Portal Industrial Cartagena Colombia - Forum - Contacts

Ultimately, the game’s biggest calling card is its audiovisual treatment across both platforms (PC and Xbox Series S/X) where it is currently available. I played Hellblade II on the Xbox Series X. The console version is locked at 30 FPS, and as much as I initially approached this fact with displeasure, I eventually found that it’s not such an abysmal problem in this game’s case, and my biggest aversion to such a low frame rate, stemming from the jerky horizontal camera movement when rotating, is still manifested here to a somewhat tolerable degree. At the same time, the game looks gorgeous, even on a console. Hellblade enchants with beautiful and detailed environments (albeit strictly linear; at most, you can find a hidden detour behind which lies one of two types of collectibles), superbly crafted character models, and often utterly disarming lighting of individual scenes.

Even for nitpickers like me, there’s not much to criticize here, except perhaps that sometimes the sea waves don’t behave quite realistically or that the flames of the fire could flicker a little more smoothly at certain moments. Still, I only notice those extreme details because the rest is so gorgeous. My biggest criticism in terms of graphics is directed at the cinematic bars, which take up a significant portion of the screen and remind the player repeatedly at every moment that this could have been a movie. On the one hand, I understand that this is a way to save performance, and of course, I don’t take away from the authors the ability to express themselves creatively. Still, I wish we could get the option to play in real fullscreen as those bars are not pleasant, especially for a game on such a high audiovisual level, and you constantly feel that you are being robbed of this ornate aspect of the game, which is a great shame.

Melina Juergens, of course, is suitably acceptable in the central role, and her “list” of facial expressions is vibrant. The stark contrast between the beautiful, sun-drenched countryside and the eerie, desolate forests, dirt, overgrown settlements, and grey coastlines works brilliantly. Once again, the developers took great care with the sound design, so you’ll want to play Hellblade II with headphones to enjoy the voices in your head to the fullest. You can also enjoy them with localised subtitles. The folk group Heilung provides the musical accompaniment, whose signature is audible in all the vibrating guttural screams. Still, the music is generally subdued, and you’ll only notice it occasionally.