what technical level?
the animations, world scale, enemy designs, and interactivity are all better in H:FW
You're making these comparisons out of ignorance due to the fact H:FW and HBII are two
different types of games. I'm pretty sure I mentioned this on some level in the first reply to you but that goes for the game as a whole. What you are basically saying is the equivalent of
"Avatar is better than Pan's Labyrinth" because of world scale, animations, enemy designs (this one is EXTREMELY subjective btw) and interactivity (different types of stories/narratives are going to influence different levels of interactivity, so this one is also quite subjective)."
Not to mention, H:FW is a cross-gen game on an already-established engine coming early 2022 so is much further along in the development chain, while HBII is a next-gen game on a new engine coming early 2023 most likely, therefore not nearly as far along in the development chain. Yet the fact what NT had to show off yesterday eclipses something like H:FW at the technical level shouldn't be an admonishment on H:FW. It should be viewed with excitement, because that's just indicative of how great next-gen only games on engines like UE5, with talented teams working on them, are going to be able to look.
Hellblade is much smaller and more confined. The character modeling is weaker and animations aren’t nearly as good. It has good lighting and fire effects certainly.
These are just buzzterms you're throwing around with no technical evidence to back them up. And even if you could bring about such evidence, you lack any subjective nuance of context into the differing nature of the two games ,so you'd apply that technical evidence wrongly. We don't know the full scope of HBII yet, but we do have word from NT that they want to make the world more open.
A game being smaller in scope shouldn't act as a disqualification of technical accomplishments compared to one of bigger scope, because what is serving as the metric of the scope itself can differ between people discussing it. You can say HBII's world scale is smaller than something like H:FW's and that could end up being true; they are two very different games at a narrative and thematic level after all so a larger world scale is more a necessity in a game like H:FW than it would be for HBII. But in the same measure, someone else can say that the thematic narrative of HBII is a lot ambitious and grander in scope than that of something like Horizon, and they could be right.
Keep in mind that doesn't mean the plot, specifically; you can have a larger, more complex structure of theme and narrative in a story while having a smaller event-based plot, we see it regularly in indie films compared to their Hollywood counterparts. In fact that would probably help structure the view of HBII a bit better: I think some people are thinking the game is trying to be (or NEEDS to be) more like a typical blockbuster, heavily Hollywood-influenced type of AAA game. Something that H:FW is basically going for, per example. But it doesn't. It doesn't need to be that to provide as good or a richer visual experience, thematic experience, etc. HBII is closer to an indie movie in spirit but with a larger financial backing to kick up production values onto Hollywood levels.
In that sense it's the gaming equivalent of a Pulp Fiction (this is a VERY loose comparison because the actual stories of these two are drastically different never mind their genres of story, tropes etc.) while H:FW would be the gaming equivalent of True Lies (again, very loose comparison).
and artistically it’s not even close to me personally I much prefer the vibrant tropical look over the gray and colorless vibe in Hellblade
Well at least here you qualify that take with a personal, subjective opinion. And that's fine. However I'd disagree that HBII is "colorless", this isn't a greyscale or b&w production. Even if it were, there are plenty of films in that style that work perfectly; I'm not just talking about super-old films, either. Tetsuo: Iron Man, Begotten, Addiction (with Liv Tyler IIRC) etc.
The type of story HBII apparently wants to go for, the vibrant color palette of a H:FW would not work with it, and vice-versa for that game's story. But maybe because I appreciate more than one type of story, I'm able to appreciate the visual aesthetic of both.
both games are at the top of what we’ve seen though overall, but I give HFW the nudge
Just keep in mind that nudge of yours is wholly based on a subjective viewpoint, which you're allowed to have. However the points you tried to argue on a technical level, have very little merit and that's mainly for the reasons I mentioned at the beginning.
It had a huge downgrade in facial detail and animations. Massive. This isn’t even up for debate
There have been stills posted with the character in vaguely similar body positions where anyone with good eyes can observe and see that the actual geometry level of the character model in the face is the same, texture work is the same, facial musculature is the same, etc.
A lot of the people arguing there's a "massive" downgrade in this department apparently can't tell that the weather conditions are notably different between the two trailers (rain-slicked skin will naturally soften certain subsurface facial and skin details as does in real-life), as well as certain lighting conditions, not to mention nuanced differences in her emotive state which would relax certain things of the face like vein protrusions of the forehead.
So yes it is up for debate because the people arguing a "massive" downgrade here don't even have an understanding on what they are talking about!
I think they still managed to capture the essence of what the initial trailer was trying to suggest, and I liken Hellblade to that as well.
Well there's no doubt they definitely captured the original essence. But let's be real here: they also captured the technical essence as well, at least within no more than a margin of error WRT accurate recreation.
