Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Falls To 454p on Xbox Series S

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Abdullah Waseem

At HI Digital I test and write about different hardware configurations to show other PC users what they can expect from their build. My end goal is to educate the masses to make the right decision when they are looking for new PC parts to buy

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Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Remake dropped 11 years after the release of the original release. However, it appears the remake is not too well optimized to run on modern console hardware, particularly the Xbox Series S.

In Digital Foundry’s testing, the game drops to 454p using the performance mode on the Xbox Series S.

Why it matters: The remake has been built using the latest Unreal Engine 5, with this performance highlighting this engine’s intense demands and the fact that many teams are still not fully used to this technology.

Even on the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5, it typically runs at around 1080p while using the performance mode.

For a title with less intensive graphics, the performance raises many questions. When using the quality mode, the game still struggles to achieve a 4K resolution, hovering between 1260p and 1620p on the Series X as well as the PS5.

Meanwhile, the Xbox Series S only goes up to 720p in quality mode. The performance mode makes it look even worse by lowering the resolution to 454p for most of the gameplay.

Despite these low-resolution targets, the remake fails to maintain 60FPS in performance mode. The frame rate frequently dips below this target, dropping into the 30FPS range on all platforms quite often.

These instances are so frequent that Digital Foundry recommends avoiding the 60FPS mode altogether.

While the Xbox Series S has been subject to criticism from various developers in the past, this instance has more to do with the game than the hardware itself.

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Remake uses Lumen and Nanite to realize Unreal Engine 5’s potential. This seems to be the major performance roadblock, making the game taxing for all systems.

Still, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Remake is a significant visual upgrade over its older version. This game has always been a joy to play in co-op, and the remake only makes it better, barring the obvious performance drawbacks.

Abdullah Waseem

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