Hellblade 2: Senua’s Saga is finally out, following on from the award-winning 2017 hit by Ninja Theory. Despite the bleakness that appears to accompany the gaming world at the moment, many have been looking forward to this release, so it’s worth going over the basics of what systems you can play it on.
Now, being as it’s published by Xbox Game Studios, it stands to reason that Hellblade 2 is exclusive to the Xbox Series X|S. And, indeed, it is. It’s also available on Steam, where it’s currently looking pretty good, with a current review score of “Very Positive.” But it’s early days yet.
However, there’s likely to be a few PlayStation users out there who will be wondering whether the game will come to the PS5. Currently, there don’t appear to be any plans to release it on Sony’s systems. However, in this humble reporter’s opinion, the fact that Xbox is making some of its exclusives available on rival consoles suggests it may not be out of the realms of possibility just yet. Don’t quote me on that, though.
So, quick summary: Hellblade 2 is available on Xbox Series X|S and PC only. It’s also available on Game Pass, so that’s something.
Decks out for Ninja Theory
Of course, we’re talking about a new game you can get on Steam, so the next question is to ask whether it’s also compatible with Valve’s Steam Deck.
Now, despite the general hype around Hellblade 2, the store page doesn’t show whether or not it’s verified or even playable on the portable device. However, it’s a fairly new release and it’s likely that Ninja Theory could tweak it for the system, so be on the lookout for future updates that mention that.
Having said that, it’s worth checking out the below video:
According to the channel, Hellblade 2 is playable on the Steam Deck, but with a few caveats. For starters, you’re unlikely to get a consistent framerate above 30fps, especially with additional graphics features turned on. Certain cutscenes and visually heavy sections of the game can even drop it to the low 20s.
There also appears to be a bit of ghosting as well as some blurring effects, depending on which settings you’ve enabled.
So, yes, it is playable on the Deck, but it’s not going to be a smooth ride for much of it, it seems. If you have the PC hardware to run it, it’s probably best to stick with that. Failing that, Nvidia has added the game to its GeForce NOW cloud service, if that’s your bag.
