Check left as if it were pushing the last generation of consoles to their breaking point, with tons of performance issues on the old machines. Despite these problems it was a great game, my favorite of 2019. Now, with the next-gen release of Checkmany of these issues have disappeared, and an already great game has been improved with better performance and useful new features.
Check, developed by Remedy, the people behind Max Payne and Alan Wake, was released for PC, PS4 and Xbox One in August 2019. The PC version, after some patches, was a fantastic way to play this creepy third person shooter full of supernatural enemies. The console ports did not work that well. On PS4 Pro and Xbox One X, the more powerful, improved machines of the last generation, Check would still struggle to maintain its 30fps target. During big battles with lots of flying objects and particle effects popping out, it can fall well below that target. And on the older base consoles, it was more likely to crochet or become extremely slow to play. Add to that long loading times and you have a bit of mess.
Control Ultimate Edition, out today for PS5 and Xbox Series X / S, is a true next-gen port of the game. It has ray-traced reflections, improved frame rates, faster loading times, and higher resolution. But there are a few caveats. First, if you don’t own it Control Ultimate Edition you should repurchase the game as the original version of Check will not upgrade to the next generation port. It’s very annoying that upset many and is still a crappy situation.
One more catch: rescues from the last generation versions of the game don’t carry over. Remedy says this is because the engine is so different it would have taken a lot of extra work to transfer the saves correctly. One final catch is that the game on Xbox Series S has no ray tracing and will run at an internal resolution of 900p, which is then boosted to an output resolution of 1080p. Oh, and I haven’t played the Xbox Series X port of Ultimate Edition, although Remedy says it should be visually identical to the PS5 game, and I expect that will be true.
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So with that stuff out of the way, how are you? Check play on PS5? In a word: heavenly.
You get a choice on PS5 and Xbox Series X: performance mode and graphics mode. In performance mode, the game targets and usually hits 60fps. I saw a few small dips during some larger areas full of enemies, but these were barely noticeable and compared to how the game was running on PS4 it’s still a huge improvement.
The other option, graphics mode, is locked at 30fps but supports ray-traced reflections. The ray tracing functions in Control Ultimate Edition are not as impressive as in some high end PC games, such as Metro: Exodus. But they still add an extra level of detail to the world. Glossy walls, glass windows and reflective marble floors all feature realistic and accurate reflections that add to the visual appeal of the game.
In the heat of battle, however, I found myself rarely noticing reflections, and I missed the smooth feel of 60fps. Outside of ray-traced reflections, both modes appear to look almost identical. For example, shadows don’t look better in graphics mode or worse in performance. So it seems like the big decision you have to make is whether you want a 60fps or 30fps action with ray-traced reflections. I think Check, on all platforms, already looks great, so the ray tracing features don’t feel like a noticeable improvement, especially at the expense of halving performance. Still, it’s a nice option to include. Incidentally, both modes render with an internal resolution of 1440p and are output to an upscaled 4k, creating a sharp, clear image.
Loading times are also much shorter on PS5 with most loading screens ready in 12 seconds. While this is fast, especially compared to load times on old machines that can take more than 30 or even 40 seconds, the PS5’s load times aren’t nearly as fast as I’d hoped. However, this is mainly because I’ve gotten used to other PS5 games, such as Miles Morales, which have lightning-fast load times of a few seconds or less. Either way, you’ll spend a lot less time looking at a loading screen in Control Ultimate Edition, which is great.
Control Ultimate Edition also comes with all previously released DLC which is great for me as I’ve never played Control’s DLC, instead choose to wait for a next-generation port. Lucky me!
If you can make you have to buy the game again and not transfer your old saved files, Ultimate Edition on the next generation of consoles is the best way to play Check outside of a solid powerful PC. If you didn’t like it Check when it first came out, either because it was too difficult or because you didn’t find the world exciting, this new gate won’t change your mind. But if you’ve bounced back from the old game due to long loading times or performance issues, now might be the best time to jump back in.