Sony Interactive Entertainment and Kojima Productions’ action-adventure game, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, is potentially the first PlayStation exclusive to make the PS5 Pro a worthwhile investment.
In terms of graphical settings, both the PS5 and PS5 Pro versions of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach offer Quality and Performance modes. There are no noticeable visual differences across both modes on either console. However, when compared against each other, the PS5 Pro version exhibit improved distant terrain detail, indicating that geometry and texture LODs are running at a higher setting compared to the base PS5. This gives far-off landscapes a little more visual richness. Other settings are largely identical across both consoles.
As far as image quality is concerned, the base PS5 version of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach hovers close to a resolution of 1440p in Performance mode, though it suffers from some edge instability, subpixel shimmering, and slight softness in fine detail, suggesting that a dynamic resolution is in effect. Quality mode on the base console runs a higher resolution with noticeably better image quality compared to performance mode. In order to upscale to 4K in both modes, the PS5 uses Guerrilla Games’ reconstruction technique. On the other hand, the PS5 Pro version runs at a slightly higher resolution in Performance mode that is closer to quality mode on the base PS5. In Quality mode, the PS5 Pro runs at a higher resolution, but looks very similar to Performance mode on the mid-gen console, making it largely redundant. It’s unclear whether the PS5 Pro takes advantage of PSSR or Guerrilla Games’ temporal upscaling solution. Either way, the results are much better than those seen on the base console in either of its graphics modes.
In terms of performance, both the PS5 and PS5 Pro versions of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach target and maintain a frame rate of 30 fps in Quality mode and 60 fps in Performance mode. In Performance mode on either console, it’s also possible to go above 60 fps when playing on 120 Hz displays. The PS5 Pro version runs at a higher frame rate in this scenario.
Overall, the PS5 Pro version of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach running in its Performance mode, preferably on a 120 Hz and VRR supported display, delivers crisp image quality that does justice to the game’s detailed world and characters, and it does so while delivering high frame rates. It’s a noticeable step above the base PS5 version that another PlayStation exclusive has yet to offer.
