Image: Xbox Game Studios
Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 is a gorgeous but harrowing experience that finally puts the Xbox Series X|S through its paces.
It took Ninja Theory seven years to deliver a sequel to 2017’s Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, but it’s finally here - and well worth the wait. Though it might have taken some time to find an audience, the first Hellblade earned praise for its grim and immersive depiction of psychosis, told through a supernatural fable steeped in Celtic culture and Norse mythology. Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 delivers more of the same, only its harrowing tale feels much more engaging this time around thanks to a meatier combat system, more varied puzzles, photorealistic visuals and a stellar performance from Melina Juergens. As someone who didn’t love Starfield and Halo Infinite as much as I wanted to, this is also the first first-party Xbox Series X release I have played to truly put the console through its paces - albeit at 30fps.
Senua returns (and everything still sucks)
As Hellblade 2’s ‘Previously on…’ recap video succinctly explains, this sequel picks up right after the events of the first game, with Senua having come to terms with her homeland being ravaged by Norseman raiders while she was away. The voices in her head are just as loud as ever, but not nearly as antagonistic following the emotionally-fraught journey she went through in the first game. The message is pretty clear: Senua has learned to live with her psychosis, but she will never live without it.
Far be it for me to spoil a game as short as this one, so I will only say that it kicks off with Senua on a quest to take her revenge against the raiders who killed her people. Much like The Last of Us Part 2, this is a game about love and anger even if it loses sight of that fact often, as the story makes multiple diversions to flesh out the stakes of Senua’s quest and the lives of the people she meets. It’s quite effectively delivered too, though a lot of that comes down to its cinematic presentation rather than its exposition-laden writing.
Hellblade 2 is absurdly good-looking. This really feels like the first Xbox Series X title to present the next generation of gaming as we imagined it to be. From misty Icelandic mountains and murky swamps to blood-spattered battlefields and dilapidated villages, the myriad locations Senua visits throughout her journey aren’t just photorealistic, but exude a macabre atmosphere. It’s almost impossible to distinguish the game’s character models from the actors portraying them, and that level of immersion heavily benefits a game that at times resembles a walking simulator. When you’re this entranced in a game’s environmental storytelling, you won’t mind a long walk or two.
The sequel's sluggish plotting may wear thin at first, but one stunning caving sequence turned me around on it quickly enough. This sequence pushes Senua to solitude in unfamiliar territory, emphasising the effects of her enduring cohabitation with her voices. It’s all well and good when she’s fighting monsters and clawing through the mud, but here, the story effectively demonstrates that even in her lowest moments and in the most dangerous situations, Senua can never possibly be alone and thus, can never completely lose hope. What was perceived to be Senua's weakness in the first game is ultimately her greatest strength.
Really, my biggest issue with Hellblade 2 is how short it is. Granted, Ninja Theory was upfront about the fact that this would be about as long as the first game (6-8 hours), which I don’t necessarily take issue with. I don’t mind a short game, but its story has to make the most of its runtime. Not only does this campaign take its sweet time unloading mountains of exposition on the player, but it also ends on a climactic and rather unsatisfying note. Yes, a portion of Senua’s journey has ended - but many of her friends’ fates are left up in the air, and we aren’t afforded any closure on the world she’s trying to change.
I’ll put it this way: I genuinely thought I was halfway through the game when its credits began to roll. The story drags on and meanders at points to flesh out this world and its beleaguered inhabitants, only to make an astonishing sprint to the finish line in its final minutes. If I don’t get a sequel, I will be rather upset. This story is in no way conclusive to Senua’s story.
The gloves are off
Hellblade 2 plays much like its prequel, only with fewer ‘find the symbol to unlock the door’-type puzzles. They were repetitive in the first game and while they’re not altogether removed from the sequel, the puzzles here are thankfully diversified. The biggest new addition is a reality-warping puzzle mechanic that lets you swap out parts of the environment to allow Senua to progress to her goal, much like Alan Wake 2 had you use a torchlight to create doors and remove obstacles. One of the many similarities between this and Remedy’s latest, I’ve found.
Much like the first game, Hellblade 2 is an entirely UI-free experience. Players are given zero combat tutorials before fighting their first enemy, nor are they given a health bar, an in-game compass or any such staples of the adventure genre. Instead of in-game text telling the player where to go and what to do, Senua’s voices speak to her to guide the player forward. While that kept me immersed in the game’s environments, it did often lead to frustrating moments of disorientation where I struggled to solve a puzzle, as the voices attempted to point me towards a solution I could not physically see. You might wander around in circles for a while but hey, at least players who complain about yellow paint being splattered on ladders will be pleased.
Combat is vastly improved over the original here, though the basics are unchanged: you have light and heavy attacks, a dodge and a parry to combat Senua’s foes, who practically line up for one-on-one duels. These encounters can get pretty challenging as the enemies get more diverse. Parrying at the wrong moment can leave Senua off-balance and open to attack, and enemy attack patterns can be unpredictable. It feels fantastic however, to execute a perfect parry or activate Senua’s slow-motion ‘Focus’ mode to land a flurry of blows before she mutilates her foe and moves on to the next. It’s brutal, chunky and satisfying, even if it can get a little goofy when the game shuffles out one enemy for the next to take you on.
Unfortunately, Hellblade 2 is locked to a tight 30fps - which does make it feel a little dated despite its jaw-dropping visuals. Nevertheless, it’s an incredibly polished game performance-wise if you’re willing to overlook that. Heilung and David Garcia’s contributions to the soundtrack are also pretty outstanding, amplifying the game’s large-scale boss fights and tense combat encounters with guttural throat singing, booming drums and sorrowful strings. The game is also best played with headphones to experience its binaural audio, which is mostly used to portray the many voices in Senua’s mind speaking to her from different angles.
Hellblade 2 is once again another spectacular acting showcase for the actress portraying Senua: Melina Juergens. The entire cast is brilliant here, but Juergens feels fully emotionally and physically present in every cutscene, and the heartaches to watch her grimace, gasp and scream as she claws through flooding boats and hacks through Draugr and slaver alike to survive. The world of Hellblade 2 is grounded in realism but the events Senua goes through are fantastic, so it’s on Juergens’ shoulders to keep her plight believable. She succeeds, and then some.
Verdict
Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 is a fantastic sequel that surpasses the original game with cutting-edge visuals, an expanded cast of characters and a brutal combo-based combat system. It might in fact be cinematic to a fault, as players who share a distaste for long cutscenes and walking gameplay will find both ubiquitous here. The camera sticks close to Senua, and the campaign’s truly excessive amount of monologuing demonstrates a flagrant disregard for the show-don’t-tell rule.
If one is willing to look past its short length (or has an Xbox Game Pass subscription), Hellblade 2's breathtaking scenery, stylish setpieces and unconventional protagonist make this sequel a singular addition to Xbox’s first-party lineup. One that the publisher would be foolish to disregard, should it have the urge to go on another firing spree.
Review code provided by Xbox.
