Bandai Namco has released CODE VEIN 2 to those who have pre-ordered its Deluxe version. As such, I’ve tried the game on my main PC gaming system and… well… things are not that great. Why? Let’s find out.
For starters, I used an AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D, 32GB of DDR5 at 6000Mhz, and an NVIDIA RTX 5090. I also used Windows 10 64-bit, and the GeForce 591.74 driver.
CODE VEIN 2 comes with a few graphics settings. PC gamers can adjust the quality of Textures, Global Illumination, Shadows, and more. The game is using Unreal Engine 5.4.4. There is also support for NVIDIA DLSS and AMD FSR. However, there is no support for Frame Gen or Reflex.
At Native 4K/Max Settings, CODE VEIN 2 struggles to run with 60FPS on the NVIDIA RTX 5090. While the first dungeon runs great, performance takes a big hit once you hit the open world. In the open-world area, the framerate can get down to the 50s.
Now, I wouldn’t mind something like that if the game’s visuals justified those requirements. However, it seems there is something really wrong going on here. In shadowy areas, the game can look like a PS3 game. And no, I’m not exaggerating here. Ambient Occlusion and Shadows are nonexistent in those areas, and everything looks bland and flat. The lighting looks completely broken. Seriously, take a look at the following screenshots.
Again, these screenshots are at Native 4K on Max Settings. MAX SETTINGS. And a game looking like this is running with 50-60FPS on the NVIDIA RTX 5090. What in the bloody hell?
When there is direct lighting from the sun, the game can at least look better. Here are some screenshots with sunlight. Yes, it still won’t “wow” you with its graphics, but it at least looks OK. But man, I can’t believe how bad this game looks in those shadowy places. And no, I’m not exaggerating when calling it a PS3-like title (in those areas).
Bandai Namco has not acknowledged those visual issues yet. However, I don’t know how they have missed them. You will immediately notice them in the forest right when you exit the first dungeon.
For those wondering, no. This isn’t an issue with my PC. At the end of the article, you can find a video from a different user that has the exact same issues. At 11:09, you can see these visual issues. They are exactly the same as those I’ve shared.
Our PC Performance Analysis for CODE VEIN 2 will go live this weekend. In this article, we’ll benchmark numerous GPUs from both AMD and NVIDIA. So, stay tuned for more!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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