Xbox’s upcoming first-party game, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2, is queued to finally be released this month. With the approaching date, Ninja Theory has finally revealed what kind of specs a PC player would require to even run the game, and some might find them to be absurd.
It has become a trend in recent times for game titles, especially AAA, to be released without much optimization, and Hellblade 2 seems to take that a step further by demanding specifications that many players would consider ridiculous. It also explains why the information was kept hidden till now and has been finally announced just a few days before the launch.
Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 – Setting The Wrong Standards?
The release of Hellblade 2 is a big deal. With the evergrowing console wars, fueled by the exclusivity of Helldivers 2 on PS5, Ninja Theory’s upcoming title is one of the few things that Xbox players have got going for themselves. Additionally, the studio has been making use of Unreal Engine 5 and all the tools it provides to their maximum potential, raising the bar for graphic as well as audio standards in modern titles.
Unfortunately, these advancements and the efforts put in might not be able to bear any fruit for the developers if optimization is not done correctly, allowing a larger player base to enjoy the game. The recently added requirements for the game can be found on the title’s official Steam page.
While some might argue that the listed requirements are reasonable on the studio’s behalf, they need to understand how 16GB of RAM is not just quite the standard yet, despite many gamers upgrading their memory in recent times. Likewise, the same applies to the storage requirements. The additional notes in in the requirements section clearly how an SSD is required to run the game, which is going to be a major inconvenience for those who play casually and like to store their games on hard drives instead.
Why Xbox Players Are Not Out Of The Waters Yet
For a broader perspective, we would need to travel back 11 years to when GTA V was first released on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. While the standard resolution might have been 720p at the time, it was considered a huge leap for the game to run at 30FPS with such great graphics, becoming one of the best-selling video games of all time.
Fast forward to today, where we have consoles improved over two generations, and amazing technology such as ray tracing, and yet players on Xbox will be unfortunately stuck with a limit of 30FPS on the console versions of Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2. The VFX director of the game has stated how this is being implemented to deliver a more ‘cinematic‘ experience.
Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 is available to pre-order on Steam.
