Horizon Zero Dawn got a PC patch but there’s more work to do

Check out the list of known issues

From the outside looking in, it’s surprising to see a “mixed” reception to Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition on Steam. This is a port of a beloved console exclusive game with a cool premise, setting, and character – and PC players were understandably excited to try it – but it’s held back by technical issues.

Guerrilla released the first of presumably many PC patches for Horizon Zero Dawn today. The main order of business? Trying to fix certain crashes, broken “slowdown” mechanics, and wonky saves.

Patch 1.01

• Fixed an issue where the game would crash if the SteamUI didn’t initialize properly on startup.
• Fixed an issue where Concentration and other slowdown mechanics wouldn’t work for everyone.
• Fixed an issue where Windows/Steam profile names containing special characters would prevent some players from saving the game. We are still investigating other saved game issues as well.
• Fixed an issue where Windows/Steam profile names containing special characters would prevent some players from saving screenshots in Photo Mode.
• Fixed several backend issues.
• Fixed a video corruption issue for specific hardware. We’re continuing to look at other hardware configurations as well.

The studio has also “improved diagnostic data collection when submitting a crash report” – a clear sign there’s more work ahead. On that note, there are plenty of known issues left to iron out.

• Some players are experiencing startup crashes. Patch 1.01 fixes a few, but not all, of these crashes.
• Some players are experiencing GPU-related hangs during gameplay. The improved diagnostic data collection added in Patch 1.01 is aimed at making it easier to track these down.
• Some players are experiencing graphical settings issues, such as Anisotropic Filtering not working, 4K not displaying correctly, or HDR not working correctly.
• Some players are experiencing performance issues on specific GPUs or hardware combinations.
• We’re aware of and continue to investigate all issues in this list on Reddit as well.

I would hope and expect the PC version to eventually get where it needs to be. (For Sony’s sake, hopefully by the time Horizon Zero Dawn 2 enters the conversation again with its next big showing.)

Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition for PC – Patch 1.01 is now available [Reddit]