Hellblade 2 graphics comparison reveals the true potential of Unreal Engine 5

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 has at long last released. Five years after its initial revelation, Ninja Theory has finally delivered its sequel on Xbox Series X|S and PC, with incredible results when it comes to review scores from both the critics and the audience in general. And as is to be expected with a game of this caliber, people have already done the work on comparing its graphics and performance on every platform it’s available on.

Hellblade 2 is “the first taste of the true potential of Unreal Engine 5″

Youtuber El Analista de Bits has already released their graphics comparison video, praising the Ninja Theory game for its amazing use of Unreal Engine 5. The title actually pushes the engine to its limits, making use (at least on Xbox Series X and PC) of features like Lumen to render illumination in real-time. While the engine has been available for some years, very few titles have managed to utilize it in such a way as to generate this level of realism.

Both Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X run the game on dynamic resolution, in a range from 1920x803p to 1472x615p and 2560x1070p to 2304x936p, respectively. All versions force their aspect ratio to 2.39:1, which creates horizontal black bands on 16:9 aspect ratio monitors. This altered resolution may be lower than usual but according to the comparison, the result is acceptable thanks to current reconstruction techniques.

The framerate at 30 frames per second on console, which sparked so much controversy at the time, remains solid except for “some drops at specific moments”. Naturally, using Unreal Engine 5 also makes use of some of the engine’s exclusive techniques. “Xbox Series X and PC use lumen for reflections, while Series S uses SSR only. Thanks to Nanite, the drawing distance is excellent in all versions and there are no significant differences,” he explains. It is clear that wherever you play you will find a title that takes advantage of the capabilities of current consoles, four years after their launch. And what is still to come from both Xbox Game Studios and other publishers.