Hellblade II: Senua's Saga [RELEASE DATE 21 MAY 2024]

[Glanza]

Enjoyed my play through of the first but like that I'll be patiently waiting for it to get to a price I'm happy paying as it's a one and done type of game.

 

[HungryHippos]

Enjoyed my play through of the first but like that I'll be patiently waiting for it to get to a price I'm happy paying as it's a one and done type of game.

You can but game pass is relatively cheap for a month and this type of game is easily doable in that window as it's short.

 

[reflux]

Looking forward to this, but really need to play the first game first... If I can ever find the time. Steam Deck should help with that.

 

[McManicMan]

Beautiful game and sound

 

[markoboyo11]

Looking forward to firing this up later, looks stunning. First game was quite good.

 

[CaptainRAVE]

Same boring puzzles as the first one, and looks like a linear movie experience going by some of the footage I've seen

Skip

I’d rather an engaging linear story than much of the rinse and repeat open world crap we get these days.

The first was probably the most I’ve engaged with a character and having a close family member with mental health struggles, it really hit. They did a great job of that aspect too.

 

[mrk]

Currently just over an hour in and have to say the cinematics, animation and sound etc are stunning. Just like playing through a psychological thriller movie with a high budget.

Performance seems ample too. 71-91fps without frame gen, everything on max, motion blur off, DLSS Quality. With Frame gen on it's 120+.

DLAA + Frame Gen introduces noticeable mouse input latency, DLSS Quality with or without FG has zero input latency. FG on or off doesn't matter for quality, both look and feel absolutely superb and the graphics are so clean. Just a shame there is no option to turn off chromatic aberration.

FSR and XeSS do not appear to be as crisp and precise as DLSS, which tbh is expected given recent trends.

Mouse sensitivity once again is way too high out of the box, dropped it down to around 25 for x and y which feels more normal.

Playing the first game not necessary as there's a recap at the start which was nice as I didn't care to play the first game.

The atmosphere on ultrawide and on OLED pulls you in

 

[CaptainRAVE]

I wish I had owned an OLED when I played the first, it’s definitely the kind of game that will hugely benefit. Just need to pull myself away from Helldivers for a bit.

 

[mrk]

I might have found a way to get rid of CA, in:
\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.

 

[ChocAndGray]

I’d rather an engaging linear story than much of the rinse and repeat open world crap we get these days.

I completely agree. I’m fed up of open world maps with 100 icons that require 60+ hours to complete.

I’m enjoying this so far courtesy of pc gamepass

Graphically this is the best looking game I’ve ever played.

Only negative is I’m getting a fair few frametime stutters.

 

[mrk]

This is just nuts. Shame this game has no replay value, as a cinematic immersion-fest it's a masterpiece. Imagine all the greatest names in film direction and script writing, this is a game combining those people IMO.

XeSS Ultra Quality Plus:

FSR3 Quality

DLSS Quality

Look how much more mushy FSR and XeSS are

 

[rumple9]

DLSS definitely the best

 

[mrk]

@TNA Back in business!!

 

[Noxia]

FSR Quality is an oxymoron

 

[mrk]

XeSS "Ultra Quality Plus" too, quite what is ultra and quality about it I have no idea lol.

 

[NZXT30]

This is just nuts. Shame this game has no replay value, as a cinematic immersion-fest it's a masterpiece. Imagine all the greatest names in film direction and script writing, this is a game combining those people IMO.

It's doing abysmal numbers on Steam though, there is just no audience for these kind of games. I doubt the developers will survive the chopping block

 

[ShiWarrior]

It's doing abysmal numbers on Steam though, there is just no audience for these kind of games. I doubt the developers will survive the chopping block

Next Ninja Theory Game Reportedly Greenlit

A notable insider claims that Microsoft may have already greenlit Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 developer Ninja Theory's next project.

gamerant.com

before release day :

Hellblade 3 may already have got the greenlight from Xbox

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 isn’t even out, and yet Xbox may have already greenlit a sequel.

wolfsgamingblog.com

 

[mrk]

It's doing abysmal numbers on Steam though, there is just no audience for these kind of games. I doubt the developers will survive the chopping block

Large portion of that base is the younger audience too is it not? Younger people tend to have much smaller attention spans and this sort of game requires a level of attention that most games don't cater to.

 

[ShiWarrior]

 

[NZXT30]

Large portion of that base is the younger audience too is it not? Younger people tend to have much smaller attention spans and this sort of game requires a level of attention that most games don't cater to.

Steam users are old, much older on average than the console audience.

before release day: https://wolfsgamingblog.com/2024/05/20/hellblade-3-may-already-have-got-the-greenlight-from-xbox/

This has absolutely zero merit. Here is the Xbox president weeks before laying everyone off and closing the studio.