Red Dead Redemption PS4/Switch Port Review – it’s just a re-release – WGB, Home of AWESOME Reviews

When rumours first began appearing on the horizon suggesting Rockstar was planning a remaster of Crimson Lifeless Redemption the joy was palpable. Launched in 2010, Crimson Lifeless Redemption has offered hundreds of thousands of copies, topped quite a few “Better of” lists and spawned a sequel that did it over again. A remaster of Crimson Lifeless Redemption appeared like a simple money-maker for Take-Two and Rockstar. How rapidly all of it fell aside. The brand new model was introduced as a “conversion” being dealt with by Double Eleven with a price ticket of $50 and no enhancements or upgrades talked about. The hype prepare was derailed, all whereas Take-Two attempted to argue that the £40/$50 asking price was justified, regardless of the sport simply being a port to PlayStation and Nintendo Swap. Nonetheless no PC model in sight. The frustration within the air could possibly be shot with a revolver.

The preliminary announcement was worded in a approach that instructed completely no enhancements had been made to the unique recreation, so I’m completely happy to say that’s not fairly true. This model of the sport runs at 4K and 30fps on the PlayStation 4 Professional and the PlayStation 5 through backwards compatibility. So whereas the remainder of the sport’s graphics are untouched, the upper decision (it ran at 720p again within the day) does make it look a lot sharper than the unique and extra appropriate for big screens. Regardless of the age of Crimson Lifeless Redemption, its artwork design nonetheless holds up in 2023 very properly. There’s one thing magical about driving a horse down by a dusty valley because the solar units or moseying right into a saloon as the opposite patrons huddle over photographs of whiskey. Crimson Lifeless Redemption makes it straightforward to inhabit its world and really feel like part of it, slightly than only a participant.

This new model makes use of AMD’s FSR2 temporal upscaling and anti-aliasing tech, leading to typically sharper pictures and much much less shimmering than within the unique recreation, particularly in foliage. Surprisingly, there’s additionally an choice to swap over to FXAA which is a post-processing impact as an alternative. There’s actually not level in attempting it, although, as a result of there are way more shimmering and tough edges versus the FSR2. I’m truthfully unsure why Double Eleven included the choice to toggle between the 2.

The shadows appear to fare higher on this new model, too. Crimson Lifeless Redemption’s shadows had been all the time messy, however on the PlayStation model the shadows are a lot sharper than earlier than, particularly once you get shut up. In reality, it’s nearly too sharp as a result of among the shadows lack the softness you get in actual life, making them appear barely unnatural. It’s a small criticism, thoughts you.

Annoyingly, the UI hasn’t obtained the identical decision enhance that the remainder of the sport has benefited from. As an alternative, all of the menus, icons and textual content are nonetheless in 720p, making them look fuzzy and albeit ugly on a contemporary 4K TV. Bafflingly, nonetheless, the button icons do appear to have been redone making them stand out towards the blurry backdrops. I’d like to know the choice making behind this. Why solely do the button icons? Why not do the entire UI?

Up to now I’ve largely mentioned the sport working on the very best {hardware} potential, so let’s step backwards for a second. There’s no native PlayStation 5 model, slightly it simply runs the PS4 Professional Enhanced model of the port. If you happen to use a normal PlayStation 4, although, you solely get a 1080p picture with extra noticeable aliasing. Swapping over to FXAA on this decrease decision actually allows you to see simply how a lot work FSR2 really does as a result of the picture is way, far worse.

Let’s discuss in regards to the framerate, we could? This new port is locked at 30fps which is undoubtedly a large disappointment. We all know that individuals who have emulated the Xbox model on PC have been capable of get it working at 60fps with solely minor points, so absolutely an organization like Rockstar may have discovered a technique to enhance Crimson Lifeless Redemption’s framerate which might have been a MASSIVE improve and an necessary promoting level.

The excellent news is that it sticks to that 30fps like superglue. The distinctive Undead Nightmare growth, included within the bundle, is one of the best ways to check this since there are many enemies on-screen all attempting to assert Marston’s flesh for lunch. Not as soon as did I discover the framerate dipping, no matter what number of zombies had been shambling across the place. It’s utterly rock-solid, though it actually needs to be contemplating the facility of contemporary consoles.

Nonetheless, this new model appears to have launched a small downside in cutscenes whereby sure animations stutter. It doesn’t occur in each cutscene however when it does it’s fairly distracting. Hopefully, we’ll get an replace that fixes this.

Over on Swap issues are just a little totally different. I used to be given each variations to check, so I fired up Nintendo’s console, curious to see how Crimson Lifeless Redemption would carry out on a machine that was deemed considerably underpowered even when it first launched. For probably the most half, it runs at 1080p and 30fps, however like the unique Xbox 360 model you possibly can see the framerate dip when TNT is getting thrown round and a bunch of enemies are on the display screen. That’s just a little disappointing however not wholly sudden. Irrespective of the way you view it, although, it’s significantly higher than how the sport initially ran on the Xbox 360 the place it was frequent to see the framerate drop to low 20s. On the Swap, it could often solely drop a few frames into the very excessive 20s, even whereas taking part in Undead Nightmare, making for a much more steady expertise.

By way of picture high quality, it will get a contact extra sophisticated. Shadows have seen a slight improve over the unique recreation however not as a lot as PlayStation model. However the greatest distinction is that the Swap doesn’t get AMD’s FSR2 and as an alternative depends on FXAA. Whereas the decision enhance ensures this appears higher than the sport initially did, it can’t compete with PlayStation the place FSR2 actually helps sharpen the picture up.

Handheld mode runs at 720p. All the pieces is just about an identical, together with the framerate often dipping however by no means to any worrying quantity. Crimson Lifeless Redemption could also be a recreation from 2010, nevertheless it’s nonetheless fairly cool to have the ability to play it on a handheld whereas chilling in mattress or on a prepare.

The difficult factor is once you begin evaluating this “conversion” to the present Xbox iteration which could be purchased through the Xbox retailer for round £25. Making the comparability even tougher is the truth that the Xbox model has some system-wide gamma results that create a barely punchier picture, whereas this new port presents a extra impartial picture that has the additional benefit of retaining extra shadow element. For an in depth comparability, it’s best to try Digital Foundry’s excellent breakdown of the two versions, however from this layman’s perspective, the PlayStation variations look a contact sharper and extra detailed, largely as a result of improved shadows and FSR2. It’s not a staggering distinction, although, and positively unfit of paying twice the worth.

Whereas there’s little or no to decide on between the PS4 Professional and Xbox Sequence X variations of the sport, Crimson Lifeless Redemption on an Xbox One is now the worst technique to play the sport outdoors of firing up an Xbox 360 or PS3. It primarily runs the unique recreation with no enhancements, which means the picture is caught at 720p. It appears significantly worse than the brand new port throughout the board. In the meantime, the Xbox Sequence S renders the sport at 1440p.

This does beg the query of whether or not the Xbox model may get these small updates, specifically the AMD FSR2 choice. It appears unlikely that Take-Two can be beneficiant sufficient to supply these free of charge, although, and I’m genuinely shocked that they haven’t already bumped up the worth of the Xbox model to match the re-release.

Taking a look at this new model of Crimson Lifeless Redemption as only a port, it’s a stable but barebones effort. The decision enhance and the FSR2 present a reasonably stable improve to the visuals, making this the very best Crimson Lifeless Redemption has ever seemed. And honestly, Crimson Lifeless Redemption really nonetheless appears fairly good. There’s some attractive vistas that stretch out into the gap. Issues solely look tough once you begin wanting intently on the low-res textures. It’s most noticeable on Marston’s face which appears muddy and undefined. With minimal work, his face and a wide range of different textures may have been improved and it could have made an enormous distinction.

It’s arduous to not be upset with the shortage of effort put into this port. Crimson Lifeless Redemption has offered hundreds of thousands and hundreds of thousands of copies and is broadly held as probably the greatest video games of all time. This was Rockstar’s likelihood to carry their western epic to an entire new viewers, together with probably hundreds of thousands who’ve solely performed Crimson Lifeless Redemption 2 and will now have the chance to comply with Marston’s journey. Even a number of minor tweaks may have made this an distinctive bundle, corresponding to a high-performance mode, a number of texture upgrades and maybe even one thing like ray-tracing.

And that’s finally the issue, isn’t it? It is a very primary port of a 13-year-old recreation that comprises nearly no enhancements and an RRP of £40. Had they launched this at £25 to match the present Xbox retailer model it could be a extra palatable product. It’s arduous to consider that just some years in the past Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick stated, “we don’t simply port titles over, we really take the time to do the easiest job we are able to making the title totally different for the brand new launch, for the brand new expertise that we’re launching it on.”

Be aware: the star score is only based mostly on the standard of the port, and never the sport itself.