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- Horizon and Death Stranding’s Decima Engine deserves more praise.
- It was released by Guerilla Games and later enhanced by Kojima Productions.
- The engine delivers crisp visuals while maintaining great optimizations.
In video game development, engines are what drive the storytelling, visuals, and gameplay. Engines are vital to bring games to life as they are essentially the foundation to make something magical.
Some universal engines, like Unreal Engine, can be licensed to all companies, but others, too, are proprietary to the company that builds them. Some of these include Id Tech Engine, Naughty Dog Engine, Frostbite, and many more.
However, one of these engines that doesn’t get enough praise and is better than most out there is the Guerilla Games’ in-house Decima Engine. First introduced in 2013, it aimed to make open worlds more immersive than ever with breathtaking visuals.
Why it matters: Decima Engine has given masterpieces like Horizon and Death Stranding that have been graphically impressive and well-optimized, so it deserves a lot more appreciation.
Origins of The Decima Engine
As stated earlier, the engine was released in 2013 to make games on PlayStation 4 look truly next-gen. Guerilla wanted to set a benchmark in open worlds, leading to the creation of the Decima Engine, which debuted with Horizon Zero Dawn.
Originally released in 2017, the first Horizon game, even to this day, stands toe-to-toe with most modern releases. Although, the game did recently get a remaster, even the original didn’t seem outdated at all despite being 7 years old.
However, it really shone when Hideo Kojima partnered with PlayStation to release Death Stranding using the Decima Engine. And, how legendary Kojima is, utilizing Decima for his work after so much research speaks volumes.
Many people have divided opinions on Death Stranding, but one thing you can’t deny is the sheer amount of detail and the visual fidelity the world has. Every character, NPC, vehicle, and environmental objects are masterfully crafted.
It was also wonderfully optimized, both on PlayStation and PC. It supported HDR on PC, which was quite limited for most games at that time. It even ran at a smooth frame rate on old, less powerful systems.
The engine was then even more tweaked and improved with the launch of Horizon Forbidden West, which is unarguably among the finest-looking games of all time and runs flawlessly on a majority of the supported systems.
What Makes The Engine So Good?
There are a bunch of things that stand out when playing Decima Engine games. The most obvious of these is the visual fidelity. We extensively discussed that before, but it delivers some of the best visual flares you’ll ever see.
One thing I like about it is how it strikes a great balance between photorealism and fantasy. In today’s time, many companies chase realism in gaming, resulting in a stale final product with a boring world and uninteresting characters.
Another talking point is the adaptability of the Decima Engine. The only limitation to it is the imagination. We have practically seen all sorts of terrains and environments look equally good over Horizon games and Death Stranding.
While it often gets neglected, its AI capabilities are also next to none. The machines and NPCs in Horizon games look true to life. Their movements, and dialogues all feel very natural, creating dynamic encounters for more immersion.
Future Of The Decima Engine
Perhaps the most notable upcoming title release using the Decima Engine is Death Stranding 2. Kojima continues the post-apocalyptic story featuring Norman Reedus as Sam Porter Bridges with the sequel.
We don’t know what GTA 6 will look like, but one title that will set the benchmark for visuals next year will undoubtedly be Death Stranding 2. The sequel takes the original game and dials everything up several times.
The trailers show great settings, new terrains, outer space, and more. Kojima even stated that the visuals will get even better with the development course. Its excellent dynamic photo mode is just the cherry on top.
We can also expect the future Horizon games to use it too. It would also be great if Guerilla could lend its engine to PlayStation studios allowing much better visuals and great optimizations.
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News Reporter
Abdullah is an avid gamer who primarily plays single-player titles. If you can’t find him anywhere, he’ll probably be at his desk playing The Witcher 3 for the millionth time. When he isn’t playing games, he’s either reading or writing about them.
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