I played upcoming PS5 action game Tides of Annihilation last week, and I thought it was great.

When footage leaked prior to the embargo lifting, I wasn’t expecting the focus to be on Gwendolyn’s face. But I’ve been doing this job for a long time now, so I suppose I should know better by this stage!

Social media claims the character model has been “downgraded”, but the dev insists this isn’t true.

In a statement, it explained:

“To be very clear, we have not changed Gwen’s character model and her model has remained the same since the game was first revealed. From the very beginning of the project, our intention has been to create a protagonist who brings together both Eastern and Western aesthetics, and that direction has not changed.”

The company went on to further clarify that it’s “made improvements to things like her skin rendering and clothing materials, introduced different outfits, and adjusted the lighting”.

It also added that it recently implemented “new facial techniques” which mean some of her expressions may have changed from previous builds.

There’s no doubt that in side-by-sides the character does look ever so slightly different. I’m not technically minded enough to know if this is simply down to skin rendering and lighting changes, but I do think it makes sense for the art to evolve during development.

Looking specifically at the above comparison, I think I prefer the original look on the left as it appears more natural, but perhaps there’s just a bug in the new build that’s making things look ever so slightly off.

The team says it’s “continuing to refine and polish as development progresses” so I don’t really think this is a big deal.

I imagine all will be resolved come launch – especially considering the game doesn’t even have a release date yet.