Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice gets ray-traced upgrade for Xbox Series X|S
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is optimized for the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S consoles. The game will receive ray tracing, better graphics and a resolution mode on those platforms. The PC version of the game will be upgraded later.
Hellblade developer Ninja Theory announced the changes in a trailer, showing off the improved graphics and ray tracing. The trailer’s description states that the game is now available with “enhanced visuals, DirectX Raytracing, resolution mode and more.” The update is coming according to the Ninja Theory website available for free to owners of the game with an Xbox Series X or S. This also applies to Xbox Series X|S users with Game Pass. An update for the PC version of the game is currently in development, but it’s not yet known when it will appear.
On the Xbox Series X, according to Ninja Theory, users can choose from a “performance mode” without ray tracing, with a dynamic resolution of up to 1080p and a frame rate of 120fps. A resolution mode will also be available, with a dynamic resolution of up to 4k, running at 60fps without ray tracing. An ‘Enriched’ mode with ray tracing also gets a dynamic 4k resolution and runs at 30fps. The Xbox Series S gets a 1080p mode with ray tracing at 30fps, a dynamic 1440p mode without ray tracing at 30fps and a performance mode with 1080p resolution at 60fps.
The Xbox Series update came about four years after the release of Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, which was released for PC on August 8, 2017. A year later, the game was released for Xbox One and a version for the Nintendo Switch was released in 2019.
Ninja Theory is currently working on a sequel, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2. That game was announced at the same time as the Xbox Series X at The Game Awards in 2019. It’s not yet known when the sequel will be released, but Microsoft announced this week that it will be released on August 24 holds an Xbox Games Showcase presentation, with information about upcoming games. The company may reveal new details about Hellblade 2 on that date, although that has not yet been confirmed.