Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 [XBSX|S, PC, XGP]
- Thread starter chris1515
- Start date
-
- Tags
- microsoft xbox xbox game pass
Kind of what I expected:
www.metacritic.com
This game gets at least a technical award probably which means that MS has to keep them around at least until after the award shows
Senua's Saga: Hellblade II Reviews
The sequel to the award winning Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, Senua returns in a brutal journey of survival through the myth and torment of Viking Iceland. Intent on saving those who have fallen victim to the horrors of tyranny, Senua faces a battle of overcoming the darkness within and without...
www.metacritic.com
This game gets at least a technical award probably which means that MS has to keep them around at least until after the award shows
It was never my type of game. I am betting the team gets added to another project or gets a new lead that increases the combat in the game types they makeKind of what I expected:
Senua's Saga: Hellblade II Reviews
The sequel to the award winning Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, Senua returns in a brutal journey of survival through the myth and torment of Viking Iceland. Intent on saving those who have fallen victim to the horrors of tyranny, Senua faces a battle of overcoming the darkness within and without...
This game gets at least a technical award probably which means that MS has to keep them around at least until after the award shows
Played the prologue on PC. Runs very well on my admittedly high end PC (max settings, 4k DLSS Quality => 80-120fps). Graphics look very good - even on lower settings - although it's fair to expect a higher level of polish with such a linear/scripted/cinematic game. HDR looks nice on my new OLED monitor. You can change any of the graphics settings live and see how they affect both performance and the current frame. Audio is neat with headphones, as with the first game.
No real shader stutter that I noticed. I played for about an hour and I only saw two minor stutters, both shortly following a sequence transition. Had PresentMon up the whole time so likely would have noticed any major issues. In general the level of polish seems pretty high.
I enjoyed the first game for its uniqueness but the gameplay was never the strong suit. This seems to continue the trend here. That said, the fact that it is apparently pretty short is a feature for me that means I'll likely play through it to see the content. I can see folks complaining about the price for the amount of content, but at least so far the graphics and level of polish seem refreshingly good on PC.
Minor graphics critiques so far:
1) The ocean water is inconsistent. In certain shots it looks good, in others it looks really bad.
2) Similar with some of the smoke... volumetric fog generally looks great but some of the one-off smoke "effects" type things look like pretty classic unlit billboards and don't feel super grounded in the space.
No real shader stutter that I noticed. I played for about an hour and I only saw two minor stutters, both shortly following a sequence transition. Had PresentMon up the whole time so likely would have noticed any major issues. In general the level of polish seems pretty high.
I enjoyed the first game for its uniqueness but the gameplay was never the strong suit. This seems to continue the trend here. That said, the fact that it is apparently pretty short is a feature for me that means I'll likely play through it to see the content. I can see folks complaining about the price for the amount of content, but at least so far the graphics and level of polish seem refreshingly good on PC.
Minor graphics critiques so far:
1) The ocean water is inconsistent. In certain shots it looks good, in others it looks really bad.
2) Similar with some of the smoke... volumetric fog generally looks great but some of the one-off smoke "effects" type things look like pretty classic unlit billboards and don't feel super grounded in the space.
Last edited:
Frenetic Pony
Veteran
1) Water has gotten weird in modern triple A space, during the day Forbidden West with it's nice tessellation and breaking waves looks quite good, and then at night it looks like this weird neon glowing thing when reflecting clouds, all the shading models and realtime reflections and hdr space add up to art problems at times
2) Well let's hope the volumetric replacement (what's UE call them, heterogenous volumes?) will get fast enough to replace particles. The better everything else gets, the more billboard particles seem to stick out. Some of the "blowing sand" billboards in Forbidden West stick out like a sore thumb, not surprised UE titles have the same thing.
cheapchips
Veteran
I had a new 65" OLED arrive yesterday, so this seemed the perfect game to try out with that and the Series X!
I'm about 30 minutes in and it's already an amazing, if grim, audio / visual experience. For my money I'd be happy if it stayed at the low effort interactions seen through the opener, but I believe it ramps up a little as you progress.
I might become cheesed off with it eventually, like the first game, but while it lasts it's a fantastic accomplishment. This sort short, high production value, not for everyone cinematic experience should be part of the gaming landscape. NT really, really shouldn't be turned into MS's Naughty Dog.
I wonder how much of the chromatic aberration complaints above stems from the monitor rather than couch experience? Or if it's just a matter of taste? It's far from the slapped on effect we see many titles. It's part of the cinematography and isn't persistent across Senua's different 'psychosis graphics modes'.
And while I've poo pooed it's aspect ratio / anamorphic presentation previous, it does earn it's strips there.
I'm about 30 minutes in and it's already an amazing, if grim, audio / visual experience. For my money I'd be happy if it stayed at the low effort interactions seen through the opener, but I believe it ramps up a little as you progress.
I might become cheesed off with it eventually, like the first game, but while it lasts it's a fantastic accomplishment. This sort short, high production value, not for everyone cinematic experience should be part of the gaming landscape. NT really, really shouldn't be turned into MS's Naughty Dog.
I wonder how much of the chromatic aberration complaints above stems from the monitor rather than couch experience? Or if it's just a matter of taste? It's far from the slapped on effect we see many titles. It's part of the cinematography and isn't persistent across Senua's different 'psychosis graphics modes'.
And while I've poo pooed it's aspect ratio / anamorphic presentation previous, it does earn it's strips there.
Last edited:
From what I've played, I was impressed with areas where the water interacts with the land. There's a part where water is washing up on the beach and there's a bit of a gouge in the land, and the water washes up into it and takes a little longer to drain than the rest of the land. I don't think I've seen that in a game before.
Is it as much of a walking simulator as the first one? I played that but never got around to completing it as I got bored of the repetitve combat and basic puzzles. I've been trying to figure out if they had fixed\updated that element of the gameplay from reviews but there is such a polar opposite in them that it's hard to figure out. Is it the same as the first game but with shiny graphics or have they really moved it forward?
Attachments
that is pretty impressive. Soft, but impressive none the less.View attachment 11343View attachment 11342
Taken not via the photo mode, but by xbox share fonction.
cheapchips
Veteran
The opening 45 mins probably lean a little bit more to being a
Which is fine.
Yeah it's a 10 out of 10* in a genre that 5 out of 10 people like. I think that explains the gap in the review scores.
*from what I've played
cheapchips
Veteran
That's a good way to describe it (from what I've played too).
I wouldn't call it soft at 4k HDR / 65" screen / 3m distance. They're really going for a shot through a lens look. With effects layered on too, either weather or state of mind stuff, it's a very messy and not videogamey image. Which, I think is cool, even if it falls squarely into See Colon's excellent 10 out of 10 for 5 out of 10 rating system.
I wouldn't call it soft at 4k HDR / 65" screen / 3m distance. They're really going for a shot through a lens look. With effects layered on too, either weather or state of mind stuff, it's a very messy and not videogamey image. Which, I think is cool, even if it falls squarely into See Colon's excellent 10 out of 10 for 5 out of 10 rating system.
Last edited:
Based on the reviews I’ve read it’s exactly like the 1st. I think I’m going to play Hellblade 1 next. I’m in the mood for a good short cinematic pipe cleaner.
If it's just a shinier version of the first game, I think I'll give it a miss then. I found the premise and the use of sound in the first game intriguing but it got boring very quickly. Thanks for the info though
It looks really good for Series S. It being softer than higher end systems is a reasonable tradeoff, I suspect the post processing is reduced as well. Waiting for DF's analysis here
cheapchips
Veteran
I think John's doing DF's review. He's lost his save five hours in so we might have to wait a bit longer. He did post the Series X shots though.
(I'd post some of my own but I'm both too busy and too lazy!)
(I'd post some of my own but I'm both too busy and too lazy!)
Similar threads
