The Digital Foundry verdict on the technology of Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2.
Ninja Theory's Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 is the most-nominated game at this year's BAFTA Games Awards, with 11 nominations.
However, the Cambridge-based studio's action-adventure game has missed out on a Best Game nomination; instead the nominees are Black Myth: Wukong, Helldivers 2, Thank Goodness You're Here!, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, Astro Bot, and Balatro.
And we would’ve getaway with it if it wasn’t for those pesky kids games.
Congrats to NT on their 11 nominations I wish them good luck 👍👍
Beautiful game, love the series, and the character!
Well crafter and well done.
Good. The game is unique, heartfelt, and beautiful. Yes, the mechanics are rather simplistic. But the teams dedication to storytelling is on full display. It's definitely not for everyone, but it won't disappoint those who appreciate video games that push the boundaries of the medium.
More like pushes the boundary of how short a game can be while still charging fifty quid
Love the game. Beautiful looking, game play was solid and it didn't over stay it's welcome.
Good game with the best graphics and animation I've seen this gen. They need to focus more on the gameplay though if there is HB3.
VGChartz's Lee Mehr: "As game scripts expand in size and the technology to capture performances improves, blockbuster game companies are under tremendous pressure to get the right fit for a leading role. In some cases, said actor essentially becomes the face of that franchise; their mug may be digitally altered or cropped in select ways, but they're – more or less – in the same spot as a film actor at this point. As a result, there's also a keener interest in how those performers sound if they're replacing somebody else.
Perhaps the most glaring example of that was Bloober Team's Silent Hill 2 remake. Alongside a bevy of other gameplay & story alterations, Luke Roberts replacing Guy Cihi's original James Sunderland was a major point of distress for long-time fans before release. Sure, Cihi wasn't a trained actor at the time (and it shows), but he carried a type of unique charm that meshed perfectly with the game's strange world. A similar situation was Troy Baker assuming the mantle of Indiana Jones. How similar could he actually sound to a younger Harrison Ford? Judging by the collective staff & community acclaim, both of them fared quite well, and so too did the others who made up our final five."
VGChartz's Chinh Tran: "Like a good book, a good videogame story will stay with you long after the credits roll and the controller is put down. As is true in most years, 2024's Best Narratives feature RPGs. However, joining them on the shortlist are a diverse set of games from different genres, proving that a good story in videogames isn't limited to one single genre. And despite these differences in game types, all the shortlisted titles do have something in common: a grand and memorable narrative.
Indiana Jones and the Circle of Fire put players in the shoes of the titular character in the franchise's best narrative in decades. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth allowed players to continue on a bold new path from the original in exciting ways. Metaphor: ReFantazio let players experience a mature and complex tale of discrimination and equality. Senua's Saga: Hellblade II once again wove a metaphoric tale of hate, tragedy, and resiliency. Finally, The Plucky Squire creatively showed us what happens when characters from a storybook discover a world beyond their own."
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