Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 is one of the most anticipated single-player releases this year. It recently came out on Xbox Game Pass and Steam, meaning that Lenovo Legion Go gamers have also been getting their hands on the same game. However, the title has its share of issues for both XeSS and AMD FSR 3 for all handhelds - the same applies to Legion Go. Luckily, there is a way to smooth out that experience for anyone looking to play the game in 30 or more frames per second (FPS) and keep the graphics as sharp and clear as possible, all while getting the benefits of the huge Legion Go screen. Here’s how to do just that.
In performance mode, the game works reasonably well, but with this out-of-the-box setup, there are loading glitches and other issues. So, there’s a way to modify that somewhat for an even better result, even though the initial output is not bad by any means. But, once the FSR 3 is turned on, including quality mode, the artifact begins to appear around the player character. The FPS does jump to 40-region but the artifact and ghosting still ruin the FRS 3 setup. Despite this, the frames per second smoothing will be good enough for many players, which is important to note as well.
But, on the front of artifacting, even the switch to XeSS doesn’t solve the problem. Instead, TSR should be at 90% and, as many will see in the performance mode, the FPS will go below 30 and lag spikes appear, especially when the players enter a new loading area. But, the artifacts are nearly all gone and everything appears to be very clean, including the otherwise problematic terrain. When the FSR 3 is turned back on, the ghosting returns as well, including the blurring of the background.
Despite its effectiveness, FSR 3 is still causing some issues with both grass and hair on the characters. Grass has a shimmer and the characters’ facial hair gets a sparkly effect, which is something FSR 3 tends to do in general. XeSS quality mode resolves that but returns the artifacting and a level of blur around the characters in particular.
Lastly, the TSR option, including on 90% resolution scales, seems to simply look much better than the other alternatives. With it, everything looks great and very clear, but transition areas in particular offer a lag spike. Changing the performance setting to a custom 30W TDP mode, along with setting the fans to full speed can help with that. While this might be frustrating, the same power setting is stopping the device from overheating. Hope that this issue will be resolved with the next version of BIOS.
An additional tweak could add even more performance. It involves putting the TSR on dynamic resolution scaling. The target should be around 35 FPS. That should provide 100% clarity once more, even though some smaller FPS dips could appear, placing the frames per second count below 30. Even then, the graphic will remain clear and crisp.
In the case of these settings, the power should be at 30 watts and overlays should be turned off. The quality of the graphics will be clear, especially in combat scenes, where even the dips under 30 FPS will not be visible. Generally speaking, the game offers highly optimized combat scenes, which likely take place in their own native environments. Even with overlays, the combat sequences remain well over 30 FPS the moment visual effects stop.
Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 is a video game that was created fully inside of Unreal 5 Game Engine. That advanced version of the same game engine is definitely pushing the limits of handheld devices, which will have to invest in upscaling technologies in the coming future. That is the reason why even with TSR at 90% render still produces a bit of speckly effects, but ultimately, this still beats any other setting in terms of sheer visual quality. Hope these setup tips help you enjoy Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 on your handheld device!