The official Senua's Saga: Hellblade II PC system requirements were revealed today, alongside DLSS 3, AMD FSR 3 and XeSS 1.1 support
The Digital Foundry verdict on the technology of Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2.
Such a good looking game, best graphics this gen so far
" When the camera zooms in for a close-up, the level of detail is such that it left me guessing whether I was looking at real-time graphics or a pre-rendered cutscene. Thankfully, with Photo Mode being available at any time, you can easily confirm that they are, in fact, real-time.Of course, it's really the animation you experience while playing that impressed me the most. The expressions visible while engaged in combat or simply exploring really help bring the characters to life. "
As a story-focused game, characters and character rendering play a significant role in the presentation. However, while the pre-release media largely focused on Senua herself, Hellblade 2 features a surprisingly large number of other humans. It's without doubt one of the games defining visual features - the character rendering in Hellblade 2 sets new standards, delivering sequences that, at times, almost resemble actual filmed scenes with real actors. This is one of the first examples of a game that stands up against the promise of the UE5 demo The Matrix Awakens. The scenes feel very natural and realistic in a way that manages to somewhat sidestep the uncanny valley almost completely.
Incredible graphics..this is finally next gen graphics. It’s an experience more than a game. You can fault it or accept it and embrace what it gives you. It’s like Sony 1886.
(Summary)
- Takes advantage of everything UE5 offers
- Final game 'lives up to the lofty expectations' of the 2019 reveal
- Character rendering sets new standards and nearly resembles movie sequences with actual actors
- Leverages Unreal's Meta Human 5 to bypass the uncanny valley feel
- DF were left guessing whether some cut-scenes were in-game or real life footage (photo mode shows they're all real time)
- Character detail and how light / specular etc reflect on it praised
- A lot of the visual make up is tied to the post-process effects
- No option to disable things like CA, DoF etc but it's all suitable to the games presentation
- Soft filmic image quality and wider FoV praised
Resolution and Visuals:
- DRS 1296 to 1440p (w/ black bars 964 to 1070p). Series S will be covered in separate video
- 'Not sure if adding more pixels would make a difference to the filmic quality'
UE5 Features:
- Lumen is used extensively for direct and in-direct lighting, a lot of real time changes and shadows etc all update accordingly
- 'Phenomenal stuff'
- Lumen does a better job than traditional real time lighting system for indirectly lit areas like under ramps etc
- Lumen reflections used in combination with SSR for water bodies. Some water bodies can show SSR artifacts when moving camera
- 'Anyone looking at the game in motion will be impressed even if they do not understand the technical reasons'
- Unreal's fog is used effectively, fog lights up with light sources and runs at high quality
- Water effects and waves are praised. ' Absolutely stunning'
- Nanite is extensively used and eliminates visible pop-in even during scene transitions
- Minimal repetition or tiling, uses photo-grammatory
- Some assets like tree branches can show low resolution when zoomed in with photo mode, however
- Fine shadow detail is retained even when zooming extremely in thanks to Unreal's Virtual Shadow Maps
- Shadow quality is not always perfect and can show cracks in some instances but very consistent by and large
- Not the first UE5 game to use all these features, but by and far the best looking game to do so.
Performance:
- 30 FPS but the performance is locked and never dropped in John's testing on Series X
- DF tested the game on their Series X - similar - PC to see how much performance could be gained over 30
- 4K with DRS, they were able to stay locked at 30 FPS on High
- DRS 1440p with 60 FPS target sees game play at high 50s with more drops in cut-scenes
- DF thinks based on this test, SX can do 60 FPS with a more aggressive DRS target
- However, PC version can show massive frame time stutters that the Xbox version does not in the same areas
- DF summary: 60 FPS is theoretically possible, but for a stable 60 they might need to drop settings a lot
Audio
- Headphones are needed for Binaural audio effect that the game uses extensively
- DF thinks it is 'incredibly engaging'
Trailer Comparison:
- They compare the Giant fight trailer with the same area in the final game
- Final game has lesser lens distortion and difference in how the flame is lit
- The flames felt more 'fluid' in the demo versus the final game, otherwise no difference in the segment noted
- DF thinks Ninja Theory 'reached their goal'
- Praise the polish, presentation etc.
If they achieved this level of quality their first time using UE5... I can't wait to see what their next game is going to look like.
Remember the trailer release and ppl didn't think it was insane footage cause it looked too good
From GamesReviews:"Experience the visually stunning and emotionally harrowing world of Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2. Unleash the power of Senua in a Viking realm."
Senua takes her place in the top ten..
I was gonna say… I thought this was like first-party stuff or exclusives. Seems kind of pointless when 90% is multi-platform.
It's last place on a manicured list. This is not good. The user reviews are in the 7's and the "critic" reviews are low 8's. So, it's probably an average 7. Not bad, but not the banger Xbox was hoping for.
Walking Sim is a top game on Xbox! Lol!
Proof that if you want must play exclusives buy Nintendo or Sony, if you want to play eye candy walking sims buy a PC. If you can afford PC buy Series X, if you can’t afford that buy Series S, Xbox consoles are the last option right now unless you just see green and that list proves it.
This game will look fantastic. I honestly believe that visually, this will be the best-looking game released this gen so far.
Wonder if this is another of the games shadow-planned for a PS5 release.
My ultrawide is ready.
https://www.reddit.com/r/ul...
Hopefully my GPU is too :|
Awesome. My laptop should be able to run it at medium settings.
My RTX 4080 is ready. I'm still curious about the framerate since they didn't mention it. I was struggling hitting 30- 40fps playing Dragon's Dogma 2 with a 4080 in certain area's in the game