Prior to launch, there was plenty of analysis of the Resident Evil Village demo, with most finding performance to be very solid on both the PS5 and Xbox Series X, with the latter perhaps having a small edge. But what about the full game? Has anything changed? The folks at Digital Foundry put the full version of RE Village to the test, and the results were largely the same, albeit with some interesting new wrinkles. You can check out the full video below, provided you have around 20 minutes to spare (Warning: Some later areas of the game are shown).
First, good news for everybody – Capcom’s statement that ray-tracing mode would run at 4K/45fps was actually rather pessimistic. The reality is, both the PS5 and XSX run at 60fps most of the time in RT mode, with there only being a few sections that really challenge the hardware, most notably the “Moreau’s Reservoir” area in the latter half of the game. The PS5 gets slightly more stressed out in this area, dropping to the mid 40s, while the Xbox Series X remains in the low 50s. Having played through the game myself, I can tell you the Reservoir is really the only place I noticed any performance dips, so having a slight edge in this one place isn’t exactly a big deal. Unfortunately, RT mode is not recommended when playing on the Xbox Series S as framerate is very unstable bouncing from the 50s down to the 20s.
One thing that’s changed a bit since the demo is loading times. They’re now almost instant on the PS5 upon starting the game, as you simply cut to black for around a second then begin playing. Meanwhile, on the Xbox Series X/S, the game takes around 8.5 seconds to load and requires an additional prompt. Again, not exactly a big deal, but clearly Capcom is really tapping into the abilities of the PS5’s speedy SSD.
Still not sure if you’re going to grab Resident Evil Village tomorrow? You can check out the impact of ray tracing on the PC version here, and my full (very positive) review of the PS5 version here…
Resident Evil Village is a wild, thrilling ride across seemingly every horror genre and idea that happened to pass through the mad minds at Capcom. Not every aspect of the game is perfect, but its highs are very high and solid core mechanics and excellent presentation hold the grisly patchwork together. You may survive Resident Evil Village, but your thoughts will linger there long after you’ve escaped.
Resident Evil Village arrives on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, and Stadia on May 7.
