Hellblade on Switch: just how close can it get to the PS4 experience?
One of the most impressive-looking Unreal Engine 4 games of the last couple of years, Ninja Theory's Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice seems like an unlikely choice for Switch conversion. Yes, UE4 has delivered some excellent Switch titles, but the sheer density of the original game would surely cause problems for Nintendo's hybrid - after all, Hellblade is a game that was never in a million years designed with a mobile chipset in mind. And yet here it is: developer QLOC's conversion work is fascinating, with some inventive solutions deployed to excellent effect.
The first data point to catch our eye was the sheer size of the game. Hellblade on Switch weighs in at a massive 19.5GB, which is within the same kind of ballpark as the PC and PS4 versions - and yet, it's clear that the port features substantially pared back texture assets which should result in a much smaller game. And yet something is obviously bulking up the download size.
Firing up the port, first impressions were of astonishment - our first look at Senua (captured in the first comparison image below) reveals a remarkably close match to the same sequence playing out on PlayStation 4. As the sequence continues, the compromises start to become evident - resolution takes a massive hit, naturally, while post-processing quality and texture assets are clearly impacted. And yet, many of the detail-rich cutscenes seem bereft of compromise and resolve much more cleanly than gameplay.
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