Ninja Theory’s upcoming Hellblade 2 might very well be the best-looking Unreal Engine 5 title to date, although it will ask a lot from the Xbox Series X.
That’s what Eurogamer’s Digital Foundry writes based on the recent new footage that Microsoft and developer Ninja Theory have released for the Hellblade sequel. We already knew that Ninja Theory was pushing visuals for the title, and last week, it was confirmed that the game would run at ‘only’ 30FPS on Microsoft’s Xbox Series X and Series S. Although disappointing for some, this appears to be the trade-off that had to be made by the development team. On the other hand, Ninja Theory’s VFX director Mark Slater-Tunstill said that 30FPS will make the game feel more “cinematic”.
As said, Digital Foundry has gotten its hands on raw footage from Microsoft, and according to the outlet, it’s clear that we’re looking at a game that is pushing visuals, only making real concessions when it comes to the scope and size of the game. On Xbox Series X, the game is said to look excellent, although it’s clear that it’s a demanding game – not only for Microsoft’s top-end console, but PC players will need quite the setup as well in order to manage visual quality and performance. As such, it will be interesting to see how the Xbox Series S will handle all the visual splendor. “On Xbox Series X, it’s clearly a demanding game, but the results still look excellent overall”, the article from Digital Foundry reads. “It’s the lower-power platforms – specifically the Series S – that I’m more curious about. Resolution is bound to take a hit and I’d be curious to see the extent to which there are any further S-specific nips and tucks. The game’s configuration on Series X may also place this as one of the more demanding pieces of PC software we’ve seen so far this generation. It might take a pretty solid GPU to manage good image quality at high frame-rates – presuming the CPU side of the equation is scalable enough. It’s a lot like other high-end UE5 efforts we’ve seen so far in that respect.”
We’ve included the video from Digital Foundry about Hellblade 2 below:
Hellblade 2 launches next month on May 21 for PC and Xbox Series X|S. As revealed by the developer, the game will be around 8 hours in length.
