A Plague Tale: Requiem has been released and reviewed and the sequel has been a clear upgrade in some aspects, but fails in some signifcant ways. We said it's "akin to the jump between The Last of Us and Part 2" noting the larger, more open level design, while graphically Requiem can look spectacular. But that's not the only Naughty Dog comparison as reviewers and players have made Uncharted comparisons too in the game's narrative pace.
However, unlike Uncharted 4 on the PS5, it appears A Plague Tale: Requiem doesn't have the higher framerates that current-gen console players have gotten used to. There's no 60fps option with Asobo's action-adventure stealth title – in fact it's limited to 30fps on the PS5, while Xbox Series X players see a slight advantage in that Microsoft's console can hold that framerate more consistently. Players are unhappy about this cap and making it known.
Both the Xbox Series X and PS5 run A Plague Tale: Requiem at 1440p and 30fps. However, performance on the PS5 can dip to 24fps in more challenging scenes, while the lower-powered Xbox Series S is capped to 1080p and 30fps and can suffer similar dips to the PS5. But there is one small glimmer in that the game can go to 40fps on PS5, with VRR in 120hz mode as long as you have a compatible TV or monitor (thanks Pushsquare). You can see a detailed breakdown courtesy of the below video:
Players have gotten used to the smoother action and visuals that 60fps provides, and games on PS5 and Xbox Series X often come with different modes favouring either resolution or framerate or in some cases finding a balance between the two.
On the PS5 subreddit, a post about Requiem's 30fps cap has people talking with more than 1,200 comments at the time of writing. "The fact that this [game] is 1440p/30fps and not at least 4K/30fps is utterly shocking tbh, I was not ready for that," wrote one commentor. "Like, is this really that demanding of a game?"
It seems the game is actually quite demanding (although optimisation could also be an issue). In our review, our editor found that the game's "larger scale" is "clearly pushing even the PS5 to its limits, and often it struggles to keep up."
"Developer Asobo boasted that there are now 30,000 rats on screen, 60 times more than the original could handle. Unfortunately, the framerate drops substantially when these swarms are near fire, which, given large parts of the game involve repelling the rodents using light sources, happens quite a lot."
That the game doesn't run 4K at 30fps on current-gen consoles does seem pretty disappointing. Does it suggest we are already hitting limits for the PS5 and Xbox Series X, and that mid-gen refreshes are in fact warranted? We will have to see as more games test hardware capabilities.