Our first hands-on look at the next Square-Enix epic.
Forspokenwas one of the most intriguing early demos for the PlayStation 5.
Combat is fast, fluid, and reminiscent of battle sequences in prerendered Final Fantasy media.
The action is definitely the visual highlight of this demo as well.
Exploration is similarly frenetic.
Leaping through areas is just as simple, though the animations are context-sensitive and can feel a bit unpredictable.
Superhero games, like Infamous, seem like a clear inspiration for some of these abilities.
Looking at the 60Hz modes first, all three are similar.
Beyond that, it’s surprisingly difficult to spot evidence of ray-tracing during typical play.
Beyond those differences, the only visual differentiator between the modes is image quality.
In stills, the RT and quality modes look very similar, with a fairly 4K-like presentation.
The performance mode is softer and visibly less detailed in comparison, though it’s not a massive difference.
The pixel count did seem to vary on a frame-by-frame basis so dynamic resolution does seem active as well.
The quality mode and ray tracing mode are more consistent, though they target 30fps.
The modes available at 120Hz output are a bit more interesting.
However, both the quality and ray tracing modes now target 40fps.
All of these modes appear to use similar visual controls to their 60Hz counterparts.
Square-Enix deserves commendation for the Forspoken demo.
This is a big playable chunk of an upcoming big-budget release, available for free without any conditions.
