Senua's Saga: Hellblade II - Preview Thread
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30fps only.
From Gamepro Germany:
"But the beauty also has its price: Hellblade 2 only runs at 30 fps and dynamic resolution on both Xbox Series S and Series X. There are no graphics modes; the frame rate can only be increased on the PC. The VFX director explains this in an interview with GamePro by saying that the experience should feel more "cinematic" - similar to movies that run at 24 frames per second."
My interest just died a painful death.
From Gamepro Germany:
"But the beauty also has its price: Hellblade 2 only runs at 30 fps and dynamic resolution on both Xbox Series S and Series X. There are no graphics modes; the frame rate can only be increased on the PC. The VFX director explains this in an interview with GamePro by saying that the experience should feel more "cinematic" - similar to movies that run at 24 frames per second."
My interest just died a painful death.
OP
OP
I know people hate the "cinematic" excuse, but I kind of get it here. These games feel a lot more like a somewhat interactive immersive filmic kind of experience to me in a way most games don't, and I'll be okay with 30 fps. I doubt I ever played the original at higher than that.
With that letterbox display Ninja Theory bringing nostalgia for the PAL 50Hz days.
They should have the game run at 25fps to complete the effect.
They should have the game run at 25fps to complete the effect.
Also from the Gamepro article
Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 angespielt - ein Atmosphäre-Monster, das schon nach wenigen Spielminuten seinen Vorgänger übertrifft
Mit Hellblade 2 bekommt Senuas Story eine Fortsetzung, die das wichtigste Xbox-Exclusive 2024 werden könnte. Wir haben reingespielt und sind bisher begeistert.
www.gamepro.de
In 4 years if it gets a port I could see everyone doing a doom / victory lap based on how the internet is now lmao
Can't wait in to soak in the environments and atmosphere.
The ending to the first one still sends chills and is one of the best I've played.
The ending to the first one still sends chills and is one of the best I've played.
I understand that but in this case new game would be better choice than sequel.
Not sure personally (in terms of creative goals) if that's true. Smaller teams should be able to stay small and spend time on existing ip if they want to.
Business wise, it might make more sense for it to be a new IP.
Looks incredibly impressive from a visual standpoint but the actual gameplay leaves a lot to be desired. Hearing those puzzles have returned is a bummer and the whole slowly walking through beautiful environments looks like it could get old fast. Curious about the combat as it does look good but I also can't get much of a feel for what's going on in those gameplay snippets.
Youtube compression really does a number on this game's visuals. Games with either fast motion or dark scenes suffer. I remember watching videos of Doom 2016 on release and wondering why people were praising its visuals. Recently I played it. The game is stunning, and videos don't do it justice. I think Hellblade 2 will also be the same.
Graphics looks stunning. Didnt finish the first as I got bored but I'll def run through this one. Looks like they stepped everything up and the game is short. Its the best looking game Ive seen since Alan Wake 2.
He left near the end of development.
"but the game now has a trio of creative leads: environment art director Dan Attwell, visual effects director Mark Slater-Tunstill, and audio director David Garcia."
As someone who has experienced psychosis first hand its not my kind of game, but I hope its still trying to be authentic and meaningful rather than using that kind of suffering to have fun surreal scenes more for entertainment. Its hard to know who involved has that kind of experience.
The 'this game will be 30fps' thread is going to dominate the conversation until launch, then. I get that 60fps is preferable but the '60fps or death' stuff is just tiring.
Then again this is a weird game to 'preview' because, like the first, it's one that'll likely work the best when you're actively playing it - with headphones on and the lights off - instead of simply watching a video. I'll be sure to do so when it releases, but I'm not going to really engage with much pre-release stuff outside of checking the OC score when that comes out.
Then again this is a weird game to 'preview' because, like the first, it's one that'll likely work the best when you're actively playing it - with headphones on and the lights off - instead of simply watching a video. I'll be sure to do so when it releases, but I'm not going to really engage with much pre-release stuff outside of checking the OC score when that comes out.
This game will never not feel like a fever dream.
Cannot imagine pouring millions upon millions into what amounts to a linear movie attempting to solve "the gameplay problem". Visually great (like a tech demo!), but embarrassing to be that mechanically ancient as a deep-pockets project.
Cannot imagine pouring millions upon millions into what amounts to a linear movie attempting to solve "the gameplay problem". Visually great (like a tech demo!), but embarrassing to be that mechanically ancient as a deep-pockets project.
Millions and millions? I'd be surprised if Hellblade 2 costs even $50 million to make.
It's a <10 hours linear game made by a relatively small team at Ninja Theory.
Yeah, the past year of realizing what this game was for sure going to be was a pretty harsh reality check. I was very much under the impression that the massive wait for this was because they were substantially expanding the scale and systems. Pretty disappointed, tbh
5ish years for 8ish hours of linear content sounds like a pretty great ratio to me yeah
This post is embarrassing. Like I'm not awed by Hellblade 2 either - it's far from re-inventing the wheel - it'll never not be strange to me that MS have put their weight and dollars behind a sequel to a niche indie game centred on schizophrenia. Though the first game had enough interesting ideas, conceits, and setting to more than justify its existence, and was a super memorable and inspired experience. This sequel looks to be iterating on that.
You talking as a consumer or as a developer?
Years is only one factor in terms of total resources.
In that context, yes, pretty much. It could be negative or positive but here I suppose it's positive (I haven't watched the video though).
Either way it's a pretty strong statement though, stronger than "it slaps" I think.
Why is it so hard to imagine that one studio out of many hundreds might want to do things with the medium that differ from what you want from it?
I'll take it over the "innovative" GaaS or open world games that AAA industry tends to release these days
Love hearing that it's similar to the original and that it's going to be a more gorgeous continuation of the series for the sequel. I never wanted the game to be restructured to fit into a box that so that people who wanted something different from the first game could have their wishes fulfilled in the second game. Give me more Hellblade.
you do know it's made by 80 people, right? there's not "millions upon millions". get over yourself
One more preview but very similar themes
www.pcgamesn.com
Hellblade 2 is a “love letter to Iceland” that’s more than a sequel
In our Hellblade 2 preview, we go hands-on with Senua’s Saga as Ninja Theory unveils how the studio goes beyond “realism for realism’s sake.”
www.pcgamesn.com
On UK salaries no less! (Aka like 1/4 the US salaries)
Though they did pour millions over the years and in buying and building their studio
Yeah sure i'll die on the hill of wanting more than ancient, linear gameplay from a game attempting to have gameplay (along with a development timeline + budget that would facilitate having gameplay).
Studios can do different things, but expectations are obviously going to scale with resources spent.
The first game took the task pretty seriously and did a lot of consultation with people who experience psychosis. Here's an interesting paper which discusses it in the broader context of mental health depictions in games.
They also did a series of dev diaries for the first game, and this video in particular shows some of the consultation.
Lots of valid critiques to be made but it certainly is not done flippantly.
The 30fps debate needs a bit of nuance I think, I find it really depends on how the camera is used and controlled. By looking at this game it seems quite restrictive, and so I don't believe that 30 will be an obstacle here like it would be in something like FFXVI, a character action game.
I don't really see any issues with the technical decisions they're making, wrt framerate and aspect ratio, even if you might disagree with the style I don't see think they will hurt the game experience here.
Not sure it's for me though, I couldn't get on with Hellblade 1.
I don't really see any issues with the technical decisions they're making, wrt framerate and aspect ratio, even if you might disagree with the style I don't see think they will hurt the game experience here.
Not sure it's for me though, I couldn't get on with Hellblade 1.
More budget = more gameplay is such a completely 'wrong' way to look at game development. That's simply not how things work at all.
If you don't want this game, just don't buy it. No need to try and claim that the developers were somehow ignoring some vast hoard of resources that they could've used to "make more gameplay." They simply... didn't want to make yet another Soulslike or whatever. It wasn't their vision to do so, and that's fine.
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Hope the story delivers and the pattern puzzles aren't too intrusive. Could have something pretty special here. I genuinely don't care about the 30fps thing.
Are you under the impression this game's budget isn't millions upon millions or something? Those 80 people + outsourcing devs need to get paid. Why so hostile?
Are you under the impression this game's budget isn't millions upon millions or something? Those 80 people + outsourcing devs need to get paid. Why so hostile?
People who liked the first game: wow, this looks like a faithful continuation of the first game, I'm excited to play it!
People who didn't like the first game: what the hell is this?
People who didn't like the first game: what the hell is this?
millions upon millions makes me think AAA budget (>100 million), which i doubt it's what this game costed. i'm not hostile, i'm giving an answer that kind of post should get.
