Alan Wake 2 is almost here, and not only is the game great (check out our full review here) but it’s a real visual feast on PC, provided you have the beefy hardware needed to run it (check out our extensive PC testing here). But what about consoles? A lot of recent high-end games have been pushing even current-gen consoles to their limits and beyond, and Alan Wake 2 may be our most eye-popping visual showcase yet, so how’s the game hold up? Well, the folks at Digital Foundry gave the PS5 version of Alan Wake 2 a spin (Xbox Series X/S impressions will come later) and the results are a somewhat mixed bag. You can check out their full video below, provided you have around 15 minutes to spare, or you can scroll on down for our recap of the key points.
In terms of basic visual quality, the PS5 version of Alan Wake 2 looks quite comparable to the PC version on max settings in terms of geometry, details, ect. The big thing that’s missed is the PC’s ray tracing features, which include reflections and path tracing. Expect lower-quality reflections and shadows on the PS5. Then again, only a very small percentage of PC players will be able to play the game with all the path-traced bells and whistles. Realistically, a lot of PC players, even those with relatively beefy GPUs, will be playing at more or less the same visual settings as the PS5.
In terms of resolution and performance, Alan Wake 2 on PS5 offers both a 30fps Quality mode and a 60fps Performance mode. The Quality mode runs at only 1272p natively, with FSR2 being used to uprez the image to 4K, while Performance is only 872p with FSR2 being used to get to 1440p. FSR resolution boosting is less than flawless, with DF detecting a lot of aliasing, particularly in Performance mode. As for performance, Quality mode largely sticks to 30fps, particularly indoors, but can drop a few frames (usually less than 5fps) in outdoor areas. Performance mode is largely the same – solid 60fps indoors, dropping as low as 50fps in certain outdoor areas.
Overall, the PS5 version of Alan Wake 2 looks fairly solid, particularly compared to the sometimes severe issues Remedy’s Control had on consoles. With the exception of the few with rigs that can handle full path tracing, the console version of the game looks quite comparable to PC. That said, if you look close, you can see Remedy straining a bit to get the game working on current-gen consoles.
Alan Wake 2 arrives on PC, Xbox Series X/S, and PS5 on October 27.
