The good news is that the PS5 release is mostly in quite good shape. Since then, stuttering on the PC side has improved tremendously. Watch on YouTube Looking back at our original coverage for The Ascent, tackling Xbox and PC platforms. Xbox One and One X had the same issues but were exacerbated by the weaker hardware, with more impactful and frequent hitches that often extended beyond 100ms. Frame-rate hitches lasting a few frames were common on Series X and S, and heavy combat would occasionally see performance slip into the 50-60fps range for short periods. Performance would also dip in a more conventional sense. It felt sort of like the game was suffering a brief performance hitch but in reality the frame-rate wasn't affected whatsoever - your character would just slightly skip between frames. Every so often when moving around the game world, the character and camera angle would jump forward, with a few frames of movement condensed into a single frame. Performance issues beset the Xbox versions of The Ascent - and months on from initial release, our two basic issues with the game haven't changed. Minor run-to-run differences in object and NPC placement are apparent, but there are no consistent visual changes between the two platforms. Looking towards the current-gen PS5 vs Series X shoot-out, once again, there's not much to tell them apart - they seemingly render with identical quality settings with similar overall image clarity (to confirm: Series X measurements came in at the same 1800p as PS5). PS4 Pro occupies a bit of a middle ground here - depth of field, bloom, and NPC density appear similar to PS5, while other settings look similar to PS4. Finally, the number of background NPCs in the environment is reduced. The depth of field effect in cutscenes runs at a reduced quality, without a strong bokeh effect. Bloom lighting takes on a different appearance, and generally looks weaker and less precise. The improvement found on PS5 isn't just limited to pixels and frame-rate: ground detail is pared back on PS4, environmental draw distance is reined in, while real-time shadow maps have less detail, while fewer objects cast shadows. Watch on YouTube The Ascent's PlayStation ports tick all the boxes - though issues with the Xbox versions haven't been addressed, loading times apart. Image quality isn't bad: UE4's TAA does a good job of cleaning up the image, so all consoles look stable and smooth in motion - the weaker machines just aren't as sharp. The base PS4 seemingly locks to 900p - a quarter of PS5's resolution at half the target performance level. So how do the ports to the various PlayStation platforms stack up? While we didn't see it in our measurements, dynamic resolution scaling can't be rolled out - but unsurprisingly, PS5 leads the pack with a dense 1800p resolution, targeting 60fps, while PS4 Pro drops back to 1440p30. Even the game's narrative sequences, which zoom in to close range, don't highlight many shortcomings. Despite massive levels packed with dense environmental meshes, everything seems to fit together surprisingly well, without any geometric or lighting discontinuities. The interplay between the environment and the action is a key highlight here: stray bullets and explosions chip at barriers and take chunks out of concrete slabs. As action breaks out The Ascent becomes an electrifying visual showcase, bathed in explosions and bullet trails. Whether you're gaming on PS4 or PS5, The Ascent retains its signature visual appeal - it's a beautiful title that combines extremely detailed environmental geometry with stunning pyrotechnics. Previously an Xbox console exclusive, The Ascent is now available for current-gen and last-gen PlayStation consoles - and we highly recommend it. It's easily mistaken for a big-budget title but was in fact primarily made by Neon Giant, a small Swedish studio with just 12 core developers. This Unreal Engine 4-based isometric action game features dense environmental geometry, great lighting, and high quality effects work. What is the most visually impressive indie game you've ever seen? From our perspective, The Ascent - released last summer for PC and Xbox - is a strong candidate.
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