The PS4’s swan song, Ghost of Tsushima dazzled us with its beautiful world, which took some time to load. Unfortunately, playing the game off the SSD on PS5 doesn’t impact the loading times. Despite launching a patch that optimizes the game for PS5, it does not appear that the SSD plays much of a factor. It’s extremely odd as loading has benefited every other PS4 game tested.
Beyond Light’s story ends up somewhat superfluous, with the campaign falling into familiar Destiny storytelling problems. Eramis could have been an interesting villain had the campaign built more empathy towards her. In the end, she’s just another generic, mustache-twirling Destiny villain. Beyond Light’s campaign boils down to defeating her lieutenants and defeating her, similar to what we already did in Forsaken , except a lot fewer lieutenants and personality. Less interesting describes other elements of the story. After a six-year absence, the Exo-Stranger finally returns, but anything interesting we learn about her lies outside the main campaign. Drifter and Eris Morn are also along for the ride, but ultimately, their presence is negligible. Rather than being active members in the campaign, they’re mostly used as set decoration you can interact with every now and again. It also doesn’t help just how short the story is, lasting 5-6 hours depending on how fast you can get quality gear. The quest to destroy Eramis doesn’t do much to get players invested, but it also doesn’t overstay its welcome. It also helps that Bungie learned from Shadowkeep’s campaign by cutting out the grinding missions, instead focusing more on narrative missions. It makes for a more entertaining romp than Shadowkeep.
Destiny 2: Beyond Light is a beautiful addition to an already gorgeous looking game. Despite releasing in 2017, Destiny 2 remains a beauty thanks to its strong artistic vision. Europa is an enchanting world to run through with its snow effects, glossy white lab interiors, and towering buildings. The game runs well, but the current-gen consoles’ limitations still hold it back, and load times remain annoyingly long. Hopefully the release of the native next-gen versions on December 8 will truly unlock Destiny 2 Bushido Armor 2’s potential on consoles.
Some of that can happen in Skyrim too, but players have so many more options in that game. Ever-present fast travel makes retreat a much more attractive option. Easily-trained skills mean always having a strong backup option, with little need for either planning or improvisation. The same goes for having enemies that rely almost exclusively on dealing pure damage rather than attacking through debuffs and drains. It’s not necessarily easier, especially on higher difficulties, but it’s more convenient for the player. It’s not 100% bad, but it does come at the cost of a potentially more rewarding and memorable adventure.
Released early in the PS4’s lifecycle, Bloodborne remains one of the best games on the platform. Unfortunately, at launch, the game was hampered with extremely long load times. Thankfully, From Software continued to work on that post-launch. Today, Bloodborne’s load times are extremely fast on PS4, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be better, which is where PS5 comes in. Overall, we’re looking at modest improvements to an already fast-loading game.
Shortly after the Guardians travel left down the path leading into the Vault of Glass, the pathway abruptly stops. It forces players to go left through a doorway. However, if players make their way to the edge of the pathway on the left side, they can drop down and turn around quickly to find a secret opening. Follow this passageway to find the second secret chest. The secret chests throughout the Vault of Glass will contain Spoils of Conquest and specific Vault of Glass armor m
Of course, this wouldn’t be a new Destiny 2 expansion without a new Raid and Beyond Light delivers a standout one. Deep Stone Crypt fuses atmosphere, storytelling, puzzles and challenge in an immensely satisfying way. It’s the crowning achievement of Beyond Light, even though few players might actually get a chance to enjoy it. After the Raid, there’s precious little else to do. As mentioned before, the removal of content has left the remainder of Destiny 2 a shell of its former self. There’s less of everything in Destiny 2: Beyond Light, but at least the gameplay is still fantastic. Bungie’s gunplay has been spot-on since it first released Halo: Combat Evolved and they’ve continuously improved it since then. Destiny 2: Beyond Light remains a fun, fluid shooter to play through and will help take your mind off the continuous grind for a bit.
We’ve taken some of PS4’s most popular, and longest-loading titles, and put them to the test on PS5’s SSD. Do note, to get the most out of PS4 titles on PS5, the games have to be installed on the PS5’s SSD. You can still play PS4 games off an external HDD, but you won’t get the load time benefits.
