It’s a lot of good news overall, but the console versions are remarkably straightforward to talk about as opposed to a slightly more complex situation on the PC. As always, we’re happy to dive right into it all. Let’s go.

A Superb-Looking Fighter

We’re very happy with the art style and how evocative it is of the comic books that likely brought many of the game’s players on board in the first place. The Unreal Engine 5 foundation makes for a strong visual presentation of the stylized animations that the excellent character models pull off, their facial details communicating their reaction to situations very convincingly indeed. A lot of their innate personalities slip through, from Spider-Man’s smug self-assurance to The Hulk’s barely-contained fury, and the visual effects that accompany their attacks, supers, and transitions are all handled well, allowing the spectacle of each battle to shine through across all playable platforms.

The stages that battles take place on are also well-designed with a lot of environmental detail in the foreground as well as in the background. There’s a lot going on at any given moment, and it helps set the scene very well as you try to observe what’s going on while fending off attacks from all angles against a talented opponent. Of course, we’d understand if the animation quality on each attack proves enough of a distraction, as it’s quite lovely across the board and really sells a unique vibe to each character and adds impact to each hit.

PS5 Pro vs PS5 Versions

On consoles, jumping into a battle is a breeze thanks to extremely fast loading times, particularly during transitions into matches or rematches. Overall, this one’s a technically impressive title that’s making good use of its hardware to bring a very unique art direction to life, the tech and creative vision working very well together to achieve that. It’s easily among the finest lookers among contemporary fighting games today.

But as happy as we were with that, it was a tad disappointing to see no options for graphics/performance modes, or even any toggles on either the PS5 or PS5 Pro. For a title that’s Pro-Enhanced, we expected to find some options to fiddle around with, but alas, there were none to be found. It’s only a nitpick since both consoles target and manage to sustain a locked 60 PS, making the action flow along quite smoothly.

Speaking of meeting targets, the PS5 Pro makes excellent use of PSSR to produce a crisper upscaled image at 4K, with fine details, edges, and distant background elements looking noticeably cleaner. Of course, that’s not to say that this one’s base PS5 version is bad on the graphical front, with only minor performance differences and perhaps occasional drops on the lower-specced console. The experience isn’t fundamentally different on the Pro, but it does look sharper on it.

That covers the console versions. It’s time to take on the PC version, and talk about the unfolding situations a little.

A Complicated PC Release

We’re getting this out of the way early: our experience with Fighting Souls on PC was excellent on a test configuration that consisted of a Ryzen 9 5950X, and an RTX 3080 Ti which was quite comfortable ahead of the recommended specs. The graphics menu on offer was quite modest, and while some players may not mind the limited selection, we’d have preferred a much broader range of advanced settings.

We went ahead with everything maxed out and DLSS Quality at 4K, and we’re given mostly excellent 60 FPS performance, with any drops coming from character introductions/transitions instead of the actual fights. Gameplay performance remained quite stable throughout our test weekend, with loading times similar to the console versions making getting to the next match quite quick.

Against the PS5 Pro, the PC version wins out when running the game at maxed settings with 4K DLSS Quality. We kind of expected that, but it’s very impressive how close the PS5 Pro gets to the experience on offer. Yes, the PC version had finer details, and more clarity with better native image quality, but the Pro did manage to put out a more consistent frame delivery. It’s quite a close contest between the two platforms this time around, and while the PC wins on the image quality front, the PS5 Pro isn’t too far behind.

However, the criticism that the PC version is receiving from other players bears mentioning. Reports of stuttering and frame-time problems, unexpected drops in frame rates, and inconsistent performance have come up from hardware that should be capable of running the game without problems. We’d advise keeping in mind that a fighting game is a lot more sensitive since 60 FPS isn’t just cosmetic, but a necessary part of a fun experience.

While we couldn’t reproduce any of the issues other players experienced on our test rig, the sheer number of complaints mean that Arc Systems Works must sit up and take notice before it loses out on a key part of its player base, a facet made even more crucial by its availability only on PC and PlayStation. But we’re quite confident that the PC version can be brought up to scratch with a little bit of timely intervention from the developers.

Console Versions Are Better, For Now

As far as its visuals and graphical performance is concerned, Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls is definitely an exceptionally attractive fighter regardless of the platform you’re playing it on. The PS5 presents you with excellent image quality, rock-solid 60 FPS, and very little to complain about as far as sustaining those targets goes. The PS5 Pro takes that up a notch with PSSR facilitating a cleaner version of the already solid presentation on board, but we think that not giving players options to tweak graphical settings is an omission.

Of course, the PC version should be the champion but since that applies only when it works as intended, we couldn’t honestly recommend that version of the game to you as it is right now. Yes, our test system gave us excellent results and we’ve nothing but good things to say about our own time with the game, but other players’ reports are troubling, unless Arc Systems Works manages to get some good fixes in before interest in the PC version of the game begins to wane altogether.

It looks like Fighting Souls does its best work on PC when everything is running as intended, but the PS5 Pro’s cleaner image closes the gap considerably over the already brilliant PS5 version. In fact, it gets close enough to the PC experience that the difference between the two systems can start to feel a little too close for comfort.

That’s all we’ve got for you with this one. Now if you’ll excuse us, we’ve got a bit more fighting left in our day.

Of course, the question remains: Which platform is the best, and if you’re not playing on PC, what’s the console of choice? The answers may or may not surprise you. Without further ado, let’s outline exactly what you can expect, starting with…

A Surprisingly Strong Console Showing

Regardless of your console, be it Xbox Series X, PS5 or PS5 Pro, you have two graphics modes to choose from: Quality, which runs at 30 FPS and, obviously, prioritizes resolution and graphical fidelity, and Performance, delivering 60 FPS at the cost of image quality and some dialled-back settings.

Each platform uses dynamic resolution scaling, but in different ways. PS5 and Xbox Series X rely on Unreal Engine 5’s Temporal Super Resolution while PS5 Pro relies on Upgraded PlayStation Super Spectral Resolution.

PC is a whole different conversation. We tested Campaign Evolved on an AMD Ryzen 9 5950X, an Nvidia RTX 3080 Ti, and 32 GB of RAM. Even with the console versions remaining competitive, the PC version ultimately wins out.

PS5 Quality vs Xbox Series X Quality – Almost Identical

As the first Halo title to ever grace PlayStation’s consoles, you have to wonder how the PS5 matches up to Xbox Series X. Surprisingly, very well. When testing Quality mode on both consoles, they delivered similar results in frame rate and image sharpness.

Environmental density, foliage and geometry shine through in the remake, as does global illumination, reflections, shadows, and lighting, with neither console showing a distinct advantage over the other. Textures and material quality look near identical, and both work well enough in hitting that 30 FPS target. But what about when performance is the main benchmark?

PS5 Performance vs Xbox Series X Performance

As noted earlier, Performance Mode on consoles targets 60 FPS. Dynamic resolution scaling is in effect on both platforms, resulting in lower rendering resolution and a softer overall image. The fidelity takes a hit in places, which is most noticeable in the environmental detail and lighting. It may not affect your overall immersion, but it is noticeable.

This may not matter for those who prefer performance over fidelity, especially in a shooter. To that end, both consoles hit 60 frames per second, even if there’s the infrequent dip here and there.

PS5 Pro – The Clear Console Winner

But of course, it’s the PlayStation 5 Pro that pulls ahead in both Quality and Performance Mode, offering better fidelity. PSSR 2 delivers better image reconstruction, which translates to superior visual quality when playing at 60 frames per second. Furthermore, because of the stronger GPU, that performance is far more stable than the base consoles. You won’t find any 120Hz or uncapped framerate modes but kudos to Halo Studios for ensuring the basic modes excel.

PS5 Pro Quality vs PS5 Quality

So you didn’t want to buy a PS5 Pro when it launched for $699, and now it costs $899. Surely it doesn’t make that much difference when compared to the base PS5 in terms of fidelity for Campaign Evolved, right? Well, surprise, surprise, at least on Quality Mode, because they’re actually closer than you might think.

While they differ in their reconstruction methods, and the PS5 Pro edges ahead thanks to a cleaner image overall (especially when it comes to the finer, temporally unstable details), the remake still looks very good on PS5. Both hit 30 FPS pretty consistently, so you really can’t go wrong with either.

PS5 Pro Performance vs PS5 Performance – The Biggest Pro Upgrade

But as we noted before, performance is ultimately what matters for a first-person shooter, especially one that needs to make some visual compromises on base consoles. PS5 players will need to deal with softer image quality and reduced graphics settings for a reasonably solid 60 FPS. A significant sacrifice but still not enough to deliver the absolute best performance among all platforms.

The PS5 Pro suffers none of this, though. Besides hitting the 60 FPS target more consistently and boasting better image quality courtesy of PSSR 2, it also retains some settings from Quality Mode. As a result, the difference in fidelity is incredibly stark, putting it ahead of the PS5. Again, Quality Mode will deliver the best possible visuals – even going as far as competing with the PC version, which we’ll get into later – but as far as the best possible console configuration, the PS5 Pro in Performance Mode easily wins out.

The PC Version – Much More Scalability

If you’re playing Halo: Campaign Evolved on PC, it’s for two reasons: First, mouse and keyboard- no further details needed. But second is the scalability and amount of control over different settings. For instance, you can tweak the geometric quality, global illumination, reflections, lighting quality, and more, which the console versions don’t allow.

Is this the most extensive range of graphical options in a PC release? Not even close, but it’s far from nothing, and the results are pretty stunning at 4K with all settings maxed and DLSS set to Medium.

PC Performance

How does all this fare during actual gameplay, though? With so much detail on-screen, and how hectic things can get during a typical Halo mission – grenades flying, Grunts exploding, vehicles overhead – you would think Campaign Evolved would buckle under the weight of its technical ambition. But thankfully, that’s not the case. It manages to stay around 60 FPS while more demanding sections drop into the mid-50s.

Your mileage may vary, of course, but though we didn’t test it first-hand, dropping the resolution to 1440p would likely help, given the abundance of GPU headroom.

PC vs PS5 Pro Quality – The Real Graphics Comparison

So with these parameters established, how does the PC version with maximum settings fare against the PS5 Pro on Quality Mode? Surprisingly, the latter’s fidelity is strikingly close to what the higher PC settings offer, making it roughly akin to playing on High to Ultra preset. Considering this is Halo Studios’ first release on PS5 Pro, it’s pretty impressive.

Now, that said, the PC version is superior overall because its individual effects manage to go further than the PS5 Pro, resulting in noticeably higher fidelity.

PC vs PS5 Pro Performance – Bigger Difference

Performance Mode on PS5 Pro makes the differences with the PC version all the more stark. Even with some Quality Mode settings carrying over, and PSSR 2 delivering well, its overall fidelity ranks lower. Even if the PC version is relying on DLSS, it has the benefit of reconstructing images at the maximum graphical settings into 4K. However, just because PS5 Pro’s Performance Mode pales in comparison to PC doesn’t mean that the actual performance is a let-down.

Where the Consoles Beat Our PC Configuration – Consistency

Because even with more fidelity, the PC version ultimately falls behind when it comes to consistency. While our configuration averages around 60 FPS mostly and drops to mid-50 FPS where justified, the PS5 Pro delivers better stability, more consistently targeting 60 FPS throughout. It’s a slight trade-off for those incredible visuals, and even if the consistency is by no means awful – hitting 60 FPS more often than not is still worth praising – this does show just how well the console versions, especially PS5 Pro, have been optimized.

Pre-Rendered Cutscenes – The Disappointing Part

On a side note, perhaps the most disappointing thing about Halo: Campaign Evolved is that all the pre-rendered cinematics are in 30 FPS. That’s the case across all platforms, and while not sticking out as much if you’re playing on Quality Mode, it’s painfully obvious when playing at 60 FPS, especially when going to 30 FPS and then back to 60. The fact that the PC version suffers the same even with more powerful hardware is also a shame.

Final Verdict

Once again, to no one’s surprise, the PC version wins out when it comes to fidelity, thanks to its wider range of customization and optimization. Still, the PS5 Pro is a close second, followed by the PS5 and Xbox Series X pretty much neck and neck. And while the overall winner is still the PC version, the PS5 Pro wins out among consoles for its balance of quality and performance. The Xbox Series X comes in second, only slightly ahead of the PS5 due to a more stable frame rate on Performance Mode.

Regardless, the fact that Halo Studios can deliver such strong results across the board, bringing the PS5 version so close to PC in terms of quality while also ensuring that the base consoles don’t fall too far behind. If those rumored Halo 2 and 3 remakes end up happening, then this may be the start of something special for Halo on Unreal Engine 5.

As far as the graphics are concerned, Campaign Evolved is certainly the clear winner, but it isn’t just because it brings Unreal Engine 5-powered visuals to a rebuilt world. The question is whether it manages to make those changes mean something to a game that has held an almost reverential spot in modern gaming, and add value to every frame of the reworked experience.

Well, we’re happy to tell you that there’s good news, and a lot of it. Here are a bunch of ways Campaign Evolved sets itself apart from 2001’s Combat Evolved, and the 2011 Combat Evolved Anniversary release. There’s 25 years of evolution over the three titles, and it’s a lovely showcase of how far games have come as an entertainment medium, so strap in.

1. The Art Direction

It’s been a minute, but we remember how Combat Evolved featured clean environments, simple shapes, and vibrant colors that helped light up the sparse scenery on offer. All of those served it well, making for an extremely readable image that the hardware on offer at the time could work with. Anniversary took that up a notch, with denser detailing, more visual flourishes, improved complexity of surfaces, and a presentation that felt brighter overall.

Well, Campaign Evolved has given a layer of modern realism to the experience, largely managing to capture the original experience with greater environmental density and modern, sophisticated materials and lighting systems. The image is as readable as it’s ever been, though, and this one feels like the final form of an art style that’s managed to stay unique and true to itself over the years.

2. Environmental Geometry

You’re probably not going to be surprised that Combat Evolved’s physical construction of environments is quite basic in comparison to its subsequent editions. Cliffs, rocks, interior spaces, hills, tunnels, and pathways were certainly serviceable, and were certainly immersive back in the day. But when you think about how Anniversary did so well to dress them up even better, you’re going to be all the more appreciative of what Campaign Evolved is offering.

Natural shapes and environmental complexity are now on par with modern standards, making for environments that look so darn real, you’d be forgiven for thinking they actually exist. It’s in how seamlessly individual elements of a scene meld together and interact with each other so naturally that it really sells the experience in this area, and it’s clear that Campaign is certainly the definitive way to play the classic title.

3. Lighting

Once again, there’s no surprise that Campaign Evolved brings hardware ray-traced Lumen global illumination alongside MegaLights, producing one of its most immediately noticeable generational upgrades. Rays of sunlight now stream across surfaces, gently bouncing off of some while creating realistic reflections on others. That all this happens irrespective of whether you’re exploring or taking on Covenant forces in intense, all-out firefights is a hallmark of current-gen hardware at this point.

We’re especially happy with how dark areas handle light, and how transitions between exterior and interior areas don’t disrupt things too much to be distracting. It’s been a boon in battles that necessitate such transitions, to be sure.

4. Shadows

If we were to compare Combat and Campaign side by side, it’s clear that the former’s approach to shadows was limited to what the hardware the game was meant to run on was capable of. The original game’s shadow rendering was naturally much simpler, with far less definition, range, and interaction with environmental lighting than what modern rendering techniques allow. The shadows weren’t convincing (by modern standards, at least).

Well, that’s a thing of the past as objects are considerably more grounded within the environment, and thus respond to its various parameters, light included, more organically and definitely more convincingly this time around.

Anniversary substantially improved shadow definition and environmental shading, but Campaign Evolved goes much further with dynamic lighting and substantially more nuanced contact and indirect shadowing.

5. Texture Quality

While we’re on the subject of objects responding naturally to environmental stimuli, the textures on offer deserve a special mention. The terrain, floor, walls, weapon and vehicle surfaces, uniforms, and props in Campaign Evolved are definitely housing some excellent textures. It isn’t just about improved resolutions, but how those improvements are used to convey natural wear and tear, scratches and other damage, dirt, and other material variations that help sell the history, wear, and physical construction of objects throughout the environment.

The original release and Anniversary did well for their respective time periods, but Campaign is where the evolution is at, and displayed with pride.

6. Materials

Another crucial differentiator between the three games we’re looking at in this one is how they represent different materials, and Campaign handles that part so well that it gains yet another distinct advantage over Combat and Anniversary. While both early releases did manage to distinguish different surfaces like metal, glass, sand, stone, snow, ice, water, fabrics, and painted surfaces well enough, Campaign has almost lovingly handcrafted each of those surfaces to respond so well to the new lighting and textures that they feel almost alive.

As far as being able to visually distinguish between different materials on surfaces is concerned, Campaign takes the original release in a very immersive new direction.

7. Vegetation and Environmental Density

When you’re outdoors, you begin to see how Campaign has been careful about balancing the original experience in Combat with additions that make every scene it presents feel reminiscent of the original, but far denser and naturalistic. Combat used open spaces quite intentionally, allowing them to be staging grounds for battles more than anything else. Anniversary did a lot to add in environmental dressing, making things more believable.

But Campaign has made things real, and it’s evident in every blade of grass, the clutter on the ground, in bushes, plants, trees, fallen branches, and small objects whose presences don’t interrupt the action, but serve to make the battlefield a living, breathing part of it all.

8. Draw Distance and Background Detail

When we look back at both Combat and Anniversary, we think about how we’ve come to take the level of detail in a game’s world for granted. Looking into the distance in both those titles was definitely great at the times of their respective releases, but doing the same thing for distant mountains, trees, or structures in Campaign just hits different.

With tangible foliage, environmental objects, terrain detail, and fogging for as far as your in-game eye can see working overtime to give it a layer of realism, the remake communicates a sense of scale far better than its predecessors have managed to, and it is visually better off for it.

9. Skyboxes and the Halo Ring

Of course, the land isn’t the only stunning part of a Halo title, and it’s time to look to the skies, where the titular Halo resides amongst stars, clouds, distant planets, the sun, mountains, distant horizons, and atmospheric effects that serve to make every look one that invokes a sense of wonder. Combat Evolved has a sky that felt almost surreal because of how clean it was, and Anniversary did well to make it look richer.

But Campaign Evolved’s systems make the entire skyline look and feel so active, and yet so subtly believable that you don’t really think it intrudes on what’s in front of you but is always bewitching to see when you do look at it. It’s definitely among the highlights of our visual examination of the game. The Halo Ring is a stunner, and is absolutely mesmerizing in this one.

10. Fog, Volumetrics, and Atmospherics

This is an area where Campaign Evolved just steals the show away from the previous iterations of weather-based effects and atmospherics in scenes. With an enhanced weather system taking over from the ancient one in previous editions, you’re going to see fog, mist, snow, rain, haze, and the particles that come with each effect in immense detail.

It automatically makes the presentation feel so realistic, with a lot of atmospheric depth and volumetric light helping bring life to each scene in ways that the previous releases were simply not equipped to handle back in the day.

11. Water

Just land on a beach, and the chances are that Campaign’s water effects are going to have you stopping to watch the waves gently caress a shoreline before receding back into the ocean so naturally, they lend a serene beauty to beaches. Rays of light dance along the water’s surface, while the shorelines throw up foam effects in tandem with the rhythm of waves. Looking through and into the water also produces substantially more convincing distortion and surface interaction without compromising readability.

Campaign’s water systems are a great showcase of how it evolves the original experience on the visual front.

12. Master Chief Himself

As a sort of mascot for an entire console’s life, and a debutant in another one’s play at mass appeal, Master Chief is no stranger to being the front face of a successful franchise. He already cut an imposing figure in Combat and Anniversary, but the level of detail in his character model in Campaign could have us rambling on for hours about how deliciously detailed it is.

The armor geometry is exquisite, while his helmet reflects light gently off its visor and rounded surfaces. The materials on his armor and undersuit are tangibly different, while wear and tear effects like scratches and weathering, along with proportions, are all cooked to perfection. It’s clear that the frontman spent a lot of time looking the part in this one.

13. Human Characters and Facial Details

Like Master Chief, the rest of the game’s cast is noticeably better-looking this time around; we’d say that Cortana is the best representation of how much those makeovers matter. While Captain Keyes, Sergeant Johnson, and the Marines are all decidedly more detailed with better facial geometry, expressions, lip syncing, and lighting, the representation of an AI that’s been a franchise mainstay is definitely something that truly shines.

Her expressions are now better geared towards conveying her dialogue, while the added detail in her face, eyes, and hair creates an interesting contrast with the unmistakably holographic nature of her appearance, but a welcome one thanks to her central role in the story. We can’t get enough of how her glowing aura is now resplendent thanks to the new lighting, and the way environments react to her presence, factors that work very well with her new character model.

14. Weapons and Vehicles

We’re not going to get into the gameplay part of the weapons and newly drivable vehicles in this one, but you should know that they come with excellent levels of model detail, and come with excellent levels of model detail, including weathering, scratches, dents, and other surface imperfections. They interact with different surfaces quite accurately, while their interior details are top-notch.

The same goes for Campaign’s weapons, with recurring ones like the Assault Rifle, Sniper Rifle, and Rocket Launcher looking decidedly more ominous while also coming with tangible indicators of the duress you put them through as you play the game. Campaign definitely takes things up a notch over Combat and Anniversary in this area.

15. Explosions, Smoke, and Particle Effects

Naturally, this is an area where things were quite basic in Combat, while the spectacle was substantially beefed up in Anniversary. But of course, Campaign is the biggest leap in terms of how the absolute chaos of its battlefield is brought to life.

Explosions ring out with substance, lighting up the battlefield with their glow even as smoldering particles pepper the air around you. Dust, sparks, and debris rise and swirl with the impact, while fires break out and nearby vehicles take a beating right in front of you. It’s the current generation of gaming hardware working its magic on an experience that’s familiar to make it feel so fresh, it’s a new direction altogether.

And that’s essentially what Campaign Evolved does to a title that’s been redone before. It might be the most technologically advanced of the three versions, but that isn’t what makes it special. That’s reserved for the way it uses modern technology to make its visual detailing feel distinct, and in line with the experience that the original Combat Evolved was meant to be. It’s used what made it so memorable to create a new take on the classic that is surely a generational leap worth diving into.

Forza Horizon 6 looks and feels as good as the cars you’re going to be driving, and its take on Japan is probably as close to the real thing as you can find in a modern video game. It’s going to be quite hard not to sound like a fanboy when we’re writing this one, and that’s simply because this title is a beast for visual fidelity in the racing sim genre.

So, what’s got us this enthusiastic about the visuals on display in this latest addition to the Forza franchise? We’re delighted to tell you. Let’s get right to it.

A Deep Dive Into ForzaTech

Forza Horizon 6’s visual splendor is going to be evident from the very first minute you spend in the game as you make your way through three different races designed to give you a taste of what’s to come, both on the track and off of it. Let’s begin with Japan itself. There’s an astounding amount of environmental detail to see as you make your way across winding roads, coastal highways, city streets, back alleys, and so much more.

The foliage on trees stands out as well as individual blades of grass, while specks of dust or perhaps purple flowers fly up around your car as you tear across the road. Drops of water are pushed across your camera lens when they fall on it, just as they would move if they were on a glass surface that was moving at some very high speeds in the real world.

The draw distance is especially eye-catching, and you’re going to see the road and scenery in the distance, all of it rendered so beautifully that it lends Japan a sort of ethereal quality and a subtle beauty that makes you feel like you’re right there, speeding along the road to your next race.

The level of detail in the environment is equally present on the cars you drive, with each material being reproduced so darn well that your ride can look good even without a fancy paint job to make it stand out in a crowd. Roll into a city, and there’s such a seamless shift into a more urban vibe.

We do think that cities like Tokyo felt weirdly empty, with only minimal traffic on its roads and activity on the pavement. It’s almost as if news of the Festival had most people either choosing to stay in or leave early to find a great spot in the stands of whatever event you’re driving to on empty streets. Does it help sustain smooth performance and make exploring feel easier instead of being forced to navigate traffic? Sure. But it does break the spell a little bit if you’re not willing to suspend your disbelief.

Thankfully, the ray tracing and global illumination make light such a lovely part of Forza Horizon 6’s visual design that we were able to move past our previous complaint quite quickly. Sunlight bathes the roads and open fields in a warm glow, creeping through thick forest cover to light up patches of the ground so well.

Glossy paint jobs on cars reflect the world around them so darn well, and that’s irrespective of whether they’re in motion or standing parked in the sun. The car models are fantastic, as are the character models for the humans who drive and otherwise interact with them. The animations on characters are top-notch and make the entire experience very believable and immersive.

Material quality is brilliant across the board, while shadows work as well as reflections to create very authentic effects when the light interacts with either you or your ride. The weather system and the effect it has on the visual presentation are probably our favorite bits about the game’s graphics.

While this isn’t the first time we’ve seen Japan transformed into different versions of itself based on the seasons, this is definitely the first time that it’s come as close to what the country is likely to look like if we were to visit it today. Our pick was probably when the Wisteria flowers were in full bloom, but each season has something to offer based on where you’re at when you experience it.

It’s all so realistic and works well with excellent texture quality and streaming to really sell the experience on offer. Streaming stayed stable even at higher speeds, making this one a graphically strong offering with well-implemented physics.

Each car felt distinct and unique to handle, making you adjust your handling of it to coax every bit of performance you could get out of it. The collision physics are spot on, while damage is clearly visible and quite believable in the event of a fender bender. Each engine, and the environmental sound design as a whole, is done very well, and a good set of speakers can make this one all the more immersive for it.

Of course, it goes without saying that all of this beauty has been so good to behold thanks to some stable performance across the board.

An Evolution From Forza Horizon 5

Before we talk about how well this one runs on all available platforms, we thought it would be a good idea to comment on how the latest Forza flagship has made meaningful upgrades over its predecessor’s take on Mexico. The shift between urban and rural settings is a big one, and it’s much better in the new game. Tokyo’s scale makes that easier, of course, but its density and the way in which it seamlessly jumps between different settings showcase how exploration through curiosity is baked into its design, and that’s a serious upgrade over Mexico in Horizon 5.

When you’re in urban environments, there’s verticality in the form of elevated highways, which contrasts well with street-level industrial docks, tunnels, and alleys. Of course, Tokyo is the star of the show as the largest urban area in the Horizon Festival’s history so far, and its neon-heavy vibe is the perfect showcase of the game’s visuals. Of course, the weather system throws in another layer of nuance into the mix, and the way in which it makes even familiar roads feel fresh is something that the previous game doesn’t really come close to.

The lighting and the way it all interacts with car models are another highlight. Horizon 5 might have done pretty well to make things look and feel real, but being current-gen only allows the new title to take things up a notch, and it shows. No matter the scene, you’re going to find both objects and environments reacting so well to the game’s lighting, with reflections and shadows so well-implemented that they make this one a phenomenal showcase of what ray tracing done well looks like.

Aside from these three main highlights, the engine audio and steering animations are all noticeably better in the new game, and it’s a true evolution of what the Forza franchise can achieve in a new game.

PC Performance

Playing Forza Horizon 6 with all of its graphical settings maxed out (with only environmental geometry quality and shadows set to Ultra), and the quality on reflections and global illumination set to low, along with balanced DLSS on our PC, was nothing short of breathtaking.

It helps that it manages a consistent 50-60 fps on our system, which includes an RTX 3080 Ti, 32GB RAM, and an AMD Ryzen 9 5950X. It did annoy us that cutscenes are locked at 30 fps across platforms, but that’s something we can live with since the gameplay remains buttery smooth.

It’s definitely a great game to play with all of its bells and whistles toggled on, or at least tuned to higher settings, as watching it in action is about as current-gen as it can get today. Forza Horizon 6 looks, sounds, and performs so well that you’re going to find yourself marvelling at how well it all comes together.

Xbox Series X Performance

On our Series X, we got to pick between Quality and Performance modes, with the former bringing Native 4K capped at 30fps, prioritizing greater details in environments, along with a better draw distance and higher quality shadows. The latter brings the resolution down to a dynamic 4K with a locked 60 fps to give you smooth and responsive gameplay, an important detail in an experience like this one.

Performance was flawless between both modes, and we didn’t encounter any noticeable issues, although we’d suggest going with Quality for the visual bump on this one.

PC Vs Xbox Series X Comparison

Of course, the PC version comes with advantages over its console counterparts, with support for ray-traced reflections on cars and RTGI support. But how much of a difference does that make to the experience? Quite a bit, actually. It’s a world of difference when you compare details like neon lights, sunrises or sunsets, the quality of car models, and the way different materials respond organically to a scene’s lighting, environmental detail, and so much more.

Car model quality is largely the same across PC and Xbox, with paint, glass, carbon fiber, interiors, headlights, and tail lights all holding up well on both versions, so the cars themselves do not show any major visual gap. The bigger difference comes from the world around them, where PC takes the lead.

Tokyo’s buildings, rural roads, docks, tunnels, mountain routes, road textures, signs, walls, foliage, and interior textures all look cleaner and sharper, while pop-in is also better handled, especially at high speeds through the city and across highways. World streaming, however, remains largely similar. A good PC setup can feel slightly cleaner in motion, but the Xbox version still keeps up well during fast driving and does a solid job of holding the world together.

The superior visual capabilities of our PC made a pronounced difference between the two versions, and that isn’t too surprising. The load times were blazingly fast across the board, and we didn’t see any drastic differences between platforms.

Conclusion

But irrespective of what you’re playing this one, as far as its graphical fidelity and performance go, Forza Horizon 6 is a masterclass and a great title to show off what your PC or console can do. It’s replaced its predecessor as a new benchmark for graphical fidelity among racing sims, and is definitely the one to beat on that front.

But what has made us so impressed with this bullet hell action title from Housemarque? How has it built upon what was so magical about Returnal? Join us and find out more about everything we’ve been seeing during our time with this upcoming title, and how it manages to make the most of the PS5 and PS5 Pro’s spec sheets.

An Evolution That Makes Sense

Before we get into how the game looks and performs, it’s important to look at how Saros has built on Returnal’s gameplay loop, and how those changes have impacted its approach to presentation. For starters, where Returnal was akin to an obstacle course in which you were aiming to avoid taking damage from enemy gunfire, Saros presents bullets as a resource that you can use to turn the tide in your favor. That’s thanks to the Soltari Shield, which you deploy tactically while facing off against enemies, collecting the energy from their gunfire and sending it back at them for extra damage.

That mechanic works very well with what Hosemarque is calling a “bullet ballet” style of combat, and a revamped approach to VFX that makes its battles feel denser and more stylized. There’s also the fact that Saros takes a more character-driven approach to its story that lays an emphasis on cinematic presentation, a factor that we’re going to dive into when we examine its cutscene quality. And finally, it’s important to remember that the game features procedurally generated side paths that vary every time you visit a biome, allowing for a more dynamic gameplay loop even as the main path through an area still feels authored.

From a graphics perspective, Returnal handled its characters with purpose more than depth, relying on Selene to anchor the emotional core while the broader experience drew its strength from Atropos, the oppressive atmosphere, stark darkness, and eerie enemy designs. In contrast, Saros seems to shift the spotlight firmly onto its characters, prioritizing expressive performances, a stronger ensemble dynamic, and more cinematic presentation. Housemarque is clearly leaning into this direction, emphasizing the realism of its cast and the meticulous process of translating each character from written concept into a fully realized on-screen presence.

A similar progression shows up in the game’s environments and effects. Returnal defined itself through a darker, more restrained aesthetic, bioluminescent lifeforms, writhing tentacle tech, and overwhelming bursts of projectiles that made Atropos feel both threatening and mesmerizing. Saros, on the other hand, looks to retain that signature Housemarque clarity and visual intensity while pushing things further. Its setting, Carcosa, appears more intricate and fluid, with greater environmental diversity, cleaner image fidelity, and more advanced rendering overall, especially evident in its PS5 Pro upgrades and the added focus on higher-end character detail, lighting, and post-processing during narrative sequences.

All of these are relevant to how the game performs, as they are all evolutions of what Returnal brought to the table in some form, especially in terms of design and rendering. How, you ask? That’s exactly where we’re going next.

The Image Quality

This is an easy one. Saros is a stunner, whether you’re playing it on a base PS5 or the PS5 Pro. It runs at a solid 60 fps on the PS5 while the image holds up even when you try to pinpoint any compromises. If you don’t have a Pro on your hands, you’re going to be fine.

But with the game coming with PS5 Pro Enhanced features at launch, it’s important to look at what the mid-gen beast brings to the table. Firstly, Saros supports PSSR 2, delivering a sharper image that’s quite close to native 4K. That gives the game a clean image source for its higher base render resolution prior to upscaling, which is important because it means that you’re getting an image that’s both sharper and cleaner while sustaining the base version’s consistent framerates.

Of course, there are differences in reflections and overall quality, making the PS5 Pro version more than just a resolution leap. The cinematic cutscenes run at 30 fps with the aim of a better quality that places an emphasis on characters, lighting, and post-processing, and the PS5 Pro does have an edge over its base variant. On both consoles, you get great texture readability, object stability in motion, sharp edges, and well-designed geometry, making the game quite pleasing to the eye.

The PS5 version of Saros has set a strong baseline with a focus on performance-led presentation, while the Pro builds on that core experience with cleaner reconstruction, sharper output from scene to scene, and a boost in quality of reflections and cinematics. There’s also reduced shimmering and breakup on the Pro, but they aren’t going to be too noticeable on the base PS5 unless you’re really looking out for them.

But how good an image can get is only one part of the equation. It’s time to dive into how those images translate to a solid experience.

The Graphics

Spoiler alert: it’s all good news for both the PS5 and the Pro. Beginning with the art style around Carcosa’s environments and their atmospheres, things are quite good. We’re going to stick to the two biomes you’ve probably already seen in the interest of letting you experience the other ones for yourself, but we were quite impressed with how Shattered Rise and the Ancient Depths felt distinctly varied from each other, the cliffs on the former allowing for more open, spacious areas that immediately turn into cramped spaces in the Ancient Depths, which felt downright claustrophobic in comparison.

The way environments are presented in Saros blends geometry and atmospheric factors like lighting and haze quite well. Color grading is applied in a way that makes each new area you explore feel authentic and immersive, while enabling the Eclipse to immediately transform the area in a way that makes the added danger feel palpable thanks to how it transforms the scene before it. That’s thanks to the effective use of overlays that extend to enemy projectiles as well.

It’s here that the new combat mechanics shine through, with the game supporting its ambitions with excellent projectile density and readability, energy absorption effects on your Shield, excellent discharge effects, and, of course, your own weapons and their bullets. It’s all a part of the game’s charm and spectacle, woven into the core gameplay loop in a way that keeps it all readable at 60 fps even in the busiest of battles on both the PS5 and the Pro.

The lighting is a major part of that allure, and it works very well to make everything you see quite believable during both gameplay and the cinematics, lending the game’s horror aesthetic a superb balance between darkness and visual stylization. Contrast and volumetrics are applied well enough to lend each scene a layer of authenticity, while shadow falloff adds to it. You see it in reflections, which are markedly better on the PS5 Pro. Wet surfaces and water throw reflections back at you, while metallic surfaces glow with the light of projectiles around them in battles.

Indoor scenes are similarly well implemented, the soft glow from screens or other sources of light in darker places making everything so immersive that it can get challenging to actually pay attention to what’s unfolding in front of you. That’s because Arjun’s character model, and those of the NPCs you meet along the way, are all well-detailed in both gameplay and cutscenes across the board. It also applies to enemy models and animations, with combat being very readable even in the most intense fights, of which there were plenty for us to test out.

Every dodge, parry, Shield blast (that’s what we’re calling the ability to disperse your stored Shield energy), and weapon transition was animated very well, and it’s all melded in so well with the Dualsense’s haptics and adaptive triggers, which we’re going to comment on shortly. Saros is a graphical treat on the PS5 and Pro, no doubt about it. But how do its atmospherics hold up under the spotlight?

The Core Of The Evolution

Of course, Saros is an experience that sets itself apart from Returnal thanks to an emphasis on setting a grim mood over the spectacle of Selene’s time on Atropos. Carcosa is a planet that isn’t just about what you see, but about what you hear and what you feel while you navigate its biomes. The easiest way to test out how the game handles its atmospherics was to engage with the Eclipse System, which makes everything more dangerous but also more rewarding to overcome.

That’s on the gameplay side of things, but on the visual front, it’s quite a shift with the world getting a sinister red hue while the soundscape also changes once it’s active. That immediately sells the idea that you might be in over your head, but with the gameplay being as technically balanced as it is, tackling those new dangers feels more like a challenge and less like a way to just squeeze out more rewards from a run.

Of course, it’s all supported very well by the effective use of the PlayStation 5’s unique features like Tempest 3D Audio (we recommend a good pair of headphones with this one) and the DualSense’s features. Your weapons and Shield are immediately noticeable areas where the adaptive triggers work with you, giving tactile differentiation to each tool in your arsenal, while the haptics are a definite step up from their implementation in Returnal, as they feature in a larger chunk of the experience in Saros.

Additionally, we definitely did appreciate the blazing-fast load times on both consoles, and getting back into the fight after you die feels almost instantaneous. Triggering an eclipse is similarly well-handled, and you’re not going to do any doom-scrolling on your phone while you wait for the game to get you into Carcosa.

With all that’s been said, you’ve probably guessed that our time with Saros has been quite impressive on the technical front. It’s a refinement of Housemarque’s penchant for sensory immersion and clarity, while it remains uncompromising on the urgency of its gameplay loop that made Returnal so memorable. It’s a game where all of its systems come together so seamlessly you can’t help but want to pause the action just to marvel at it all before you dive back in.

While the base PS5 does a solid job of presenting that core experience, the PS5 Pro does get an edge thanks to a better baseline image quality and an improved upscaled output, along with better reflections in gameplay and cutscenes. But irrespective of the console you’re going to play this one on, Saros is certainly a title that justifies investing in a PlayStation 5. As a showcase of what the console can do, it’s right up there with the best of what the past few years have had to offer, and it’s a lot of fun to play too!

Of course, by now, it should be obvious that Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced succeeds in that regard. It makes significant changes from top to bottom in almost every respect, bringing it to the level of fidelity you would expect in 2026. However, the result is still unmistakably that of the original, down to the atmosphere and traits of its unforgettable cast.

Built from the ground up on the latest version of Anvil Engine, what are some of the most noticeable graphical leaps that we observed from Resynced’s reveal? Let’s go over them, though, keep in mind that this is just an initial impression. With the remake out on July 9th, expect far more details on aspects like performance, loading times, and more. But without further ado, let’s start with…

Environmental Overhaul

Set in the Caribbean, Black Flag’s story unfolds across several locations, from Havana to Nassau, where the pirate republic ultimately stations its headquarters. Between the fortress, the various thatch rooftops and more modern-style buildings with moss filling their tiles, the former offers a pretty eclectic variety of sights.

So right off the bat, Resynced improves foliage quality in almost every respect, whether it’s the trees and how much more naturally they flow with the breeze or more prominent leaves growing on buildings, lending a more obvious weathered look and feel. More NPCs can be seen roaming the streets, and it feels like the environment is more to scale with how it would be in the real world, as strange as that sounds.

Regardless, it reinforces something that you’ll see in pretty much every aspect of the remake. The development team is not looking to change the plot and characters, or even the parkour playgrounds that you’ve known and love, so much as take them to the next level in terms of graphical realism and immersion. Of course, it’s also an incredible showcase of the high-resolution textures and lighting improvements, the latter feeling more dynamic. However, it’s just fascinating to pick out all the different additions to each environment.

Which also applies to the one place where you’ll arguably spend the most amount of time: The ocean. When Black Flag was first released, it received extensive praise for its water, be it in physics, motion, texture quality, and so on. But Resynced, as you’ve probably guessed, is on a whole other level. The reflection quality, the waves – even when the water crashes against the rocks, the foam looks so much more natural and realistic. It’s something that should stand out as prominently in naval combat, especially with cannons ringing out and shards of your ship intermixing with the waves or when exploring underwater, and simply admiring the serene flora and fauna – until you’re fighting for your life against a shark, of course.

All in all, Resynced could have easily called it a day with the improved lighting and high-resolution textures, but the development team went the extra mile in detail. We can’t wait to see how the rest of the world has changed, especially given the dynamic weather and how much more realistic rain and other phenomena, including hurricanes, look. A note on the latter: They’re far more foreboding than before, so steer clear.

Character Models and Cutscene Improvements

This is another core aspect of any remake. You don’t want to mess with the looks of iconic characters too much, and given the developer’s focus on immersion and realism, that’s very much a possibility. Yes, some faces will look decidedly more different than others, but I have to say: Edward Kenway and his crew aboard the Jackdaw have never looked better.

Leaving aside the more emotive eyes and facial animations – which took a fair amount of hand-crafting to rebuild – there’s far more realistic-looking hair and facial stubble. Clothing elements like fabric and leather look so much better, the former sporting subtle folds and wrinkles, while the latter can have varying degrees of polish and cracks. The lighting changes highlight this all the more – Edward Thatch has never looked better, especially when it comes to the various details on his embroidered coat.

Then there are the cutscenes, which appear to have undergone adjustments in cinematography and background scenery. But the real star in these instances is the animation, which has undergone numerous tweaks, both subtle and otherwise, to further lean into the realism.

Combat and Parkour Animations

And it would be incredibly remiss not to mention how much that animation work translates into combat and parkour, vastly improving both in numerous ways. Edward is far quicker in a fight, but the transitions between moves flow much better. For example, shooting someone at a distance and then quickly parrying an oncoming blow – what could have been janky instead looks smooth and natural. The same applies when you’re moving from one target to another, taking them down in style, or tossing opponents into barrels, which realistically shatter into pieces. Heck, enemies are even jerked forward more realistically with the grapple.

As for parkour, between the new free jumps, back ejects and side ejects, it would be easy for Resynced to feel too much like the more recent Assassin’s Creed titles. However, the development team was adamant about retaining Edward’s moves – the key is that parkour feels more natural, helping maintain that flow as you navigate past awnings, walkways, rooftops and more in your impromptu routes.

It should be stated again, however, that we don’t know nearly enough about the performance, especially in larger battles (both on land and sea). I’m also keen to see much more extensive footage of combat and parkour, especially during full-fledged missions. Nevertheless, from the clips shown thus far, Resynced manages that near-impossible feat of channeling the original while also looking far better in the process.

Early Verdict

And that’s what it really comes down to: Sticking to the original vision and its design pillars while bringing it forward into the modern day. There’s still so much that I’m keen to witness, like how the lighting improvements impact stealth, especially since you can freely crouch when sneaking around. How detailed can the ship destruction be? Will NPCs have more detailed animation cycles to further enhance realism? Just how violently can a shark maul you?

I’m still a bit divided on the decision to not include the DLC – multiplayer is a different issue, but at the very least, stories like Freedom Cry would have been wonderful to experience in this updated style. Nevertheless, if that means the development team focused more resources on what truly matters – that is, the journey of Edward and his crew, from riches to tragedy – then I’d say the results are worth it. Now all we have to do is wait and see how each platform will handle it.

That’s exactly what we’re here to talk about, so let’s dive right in, beginning with…

Our Setup And Performance

Let’s start with our testing rig so you can better match what we’re about to tell you to your own setup and think about what settings you can adjust to ensure you get the most out of the game when you play it. We ran Crimson Desert on an AMD Ryzen 5950x processor, a GeForce RTX 3080 Ti GPU, and 32 GB of RAM, making this build sit somewhere in between the High and Ultra recommendations from the developer.

Most of the testing was conducted during daytime in-game, as nighttime generally delivers better performance and is less demanding on system resources. Playing at night was an almost invariable boost to performance thanks to fewer NPCs and, by extension, lesser activity in the open world. We had DLSS 4.5 on while we had to turn off Ray Reconstruction as we found it tanked performance. Everything else was switched to Cinematic, which is the game’s maximum graphical setting.

On that setup, we found that Quality mode gave us anything between 35-42 fps, and Balanced churned out about 40-45 fps. Performance mode managed to bring that up to 48-52 fps, while Ultra Performance, which we highly recommend, gave us 64-68 fps. Obviously, it should be noted that the more aggressive the scaler we selected, the more noticeable image dithering became (although at an acceptable level.)

A Massive Open World

It was evident that Crimson Desert was going for an experience that was trying to present a fantasy adventure on an unprecedented scale from the game’s first few hours. It was evident from the moment we were let loose into the open world that this was a game that aimed for a blend of realistic fantasy with stylized spectacle thrown in at moments where it would have the most impact. We’re happy to say that the game’s look is quite unique, carried by both its art direction and effective use of modern rendering technologies to make the entire experience feel cohesive. Its systems work together quite well to present Pywell as a living, breathing world that’s just waiting to show you what it can do.

If we were to pick from various factors that could visually define a game such as Crimson Desert, we’d have to say that the sheer scale of the world it presents, along with its rich animations, are the stars of the show. However, that doesn’t mean that its weather, world density, and the spectacle it presents when blades are drawn are lacking. You simply uncover those facets of the experience only after you spend a little time with it.

We’re going to be honest. This one’s quite a photogenic game. The terrain quality, for instance, has every surface in the game looking so meticulously detailed that it automatically catches your eye. Individual pebbles, blades of grass, leaves, flowers, and other important parts of the world stand out well enough to make you feel like Pywel’s biomes are thriving.

Rock formations look authentic, reflecting the years of weathering that helped them form. The foliage peppering the world you move through stands out too, responding quite convincingly to the weather.

And don’t get us started on the draw distance. It’s absolutely jaw-dropping. Pywel is a sprawling world with so much to see that it almost makes you feel like discovering everything it has to offer is daunting. The sheer scope of the world you see is excellent, and dropping down from the Abyss to glide over the land below you is certainly a sight to see. Countless times, I found myself standing at the edge of a cliff, simply taking in the beauty on offer. At times, it felt almost unreal.

It’s easy to spot individual settlements and points of interest from the sky, and with so many places to visit, picking a landing spot can be surprisingly difficult. Being able to see all of it from up high never got old for us, and it probably never will.

It’s also impressive from a gameplay perspective, because gliding down is an exciting way to set off into the unknown. The draw distance and terrain quality hold up remarkably well even from afar, as you hurtle toward the ground. We often found ourselves changing direction mid-flight to investigate an interesting ruin or a camp full of enemies. Swooping down on them from above was always fun, and it also made for a great way to open combat against larger groups.

In settlements, you have a lot of crowds to make each place you visit feel like it’s lived in. NPCs had their own routines for the most part, while object clutter in such areas was always believable and implemented quite well. Unfortunately, noticeable pop-in was a frequent distraction. We observed numerous instances where objects abruptly loaded into the field of view, resulting in a jarring experience. But overall, prop quality and the general way assets respond to your inputs showcase a world that’s quite immersive for the most part.

All in all, the game’s geometry works really well and is even quite woven into gameplay elements like puzzles, where you use your powers to reassemble crumbled objectives to achieve your objectives. It works well with the environmental detail to sell Crimson Desert’s fantasy setting quite strongly. The sheer scale of the world makes this feel like a true next-gen title, but it’s what you discover within it that really draws you into the adventure across its vast lands.

Lighting Up The World

Speaking to our decision to stick to the daylight for a bigger part of our testing, we must admit that it was a pleasure. But there is an important factor about the game’s implementation of nighttime environments that we must discuss.

Going chronologically, the game’s lighting during the day is excellent. It’s almost as if the land and its people are soaking in the sun, basking in its warm glow even as they go about their daily lives, Kliff included. The sun’s rays bounce gently off of every surface you see, the game’s path tracing working very well to ensure that even indirect light feels quite authentic.

Enter a building and the game adapts quite well on the fly, ensuring that its lighting systems make that transition along with you. Dusk, for instance, bathes the world in a soft glow as the sun sets, while your shadows deepen appropriately, growing darker and more defined.

Your shadows, and those of people and objects around you, constantly react to rays of light in a way that feels very real. At night, the world’s colors get suitably muted, and while you might find it a tad too dark in certain locations, it’s quite immersive for the most part.

The glow from torches and lanterns becomes more pronounced as the darkness creeps up, but we didn’t feel the need to whip out Kliff’s lantern unless we were at some of the darkest locations possible, like a dungeon, for instance. The lighting is dynamic on all fronts, working well to bring the scenes it’s illuminating to life.

Most importantly, the lighting works in tandem with the game’s environmental detail to truly make this one feel like a next-gen open-world title. The best in the genre often rely on how well their various systems come together, and Crimson Desert has done very well to remember that.

An Immersive Atmosphere

Working in tandem with the lighting and detailing are the game’s volumetrics, atmosphere, and weather systems. The fog quality is quite good in the places you encounter it, while mists in valleys and forests almost feel like you could reach out and touch them. They work very well to set a gloomy mood in places where you find them.

But in bright, sunny weather, the clouds above are rendered quite well, and move very believably as you tear across the ground. A gentle breeze is almost always throwing up leaves and dust as you make your way through the game’s various biomes, and it picks up quite well in the event of rain or storms, gaining an appropriate boost to its velocity.

The rain is highly visible as it falls, and when combined with the wind and the way bad weather transforms the world’s atmosphere, it creates an effect that’s easy to appreciate. That becomes even more apparent in story cutscenes, where shifts in the weather can instantly set the mood and enhance the impact of a scene.

It also does the same for when you’re travelling around the world, working to present a strong contrast with the bright and cheery scenes where the game’s lighting systems are playing to their strengths. These atmospheric systems highlight the game’s impressive low-light rendering, sometimes even more effectively than a clear night sky.

Flowing Rivers and Streams

The water physics in Crimson Desert are quite impressive. We didn’t see a water body that felt static, with rivers, shorelines, puddles, and waterfalls all reacting to what was happening around them, be it in their terrain interactions or environmental simulations. The waterfalls, in particular, were spellbinding and are great places to take a minute and process all that you’ve encountered since you last left camp.

Still waters are equally enthralling, reflecting the world around them while gentle ripples from the breeze move those reflections around so well they could become a very welcome distraction. Waves come in very believably before crashing onto the shore, the sea breeze making Klyff’s cape flow very dynamically in the direction it chooses.

Your footsteps on puddles and still ponds create realistic splashes, and your footprints on damp grounds are also a highlight when you get to see it all in action. In all of it, the water is a part of the simulation that works very well to make Pywell a land that’s equally suited for quiet, contemplative moments as well as one in which your emotions run high.

It’s a good thing, then, that the character models are as good as they are.

Character Models

Kliff stands out as the game’s protagonist thanks to the developers’ strong attention to detail when it comes to his character, and it seems that the rest of Pywell’s people are also quite pleasing to the eye. Irrespective of whether the person you’re looking at is a friend or a foe, the character models are a very immersive part of Crimson Desert’s fantasy setting.

The quality of faces in cutscenes is passable, with emotions coming across effectively enough to have you invested in the events unfolding in front of you. The impressive material rendering of the armor will frequently motivate you to equip Kliff and your Greymane companions with gear that is both effective and visually stunning.

Cloth simulation is excellent, with capes behaving very realistically and interacting with any gear slotted onto your back very well. The hair movement on both your characters and NPCs is done really well, which is especially pronounced thanks to the fantasy setting where long, impressive beards on warriors give them a distinct identity.

The lip-sync and general flow of animations in conversations are acceptable for the most part, although a few NPCs could stand to show a little more expression. It felt they were a tad too slow to put some emotion on their faces, and it’s something that stood out enough for us to notice.

As far as combat animations are concerned, the character models do a great job of reinforcing a clear visual distinction whenever you switch between playable characters, though the game is at its best when a boss is on screen. We loved the variety of bosses throughout our time with the game, especially the quality of their visual rendering, whether in the detailed armor of human foes or the fur of monstrous enemies. Each one feels visually impressive and distinct, with attacks that flow naturally from one move to the next, while your own animations carry a satisfying sense of weight in response.

Motion blur is implemented quite well, helping with the cinematic side of things along with screen shake and excellent destruction cues that make each fight intense and even daunting at times. Boss introductions are handled well, and give them an imposing flavor before we even draw our blades. When they’re in action, the game does well to communicate elemental attacks well enough to give you the right amount of time to respond, another factor that helps the game sustain a smooth flow of combat. It’s a strong part of the experience, and it certainly helps that the fights themselves are just as enjoyable.

The Spectacle of Great Combat

Kliff’s moves are a sight to behold, with each new one you unlock coming with particle effects that add a very realistic touch of fantasy to the experience. There are cool effects and animations that accompany them that make for fights that are very nice to look at. That’s also in operation when you glide around, but it’s combat where they truly shine, considering just how much is happening on-screen.

Use a move that’s supposed to slam the ground, and you see stone crumble at the weight of your attack, and it’s likewise for enemies. Debris flies up from such destruction, and the world reacts quite well to your actions to make things stand out even in the heat of battle. That holds for other moves whose effects interact with the world around you, or enemies.

There are a few animations with effects that can prove distracting enough to break the flow of combat, but it’s quite easy to get back into a rhythm once you start to anticipate them and react accordingly. It’s still worth mentioning and is an area where the graphics could work against you, at least in the game’s early hours.

It’s a factor in our opinion that the game favors cinematic chaos a tad too much at the cost of gameplay readability, although it’s not imbalanced enough to be a problem. Aside from combat, we think that the game’s ray-tracing systems deserve some attention.

Reflections And Rays

Crimson Desert’s ray tracing and reflections are quite impressive for the most part, which made it all the more frustrating that we had to disable ray reconstruction because of its impact on performance.

Even with that setting turned off, though, ray tracing still added a noticeable layer of polish to the world as a whole. As we’ve already noted, shadows are highly dynamic, while light interacting with water produces convincing, accurate reflections. Metallic surfaces are handled just as well, and overall, ray tracing does make the game world feel more believable.

That said, on our system at least, the visual boost didn’t quite justify the performance cost. Your experience may vary depending on the hardware you’re running, so this is one of those settings that’s worth experimenting with to find the right balance. Given how quickly the game can become demanding, maintaining stable performance should be a priority. Fortunately, even when things get hectic, image quality remains consistently solid.

A Clean, Stable Image Quality

This one’s always a major talking point for PC players, and we’re glad to say that the game’s image quality holds up quite well across the various upscaling modes we tested. The anti-aliasing worked well in both gameplay and cutscenes to make it feel polished; although noticeable dithering was present, it wasn’t very aggressive.

A stable image quality was maintained, irrespective of whether we were riding, sprinting, or gliding. There wasn’t any input latency either, and things were largely stable across the board.

For a game that’s as big as this one, that’s definitely a compliment. But that doesn’t mean that things were all perfect, an impossibility thanks to that very size.

A Few Shortcomings To Consider

We did encounter a bit of stutter on rare occasions, along with instances of low-res textures. The former ironed themselves out but lingered long enough to catch our eye. We were also annoyed to find a few glitches where our character got stuck while he was out and about, but we appreciate the in-game system that helped resolve the problem fairly easily. The loading times were too long for our liking.

Conclusion

As an open-world experience clearly aiming to stand alongside the best the genre has to offer, Crimson Desert puts up an impressive fight. Its world is strikingly ambitious in both size and scope, and in some respects feels comparable to something like Horizon Forbidden West, particularly in terms of its visual style and lighting.

Its physics and animations also come close to matching some of the genre’s heavy hitters, including Elden Ring, though they are not quite as precise, likely in service of making combat more accessible to a wider audience.

When it comes to the world itself and the way it reacts to the player while continuing to function independently, Red Dead Redemption 2 still remains the benchmark, but Crimson Desert makes a remarkably strong case for itself.

Ultimately, Crimson Desert feels like a hugely ambitious project that aimed incredibly high and came close enough to fully realizing that vision to earn a place among our favorite open worlds. Much of that comes down to how well its various systems intersect, creating a world that feels reactive, dynamic, and constantly ready to respond in ways that are both believable and visually impressive.

It’s a world we don’t see ourselves leaving anytime soon, and that’s perhaps the best compliment you can pay to a game with ambitions this grand.

Still, imagine sitting at the foot of that hill – complex, as yet unmade tools and a colossal open world to scale. In-house game engines are rare in modern AAA development due to cost and complexity. But in creating their own platform, the developer has been able to tailor technology around their vision which might not have been possible if they were using Decima, Unity, Unreal Engine, or another.

Crimson Desert’s specific goal appears to be a large, medieval-fantasy world where physics, animations, lighting, weather systems, and more coalesce to reshape the look, feel, and atmosphere of any given scene. From realistic water and volumetric fog, to raytraced lighting and motion capture animation, the breadth of technology that their proprietary BlackSpace engine is capable of is impressive. But, what’s also interesting here isn’t just its graphical horsepower, but in how its systems combine to transform the mood, tone, and physicality of a space beyond presenting it in fine detail.

Individually, are these systems revolutionary? No. Will Crimson Desert’s realism be unparalleled? Depends on your definition. Is it a prime example of how technology and ambition can combine to fully realise artistic vision? Almost certainly, yes.

This feature will unpack what’s beneath BlackSpace’s hood but we’ll keep the tech jargon light. Don’t worry if you don’t know your shaders from your GPUs. This is a game to feel as much as it is to see, after all.

So, custom-building an engine, principally, has given the developer the opportunity to create a large-scale open world with seamless exploration. Pywel’s numerous biomes, from cobbled cities to dense forests, chilling mountain passes, and scorched desert landscapes each render without noticeable interruptions. The game feels fully-loaded from the get go, with consistent high fidelity on distant objects at framerates purported to be smooth and reliable.

On a related note, Digital Foundry was provided with footage which was captured on a high-end PC with a Ryzen 9 7900X3D and Radeon RX 7900 XTX, graphics set to ultra, running at native 4K resolution targeting 60fps. We’ll get to why this is worth pointing out in a moment. First, one small caveat: these recordings were provided by the developer themselves. On one hand, it demonstrates the studio’s confidence in the performance of their game. On the other hand, they’re only going to show what they want to be seen.

We wanted to highlight the hardware though, because the GPU used isn’t current generation, and ultra settings aren’t the most powerful the game offers. However, take this footage at face value and what you’ll see is a game that is optimised for strong performance. This is one of the self-developed engine’s major advantages: it gives ample opportunity to coordinate development with the myriad gameplay systems. If the game needs a specific feature – a physical interaction, destructible item, or weather behaviour, for instance – then the engine team can build a solution right into the software to feed back to the designers.

This streamlining may be how the developer has crafted a world which appears unusually reactive. Lighting, for instance, is one of Crimson Desert’s most notable highlights. The game uses raytraced global illumination for exterior and inside space alike, with the game engine calculating how light reflects, bounces, and scatters to produce indirect natural shading and contrast.

Stoneclad interiors look especially impressive, where marble floors reflect both light and architecture while firelit rooms gain deeper shadows and warmer tones, transforming their emotional resonance. And this is the unexpected takeaway: enabling raytracing doesn’t just introduce more natural-looking light, but renovates these rooms – especially the dark, candlelit ones – into contemplative, intimate, atmospheric spaces.

Likewise, Pywel’s climate goes beyond simulating rain or shine. The BlackSpace engine is able to calculate lighting in real-time to produce weather patterns, volumetric fog, and other atmospherics that shift dynamically throughout the day. In a three-day timelapse demonstration shared by the developer, we see morning mist clinging to the valley floor, only for it to burn away under afternoon sunlight. Bright sunlight communicates the vastness of the landscape, exuding heat not through visual haze but in the real-time effect it has.

Similarly, volumetric fog is capable of communicating a distinct mood. It folds, wraps, and reacts to your movements with precision. Dispersible yet totally enveloping, fog and its fluid simulation feels eerie and mysterious, showing that Crimson Desert’s atmospheric conditions can be vital for worldbuilding.

Water rendering is another technical focus, with the BlackSpace engine using FFT Ocean and Shallow Water Simulation to model surface behaviours more realistically. In practice, this means naturally flowing rivers, cascading waves, and rippling shorelines. The developer demonstrate themselves the effect FFT has on aquatic settings; without the simulation engaged, water looks flat and calm. It’s nice, tranquil almost, but not especially interesting. With FFT simulation enabled, whitewater forms, currents appear lively, and the ocean undulates. Suddenly the water looks less inviting to swimmers. Raytraced water reflections appear here too, most notably on standing pools and lakes, underpinning water’s role in Crimson Desert as a core pillar of the landscape, not simple, static setdressing.

BlackSpace also places heavy emphasis on physical interactions between weather conditions and objects present in the environment, both scattered items and your player-character. Trees and grass sway in the wind and hanging cloth flutters naturally, while hair and clothing react to the breeze and your movements alike.

Clothing, body parts, environmental detritus, and more, each reacts in isolation due to volumetric masking which has allowed the developers to distinguish environmental effects to the minutiae. It’s the same technique which ensures only your horse’s hooves get wet, and stay noticeably wet for a set duration afterward, when you wade across a river on horseback.

When combined with extensive motion capture, the developer has created character and animal models which not only react according to atmospheric conditions but move realistically through the scene too. The studio has invested heavily in performance capture, with reportedly hundreds of high-performance cameras recording actor movements with sixteen megapixel precision, capturing everything from full body motion to subtle finger gestures. And, because capture data was linked to the game engine during recording, developers and actors could immediately see how the performance translates to in-game characters and make real-time adjustments for the next take.

The studio also used a large 3D scanning facility to convert real-world objects into digital assets. Again, hundreds of cameras supported this process, this time arranged in a cylindrical fashion to capture armour, weapons, props, even natural objects like rocks and branches, from multiple angles, turning them into high resolution data that can be quickly placed in-world.

Facial scans capture minute expressions too, with lip tremors, eyelines, and muscle movements bringing detail and tension to characters. Whilst there seems no limit to the developer’s attention to detail, and some of their effort will undoubtedly go unnoticed during regular playthroughs, their intention was to push Crimson Desert’s presentation close to film-level realism. Put simply, they had the vision, and access to the tools to realise that vision.

BlackSpace’s technology impresses on a visual level, yes, but the combination of all its technological features and micro-adjustment potential has given Crimson Desert an open world which feels alive. And, crucially, the manner of that life is shown to constantly shift, both physically and dynamically through something as changeable as the sun setting to the current’s flow around a pile of riverstones. What’s more, the developer’s in-house engine is pledging smooth performance throughout thanks to a streamlined process for optimisation.

Arguably, performance is the most crucial thing. If the developer can deliver this level of fidelity while maintaining strong performance across all platforms then Crimson Desert’s technical ambition might just prove revolutionary after all.

But aside from the people behind great titles like Monster Hunter Wilds, Resident Evil Requiem, Dragon’s Dogma 2, and so many more, there’s an unsung hero that has worked behind the scenes to ensure that each game has brought the vision behind it to life with both substance and style. And it’s managed to do that across varying design philosophies, achieving differing goals each time without requiring a rebuild of the studio’s pipeline with each one.

How has it managed to do so? That’s what we’re here to explore, as we dive into how it has powered some of modern gaming’s best titles in ways that matter.

The Beating Heart Of Some of the Best Titles

It’s a good idea to define the engine itself at this point, and the best way to do that is to look at it as more than just a graphics filter that produces incredible visuals (although it’s gotten quite good at that over the years). It’s a production ecosystem that brings shared tools, talents, and better iteration of key gameplay elements across different teams.

When you look at it as a toolset that builds assets, materials, lighting, animations, and physics while handling streaming all of those elements in real-time as you play any game it powers, you begin to see its potential, and why it deserves its time in the spotlight. What’s more, it scales those systems according to very different performance targets, with each game that it powers bringing different design pillars to the table.

For instance, Resident Evil Biohazard’s focus on setting a very claustrophobic mood via tight spaces and high-fidelity graphics was quite different from the need to showcase scale and run complex systems in games like Monster Hunter Wilds and Dragon’s Dogma 2. Alternatively, Street Fighter 6 needed a more performance-focused approach thanks to the need for slick, responsive gameplay.

It can be tricky for a single engine to sustain a high level of quality across such vastly different experiences, but that’s just what the RE Engine has done, time and time again. But how has it managed to do so over the many years it’s been around?

A Story As Interesting As The Games It Has Powered

Looking at the different phases of how the RE Engine evolved over the years is an interesting look at how it managed to evolve with each title. From 2017 up to 2019, it was utilized in Biohazard, where it operated in controlled spaces with high material fidelity and worked to create lighting control in the environments we explored as Ethan. It did well, but that was simply the beginning of its evolution into what it is today.

2021’s Resident Evil Village expanded its capabilities to include wider environments and differing camera styles whilst sustaining the level of quality it had brought to Ethan’s previous outing. Simultaneously, it also got woven into 2023’s Street Fighter 6, a title in which animations and tight gameplay would become a standard part of the RE Engine’s toolkit. It was quite the level up, and the engine proved more than capable of handling the extra demands being placed on it.

And then came Dragon’s Dogma 2 (2024) and Monster Hunter Wilds (2025). While it had previously handled open environments, the engine would need to power an entire world this time around, while also handling the added load of complex systems that were constantly interacting with each other to present a more dynamic map for its players. That might have been a challenge, but the RE Engine sailed through with flying colors.

Which brings us to Resident Evil Requiem, where the results of its evolution over the years are there for all to see. It has brought a very extensive lighting system in that one, and some very fine details on its characters and environments to bring an almost ethereal layer of cinematic quality to the whole thing, making Grace and Leon’s adventure feel more real than any of the titles in the franchise’s illustrious history.

But how does it manage to achieve all of this with so much style? We’re glad you asked.

Bringing The Magic To Life

Any tool is only as good as the input you feed into it, and the RE Engine is no different. Its excellence begins with providing real-world references of the materials and environments it’s meant to reproduce, a process that involves capturing textures, programming photogrammetry, and accurately representing imperfections on surfaces. That might seem like a lot of effort, but giving the engine believable inputs helps it create similarly realistic outputs.

The next step is to create assets with a suitably high level of detail. High-poly sculpts, lots of compressing high-resolution meshes into lower polygon models with their geometry still intact, integrating UVs, and baking, which is pre-computing complex details like lighting and shadows in order to reduce the load on streaming in real-time. All of these help the engine make efficient use of available resources while sustaining the best possible level of quality across the board. There are also details like collisions and streaming splits to consider, all of which run in the background while you interact with your game. Great examples of this phase in action are the open worlds in Wilds and DD2, where long drawn distances with a lot of dynamically interacting objects make having an effective strategy toward the level of detail on display paramount. But it’s equally important in experiences like Biohazard, where there are fewer objects, but the closer camera perspective puts more scrutiny on each one.

The next step is where realism is born, as Physically Based Rendering (PBR) is done on assets to ensure that they interact with light and present a realistic simulation of how each object would behave in the real world. It’s where objects are programmed to interact with light based on physical traits such as roughness, metallic surfaces, dirt, wetness, decals, and other crucial parameters.

Look at the streets in Requiem, for instance. It’s quite easy to see how a street in normal weather looks and feels different from the same one once it’s had a bit of rain to add a layer of moisture to the environment, with light glancing off wet surfaces to present a more realistic reflection on not just roads, but cars and windows. It’s a sort of emphasis on microdetails and realistic reproductions of real-world scenarios.

Next, the environments make way for animations, with rigging, blending, and motion capture being crucial in presenting readability of player and enemy movements, camera behaviour in intense situations, and hit reactions across the board. This is a crucial step in games like SF6 and Monster Hunter Rise, where smooth framerates, frame clarity, effect discipline, and animation timing readability all play a role in giving players smooth, responsive combat systems that allow a game to feel as immersive and engaging as it can be.

Lighting and rendering are another big step, with direct and indirect light having to work in tandem to give scenes a proper mood while accurate shadows keep it grounded. There are also volumetrics and fog to consider, and they are important factors in crafting the right atmosphere for any given in-game event, while reflections via ray tracing make it all come together. A great example of this would be Village, where there were a ton of different environments, each with complex setups, similar to Requiem, where lighting paths were an important part of the experience.

Next, there are details like exposure, tone mapping, Lookup Tables (LUTs), which act as a sort of automated translator that applies color schemes to scenes, bloom, depth of field, and motion blur, which must all be woven in to give games that cinematic feel without taking things too far. Restraint is an important sentiment in this step, as overdoing it ruins all of the engine’s hard work. Village, for instance, handled this very well with varying scenarios exhibiting an excellently consistent cinematic quality.

All of these steps help the RE Engine achieve the results it managed in the titles it has powered. Its ability to optimize and scale according to a game’s needs as opposed to the game being needed to be molded to fit within its framework is a superpower of sorts, allowing it to be a versatile tool that has handled a bunch of varying requirements. It was able to handle different hardware targets in Rise, while also handling the systemic load from Wilds and the CPU-heavy world simulation in DD2.

Versatility Across Genres

This is our favorite part, as we get to see just how the RE Engine has managed to make itself a crucial part of the success its games have enjoyed, and the reason it has managed to be an engine that works across genres.

Resident Evil has been a great showcase of how it can present tight, high-fidelity environments with aplomb, with very realistic close-ups of differing materials, nuanced lighting, and very moody atmospheres that sell the fear and tension that the franchise is known for very well. Once again, looking at even a few minutes of Requiem’s gameplay or cutscenes is enough to prove its chops.

When it comes to massive worlds with a lot going on in them, the engine has once again risen to the occasion. It handles the worlds in Monster Hunter and DD2 with style, balancing a multitude of factors like streaming assets, sustaining LODs and traversal speed, simulating systems, and handling memory pressure across platforms with a fairly consistent experience across the board for all players.

In SF6, where a performance-first approach dictated the entirety of its gameplay loop, the engine maintained stable framerates while allowing for excellent animation and effect clarity, factors that were tantamount to presenting the explosive action that the game needed to stand out.

Heck, it also proved quite good for remasters, with Dead Rising Deluxe and Ghost Trick being fine examples of how it can bring older games to life. But Requiem is probably its magnum opus, with an astounding sharpness to its microdetails that stay intact even in motion-intensive situations, stable lighting responses across surfaces, excellent geometry and hair physics, and clean reflections with accurate shadows that really sell the scenes where they operate.

It can be easy to just say it’s insanely good at powering the best of what the developer offers, but that would be doing it an injustice.

What Does The RE Engine Mean For Modern Gaming?

Aside from what it manages to do in-game, it’s also what it manages to do behind the scenes that makes this one so relevant to a generation of games that are constantly getting more ambitious.

As an engine built from the ground up, its assets, tools, technical know-how, optimizations, and workflows allow for both consistency and compounding benefits to the studio with every successive release. It isn’t an engine that just puts out pretty graphics easily, but is now a benchmark in game production.

As the worlds in our games get bigger and lighting gets more ambitious, engines that scale well become the competitive edge. And the RE Engine is one that’s doing a hell of a good job on that front. We can’t wait to see where it shows up next, but you can bet that we’re going to be diving in with a smile on our faces, secure in the knowledge that this is an engine that’s capable of making great games even better.

You see it in the very first moment you have Grace walk along a busy street on the way to her objective. You see it in the first shot of Raccoon City, a gaping crater that was once a place full of activity and life. You see it in the close-ups of Leon and Grace, their expressions coming across so clearly thanks to excellent character models and facial animations.

Every frame of the game looks like it was pre-rendered in motion, lending the entire experience a level of photorealistic quality that goes beyond just looking good in an experience that comes together quite well to make your skin crawl and hair stand on end.

But before that, a quick disclaimer about the footage you’re currently seeing might be in order. There could be a bit of sharpening, some crushed blacks, and a slightly lower level of detail thanks to captured footage being compressed. But rest assured, that isn’t the case with the actual game on the PS5 Pro. Requiem scores well on several parameters like lighting, material realism, natural depth, and image stability, even in its most demanding moments.

A Sublime Lighting System

The game’s promotional materials all pointed to the excellent use of light and its crucial role in stealth sections involving Grace. But it’s more than just that. Every scenario in the game, from a busy street to a desolate corner of the Rhodes Hill Care Center are all brought to life in a way that catches the eye from the minute you load in.

There’s a frankly astounding level of detail on display, and the lighting does well to highlight it in dark spaces where your flashlight or lighter is your only source of illumination. Their beams move tangibly differently, lighting up your surroundings based on how those beams would reflect off surfaces in the real world.

A conversation between two characters with a flaming building as its backdrop has you seeing shadows that flicker with the flames, their warm glow contrasting with the harrowed expressions on the faces they light up. In darker spaces, the inky blacks that come at you almost feel suffocating, a facet of the experience that’s underlined whenever the Stalker is in play.

The light becomes all the more important when it’s in short supply, making a well-lit room feel so very safe thanks to the stark contrast it presents to the darkness you were navigating just moments ago. Light and shadows interact so well, with a believable spill of rays around corners, lamps, and candles casting dynamic shadows that move with their subjects, while your characters are reflected back at you on glass surfaces that you look at.

Raccoon City looks ridiculously detailed in its ruined state, and the lighting does so much of the mood work. With the advanced AO in play, the destruction reads as dense and tangible, but there’s also this intentionally dulled, lifeless tone over everything. Even the RPD feels sad now, like a place that’s already lost. It honestly makes me wonder what the game would feel like if the developer ever went full open-world with it.

The first-person camera is definitely our choice when it comes to admiring the game’s lighting, and it’s of such a cinematic quality that it’s genuinely hard to tell the difference between in-game moments and cutscenes. But lighting alone doesn’t make for great visuals.

Graphical Parameters That Stand Out

All the light in the world would not have helped sell the experience that Requiem is trying to present if the environments, people, and objects being lit up were not up to scratch. That’s clearly not the case in Requiem, and when you’re treated to a close-up on any character, you’re going to see why.

Individual hairs on Grace and Leon’s heads swing gently in the breeze, while beads of sweat glisten on Grace’s face and arms when she’s in a particularly bothersome situation, even as Leon’s temples remain blissfully dry, his calm demeanour being reflected in his appearance. At some point, a short swim in a vat of what suspiciously looks like blood continues to leave the character involved with a red hue on their hands as they navigate the rest of that level.

The facial animations could have you believing that there are real actors on your screen, and not animated models that have been prepared to make things look as real as they can get. Grace’s abject terror at the ordeal she’s being forced to endure shines through in almost every frame that focuses on her face, her fear being reflected in her eyes. Her concern for a new character is also quite evident, as is her anger at another point in the story. Every close-up shot or camera stare showcases emotion as well as expression, helping sell the game’s CG-like realism quite well.

Leon and Gideon are also highlights, each character’s personality being conveyed through their frowns, smirks, and a generally high quality of lip syncing that helps the voice acting match the gravitas of a grim situation. And there are a lot of those in the game thanks to a bevy of enemy designs that are absolutely horrific, as they should be.

You can see the pained expressions on the faces of zombies, a somber reminder of the people they used to be before their transformation. The Stalkers and other bigger threats are just grotesque, and the manner in which their bodies respond to your bullets or other weapons is incredibly detailed and well implemented. Chunks of flesh are ripped off their bodies in real-time, the trajectory of your bullets being reflected so well with each new shot.

Their faces contort in pain, every hit they take being conveyed back to you in excruciating detail, just as it is when you take some damage of your own. It all takes place so seamlessly that bringing up a pause menu can feel quite disconcerting in the heat of the moment, jerking you out of moments that are so engaging you forget the borders of your screen even exist.

Blood behaves so realistically, you might even find yourself diving out of the way of it in the event your character meets their death at the hands of an enemy. The death animations for both your characters and enemies are absolutely brutal, made all the more satisfying by the game’s incredible approach to its material realism.

A Tailored Approach to Visual Fidelity

It could have been easy to oversell the photorealism of it all, but Requiem cleverly avoids that trap, using its volumetrics and elements very well to present environments that feel as they should. Faraway shots of Rhodes Hill showcase a creeping fog that interacts so well with the objects around it that it looks very natural.

In another shot, Leon’s Porsche speeds down a busy street, its sleek paint reflecting the lights around it while the road looks ever so well-detailed, glistening with a slight sheen of rain on its surface. None of these details looks too overdone, but work so well to present an immersive experience that they stand out nonetheless.

It helps that the PS5 Pro is able to sustain a clear, sharp image with very few instances of jagged edges or shimmer that we could see during our time with the game. That’s as true for intense moments in the gameplay as it is for cutscenes, the console’s image upscaling capabilities doing a good job of making sure things stay as smooth as they can be.

It’s also probably good that there’s more headroom for ray tracing, and for streaming textures and sustaining a level of detail that lends Requiem its filmy quality. That’s especially true in the game’s second half, when all of its systems come together to present moments where the story fires on all cylinders.

There are views from familiar buildings, sweeping shots of locations that can have you smiling to yourself, a chase sequence that we’re still not fully recovered from, and level designs that are just outstanding with the way verticality is used to present specific moments.

You get reminded that you’re in a video game when you see an NPC walk slightly more stiffly than they would in real life, or when the occasional shimmer around a character’s hair or some volumetric noise pops up. A few texture streaming hiccups around elevators or during fast turns were also a way to remind ourselves that this was still a video game. But in one that’s as terrifying as Requiem, we’re going to say we were grateful for those reminders.

Cinematic Cohesion

Requiem’s near-cinematic level of quality comes not just from the effective use of several pillars of good CG design, but in the way they’ve all been lovingly made to work in tandem with each other, which lends the experience a layer of immersion that’s going to be the RE Engine’s best one yet.

That it’s able to blend its lighting, detail, and animations so well while also sustaining a stable image is a benchmark of what it’s capable of, made even better by the PS5 Pro’s ability to bring games such as this one to life so well.

We can’t wait for you to join us on what is a Resident Evil game that both looks and performs so well, it’s sure to bring a smile to both franchise veterans and newcomers alike.