General Information
Today, I have the PlayStation 5 version in front of me, and instead of treading old ground, I'm just going to give more concise coverage and point out any PS5-specific changes if any.
The general gist of the game and its mechanics can be found in the aforementioned PC review linked above.
Consolised on all Counts
To begin with, I noticed no significant menu changes throughout the set-up of the game All modes and options appear intact, and the controller configuration is preset for the PS5 DualSense controller.
I have to say that the controller input method is by far my favorite load-out and the DS controller feels superb to play this game with. The trigger effect is well implemented here too with haptics and adaptive triggers adding a little more immersion whilst you gawp at the blood-curdling action on PS5.
For some reason, this dual analogue stick set-up feels like the game controls a little more like a twin-stick shooter, with the left analogue stick controlling movement and the right one your attack direction. This means you can be more easily strafing away from an enemy but still remain attacking in their direction with projectiles and mid-ranged combos.
The Camera button is now on the L2 trigger, so swinging the camera around to look down clearings and adjust your vision around the map is incredibly easy now, far more fluid than before.
Tapping up or down on the D-Pad also changes the camera angle to close-in or zoom out from the player, but if you zoom in and hold L2 you can also play a lot more akin to a Third-Person beat-em-up as opposed to a traditional zoomed-out RPG.
It's worth noting that the PC version recently got an update to use the DualSense controller via USB and these methods work the same on the PC version now!
A Fang-tastic Port
PlayStation Players should know that this version is nigh-on identical to the PC release. You have all the hacking and slashing gore, the collection and crafting, and the castle-building with zero notable cuts or alterations.
Graphically I didn't see too many differences, other than the color palette being slightly more vibrant. The colors pop more, and the screen looks less washed out overall. As a result, I think I preferred the look of the game on PS5 more than that of the PC version. It has a slightly more appealing hue across each biome and the shadows and lighting effects are slightly more crisp and pronounced in my opinion.
The FPS is a solid 60 on PS5, with no notable slowdown at all, and I would even go as far as to say that the graphic fidelity appears a little higher than that of the PC release. However, this could be some schwifty console trickery on my 65" LG OLED compared to my (2021) 120Hz laptop monitor on my RTX 3060 powered by Ryzen 5600H with 16GB RAM.
Bleeding Your Wallet Dry
At just £32.99, the pricing is almost in line with the PC version, though it's currently £29.50 on Steam; but there is one more caveat to consider on top of that 11% price difference: PSN. Yes, a PlayStation Network account is required to play this game online and as a PVP builder, you're going to want to play online with mates or randomers, to get the full experience. This is something that PC gamers don't even need to think about, nor factor into the price of playing the game.
V Rising is triumphant across PC and PlayStation 5 with the latter slightly edging it for me in terms of graphical fidelity and color saturation. The only lingering issue is that of the PSN requirement which is a minimum of £6.99 extra to play the full game for a month on Sony's latest console.
