PS5 Release Version (1.02) impressions First, I understand this is a budget indie game (but so is the excellent Ghostrunner) and I have a lot of respect for the devs and their work.
That said, I'm having a lot of issues with the game that make me feel like it was neither optimized for nor tested on console.
+ Pro
Main start screen looks good
Custom controller mapping
If things worked thePS5 Release Version (1.02) impressions First, I understand this is a budget indie game (but so is the excellent Ghostrunner) and I have a lot of respect for the devs and their work.
That said, I'm having a lot of issues with the game that make me feel like it was neither optimized for nor tested on console.
+ Pro
Main start screen looks good
Custom controller mapping
If things worked the way they were intended to work, the gameplay would be fun, but...
- Cons
Controller issues
Frame rate drops
Outdated graphics and clunky animations
Buggy
Confusing and clunky UI and item management Clunky and confusing dialog and interactions with NPCs
Impressions:
After playing the first two missions, I'm having a hard time imagining to keep on playing. After the nice looking intro cinematic and the great looking start screen, it pretty much all went downhill from there. First I thing I noticed was that movement and camera/aiming seemed sluggish and unresponsive. I suspected input lag, but it's actually the deadzone for the sticks. There is a deadzone option, but - and this is where I first got that sinking feeling in my guts - its default is 25%. I had to halfway tilt my stick to get a reaction. I lowered it all the way to the minimum: 21%. 25% for me is unplayable. 21% pretty much too. Especially in ADS, precise aiming is hard to impossible. But what really worried me was that the maximum for the deadzone is 90%. 90. Just for fun, I tried it out, and my camera stick became completely unresponsive. So... Why is it there? Why would you offer the option to turn off your character's ability to look around? I appreciated the custom button mapping, though, and rearranged the controls, then set my camera y-axis to inverted - which would come back to haunt me. When I got to playing, already wary, the good graphical impressions of the intro cinematic gave way to drab environments and low-rez textures. The second tutorial, asking me to jump from one wall run into another, seemed impossible as the second wall run never triggered. I tried. A lot. The first enemy encounter soon followed. The enemy animations were clunky and felt about 10 years old. Due to the immense deadzone, aiming wasn't as easy or snappy as it should be, and I remembered an aim assist setting in the options that, apparently, was off at default. Turns out there actually is are different settings, but none are working, the devs stated on reddit they "had to deactivate it because of issues". Oh well. I also found that you cannot ADS or fire your weapon for about a second after reloading. My dog came into play and I sent him towards enemies and he died. I tried again, and he stopped to turn in place - and then died. So I stopped doing that and shot people. The movement is okay but inconsistent: the dash is nice, though the wall running is still weird to me. Titanfall this is not. I was then asked by the game to open my radial menu to use a medikit. And I found out that inverting the camera y-axis also inverts the radial menu selection. So to choose the medikit at the bottom middle, I had to tilt the right stick forward, etc. And it's really bad for me. Towards the end of the first mission, I entered a big room and the frame rate dropped from 60 to 40. There's an optional fps counter in the video menus, so I actually know. Enemies came, and 40 dropped to 30.
After that encounter I died for the first time, jumping off an unintentional wall run during a fight to my death. I respawned next to an enemy, who completely ignored me. This happened several times. Throughout the map, there was some exploration, and that was okay. You can apparently pick up and equip one weapon during missions, but your load out is set when starting a mission and cannot be changed until you sort through your loot at the end, where you can sell or keep what you found. The UI is confusing, hard to read, and still doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but that might come. I then got a cut scene with clunky dialog, was pushed into buying upgrades, then, before I could continue, was forced to test the new upgrade I bought, before being forced to talk to the Barkeeper to receive a drink she actually didn't give me. Then I was able to continue. But I didn't really want to.
Verdict:
The game at its core seems to have potential, but everything about it on PS5 lacks polish. It's clunky and janky and not intuitive at all. Some things work, other things, a lot of other things, don't. And it feels like the PS5 version was neither optimized nor tested. I don't believe the game in its release state should have been allowed to launch at all - then again, all the trailers and screens were from the PC version, and that one seems to at least work gameplay-wise. And I am definitely not happy with my purchase.… Expand
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