As good as the game may be, requiring an internet connection to log into an account to play an offline game should be illegal.

Edit: I don't know whats happening, but the game doesn't even launch anymore. The only thing I can see is the "Sony presents" screen and then the game is just frozen. Why are games such trash these days? As cool as the technology nowadays is, gaming is f**ing dying and it makes me sad.

Avoid this waste of storage and play the original game instead. Don't give Sony your money for this "game" that doesn't even launch

When it works properly, it's a solid remaster. Visuals are usually fantastic, and the overhauled animations add a lot more life to the game. However, this game really needs some more bugfixes & additional passes through quality control:

- A variety of NPC's have the biggest teeth I've ever seen. Some characters look great, others (like Nil) look like they just got horse teeth implants that are nearly wired shut with how they can barely open while speaking. It's so distracting it's hard to take them seriously and focus on the dialogue. My best guess is that the teeth model is misplaced on the character skeleton, throwing everything else off. It's worth noting that the jaw is moving normally during this dialogue - it's weird.

- The new animations look GREAT in a lot of the dialogue, until it doesn't. I feel like I'm rotating between high quality mo-cap, and seeing poor puppetry of character mouths at random. Maybe some of the less important dialogue didn't get overhauled, I don't know, but it's pretty bad looking when it happens. It's inconsistent on a per-character basis as well - Aloy is not exempt from this issue. Sometimes it's great, sometimes it's awful.

- For some reason an abnormally large percentage of characters glisten in the light. A little more extreme than having just worked up a good sweat, they just look wet - maybe they got oiled up off-screen? It's not everyone, but it's so often that it confuses me. Combined with facepaint almost always looking extra shiny/wet/reflective, I can only assume this is a lighting/texture issue? I am running on max graphics settings, maybe this goes away if I lower it, but I don't think I should have to resort to that.

- In-game controls are really buggy. I regularly have an issue where when harvesting materials I press Y (Xbox controller) to "take all items" it doesn't work immediately, and I either have to press it a few times or wait a couple seconds. It's bearable but gets irritating all the same when harvesting materials regularly.

I wanted to try kb&m instead of controller for a while, so I booted the game (without a connected controller) and found that the default keyboard mappings don't always work as stated. As an example, it's explicitly stated in the controls that numkeys 1-4 should be for selecting weapons 1-4. In reality, 1 does nothing, 2 switches to weapon 2, 3 does nothing, and 4 changes ammo types. It was so inconsistent and frustrating that I decided to change back to controller.

When I powered on my Xbox One controller (which previously worked fine, 99% of the time) most of the controls didn't work at all. I could use both joysticks, and I could enter the quest/map menus, but I couldn't leave them without using a keyboard again. Almost none of the face buttons worked. I had to reboot the game to make the controller work properly again. It's 2024 and I don't recall encountering control mappings being this buggy or inconsistent. I am using default control settings, so I can't fathom how this is even an issue. (This is an arguably greater offense than having controls that are not remappable, as I can at least use software to work around that.)

- While I appreciate at least the option of PSN integration, I don't think it's fair to force this (and then pull sale of the original version of the game) for all those who are in countries not supported by PSN. This feels like a scummy move.

- Characters appearing out of thin air in the background (or foreground) of a conversation is distracting, especially when it's supposed to be an emotional cutscene. It's very distracting.

All in all, for the small upgrade cost (assuming you owned the original) it's solid when it works. I just wish it wasn't so buggy. This release needs work, I'd like to be able to change this review to positive after a few more rounds of bugfixing.

I only bought the upgrade because of the DualSense haptic feedback and gyro aiming. But I'm also impressed by the better graphics. With RTX 4070 I get 144 FPS @ 1080p with settings on high, DLAA and frame generation. Without frame generation around 100 FPS.