Xbox's handling of the marketing for Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 is casting a huge doubt over the future of its developer, Ninja Theory.
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.
So, the other day I was talking about how DF lies, and their bias. I said cross-reference what they say with other videos and you'll see that what they say is dishonest.
You can see here, that frame-rate is section is hidden near the end of the video and it's one of the shortest sections and of course the segment they show is all 30 fps and they of course don't show any series s footage, but they specifically say it holds 30 FPS "flawlessly".
"It does reach this target flawlessly in my experience with virtually zero hiccups - it runs at 30fps and 30fps is exactly what you'll get from start to finish."
Now watch this video
https://youtu.be/UNwO6WZD0c...
https://youtu.be/UNwO6WZD0c...
Here it drops to 21 fps for example
https://youtu.be/UNwO6WZD0c...
I just used these videos because they were already posted on N4G and Analista De Bits it above questioning about legitimacy, but you can find other people who will also show that the game drops frames regularly, especially on series s.
OMG! You caught them Lying hard because the game frame dips from time to time to 29 frames per second and at one point it drops for flash at 21 FPS.
Clearly, they are trying to hide something and the 99% of the time that the game holds 30 frames doesn't mean squats in a saying with VIRTUALLY Zero hiccups.
As you can see by the several comments in the video you posted people are venting their anger about how well the Serie S is holding up and how well the game is running across the board
But I guess MS probably paid the users to Shill for MS also since it's your narrative
By the way, let me inform you that 87% of Steam users who got this game are recommending it!
https://store.steampowered....
Must be shilled too right?
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.
Excellent work from Ninja Theory to get the Series X to finally flex it´s 12TF muscles to the max!
Thanks for the summary, @PrinceOfAnger.
Cheers!
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.
Insert ( “ wait they got 10 games? ) joke here plus a WARNING a lot of puffering including on the list like tekken 8 🤦🏿
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.
The user reviews are taking a hit right now. For example Stellar-blade user reviews is doing the opposite sitting at a 9.2 whereas Hellblade 2 user reviews feels like it's more a movie game with not enough gameplay and depth
https://www.metacritic.com/...
Pretty much. HB2 could have been a 2010s release. Stellar Blade is a solid all around game.
The game is shorter than the Order 1886 and I was complaining about that games length
Who woulda thought that playing a game where you have schizophrenia for 5 hours would be unenjoyable
What's the steam user rating now? We seem to be using that as the guage for success these days.
87 on steam with a lower peak than HiFi at around 4k. Very few people have played the game, which means not many are into it.
78 console (recommend) This shows even the ones paid to give high scores did as much as they could.
meta 7.8 (user)
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.
Far from it, there's a HUGE world in DS, bunch of weapons, bunch of monsters, bunch of vehicles, camps, etc, etc...Oh, and definitely needs more than 5 hrs to complete it.
One is a monotonous and boring ''schizophrenic walking simulator'' and the other one not so much;)
I agree with you about Death Stranding. But Death Stranding had way more depth than Hellblade 2 in gameplay mechanics and it didn't take 6 hours to beat either. Death Stranding world was way more open regardless if it was a walking simulator. The Hellblade 2 comparison doesn't make sense to me. I believe Ninja Theory wanted Hellblade to be more like God of War
The funny thing is though:
Death Stranding was intended and completely designed to be a delivering goods, re-connecting humans while 'walking through wasteland' game.
And, at least for me, I took joy out of this calming choice of game design, which actually was a pretty simple yet fascinating idea.
Here's a better comparison with Hellblade 2 length. The Order 1886. Both movie games that's about 6 hours to complete. They're not worth the $50-$70 asking price. But since I played Hellblade 2 on gamepass i feel like I got my money worth and was satisfied that I didn't have to pay $50. You can't go wrong if you're subscribe to gamepass. What I didn't like was that the game was in development for 6-7 years just to play for 6 hours and the cave section felt like a filler
Someday imma try it again but I didn't care much for death stranding tbf I only played up until you find out your delivering or some sht. I seen a little gameplay though and it looks to be much more then a walking simulator. Have you played it
They should be worried. They we told they were free to be creative to dev. a walking sim, and now Phil and the Lady are walking that back.
Xbox’s handling of Xbox is casting a huge doubt over the future of Xbox
Everything they bought is at risk, Game Pass is NEVER going to be able to support all the development for these studios while also maintaining any kind of catalog of new games.
If it wasn't supporting itself before they bought all these studios it's obviously not going to be able to support even more.
Pretty apparent they next on the cutting block. Hellblade 2 is a week out and the only noise from XBOX marketing is akin to a fart. Not even a loud pants-ripping fart....but a shameful supressed one.
There's no way Ninja Theory stays in business after Hellblade 2.
It's a digital only release, it's been in development for over five years, and it's a Game Pass Day One, which means it's not going to blow any sales charts apart. That's already taking into account that Ninja Theory don't make games that sell multiple millions, they cater to a niche audience.
Ninja Theory has been around for a very long time and they've served their audience well, DmC aside, but I'm betting on them closing or being absorbed soon.