Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II Can’t Consistently Maintain its 30fps Target on Xbox Series X/S

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II is out now, and on PC, it’s a demanding but visually dazzling experience if you’ve got the hardware (check out Alessio’s review of the game running on an RTX 4090 here), but what about consoles? Before launch, it was revealed that Hellblade II would only have a single 30fps visual mode on Xbox Series X/S, but at least that narrow focus would mean the game would consistently nail that 30fps, right? Well, about that… the folks at ElAnalistaDeBits have taken the Xbox versions of Hellblade II for a spin, and the results aren’t quite as solid as you might hope. Check out the full analysis below if you have around 15 minutes to spare, or scroll on down for our rundown of the salient points.

According to the above analysis, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II runs at a dynamic 2560x1070p with an average res of around 2304x963p on Xbox Series X and a dynamic 1920x803p with an average of 1472x615p on Xbox Series S (the resolutions are rather wonky due to the game running in “cinematic” 2.39:1 widescreen mode with black bars at the top and bottom of the screen). In terms of visual quality, the Series X looks very similar to the PC on higher settings, while the Series S is a bit lower quality.

Unfortunately, neither the Xbox Series X or S seems to be able to maintain a consistent 30fps. While both hit 30fps perhaps 80 percent of the time, dips look to be common during more visually lush and action-packed scenes. The Xbox Series X can drop into the mid-20fps range, and the Xbox Series S can plunge all the way down to the low 20s. Oddly, the two systems seem to struggle at slightly different points, perhaps tied to how each system handles its dynamic resolution.

At least for now, it seems like Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II may be the game that’s just a bit too pretty for the Xbox Series X/S. Here’s hoping a bit more optimization can be brought to the table in the coming weeks and months.

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II is available now on PC and Xbox Series X/S.