Digital Foundry: Hellblade II - "A defining moment in the evolution of realtime graphics"

[Soundwave]

curl-6 said:

This is the Gears of War of this generation in my eyes; the first game that shows a big leap over the best of the previous generation.
The intricate micro geometry, the naturalistic lighting and materials, the lifelike characters, it's easily the best looking video game I have ever seen.

It's also the first ambitious UE5 title that really feels like it fits comfortably on consoles; previous stuff like Immortal of Aveum and Lords of the Fallen had major performance issues.

Immortals of Aveum is more of a wide open, traditional game with lots of action on screen, there are going to have to be sacrifices, it looks to me like current consoles can only run stuff like Hellblade 2 better because it's extremely linear, slower paced game without a whole lot happening on screen. Aveum is a more ambitious game in scope. 

For HB2, unfortunately 5 hour games just aren't going to be marketable even if the reviews were even better (they seem to be OK) and the graphics aren't enough to get mass audiences to care. 

 

7 years in development to make a 5 hour game that is linear kinda tells a story right there. How long would it take to make a 30 hour game like that with more stuff happening on screen? And how many times higher would the budget have to be. I hope the studio doesn't suffer mass lay offs like the Aveum team did.