Stellar Blade: for Digital Foundry it promises very well, here are the details on the graphics modes

Digital Foundry carried out a preliminary analysis of Stellar Blade, based on the demo published a few days ago on the PlayStation Store. Although it is only a small portion of the entire adventure, what we have seen seems to have impressed tech enthusiasts favorably.

In the technical preview created by Thomas Morgan, the work done by Shift Up with the Unreal Engine is praised, which already in the demo offers some truly exciting and several very refined elements. In particular, the intermission scenes highlight a great attention to detail of the characters. For example, Eve boasts very high-quality skin shaders and highly detailed facial animations, plus the light reacts believably with skin, hair, eyes and the suit. By the way, the number of lighting points in the scenes are numerous, with particle effects and transparencies that enrich the scenes, so much so that the gameplay sequences seem almost like a computer graphics animated film.

There's not just appearance, but also substance, with Digital Foundry praising the physics management. For example, Eve's hair moves in a natural and very realistic way even during the most frenetic sequences and the most choreographed moves. Or, again, the enemies are decapitated exactly in the point of the body where the protagonist's blade passes and even the objects break and move in a believable way. Clearly, it is too early to draw conclusions and it will be necessary to see if the rest of the game will be as well looked after as the first hour playable in the Stellar Blade demo.

The graphics modes

Even for them graphics modes Digital Foundry specifies that it is impossible to make an informed judgment based on the demo, but at least two of the three options proposed by Stellar Blade seem potentially valid.

There Balanced mode, active by default, offers a framerate that aims at 60 fps and a 4K resolution obtained through upscaling starting from a dynamic resolution that on average settles at 1296p. Despite some graphic artifacts and an fps count that can fall below the set target, often settling between 50 and 60 fps, for Digital Foundry it is the preset that offers the best compromise between quality and performance, especially for those who can activate the VRR to attenuate fluidity fluctuations.

Those aiming for a granite framerate can opt for the Performance modeoffers a fixed 60 fps in exchange for a starting resolution of 1440p accompanied by a more aggressive upscaling, which inevitably offers a lower image quality than the aforementioned preset.

Finally, the Quality mode it has a native 4K resolution and a framerate locked at 30 fps, which is not an optimal solution in an action game, although the image quality is the best among the proposed presets, despite not offering further advantages, such as reflections and/or global illumination in ray tracing.

Before leaving you, we remind you that Stellar Blade will be available from April 26 exclusively for PS5. Just recently, Shift Up confirmed that after launch the game will receive new costumes and the New Game Plus mode via free updates.