overall I like the remaster for it's improved graphics, settings, animation, and motion capture, I have to leave a negative review because it was released in an unfinished state with bugs and quality of life issues that were not present in the original game.

The volume mixing for distance and balance between NPC voices, environmental sounds, attacks etc. is off. Some sounds are too quiet, some are too loud, and all of it results in a pretty rough experience - Just weird things like Aloy's whistle being way too loud or certain NPCs being heard from very far away. I've found this issue across a 5.1 setup, headphones, and 2 channel speakers regardless of audio settings in game.

Even more frustrating, many areas of the game that previously had a soundtrack/score play now don't have it at all. You'll also find that the soundtrack likes to randomly stop.

While the motion capture is an overall improvement, the mouth movement is very poor. It is out of sync with the audio, over-animated, and some characters have their teeth baring through an entire conversation. It's extremely distracting and hard to follow.

Many users have reported a wide range of bugs- I've had Aloy clip into objects such as barrels and walls, but there are many other bugs that need fixing that were not in the original release.


To conclude, apart from these problems the remaster is a nice upgrade to the original, and if you're a fan of the game I think it's worth it. It adds a graphical level of polish that makes the game look really spectacular. However, a game this new should not be getting a remaster and the work that is done on this could've been done on another older game, with a remaster done on this 5-10 years down the track.

To end on a positive I'm very glad they have fixed the poor HDR implementation found in the original release.

[h1]A graphical upgrade to the original albeit unfinished with bugs and QoL issues[/h1] While overall I like the remaster for it's improved graphics, settings, animation, and motion capture, I have to leave a negative review because it was released in an unfinished state with bugs and quality of life issues that were not present in the original game. [h3]There are three major issues I've found:[/h3] [h3]1. Audio.[/h3] The volume mixing for distance and balance between NPC voices, environmental sounds, attacks etc. is off. Some sounds are too quiet, some are too loud, and all of it results in a pretty rough experience - Just weird things like Aloy's whistle being way too loud or certain NPCs being heard from very far away. I've found this issue across a 5.1 setup, headphones, and 2 channel speakers regardless of audio settings in game. Even more frustrating, [b]many areas of the game that previously had a soundtrack/score play now don't have it at all.[/b] You'll also find that the soundtrack likes to randomly stop. [h3]2. Mouth animation on characters.[/h3] While the motion capture is an overall improvement, the mouth movement is very poor. It is out of sync with the audio, over-animated, and some characters have their teeth baring through an entire conversation. It's extremely distracting and hard to follow. [h3]3. Overall bugs and polish needed.[/h3] Many users have reported a wide range of bugs- I've had Aloy clip into objects such as barrels and walls, but there are many other bugs that need fixing that were not in the original release. To conclude, apart from these problems the remaster is a nice upgrade to the original, and if you're a fan of the game I think it's worth it. It adds a graphical level of polish that makes the game look really spectacular. However, a game this new should not be getting a remaster and the work that is done on this could've been done on another older game, with a remaster done on this 5-10 years down the track. To end on a positive I'm very glad [b]they have fixed the poor HDR implementation found in the original release.[/b]