Much as it’s been with nearly every PS5 game that’s offered similar settings so far, I find myself gravitating towards Rift Apart’s performance-based options. While the game’s Fidelity Mode is impressive, this is a game that just feels so much better when it’s consistently running at 60 FPS. Rift Apart does a pretty good job of making an argument for the “Fidelity” experience, but it still seems like that option is mostly for photo mode fans or those who truly do not care about high FPS gameplay.
I ultimately parked the game in Performance Mode, but I do have to give a shoutout to the Performance RT option. It works better than the equivalent option offered in Miles Morales, and while I’m not convinced that the occasional ray tracing effect is worth making the PS5 work harder to maintain 60 FPS+ gameplay, it’s the closest I’ve come to seeing a PS5 game that offers the best of both worlds.
Rift Apart Competes With Demon’s Souls as the Most Impressive PS5 Photo Mode Option
I mentioned the idea of Rift Apart’s photo mode viability earlier, which is really just another way of saying how good the game’s screenshots look. Simply put, if you were trying to sell someone on the PS5’s power and could only use one screenshot to do it, would you show them a picture of Rift Apart?
So far as that goes, I’d actually still recommend Demon’s Souls over Rift Apart if you were trying to showcase the power through images alone. Rift Apart certainly doesn’t look “bad” in photos, but as noted above, this is a game that showcases the benefits of its next-gen technology when you’re actually playing it. At a glance, I don’t know if Rift Apart’s character designs, textures, and more obvious visual details are quite as impressive as what we saw in Demon’s Souls.
That’s another argument “against” Rift Apart’s Fidelity setting. While Demon’s Souls’ slower style makes it a bit easier to argue for playing the game at 30 FPS (even if I’d still recommend that game’s performance equivalent). Rift Apart practically demands as many frames per second as possible in order to properly convey the things it does so well.
Having said all of that, Rift Apart is obviously a beautiful game, and its robust photo mode options make it pretty easy to grab some beautiful pictures. In fact, taking the time to explore Rift Apart‘s photo mode is one of the best ways to appreciate some of Fidelity’s more impressive visual effects. You don’t really notice things like the reflections in a character’s eyes while you’re trying to survive another battle, but it’s hard not to be impressed with those kinds of details when you’re able to take the time to construct a perfect snapshot.
