Forspoken is currently the topic de jure in core gaming circles and is, unfortunately, not exactly making headlines for the right reasons. Our own review has been delayed due to Square Enix's tardiness with the code, but we do have a first impressions piece you can check out in the meantime. But how does the game itself hold up from a technical perspective? As usual, the wizards over at Digital Foundry have broken things down for those of us less mechanically minded.
First, the good. Forspoken features incredibly fast load times, booting into the game from the title screen in about four seconds and less than a single second if you continue an existing save. Add to that the fast and fluid character and gameplay animations, truly impressive particle effects, detailed character models and insane hair physics, and it's clear that the Luminous Engine still has some juice left in the tank.
On the flip side, lighting takes a significant step back, even from developer Luminous Productions' last outing, 2016's Final Fantasy XV. Framerate also leaves a lot to be desired, maintaining 60fps in Performance Mode for the most part but bizarrely dipping well below 50 in certain areas of the open world, in addition to resolution scaling as low as 720p. Quality Mode cannot maintain a consistent 30fps, either, and while it certainly looks impressive, it can at times drop down to 20, a state of affairs which DF describes as "simply absurd".
The entire video is well worth a watch if you are interested in the more technical side of things, although it isn't likely to convince you to pick this one up if you were already leaning towards a pass.
What do you think of Forspoken's technical performance? Run a benchmark in the comments section below.
[source eurogamer.net]
Comments 32
Bizzare how Forspoken manages to look worse than FF15, a game released 7 years ago. Low quality textures, assets randomly thrown in, lighting looking ridiculously average, the game is just a technical mess. Even the Dualsense implementation is barebones. I honestly wonder what did Sony see in this game to have a 2 year console exclusivity period.
Such a big downgrade from the project athia reveal, as noted in the DF video. Remember when square said it would be the best looking open world ever! The lighting is awful and the repeating of textures reminds me of pokemon scarlet. Atleast Pokemon was a Switch game and not a "next gen exclusive" game
Yeah, this is a pass. Luckily, there are plenty of other games to play.
Apart from the lighting and the odd shadows and the apparantly strange choice of colour scheme for the clouds there dosnt appear to be anything too drastically bad about the game. Look at the mighty elden ring which couldnt maintain a constant 60fps in performance mode in fact i dont think it hits 60fps at all and dips a fair bit so considering digital foundary are singing the praises about the graphics in general and all the particle effects going off on screen i dont think the frame rate should be an issue for me and the millions of elden ring players. You will get used to it. The speed of the loading sounds like something we have been promised for a long time but have yet to have delivered (dmc5 excluded.) I think this game is going to be the next cyberpunk for gamers to hate on and the new clicker article for push square to go along with everything the last of us related..
I think it looks good. I do enjoy watching Digital Foundry, but I think they can be a bit nit picky at times.
This is unacceptable for something that's $70 and takes up around 90 GB of the PS5's storage space. I remember the demo having a really ugly low-res look at times, and I'm shocked those blemishes made it into the final release.
God this looks is gonna be such a fire game when I buy it for $20 at GameStop in like September
@Northern_munkey Elden Ring was pretty poor in terms of pure tech but the game was great. Forspoken is just another bog standard open world game with cringe dialogue, lazy sidequest design, and a lifeless open world. I'd say the criticism it is getting is justified.
Though it seems the kind of 7,5 game that I most probably would enjoy a lot, playing the demo it really felt bizarre that it looked a lot worse than FF15 🤷🏼
@Northern_munkey the comparison to elden ring is unfounded. people forgive its graphics and performance issues because it is a stellar gaming experience outside of that and where it counts. also, its art direction, especially with the enemy design speaks for itself. forspoken on the other hand, quite literally, has nothing going for it — the graphics/performance should be the least of your worries.
Square enix should just shut down or sell off luminous productions at this point.
@Northern_munkey Could you imagine people defying logic and only focusing on a few cases of lighting that any regular player wouldn’t even notice if not for DF and finding literally anything to bag on a game that they haven’t played yet, instead of focusing on the great art design, crazy particle effects and awesome looking parkour?😂
To be honest though, after watching the whole video the game looks more and more enticing to me, although not enough for me to by it at launch because I have other stuff to prioritise right now, but definitely something I’d pick up on sale later this year.
PS Plus Extra Title by December
Graphics remind me of an N64 game... Infact it's indistinguishable from Superman on the N64. If you put both games side by side it's literally impossible to tell them apart.
@Porco comparing the 2 games on a techincal point of view was not unfounded. I didnt say elden ring was an unplayable mess,it was after all my goty and i loved it. People used the same argument as they are here in that it looks like a ps4 game,regurgitated assets and poor frame rates etc. That was my point which you missed..
@jimbouk i loved every minute of elden ring and i'll probably purchase this further down the line when its cheaper. I know this game isnt perfect and its not what people expected but their are loads of people that will buy it and still complain about it. As for the cringe dialogue..you have heard how todays youth talk right?
When I played the demo I thought it looked poor at times but couldn't quite put my finger on it, now it makes sense. The lighting and ambient occlusion in this and looks like something from a couple of generations ago and it just goes to show that you can give devs more power but if they lack the artistic talent then you're not going to see any improvement.
That said some of the gameplay shown did look quite fun, not something I'd ever consider spending £70 on and I feel it would have been better suited in well designed levels rather than a bland empty open world that seems to be the go to these days
@Northern_munkey Don't forget Elden Ring is also on PS4. So much for this game being PS5 only.
Sony must be kicking themselves at their HQ regretting buying exclusivity for this game
Darn it. If it runs like crap on PS5 I reckon the PC port will be a glorious stutterfest…
@Randinator123 Sony probably fine as they probably already got paid for the game that why they was not upset with bf they probably have something in writing.
@TheArt i'm aware this is only a ps5 game ..still looks pretty good and those particle effects and the foliage etc plus the super fast loading..i'm sure the game will be improved in a patch somewhere down the line..
@jimbouk Given this, deathloop, and Ghostwire Tokyo. They clearly was just looking for games especially next gen games to pad out their release schedule.
Square enix probably offered exclusively for cheap.
"Well, if we compare this PS timed exclusive, Forspoken, to the CoD franchise it becomes quite clear that Sony has no actual talent for selecting third party exclusives and is actually doing Microsoft a huge favour by keeping these type of games off of their own systems..."
@Ravix Bahaha I can see it now
MS lawyers wrote:
(Obviously not something I believe, but it's the sort of self-own they'd issue)
@Northern_munkey So this game and launch Cyberpunk were/are attacked just cause people were bored and needed to find something to hate? Forespoken should instead be praised and applauded?
@Juanalf thats not what i'm saying at all. Cyberpunk was a right mess on the ps4 at launch and was at least playable to a degree on the pro and ps5. 2 years on and people still hate on the game. Forspoken is not what was expected but by all accounts its no cyberpunk fiasco but people are going to hate even if its gets fixed and has a bit of spit and polish later on down the road. Most people will wait for a price drop and be content but there always seems to be those that know its a bit iffy but still pay full price and then moan about it..bored? Not at all it just seems they have nothing better to do..
Typical Q4 release in the square line up. Rushed PoC that ends up Getting abandoned 🤷🏽♂️
Heck no, I'm not spending $70 for this game. The game even didn't have regional pricing on steam, it will sells less on there.
I was enthusiastic about this game. But it was before I played the crappy demo.
And it will sell poorly, I'm sure.
It has to be a big blow to everyone involved, including Sony with their exclusivity deal (and a PS5 library that could certainly use the bolstering).
Shame about the reality of this game, versus what had been teased/promised.
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