The upcoming release of Senua's Saga: Hellblade II sets new standards in the video game industry
Senua's Saga: Hellblade II, developed on Unreal Engine, is set to release on May 21st. This project, running on the Xbox Series X console, runs in dynamic resolutions from 1296p to 1440p. However, due to the letterboxing technique that adds horizontal black bars at the top and bottom, the actual image has a resolution between 2304 x 964 pixels and 2560 x 1070 pixels. Such settings emphasize that the game is highly demanding on graphics resources, which explains the developers' decision to limit the frame rate to 30 FPS and refuse to introduce a performance mode.
In the context of current trends, Senua's Saga: Hellblade II is not the only Unreal Engine project that compromises on resolution to achieve visual quality. Examples include Final Fantasy VII Rebirth running on PlayStation 5 at 1152p quality mode, and Immortals of Aveum running at 60p at 720 FPS on the same consoles. As for the Xbox Series S version of Senua's Saga: Hellblade II, it is expected to run at 720p and 30 FPS, which remains a matter of speculation until official confirmation from Digital Foundry. Interest in this approach to game development is growing as developers seek a balance between performance and graphics quality.
