Horizon Forbidden West goes gold as PS4 gameplay revealed

So far, all the footage of Horizon Forbidden West we’ve seen has been from the PlayStation 5 version. While that isn’t necessarily surprising, Horizon Forbidden West is also launching on PS4, and given the relative difficulty of finding a PS5 at the moment, we’re guessing that a lot of people are wondering how the game will run on PS4. Today we finally got a look at the PS4 version, which is arriving alongside the news that Horizon Forbidden West has gone gold.

PlayStation / Guerrilla Games

For those not in the know, a game going gold essentially means that the game is complete and ready to be shipped. Sony can now mass-produce physical copies for launch, as work on the base game has wrapped up. That doesn’t mean development is done because the folks at Guerrilla Games will undoubtedly get to work on a day-one patch for Horizon Forbidden West, but going gold is still a big milestone nonetheless.

As for that look at how the game runs on PlayStation 4, you’ll need to hop over to the PlayStation Blog to see it.* Sony shared PS4 gameplay footage in a series of GIFs today. This is the first time we’re seeing the PS4 version of the game in action, and Sony says this gameplay footage was captured on a PS4 Pro.

Guerrilla Games/Twitter

*UPDATE: PlayStation Asia has begun sharing clips (roughly equivalent to the video/gif files shared by the USA-based PlayStation blog).

There are three clips in all. In the first, Aloy is shown walking through the canopy village of Plainsong. The second and third clips are all about combat and show Aloy going toe-to-toe Clamberjaws and Bristlebacks, respectively.

While these clips don’t give us a super extensive look at the PS4 version, there’s enough footage to say that the PS4 version looks pretty good – at least when played on a PS4 Pro. While the game probably won’t look a ton different on the standard PS4, we probably won’t get to see what it looks like until after launch.

Still, the original game looked good and played well on the PlayStation 4, so hopefully, none of that is lost in the sequel despite the fact that it’s also being made for PlayStation 5. This is arguably PlayStation’s first major release of 2022 (if we’re not counting Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection), and it’s safe to say that there are high expectations riding on it. Here’s hoping Horizon Forbidden West sticks the landing on both PS5 and PS4.

We don’t have much longer to wait until Horizon Forbidden West is here, as the game launches on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 on February 18th, 2022. We expect to hear plenty more about the game between now and that February 18th release date, so stay tuned for more.