In prior God of War: Ragnarök coverage, we described the PlayStation 5 version of the game as akin to a maxed PC port of the PS4 code, operating with an essentially flawless level of performance. As the game launches, we wanted to expand on that with many more insights now the embargo restrictions on how much content we can show are over.
At the fundamental level, this release is a fascinating take on cross-gen development that looks beautiful and plays smoothly on PlayStation 5, while operating with a similar level of polish on PS4, albeit with lower target resolutions and frame-rates. Yes, there are cuts on the lower-spec machines but the drawbacks are not really noticeable outside of head-to-head comparisons - and the enhancements exclusive to PlayStation 5 often have a habit of becoming far less noticeable within the lower resolution window of the base PS4 especially.
The cross-gen philosophy here is entirely different than, say, Horizon Forbidden West - and that's largely down to a very different development process. In creating its vast, detail-rich open world, Guerrilla Games relies heavily on procedural generation to add detail - something that cannot be done on God of War, which is much more of an artist-driven endeavour, where this styel of programmatic enhancement simply isn't possible.