Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice gained masses of critical praise when it was launched last year, gathering up a loyal fanbase as it did so. Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice won acclaim due to its beautiful visuals and compelling storytelling. So excitement was high when a virtual reality (VR) version was announced just yesterday.
However, as always, not everyone is going to be happy. Those amazing visuals are deeply impressive to come from such a small studio, but they do come with a cost. In this case, users will need a high-end PC rig to run the title in VR, which sadly means it isn’t possible for it to run in VR mode on the PlayStation VR.
The developers at Ninja Theory confirmed the worst fears of PlayStation VR owners on Twitter, where a developer diary was posted, which explained that the demands of the graphics engine and the additional requirements of VR means that the PlayStation 4, even the PlayStation 4 Pro, just lacks the grunt to deliver what Ninja Theory would consider a satisfying experience.
Many people took to Twitter to express disappointment, which quite a few questioning why it was possible for a title as massive as The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR to be on PlayStation VR, while Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice couldn’t. Other commenters were quick to point out the age of the graphical engine involved, and to remind people of just how small Ninja Theory was as a studio.
As has already been stated, the hardware requirements for Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice are quite hefty, where most VR PC titles can quite happily run on an NVIDIA 1060, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice requires a minimum of a NVIDIA 1080 or AMD Radeon 580 in order to run.
Regardless, the VR version of Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is still a great achievement, and users of the HTC Vive and Oculus rift will get the chance to follow Senua’s journey in VR from 31st July, 2018.
For future coverage of new and upcoming VR projects, keep checking back with VRFocus.
Making the announcement 