Housemarque's forthcoming rogue-lite Returnal may count among the few PlayStation 5 titles that can run 4K resolution at 60fps with ray tracing on. Thus far, ray tracing has been an interesting beast on current-gen platforms. While plenty of games allow players to enable ray tracing, such a feature is usually only accessible in a specified mode.
Notably, Marvel's Spider-Man Miles Morales became the first PS5 adventure to enable both ray tracing and 60fps with its Performance RT Mode. The PS5 remaster for Marvel's Spider-Man soon thereafter received an update with the exact same feature included. And Resident Evil Village will go a step above, thanks to its ray tracing-enabled mode on PS5 and Xbox Series X. A performance spreadsheet from Capcom claims the horror title runs 4K/45fps with ray tracing on, but Digital Foundry's testing with a recent gameplay demo shows the new Resident Evil entry actually has an uncapped frame rate. As a result, RE Village's 4K ray tracing mode can hit 60fps most of the time. Returnal may have all 4K, 60fps, and ray tracing fully locked in, however.
Twitter user Heisenreborn (via IGN) spotted an interesting detail from footage of Returnal that played during Portugal's MODO PlayStation event. Portuguese text captioned at the bottom of the screen suggests Housemarque's latest action-packed project will run 4K at 60 frames per second with ray-traced lighting enabled, a technical feat that, thus far, seems incredibly rare on the current-gen consoles from Microsoft and Sony.
As far as the public is concerned, there are only two other current-gen titles that will target 4K/60fps with ray tracing - barring Resident Evil Village's peculiar case of an unlocked frame rate. 4A Games' Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition, apparently, counts as one such game, with the studio promising it will run "4K/60fps with full ray-traced lighting" on PS5 and Xbox Series X. Comments from Quantum Error's development team suggests it, too, may be able to hit all three marks at once.
Returnal is sounding as though it will offer players much more than a technical marvel in terms of visual fidelity and performance. Early gameplay previews and impressions have been incredibly positive, praising the Metroidvania-styled world, fast-paced gameplay, eerie atmosphere, and the subtly told narrative. As such, Sony could have a hit on its hands with PS5's first major exclusive since Demon's Souls.
Returnal comes to PlayStation 5 exclusively on April 30.
Source: Heisenreborn/Twitter via IGN