PS5 review: It's what's on the inside that counts

While Sony faced an uphill battle with the PS3 against Microsoft’s Xbox 360 in the mid-2000s, the company managed to win hearts and minds with the launch of the PS4. The console became the de facto lead platform for most multiplatform games and enjoyed an impressive library of exclusives that stood tall against the offerings from the Xbox team. As the launch of two new consoles is upon us, Sony is hoping to carry that momentum into 2021 and beyond with a new machine featuring a unique outer styling and a revamped controller. While the array of launch software is incredibly lean, what is here is solid, and a strong back catalog of exclusives should help to make the wait for true next-gen games less painful.

It looks like a...uh…

Sony consoles have always enjoyed somewhat understated designs going back to the original PlayStation. I would consider the PS5 the first of the family lineup to deviate from the norm with its two-tone paint job and wavy flaps. While it may look right at home on the set of Wall-E, it stood out like a sore thumb in my living room. It is a large enclosure relative to other consoles and when standing next to the Xbox Series X, it looks downright massive. It can be placed in both horizontal or vertical orientations, but I was not able to make either work for me. 

In the horizontal position, it was too wide to fit inside my AV stand and, subjectively, looks a bit goofier than it does when upright. Placing it on top of my stand also didn’t work as the space between the top of the stand and the wall-mounted television meant that the PS5 blocked the bottom corner of the screen. My temporary solution involved putting the console upright on a spare stool near the TV. I would really like to see the rejected designs that failed to make the cut compared to the final product because they must have been a special kind of bad for this to be the cream of the crop.

Despite my animosity towards the console's industrial design, I really like what Sony has done with its new controller, known as DualSense. I’ve never been a fan of the DualShock pads, though I thought the DualShock 4 was easily the most tolerable the company had produced. The DualSense evolves the design in many positive ways, resulting in a pad that feels good in the hand, with well-balanced weight distribution and solid stick and buttons. The textured plastic on the controller grips is a big upgrade over the smooth DualShock 4 grips and if you can manage to zoom way in with your phone or magnifying glass, you’ll notice that the texture is made of the PlayStation face button symbols. I’d imagine that the plastic tooling work required to achieve this must have been incredibly laborious and I appreciate such attention to detail that most may miss.

The DualSense makes use of a rechargeable battery that offers a good amount of use before needing a refill. I got around six hours or more while testing the console in continuous runs. This included using the strongest possible rumble feedback in games that offered such an option. The improved haptic feedback is appreciated, though I don’t feel it to be the game-changing feature that Sony has been hyping. I suspect it will be used much like the Nintendo Switch JoyCon haptics, with some software developers offering meaningful use and others outright ignoring it.

The triggers feel good enough and can be software controlled to offer greater resistance that kicks in mid-pull. It is somewhat similar to how the 2-stage triggers on the Gamecube pad worked, though more precise. I assume it would be possible for developers to take this feature further, such as a racing game simulating a loadcell braking system, but I saw nothing during my evaluation period that would indicate this is possible. The included controller features seem ok for now, but may ultimately wind up as gimmicks. That said, as a basic controller, the DualSense is still a big win and I would like for Sony to offer official drivers for PC use as I suspect it could find a big audience on that platform. 

But what about the games?

During my evaluation period with the PS5, I had access to most of my digital PS4 library as well as an early copy of Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales. As a PS Plus subscriber, I also had access to the PS Plus Collection. I installed several of these catalog titles to test basic backwards compatibility as well as a few of the entries that touted PS5-specific enhancements.

The first thing I fired up was Uncharted 4 as it was my favorite PS4 game. It is still the exact same as it was on PS4 Pro and I did not notice any meaningful improvements to load times. That said, there were no explicit promises of any enhancements here, so no harm, no foul. God of War was next up on my list as it has been advertised to be enhanced for PS5. After selecting Favor Resolution mode, I dove into the action and was happy to see that all the slowdown and sluggish feeling from combat I experience in this mode on the PS4 Pro was now smooth and clean. Similar results were seen with Days Gone after it received a small patch to enable PS5 enhancements. It pains me to share that Bloodborne fans hoping for a smooth 30Hz output will be disappointed as the game's performance is as rough as it was on the vanilla PS4.

As the game that was provided to offer a glimpse of the power of the PS5, I was excited to dig into Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales. I really enjoyed the first game on PS4 and always wished that it had a PC port as I wanted to swing through the city at 60 frames per second. Thankfully, the PS5 version of Miles Morales makes that wish come true. The game offers two operating modes that allows the end user to go for smoother framerate or nicer visuals. Performance Mode aims for a 60Hz experience and closely resembles the visuals of the PS4 Pro version of the first game. Fidelity Mode uses a 30Hz cap but offers better lighting, depth of field effects, better hair, and greatly improved reflections by way of ray tracing.

The Fidelity Mode gives a taste of what next-gen could bring but is not a monster leap over its more performant counterpart. It also suffers from dips and stutters during cutscenes that I didn’t see in Performance Mode. Playing the game in Performance Mode was more enjoyable due to the lower input lag and more involved combat. Both modes operate at a lower resolution that is reconstructed up to a 4K output from the PS5 to your display. The PS5 promised a next-gen experience, so it is a bit of a bummer that you can’t have your cake and eat it too, even with a cross-gen game like Miles Morales.

The front end menus on the PS5 get a reworking from how they appeared on PS4 and it was generally easy to find what I needed within the menu system. Holding the PS button on the DualSense pops up a menu at the bottom of the screen that lets you monitor controller battery life, enter Rest Mode, and the like. It only seems to be accessible from the Home Screen, though. Loading in and out of games felt a bit snappier than PS4 Pro, thanks to the included SSD. It also allowed for near-instant fast travel in Miles Morales. I did not personally see much else during my time with the PS5 that gave any indication that its SSD was going to have a monstrous impact on day to day use. The system comes with roughly 675GB of usable space out of the box and I suspect storage management will be an issue for many gamers in the near future. I filled the drive to capacity in no time.

U R not Red E

As there are other titles promised for the PS5 launch that have yet to come across my desk, I can’t offer a comprehensive take on everything the PS5 is or could be for Holiday 2020, but what I was given did inspire some confidence. The PS Plus Collection will be invaluable to anyone who missed out on the PS4 lifecycle and Mile Morales is sure to delight most folks as a launch companion. Still, nothing about my short time with the PS5 offered anything that felt next-gen, much like the Xbox Series X. Sony’s track record with exclusives helps to ease some of my concerns, but this package is still tough to recommend to casuals, at least during the initial launch window.

This review is based on the disc version of the PS5. The hardware was provided by Sony. The PS5 launches on November 12, 2020, for $499.

Chris Jarrard

Contributing Tech Editor

Chris Jarrard likes playing games, crankin' tunes, and looking for fights on obscure online message boards. He understands that breakfast food is the only true food. Don't @ him.