In summary, there's so much to like about Returnal on PC, aside from its lack of FSR2 at launch and its stutter problems. The settings are excellent, the benchmark is top tier and both of these things should be emulated by other developers. The image quality upgrades alone make this worth looking at, even if you've already played on PS5, while the option to run at 120fps or higher is seriously transformative to a game like this. Honestly, I felt somewhat overpowered playing the game on PC - I did not die during my gameplay run for the b-roll I gathered for the video, all the way up to the third biome, something I could never achieve with a PS5 pad.
But this was the result of playing on a high-end CPU and with ray tracing purposefully turned off to avoid the stutters that are associated with it - and nothing can overcome traversal and door-opening stutter. As good as this port is, these issues are problematic on mainstream CPUs so I would recommend waiting with a purchase if you're on a mid-range rig, where the drawbacks are magnified significantly. On a high-end processor, I can recommend the game as is, with the caveat that ray tracing is disabled. Based on my conversations with the developer throughout the review period, I am optimistic for positive outcomes in addressing my problems with the port as it stands, and we'll do our best to keep you updated with progress.
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