If you read my Death Stranding 2: On the Beach review, you’ll know that I think that game is something special. Even so, I’m a gameplay-first kind of guy; if a game plays well and runs relatively well, that matters more to me than any visual flair could.
Even though I love the traversal-focused gameplay, mass amounts of isolation, and wild story of Death Stranding 2, it’s probably the best-looking game I’ve ever played if we’re talking pure visual fidelity – and it made me real glad to have a PlayStation 5 Pro.
Booting up Death Stranding 2, you’ll see its absolutely stunning opening scene, as Sam awakens on the mountains, and you walk along the cliffs with Lou in tow. I’m aware it sounds cheesy, and I’ve never seen a game and described it as breathtaking before, but it’s the most I’ve been taken by a game’s graphics in a long while.
I’m usually drawn more to striking art styles instead of pure graphical realism; my favourite-looking games ever are the likes of Cuphead, Pizza Tower, and Jet Set Radio. But Death Stranding 2 stands out on a technical level in ways you rarely see as the upper limits of fidelity start to plateau (not to say Death Stranding isn’t stylish; Yoji Shinkawa’s concept art shows how much sauce it has, though it’s a different beast in-game).
Pro moves
I bought a PS5 Pro for Monster Hunter Wilds. That game is a looker, and I think Capcom’s RE Engine has produced some of the best-looking games of the decade, but the performance was what mattered to me. It could look exactly like Monster Hunter World, and I’d be happy if I got the 60 frames per second (fps). Thankfully, Death Stranding 2 proved I don’t need to choose.
I played Death Stranding 2 across both PS5 Pro and PS5 Slim, and I played in performance mode on both. While the performance mode on the Slim was still good-looking, you could tell that quality mode was a step above, it looked worse to me anyway because seeing 30fps directly after a smooth 60 is rough.
But when I tried both on the PS5 Pro, outside of the framerate difference, I could not see the difference between both modes and figured that’s something for the Digital Foundry’s of the world to figure out (and they figured out it was “nearly identical”).
Death Stranding 2 did exactly what I wanted from the PS5 Pro; it didn’t force me to subject myself to poor performance modes like Final Fantasy 16, where it gets extremely blurry in order to keep a good framerate on the original PS5.
Not pro enough
I realise I’m in a pretty privileged position where not only can I afford the extortionately priced PS5 Pro at $700 / £700, but even if Death Stranding 2 sold me on it, I still don’t think anyone really needs it, especially not at this price.
I’m the type of person who, when I got my PS5, was really excited to see how the best PS4 games would run on it. I’ve been playing through the list of Nintendo Switch 2 upgrades (of which I reviewed Breath of the Wild and Fortnite).
And I’m also aware that the majority of people who buy consoles couldn’t care less about replaying a game just because it loads a little faster or runs a bit better. How many people from the 36 million people who bought Super Smash Bros. Ultimate do you think genuinely care that the alternate colours for the characters who are later in the roster now load a lot faster?
I like the PS5 Pro a lot, and as someone who gets a ton of FOMO (I considered buying Assassin’s Creed Shadows despite never liking one of those games), I get it, especially if you’re an enthusiast who wants the most performant console and can appreciate the finest of details.
You really don’t need a PS5 Pro just for Death Stranding 2 – and maybe not for other games until we see more transformative upgrades.