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Senua's Saga: Hellblade II
- Thread starter polonyc2
- Start date
I went back and looked at my review of the first game (I played it before the ray-tracing patch was added)...
"I finished this up last night...wasn't all that impressed...interesting storytelling as far as dealing with mental illness but overall as a game I was bored and couldn't wait for it to end...luckily it was pretty short...the way they explained the lore was very tedious...the entire game seems to be about puzzle solving mixed with some combat
the combat was very good but also got very repetitive...could have used more combat moves...there were some parts that made me think of Sekiro (rot infecting the character the more she dies, the deflecting mechanic)...overall it was an interesting game in parts but not one I want to ever replay"
https://hardforum.com/threads/hellblade-senuas-sacrifice.1848041/page-3#post-1044314280
"I finished this up last night...wasn't all that impressed...interesting storytelling as far as dealing with mental illness but overall as a game I was bored and couldn't wait for it to end...luckily it was pretty short...the way they explained the lore was very tedious...the entire game seems to be about puzzle solving mixed with some combat
the combat was very good but also got very repetitive...could have used more combat moves...there were some parts that made me think of Sekiro (rot infecting the character the more she dies, the deflecting mechanic)...overall it was an interesting game in parts but not one I want to ever replay"
https://hardforum.com/threads/hellblade-senuas-sacrifice.1848041/page-3#post-1044314280
I actually don't mind this at all...fits the cinematic style of the game...overall it seems more like a movie than a game anyhow...plus it's a short 6-8 hour extremely linear campaign so I don't think most people will mind the black bars
Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II is similar in many ways, but like its predecessor, it offers an incredibly memorable experience. With many of the same strengths and weaknesses of Senua’s first journey, some may wish the game had evolved a bit more, but this is a game players won’t soon forget.
Nothing has been reinvented(in combat), but the experience of playing it feels a lot better.
The puzzle side of things has been overhauled in a lot bigger way. The weakest moments in the first Hellblade were when you were forced into environmental puzzles which simply didn’t feel good to engage with. They often required you to stand in a very specific spot and see some minor detail of the background, which felt pointless. There are still some environmental puzzles in Senua’s Saga, but they’re better incorporated and feel a lot more fair. They’re also mixed with new areas that require you to manipulate the environment in fascinating ways. These areas progressively get more challenging as the game goes on, and I found them a lot more interesting than any of the puzzles in the previous game.
While there are moments that are somehow gorgeous and horrifying all at once, there are other moments that are simply beautiful, with stunning vistas, unforgettable lighting, and jaw-dropping effects. It helps that the visuals here look as good as anything I’ve played on the Xbox Series X, and the audio experience is so good that it practically demands you listen to it with a good set of headphones.
This isn’t mere window dressing, either. This is a case of beautiful graphics and wonderful sounds coming together to create a true experience, one where every element enhances the others. Add in some truly breathtaking and highly emotional sequences that I won’t spoil, and you have a game that affected me in ways no other game has.
https://www.heypoorplayer.com/2024/05/21/senuas-saga-hellblade-ii-review-xbox-series-x/
Nothing has been reinvented(in combat), but the experience of playing it feels a lot better.
The puzzle side of things has been overhauled in a lot bigger way. The weakest moments in the first Hellblade were when you were forced into environmental puzzles which simply didn’t feel good to engage with. They often required you to stand in a very specific spot and see some minor detail of the background, which felt pointless. There are still some environmental puzzles in Senua’s Saga, but they’re better incorporated and feel a lot more fair. They’re also mixed with new areas that require you to manipulate the environment in fascinating ways. These areas progressively get more challenging as the game goes on, and I found them a lot more interesting than any of the puzzles in the previous game.
While there are moments that are somehow gorgeous and horrifying all at once, there are other moments that are simply beautiful, with stunning vistas, unforgettable lighting, and jaw-dropping effects. It helps that the visuals here look as good as anything I’ve played on the Xbox Series X, and the audio experience is so good that it practically demands you listen to it with a good set of headphones.
This isn’t mere window dressing, either. This is a case of beautiful graphics and wonderful sounds coming together to create a true experience, one where every element enhances the others. Add in some truly breathtaking and highly emotional sequences that I won’t spoil, and you have a game that affected me in ways no other game has.
https://www.heypoorplayer.com/2024/05/21/senuas-saga-hellblade-ii-review-xbox-series-x/
DLSS provides the best image quality compromise of the lot, although it's still not without its drawbacks. Like all of the upscaling options here, it sometimes struggles with fur, clothing, and Senua's long, braided hair, and I did experience some odd visual artifacting in the sky in certain scenes.
If you're an Nvidia card owner, it should come as little surprise that I'm going to recommend DLSS for your upscaling needs. I tested it on an RTX 4070-equipped laptop, and found that, while DLSS still struggles with certain visual aspects, it provided a good balance of image quality and frame rate gains. Although it still displays the odd "fizzing" around hair strands and the occasional odd artifact.
(For Radeon cards) I eventually settled on XeSS at the Quality setting on my AMD-powered RX 7800 XT machine. Ultra Quality made little perceptible difference to the image over Quality while providing around 10% less frame rate.
While FSR 3 does a better job of grass and foliage, I prefer the way XeSS handles hair, which—given that Senua is on screen for 99% of the time with her flowing locks swaying in the wind—I find much less distracting than the other options. TSR is very usable, but the frame rate gains slimmer than I would like.
https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/se...ises-youre-prepared-to-make-to-image-quality/
If you're an Nvidia card owner, it should come as little surprise that I'm going to recommend DLSS for your upscaling needs. I tested it on an RTX 4070-equipped laptop, and found that, while DLSS still struggles with certain visual aspects, it provided a good balance of image quality and frame rate gains. Although it still displays the odd "fizzing" around hair strands and the occasional odd artifact.
(For Radeon cards) I eventually settled on XeSS at the Quality setting on my AMD-powered RX 7800 XT machine. Ultra Quality made little perceptible difference to the image over Quality while providing around 10% less frame rate.
While FSR 3 does a better job of grass and foliage, I prefer the way XeSS handles hair, which—given that Senua is on screen for 99% of the time with her flowing locks swaying in the wind—I find much less distracting than the other options. TSR is very usable, but the frame rate gains slimmer than I would like.
https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/se...ises-youre-prepared-to-make-to-image-quality/
If Hellblade 2 achieves only one thing it is to act as proof that there is absolutely no need for a new generation of consoles, despite rumours of Xbox planning to start one as early as 2026. It also proves that modern games don’t need hundreds of people to make amazing looking graphics, since it was made by a team of just 80. Hellblade 2 is probably the best-looking video game to ever appear on a console and yet it’s still almost the only first party title on the Xbox Series X/S that isn’t also on Xbox One – hinting at how much more the hardware still has to give.
Hellblade 2 is frustrating on several levels because the work that has gone into the game, in terms of the visuals and audio is exemplary. Ninja Theory is only a small studio and yet the graphics are staggeringly good, and the voice-acting equally convincing. The presentational flourishes are frequently jaw-dropping too, especially a section in the middle that, while it steals a bit too liberally from the movie The Descent, plays with Senua’s perception in other ways beyond just the kaleidoscope effect of the doors.
And yet, as astounding as the graphics are the game never really finds anything interesting to do with them and a large percentage of the game is just slowly walking forward while listening to the Furies and/or your various companions. It’s not quite a walking simulator but it’s not far off.
Despite our issues with the game, it’s worrying to think what might happen to Ninja Theory in the future, given Microsoft’s culling of developers that make anything other than hyper successful triple-A games. But what Ninja Theory has done with such a small team should be celebrated and used as a template for the future, at least terms of the visuals and production.
https://metro.co.uk/2024/05/21/senuas-saga-hellblade-2-review-best-console-graphics-ever-20874219/
Hellblade 2 is frustrating on several levels because the work that has gone into the game, in terms of the visuals and audio is exemplary. Ninja Theory is only a small studio and yet the graphics are staggeringly good, and the voice-acting equally convincing. The presentational flourishes are frequently jaw-dropping too, especially a section in the middle that, while it steals a bit too liberally from the movie The Descent, plays with Senua’s perception in other ways beyond just the kaleidoscope effect of the doors.
And yet, as astounding as the graphics are the game never really finds anything interesting to do with them and a large percentage of the game is just slowly walking forward while listening to the Furies and/or your various companions. It’s not quite a walking simulator but it’s not far off.
Despite our issues with the game, it’s worrying to think what might happen to Ninja Theory in the future, given Microsoft’s culling of developers that make anything other than hyper successful triple-A games. But what Ninja Theory has done with such a small team should be celebrated and used as a template for the future, at least terms of the visuals and production.
https://metro.co.uk/2024/05/21/senuas-saga-hellblade-2-review-best-console-graphics-ever-20874219/
Apparently Microsoft imputes gamepass revenue share by the hours the game is played. Given that this is a relatively short game I wonder if it would be considered a success or evaluated by a different metric
It seems like Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 has split critics between those who are invested in the story and cinematic experience to those who want to see more gameplay improvements. Either way, it looks like it’s worth checking out for Xbox Game Pass subscribers, who can play the game on PC, Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S.
Judging from the reviews, those who enjoyed the first game will probably find plenty to love about Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2.
But many will be concerned about developer Ninja Theory’s future as a whole if the game isn’t deemed a success by Microsoft.
https://www.theshortcut.com/p/hellblade-2-review-roundup
Judging from the reviews, those who enjoyed the first game will probably find plenty to love about Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2.
But many will be concerned about developer Ninja Theory’s future as a whole if the game isn’t deemed a success by Microsoft.
https://www.theshortcut.com/p/hellblade-2-review-roundup
a masterful example of an immersive gameplay experience
level of immersion is something I’ve never experienced in any other video game.
There’s no additional rendering, dip in quality, or janky animations when you transition from cutscene to gameplay. I could not tell which I was in, and I think that’s the key to selling the immersion and the perfect situation to implement gameplay elements when players least expect it. Once that’s introduced, every moment feels like an experience you have alongside the character, not just something that happens on screen.
Hellblade 2 is a cinematic experience. Cutscenes and gameplay are so seamless I didn’t know which I was in, but the game trusted me to respond accordingly.
https://www.laptopmag.com/gaming/senuas-saga-hellblade-ii
level of immersion is something I’ve never experienced in any other video game.
There’s no additional rendering, dip in quality, or janky animations when you transition from cutscene to gameplay. I could not tell which I was in, and I think that’s the key to selling the immersion and the perfect situation to implement gameplay elements when players least expect it. Once that’s introduced, every moment feels like an experience you have alongside the character, not just something that happens on screen.
Hellblade 2 is a cinematic experience. Cutscenes and gameplay are so seamless I didn’t know which I was in, but the game trusted me to respond accordingly.
https://www.laptopmag.com/gaming/senuas-saga-hellblade-ii
Performance-wise, the game had only minimal stuttering. On an AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D and NVIDIA RTX 4090 GPU, I could play with DLAA, DLSS Frame Generation at 4K resolution and max settings with around 80 frames per second on average, gaining around 30 frames thanks to Frame Generation.
Senua's Saga: Hellblade II might be the perfect Game Pass experience. Even gamers who would rather prefer a more traditional game are very likely to be driven to play it since it will be on the subscription service on day one.
https://wccftech.com/review/senuas-saga-hellblade-ii-the-perfect-game-pass-experience/
Senua's Saga: Hellblade II might be the perfect Game Pass experience. Even gamers who would rather prefer a more traditional game are very likely to be driven to play it since it will be on the subscription service on day one.
https://wccftech.com/review/senuas-saga-hellblade-ii-the-perfect-game-pass-experience/
TangledThornz
Gawd
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- Jun 12, 2018
- Messages
- 976
The first game was great but very short at 6-7 hours. Appears its the same for this sequel but for $50??
Having tested Hellblade 2 on the Steam Deck OLED, I recommend sticking to playing this title on a gaming PC for now. Despite being the best handheld gaming PC, the Steam Deck struggles to handle Senua’s latest adventure, and the compromises needed to get the game running at 30fps aren’t worth making.
Even with AMD FSR enabled, the image quality of Hellblade 2 on Steam Deck is poor. This is especially noticeable given that I’ve moved between the Steam Deck and PC versions frequently.
At one point early in the game, you’re following what is effectively the outline of a human figure in the distance, and the outline is unclear on Steam Deck. While the game is very linear in its approach, it’s still easy to get lost if these little details that Hellblade 2 relies on can’t be identified.
https://www.pcgamesn.com/steam-deck/hellblade-2
Even with AMD FSR enabled, the image quality of Hellblade 2 on Steam Deck is poor. This is especially noticeable given that I’ve moved between the Steam Deck and PC versions frequently.
At one point early in the game, you’re following what is effectively the outline of a human figure in the distance, and the outline is unclear on Steam Deck. While the game is very linear in its approach, it’s still easy to get lost if these little details that Hellblade 2 relies on can’t be identified.
https://www.pcgamesn.com/steam-deck/hellblade-2
Yes approximately same duration, slightly more. Immersion is better in the new game. Maybe you can trial gamepass & unsubscribe later, if you like the game ?
The ASUS ROG Ally with the AMD Z1 Extreme can run Hellblade 2 on the lowest settings, but it's only enjoyable with the 25W Turbo mode. You'll have to make sacrifices to get the game to run, but it's possible to have a good playing experience on gaming handhelds.
The ROG Ally boasts 16GB of RAM, and by default 4GB is allocated to gaming and the remaining 12GB is system memory (for multitasking and keeping games and apps open). Many of the best PC games released in recent years won't run well with less than 6GB of VRAM, and Senua's Saga: Hellblade II is no exception. Be sure to change that setting before continuing.
The lowered graphics settings obviously affect how good the game looks, but I was still impressed by the visual fidelity overall, and the downgrades were less noticeable on the ROG Ally's smaller screen. Overall, I'd be more than happy playing Senua's Saga: Hellblade II on the ASUS ROG Ally. This was without using AMD Fluid Motion Frames on the ASUS ROG Ally, too, which could further improve framerates if you configure everything properly (I wasn't able to test this, as it seems AMD's software couldn't recognize Hellblade 2 as a game before it released).
https://www.windowscentral.com/gaming/pc-gaming/senuas-saga-hellblade-2-on-handhelds
- Senua's Saga: Hellblade II is genuinely the most visually impressive video game I've ever played.
- Even separate from the photorealistic environments and set pieces, there are some absolutely gorgeous animations and cinematics all throughout.
- The 3D binaural audio is also unbelievably good, and begs for you to play the game with a good pair of headphones.
The word "immersion" doesn't often find its way into my gaming vocabulary, but it's impossible to avoid when attempting to describe Senua's Saga: Hellblade II. From the moment you start the game, you're instantly transported into this universe, encapsulated entirely by the breathtaking art design and the masterful narration. I'll get to that latter part in the next section, but for now let's focus on new bar Hellblade 2 sets for video game graphics and audio design, with Unreal Engine 5 as the canvas.
Senua's Saga: Hellblade II is set in 10th Century Iceland, and Ninja Theory actually visited the region and used photogrammetry to accurately capture the colors, textures, and topography of Iceland. The result is the most realistic world I have ever experienced in a video game, with absolutely zero hint of the smoothed-over edges in other games that subconsciously remind you this world was crafted by human hands instead of nature.
The full picture is one of slight inconsistency.
Senua's Saga: Hellblade II always looks amazing, but how alive it feels shifts from moment to moment. Senua can wade through a pool without getting wet and leaves no footprints where she walks, but then every intricate part of her clothing is cast aloft by the wind and streaked by the rain.
Senua can glide around bushes and stones like she is blocked by an invisible wall, but then can navigate the twisting crevices of a cave with such believability that it makes you wonder if you can reach through the screen and feel the damp stone with your own fingers.
Hellblade 2 looks mind-blowingly good on Windows PC. Everything that's great about it on Xbox Series X is even better on a true ultrawide monitor, and that's really saying something. There are absolutely no complaints there — my issues are with performance and controls. For one, it was bafflingly a struggle to get the game above 30 FPS with my setup; with NVIDIA DLSS and G-Sync, I was able to hit a consistent 48 FPS, but that was accompanied by more frequent micro-stutters and dropped frames than I expected.
https://www.windowscentral.com/gaming/xbox/senuas-saga-hellblade-2-review
Armenius
Extremely [H]
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- Jan 28, 2014
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- 42,662
The game runs at 30 FPS with a 21:9 aspect ratio on console. They had to do that for the same reason The Order: 1886 did: They couldn't hit their performance target at a full frame resolution. The excuse that it's "cinematic" is pure bullshit.
Microsoft cuts 3 studios from its portfolio of 40 developers (each with their own slate of studios) and all of a sudden the press is call for a forecast of cats & dogs falling from the sky at Microsoft. Microsoft isn't "culling" their developers, they're simply trimming the fat as everyone else in the industry now needs to do after their spending spree during COVID.
Comixbooks
Fully [H]
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2008
- Messages
- 22,154
Getting trashed by waves Senu
Opening where you have control over her takes about 5 minutes but I skipped a ton I'll play it over. This game was so Dark on my TN I couldn't see anything lol had to open up my Oled just to see what I was looking at.
There is not a single scene of this game that didn’t take my breath away, from the dark forests and the muddy roads to the snowy mountain trails and the endless, claustrophobic caverns.
The puzzles and combat failing to blow me away might seem like something of a dealbreaker in a game where those are the primary modes of interaction, but I would have easily spent another two dozen hours in Ninja Theory’s stunningly detailed recreation of Iceland without any monsters to defeat or puzzles to solve.
https://bgr.com/entertainment/senuas-saga-hellblade-ii-review/
The puzzles and combat failing to blow me away might seem like something of a dealbreaker in a game where those are the primary modes of interaction, but I would have easily spent another two dozen hours in Ninja Theory’s stunningly detailed recreation of Iceland without any monsters to defeat or puzzles to solve.
https://bgr.com/entertainment/senuas-saga-hellblade-ii-review/
I played Hellblade II on Xbox Series S without headphones and on a high-end gaming PC with headphones. The game is stunning in both formats, though of course the details and lighting looked a bit crisper on PC.
Whether on console or PC, I encourage every Hellblade II player to wear headphones in order to fully enjoy the binaural audio.
In this format, the whispers surround your head as they do Senua’s, spawning from various directions in a terrifying way. With no UI in the entire game, stellar acting from Melina Juergens as Senua, and headphones full of soft, hissing judgements, Hellblade II can get incredibly immersive.
https://www.engadget.com/senuas-sag...-of-unfortunate-events-080047631.html?src=rss
Whether on console or PC, I encourage every Hellblade II player to wear headphones in order to fully enjoy the binaural audio.
In this format, the whispers surround your head as they do Senua’s, spawning from various directions in a terrifying way. With no UI in the entire game, stellar acting from Melina Juergens as Senua, and headphones full of soft, hissing judgements, Hellblade II can get incredibly immersive.
https://www.engadget.com/senuas-sag...-of-unfortunate-events-080047631.html?src=rss
If they put the effort in for proper Atmos support then true 3D audio with a home theater system will be superior to binaural audio in headphones. I hope they did that.
Comixbooks
Fully [H]
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- 22,154
I have 2.1 speakers the voices were going left and right drove me nuts which is the purpose. I miss my 5.1 setup but don't miss the cords.
That was my impression and maybe it is more common that I thought, but not with this level of rendering, the seemless cutscene to play is quite something.
And it sound like a complete misunderstanding on how you feel a gamepass game library, imagine only using giant AAA title to do so....
robbiekhan
Gawd
- Joined
- Apr 13, 2004
- Messages
- 774
I have KEF speakers so have the Uni-Q point-source driver setup which works miracles for surround sound stereo imaging in games like this. Those whispers sound surreal and immersive. I have planar headphones but they are currently sat on my desk with some epoxy curing as I modded the headband with quick release suspension headband buttons so must wait 24hrs before they are ready to be used. This game is going to sound nuts on those cans.
\Users\YOURNAME\AppData\Local\Hellblade2\Saved\Config\WinGDK
Open:
Engine.ini
Add the lines:
[SystemSettings]
r.NT.Lens.Distortion.Intensity=0
r.NT.Lens.Distortion.Stretch=0
r.NT.Lens.ChromaticAberration.Intensity=0
r.FilmGrain=0
r.SceneColorFringe.Max=0
r.SceneColorFringeQuality=0
Save and close then set the ini as read only.
Tech observations:
DLAA bears no meaningful uplift in image quality over DLSS Qaulity, so gain those much needed framerates and use DLSS Quality with or without Frame Gen has no ghosting or issues I could spot. FSR3 is available but no FSR3 Frame Gen, XeSS and FSR3 are not as crisp/visually appealing as DLSS but TSR is better than XeSS and FSR3 as those two upscalers have some added flickering.
DLSS dll version is 3.5.10 out of the box, I updated the DLL file to 3.7 and manually set Preset E.via DLSSTweaks.
Interestingly the game ships with a newer version of the DLSS Frame Gen dll at v 3.7.1.
Shadows can become unstable in some scenes from what I've seen so far.
My gameplay:
\Users\YOURNAME\AppData\Local\Hellblade2\Saved\Config\WinGDK
Open:
Engine.ini
Add the lines:
[SystemSettings]
r.NT.Lens.Distortion.Intensity=0
r.NT.Lens.Distortion.Stretch=0
r.NT.Lens.ChromaticAberration.Intensity=0
r.FilmGrain=0
r.SceneColorFringe.Max=0
r.SceneColorFringeQuality=0
Save and close then set the ini as read only.
Tech observations:
DLAA bears no meaningful uplift in image quality over DLSS Qaulity, so gain those much needed framerates and use DLSS Quality with or without Frame Gen has no ghosting or issues I could spot. FSR3 is available but no FSR3 Frame Gen, XeSS and FSR3 are not as crisp/visually appealing as DLSS but TSR is better than XeSS and FSR3 as those two upscalers have some added flickering.
DLSS dll version is 3.5.10 out of the box, I updated the DLL file to 3.7 and manually set Preset E.via DLSSTweaks.
Interestingly the game ships with a newer version of the DLSS Frame Gen dll at v 3.7.1.
Shadows can become unstable in some scenes from what I've seen so far.
My gameplay:
The game seem to have really good graphic even when played at low....
That said at least at launch, new game on the list of game a 4090 will not play a 4k native with setting at max.
Not sure if it let you close raytracing, seem to be an always on type of title.
That said at least at launch, new game on the list of game a 4090 will not play a 4k native with setting at max.
Not sure if it let you close raytracing, seem to be an always on type of title.
CAD4466HK
2[H]4U
- Joined
- Jul 24, 2008
- Messages
- 2,935
Same.
I don't even own a set of headphones. It would feel like such a disservice to the Polk powered towers and Klipsch sub/sat I spent so much money on to use them.
Even though the first game irritated the shit out of me with the Pink Floyd Money and Welcome to the Machine "sliding" stereo surround.
Armenius
Extremely [H]
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- Jan 28, 2014
- Messages
- 42,662
Someone on Steam figured out how to get rid of the letterboxing on 16:9 displays. Since it's UE5 you can also disable chromatic aberration and other undesirable post effects, but in the case of this game I think CA is used as an element to visualize Senua's psychosis. They did in the first game.
https://steamcommunity.com/app/2461850/discussions/0/6761670312893804893/
To remove letterbox:
go to the engine.ini file and open with notepad, should be located in either:
%localappdata%\Hellblade2\Saved\Config\WinGDK
OR
(YourOSDrive)\(YourUserName)\AppData\Local\Hellblade2\Saved\Config\WinGDK
Inside the engine.ini file paste the following at the bottom, then click "Save":
[SystemSettings]
r.NT.AllowAspectRatioHorizontalExtension=0
r.NT.EnableConstrainAspectRatio=0
Note that WinGDK is specific to Xbox Store/Game Pass since it is using Xbox build as the platform.
On PC/Steam it will be likely "WindowsClient", or "WindowsNoEditor".
https://steamcommunity.com/app/2461850/discussions/0/6761670312893804893/
To remove letterbox:
go to the engine.ini file and open with notepad, should be located in either:
%localappdata%\Hellblade2\Saved\Config\WinGDK
OR
(YourOSDrive)\(YourUserName)\AppData\Local\Hellblade2\Saved\Config\WinGDK
Inside the engine.ini file paste the following at the bottom, then click "Save":
[SystemSettings]
r.NT.AllowAspectRatioHorizontalExtension=0
r.NT.EnableConstrainAspectRatio=0
Note that WinGDK is specific to Xbox Store/Game Pass since it is using Xbox build as the platform.
On PC/Steam it will be likely "WindowsClient", or "WindowsNoEditor".
chameleoneel
Supreme [H]ardness
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2005
- Messages
- 7,716
the character models and facial animation are the closest to photorealistic I've seen in a video game...Callisto Protocol had some excellent character models but Hellblade 2 takes that up a notch
With Hellblade 2, are video games finally closing the gap to photorealism?
The team makes great use of Unreal Engine 5’s suite of cutting-edge rendering techniques like MetaHuman, Nanite, and Lumen among other features that puts it among the best-looking games on the market at this point...having a much bigger budget to work with shows in the production values, ranging from the quality of photogrammetry to the motion capture and much more...
https://gamingbolt.com/senuas-saga-hellblade-2-graphics-analysis-the-best-looking-xbox-series-x-game
With Hellblade 2, are video games finally closing the gap to photorealism?
The team makes great use of Unreal Engine 5’s suite of cutting-edge rendering techniques like MetaHuman, Nanite, and Lumen among other features that puts it among the best-looking games on the market at this point...having a much bigger budget to work with shows in the production values, ranging from the quality of photogrammetry to the motion capture and much more...
https://gamingbolt.com/senuas-saga-hellblade-2-graphics-analysis-the-best-looking-xbox-series-x-game
This is what I wanted to hear, though I almost feel like a title of this sort would be fine without them entirely.
Not sure about the conclusion in this article, the world seem to be quite empty of life and action limited for a reason, while running at 30 fps already.
Imagine that level of graphic fidelity in a vast expended fully lived in and action rich the Witcher 4, going into cities, to taken boats, to hundreds of people riding horses on the screens...
giant crew are not needed to make amazing graphic with unreal 5, to make a GTA 6-starlink game with that kind of world, with hundreds of side quests and character it is.
I think that's the reason the graphics are so photorealistic...because it's a very controlled linear environment...this is almost like one of those tech demos or 3DMark benchmarks except in a live game...it's not possible to have that level of fidelity in a huge open world game
Exactly the less you render the better it can be (and that what more would rise staff size I would imagine, coding shaders to make a few things look really good take few really good people, building world, complicated interaction, asset list, take a lot of them).
And the less people doing the less action help, human are really good at detecting imperfection on human face, action, gait, IK decision, weight transfer, making all that fully realistic for 4 or less human in scene must be easier than a Cyberpunk street. And if the experience is heavy scripted linear (as long you keep it short) you also keep it much easier team size wise.
I have little doubt, game will find way to use 20 times the current power of console and not just in the spending less time finding trick to estimate reality ways or just resolution-fps fetish, but doing actually more.
I remember has a kid a friend saying when his family got a new Pentium 3 500mhz (with no 3d GPU), that no game would ever need more than that... Thinking that no need for console refresh because of 30fps almost 100% empty world game look really good or that 8 hours on a rail very simple world game took "only" 80 people years to do while not using an in-house game engine...
6 years, 80 person, that a 50+ millions budget without having paid for anything (consultant, voice-motion actor, computers, electricity, building, the employees that make a lot, marketing, assets scan, travel to iceland, music, Unreal fees).
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AlphaQup
Gawd
- Joined
- Oct 27, 2014
- Messages
- 872
I've clearly been out of the loop, and had completely lost sight of the originals sequel... I've been SO waiting for this to release! Sorry, I'm going to gush, this game was one of the most immersive single player games I've ever played. Audio gets an 11/10 from me, with the Dead Space remake getting a 10/10.
I'll never forget, I did about 2 hours straight near the middle/late stages in the game (prior, I only did about 1 hour sessions it was so intense) and had to shut it down and take a break. As I walked to the fridge to grab a drink, I was still hearing Senua's voice bouncing around my head from the binaural audio. It stuck around for like the next 15-20 minutes. Incredibly tense...
I do only have a 3080.... and won't pick this up until I have something newer.... idk if that'll be a 4k series or if I wait for the 5k series, but if it's like the first (which it sounds like it is), I'll wait. It's worth it to experience this game as best it can be both visually and audibly.
All accurate, and depict how I feel about the first one!
I'll never forget, I did about 2 hours straight near the middle/late stages in the game (prior, I only did about 1 hour sessions it was so intense) and had to shut it down and take a break. As I walked to the fridge to grab a drink, I was still hearing Senua's voice bouncing around my head from the binaural audio. It stuck around for like the next 15-20 minutes. Incredibly tense...
I do only have a 3080.... and won't pick this up until I have something newer.... idk if that'll be a 4k series or if I wait for the 5k series, but if it's like the first (which it sounds like it is), I'll wait. It's worth it to experience this game as best it can be both visually and audibly.
Is this really a fix or will it just zoom in?
Comixbooks
Fully [H]
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2008
- Messages
- 22,154
The first 50 minues of the game is a slog almost want to refund didn't like much of anything.
You too!!! Can move bags of wheat germ out of the way under a wet boat.
The area after when your done with the first depressing part
You too!!! Can move bags of wheat germ out of the way under a wet boat.
The area after when your done with the first depressing part