Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II Review | Game Craves

[Pelican Press 0]

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II Review | Game Craves

PrinceOfAnger6h ago

(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/ ****** 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 ****** 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.

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