While controversy continues around the quality of Unreal Engine 5 presentations, Avowed reminds us that the technology is just a tool and the success of its deployment lies in how that tool is used. This is one of the stronger console UE5 showings and now on PlayStation 5, Obsidian's excellent game brings its many charms to a wider audience.

The fundamentals are sound: Lumen and Nanite are expertly deployed, with image quality and performance characteristics that comfortably exceed some of the less successful UE5 console titles we've seen. To be clear, it's not razor-sharp at all times, but it lacks the ultra-soft, often messy sub-1080p presentations we've seen.

Similar to its Xbox Series X predecessor, the game ships with three modes: a 30fps quality mode, a 40fps balanced option intended for 120Hz displays, alongside the requisite 60fps performance offering. Oblivion also deserves kudos in providing unlocked variants for VRR users.

Quality mode targets 1440p, effectively trading frames for pixels. The existing Xbox Series X version hits that target more often than PS5, but the differences are subtle - as is often the case in the era of dynamic resolution scaling. AMD's FSR2 is used for upscaling duties rather than Epic's own TSR.

Both versions use hardware RT-based Lumen - quite rare on consoles, but with a twist. Rays are traced against a simplified geometric proxy to reduce the workload, and we think the results are superior to software-based Lumen's tracing against blobby SDFs (signed distance fields). Think of this as a hybrid solution - not as good as the PC's full-fat hardware Lumen, but an upgrade over the software version. Foliage appears in reflections, and even skinned meshes show up, albeit with darker, constrained results.

The 30fps quality mode is broadly comparable between PS5 and Series X, though the Sony console's frame-pacing is not as solid - but performance mode sees divergence. PS5 pares back distant shadows in the town hub and simplifies distant foliage compared to Series X, creating a noticeable reduction in shadow coverage - but it does seem to be just that specific area.

Resolution is also a touch lower: think sub-1080p vs a better lock to full HD on Xbox, though again, upscaling and temporal reconstruction make it less of an issue. PS5 does tend to run a little smoother in performance mode, however, but it's still basically a 50-60fps experience on both machines - ripe for VRR.

Balance mode at 40fps follows a similar pattern, with the similar but not quite as impactful distant shadow pullback visible on PS5 in the town area, but a stable 40fps is delivered on both consoles in normal conditions. More curious are the VRR and unlocked modes. On PS5, VRR is implemented correctly: the unlocked modes can run a bit faster than their frame-rate targets, and VRR cleans up the fluidity of the presentation nicely.

You're not getting massive gains - think mid-60s in performance mode, mid-to-high 40s in balance mode - but it works as it should. On Series X, by contrast, the unlocked modes are currently broken, exhibiting screen-tearing even with VRR enabled, which makes them effectively unusable. In this specific area, PS5 unexpectedly takes the lead in a world where Xbox's system-level VRR should be doing the developer's work for them.

Yes, you can play on PS5 Pro with some enhancements, but it's as basic as it's going to get. What you receive is essentially the same game as Xbox Series X in terms of both resolution and settings, with internal resolutions capping at 1440p and 1080p respectively for the quality and performance mode. Once again though, in the town area, there do seem to be some draw distance and shadow distance downgrades up against the Xbox console.

FSR2 again handles reconstruction, with no sign of PSSR in sight, no additional ray tracing effects, nor the dream of 30fps quality mode features running at 60fps - the target Pro was designed for. The Pro is at least more consistent in performance 60fps mode, while frame-pacing problems at 30fps are reduced - but not completely eliminated. Balanced mode locks to the target just as it does on other hardware.

In summary, Avowed on PS5 and PS5 Pro comes across as an accomplished Unreal Engine 5-based game. Properly implemented VRR is a nice bonus for PlayStation users, the three graphics modes represent a good level of choice to the user, while the deployment of Unreal Engine 5 features is balanced with the need to deliver a coherent, good-looking game. We'd still rank the PC version on decent hardware as the best place to play, but the bottom line is that everyone is getting a high quality version of a great game.