Crimson Desert is an incredibly ambitious video game, and one that deserves praise for its attempts to push open world design to impressive limits.
However, as we stressed in our Crimson Desert PS5 review, the title suffers from a range of performance woes on PS5 and PS5 Pro. For many players, these problems won't threaten to ruin the experience — but it's a huge shame that such an engrossing game is hampered by such issues.
And these issues are highlighted for all to see in Digital Foundry's latest video. It's a full, in-depth look at how Crimson Desert runs on Sony's two systems, and needless to say, performance is far from perfect.
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Starting with the base PS5, the publication is quick to point out that none of the three graphical settings on offer are ideal.
Performance Mode targets 60 frames-per-second but is prone to noticeable drops, and it's further marred by a blurry 1080p resolution.
Interestingly, through, developer Pearl Abyss implemented a 4K output toggle in the game's most recent major update, and Digital Foundry says that this does help improve image quality. However, the frame rate ends up taking even more of a beating.
The conclusion is that "Pearl Abyss has not made the effort to optimise for 60fps on base PS5 at all" — so we're not off to a great start.
"The reality is that no mode is properly optimised on the base PS5," the review continues.
It goes on to showcase a number of graphical issues that exist across all three settings — Performance, Balanced, and Quality — which include frequent shimmering on reflective surfaces like water and broken shadowing in interior environments. It goes down as "a very mixed bag".
Having said that, Quality mode might be the best way to go on the standard console, but only if you're willing to settle for 30fps. The review notes that the uptick in graphical quality is clear, especially when it comes to character models.
Then there's the Balanced mode, which targets a mostly solid 40fps — but you'll need a VRR display to use it.
All three modes suffer from frame rate dips and the aforementioned graphical issues, and so Digital Foundry concludes that they were "constantly facing some unwanted drawback or another".
Moving on to PS5 Pro, Sony's supercharged system makes a massive difference thanks to its beefier GPU and the inclusion of its updated PSSR 2 upscaler.
Indeed, Performance mode on the Pro basically falls in line with Quality mode on the base PS5 in terms of graphical quality — which already says an awful lot about how much better Crimson Desert is handled on the more expensive device.
However, frame rates are still far, far from perfect. As we suggested in our own review, it's CPU bottlenecks that cause the most damage. In busy areas like towns or cities, or when the action gets particularly heated, the game seriously struggles to maintain stable performance, with frame rates being cut in half in some cases.
The problem is, this kind of technical bottleneck is really difficult to fix without extensive optimisation, and the jury's out on whether Pearl Abyss is willing to go that far for its console audience.
Elsewhere, Digital Foundry finds it hard to recommend the Pro's Quality mode, which offers "diminishing returns" compared to the other settings, while being capped at 30fps.
Again, a VRR display is required if you want the smoothest possible experience. Frame rates can soar on Performance mode if you disable v-sync and enable the 120hz toggle, reaching as high as 105fps.
But unfortunately, unlocking the frame rate still doesn't prevent those gigantic CPU-driven dips. In truth, it may make them seem even more jarring, because the overall drop-off is greater.
"It's impossible to ignore the drops" across all modes on PS5 Pro. While Balanced and Quality certainly don't drop frames so hard, dips still exist, which leads into the most damning quote of the entire review...
"Pearl Abyss has seemingly dodged the responsibility of actually optimising the game, under the guise of presenting all these options," says Digital Foundry.
So, while there's absolutely no doubt that PS5 Pro is the way to go when playing Crimson Desert, there are so many performance-related problems that need to be ironed out.
To be fair, Pearl Abyss has so far proven that it's willing to make meaningful improvements as quickly as possible. The hope is that once it's addressed the main issues that players have with gameplay systems and mechanics, it'll move on to more serious performance optimisations on PS5 and PS5 Pro.