While Horizon Zero Dawn’s graphics were known for being elaborate, Guerilla Games seems to have taken it to the next level with Horizon Forbidden West – at least according to one eagle-eyed fan.

One Redditor noticed a neat detail in the new trailer, where Aloy can be seen riding across a beach. While it may look like an anti-aliasing issue at first, viewers can see a small spread of fuzz along her neck and jaw. According to the Redditor, this is vellus hair, i.e., the small hairs that cover a person’s body. These hairs are usually noticeable when you’re extra close to someone or when there’s a bright light shining on them.

Needless to say, introducing the vellus hair show that Aloy’s model is extremely detailed. What’s more, it’s not new. One Redditor in the thread pointed out that Aloy also has vellus hair in Horizon Zero Dawn, although it’s not as visible as it is in the Horizon Forbidden West trailer. According to another Redditor in the thread, the hair might be a shader effect and therefore not part of the mesh.

It looks like Horizon Forbidden West is taking full advantage of the PlayStation 5’s graphics, and watching the high-quality trailer will easily reveal as much. Although Aloy’s hairs stood out to many fans, everything else in the trailer is just as detailed. In the trailer’s final shot, views can make out marks on Aloy’s leather vest, her sleeve’s frayed stitching, and even the fibers on her arrow’s fletching.

The hair on Aloy’s head has also been improved. While her hair in the original game was a step up from Horizon Zero Dawn’s contemporaries, it could at times resemble that of a well-loved Bratz doll’s. From what we’ve seen so far of Horizon Forbidden West, however, it seems like a lot of work was done to it. We can even see some baby hairs.

Horizon Forbidden West will be a PlayStation 5 exclusive. Although we don’t yet know its release date, the first game will be hitting PC this summer, three years after its initial release. Unfortunately, there’s no guarantee that Horizon Forbidden West will follow the same strategy.

Source: Reddit