The release of Code Vein 2 has turned into a scandal. Technical reviewers have torn the game apart for its extremely inconsistent graphical quality. Even at maximum settings in 4K resolution, the game manages to look like a project from 2005. In some locations, ground and wall textures look as if they were forgotten and not updated since the PlayStation 3 era. They are blurry, low-resolution, and devoid of any detail. Players and critics note the "flat" and "plastic" appearance of character models. In some scenes, lighting works incorrectly, causing characters to look like models from Blender without applied shaders—the so-called Blender export look.
At the same time, even on powerful PCs, textures and objects load right before the player's eyes with every camera turn or angle change in cutscenes. Yes, LOD and other similar streaming techniques are optimization tools, but here they didn't just overdo it—they literally messed up. Moreover, the game manages to stutter even on a Ryzen 7 9800X3D. Players report that the graphics card (even an RTX 5080) might only be utilized at 60-70%, yet the FPS doesn't go above 60, and this is with literally the most powerful gaming processor on the market. On consoles, by the way, it's even worse.