Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II |OT| Come Inside My Mind

[vixolus]

I can't really say I want another Hellblade game as cool as this game can be, though. Ninja Theory display such incredible knack for direction and VFX and sound direction and environment art and tech art etc etc etc, but, they've written themselves into a corner with this character and their game direction in service of that, I feel.

They want to treat the condition of Psychosis with some respect and care, and it works in the first game because of the whole deeply personal aspect to it. Now that they have introduced other characters and is "in the real world", they are showing the player that other characters can see/feel what she does, too (such as the giants, seemingly) and recognize her power. That only she has the power to peer into the Giant's past and defeat them by bringing them peace, essentially. They're kind of making her psychosis a super power, in a way, I feel? Which idk feels a bit strange.

The journey to Hel in HB1 can be viewed as all a perceived reality made up in her mind due to her condition. With HB2 it's less perceived reality and more a shared reality which is tough to get around? I'll need to read other interpretations, I guess.

But anyway, the voices are always going to exist with this character. And in HB2 I don't think they really add much. Bloodworth from Easy Allies called them backseat Twitch Chatters which is funny and kinda true. And their voices interrupting dialogue with these new other characters can be a little annoying. If there was ever a HB3, seemingly it would include other humans again and I feel like it just detracts from the experience at times. But it's her condition! You can't just get rid of it!

Furthermore, as I've commented on before, the game has no UI and thus they are pretty limited in the scope of gameplay they can offer. The character movement and environments are also slow and linear, so while the puzzles are serviceable and they introduce some layered mechanics towards the end, they are all still pretty simple. I imagine they don't want you slowly walking or jogging through an environment in a very tricky puzzle scenario. It would get extra frustrating or boring to run around a larger environment or a more open ended environment.

So, really, where would they go from here in a theoretical Hellblade 3? I'm not sure. I feel like it would end up being more of the same of HB2 which idk if there's an appetite for. I would love to see them apply all their skill into a more gamey game. A souls-like with the amount of visceral animation and combat like this (but adapted) would be impeccable. Their enemy visual design is top tier.

 

[vixolus]

Also, I will add that I think the biggest disappointment to me is that there was no big non-humanoid battle like Fenrir in HB1. The giant battles were not really battles with them. And the final boss was more or less a typical duel with a human.

 

[newdivide]

Just finished it, disappointment of the year. Hard to say when I really liked the first one. The top notch visuals don't save such a slog of a game.

 

[Shopolic]

Question about story and enemies:

Spoiler

I know those monsters weren't real, but what about reactions of real people to them? For example in battle with second monster, there were many characters with fire and other things. Was there something (human enemies or a big wild animal) there or Senua just imagined the whole scene?

 

[dstarMDA]

I can't really say I want another Hellblade game as cool as this game can be, though. Ninja Theory display such incredible knack for direction and VFX and sound direction and environment art and tech art etc etc etc, but, they've written themselves into a corner with this character and their game direction in service of that, I feel.

They want to treat the condition of Psychosis with some respect and care, and it works in the first game because of the whole deeply personal aspect to it. Now that they have introduced other characters and is "in the real world", they are showing the player that other characters can see/feel what she does, too (such as the giants, seemingly) and recognize her power. That only she has the power to peer into the Giant's past and defeat them by bringing them peace, essentially. They're kind of making her psychosis a super power, in a way, I feel? Which idk feels a bit strange.

The journey to Hel in HB1 can be viewed as all a perceived reality made up in her mind due to her condition. With HB2 it's less perceived reality and more a shared reality which is tough to get around? I'll need to read other interpretations, I guess.

But anyway, the voices are always going to exist with this character. And in HB2 I don't think they really add much. Bloodworth from Easy Allies called them backseat Twitch Chatters which is funny and kinda true. And their voices interrupting dialogue with these new other characters can be a little annoying. If there was ever a HB3, seemingly it would include other humans again and I feel like it just detracts from the experience at times. But it's her condition! You can't just get rid of it!

Furthermore, as I've commented on before, the game has no UI and thus they are pretty limited in the scope of gameplay they can offer. The character movement and environments are also slow and linear, so while the puzzles are serviceable and they introduce some layered mechanics towards the end, they are all still pretty simple. I imagine they don't want you slowly walking or jogging through an environment in a very tricky puzzle scenario. It would get extra frustrating or boring to run around a larger environment or a more open ended environment.

So, really, where would they go from here in a theoretical Hellblade 3? I'm not sure. I feel like it would end up being more of the same of HB2 which idk if there's an appetite for. I would love to see them apply all their skill into a more gamey game. A souls-like with the amount of visceral animation and combat like this (but adapted) would be impeccable. Their enemy visual design is top tier.

Click to shrink...

Spoiler

There are no giants, only traumatized people that got harmed, fail to deal with it and harm in return. Senua does not have a superpower. As an healing person with trauma, she understands and tries to show the way to people living through things she empathizes with. Beyond her trauma and her condition, she actively choses to be a better person, while she struggles with legitimacy, responsibility and trust.

 

[Azuos]

Question about story and enemies:

Spoiler

I know those monsters weren't real, but what about reactions of real people to them? For example in battle with second monster, there were many characters with fire and other things. Was there something (human enemies or a big wild animal) there or Senua just imagined the whole scene?

Click to shrink...

There is no one there, only the main cast. It's all in her head.

Edit: that's my interpretation.

 

[Reckheim]

Just finished it, unfortunately quite a disappointing sequel. If it weren't for the graphics/sound (both top tier in business) I probably would have dropped it after the second giant.

I understand that a lot of walking simulators don't have a ton of actual gameplay; but this was down right menial, it almost felt like a chore to play it.

This is coming from someone that enjoyed the first one quite a bit. The original felt more engaging, like you were actually playing a game, and not just guided everywhere.

Also I wasn't rushing through it, it took me almost 9 hours to beat.

 

[Star-Lord]

Finished it and it's alright,
The actual ending though actually pissed me off though. I felt we got no real closure with any of the characters or events that just unfolded. Just felt like a waste of time.

 

[theAllseeingEYE]

I must say,
I completed the game the other day, and while I do have some criticisms, I think it was just an incredible experience overall. I'd probably give it a 9/10.

Visuals
Obviously, not much more I can say about the visuals. The whole experience, whether playing on PC maxed, or Xbox (I split my time pretty evenly) just looked absolutely phenomenal. I'd say it was, hands-down, the best-looking game I've even played. But it wasn't just the tech, or the pure fidelity and sheer amount of detail on display that impressed, it was how polished the experience was, how beautifully designed and seamlessly integrated the art assets, clothing, wood carvings and VFX were. It wasn't just the sheer quality and volume of unique animation on display in every inch of the game, but how beautifully acted, near seamlessly integrated, and choreographed everything was. Also, given that there is currently no support for Nanite on character models yet, I can't praise the character design and rendering enough. This felt like a glimpse into the future.

Narrative
I've heard some criticisms of the narrative, and how some older fans were disappointed with how the new game unfolds and integrates Senua's struggles, but I can't say I agree with that at all. I loved it all from beginning to end. I'm only about 30% through the first game, and will go back, but judging Senua's Saga as a standalone narrative, I thought the team did an incredible job overall.

I think the real standouts were the characters. Every single main character in the game had clear, strong and believable motivations, and a strong believable and demeanor. Each character's purpose, needs, and struggles beautifully intertwined with each other, and fed perfectly into the overall simple story arc. And beyond that, the acting was just delivered beautifully on point. It was also really unique getting to experience Senua's internal chatter, demon's, struggles, and watching her struggle through it all, to basically the darkest depths of her life, with such perfectly in character acting in basically every inch of the game. From gutteral screams, cries, and wails of pain she feels in every battle, to the her battered, but likable personality, that chooses redemption, and sympathy at the peak of her darkest and most unlikely moments.

Combat

Hellblade II's combat is simple but incredibly well done. You only ever acquire one extra skill/ ability throughout Senua's Journey, and I was concerned this wouldn't be enough, I initially wanted more, and I'm sure Ninja Theory could offer more should they choose in a sequel. But as I played further, I realized that I always looked forward to each battle scene, and loved each one. I was also absolutely blown away by two of the boss battles in particular.

Is Hellblade II's combat improved over Hellblade 1? heck yeah it is. But it isn't in Senua's moveset that we see improvements to the gameplay itself, it's in the significantly better enemy variety, the significantly more interesting and varied enemy attacks, and the way different weapons and enemy behaviors engage and challenge the player. In Hellblade 1, it was common to see the same enemy, with the same behavior sent after you numerous times in row, only for the player to be able to dispatch them in almost the exact same way every time. That's not the case at all in here. Hellblade II's combat isn't God of War, even if two of its boss Battles have even better cinematic integration. I would liken it more to something like Mike Tyson's Punch out, or Infinity Blade. Where your inputs are simple, where combat choice and creativity is limited, but the real engagement is in reading enemy attacks, learning which directions to evade, when to dodge, finding openings for attacks, learning to break enemy defense. It works really well, it's well designed and integrated, it's engaging, and I found that it carried the title right through to the amazing final encounter, even if I did at times yearn for a bit more depth or variance.

But the real star of the show, is in the absolutely phenomenal presentation. Not only does Senua believably, and savagely struggle through every inch of every fight in a way I've never experienced in a game, but the game is just seemingly littered with a huge amount of beautifully choreographed custom animation work that makes basically every enemy encounter not only feel like a unique experience, but fit almost like a mini narrative within the game. All this extra animation work is presented with beautifully savage and gory finisher moves, and battle of the bastards style cinematic enemy transitions that surprise and kept me at the edge of my seat.

Note:
While the game did feel a bit too forgiving originally, I am now on my second playthrough, and have altered the difficulty from Dynamic to Hard. Hard feels like the true way to play the game for me, I am dying more, and combat feels like it has higher stakes. But I still loved my original playthrough, it was kind of cool being able to hang on and recover from the edge of death to the point that I rarely originally died, even if rarely ever dying lessened my fear of death overall.


Puzzles
So, full disclaimer, while I do like some puzzle games, I've never found them to be my forte. In fact, the only reason I've never beat the original Hellblade, is because I kept getting stuck every time I restarted. I think Hellblade 1's puzzles worked wonderfully within context of the game, but what I loathe more than anything, is getting so stuck on an obscure puzzle, being left aimlessly wandering and experimenting to the point of boredom, and being forced to Youtube the puzzle's solution repeatedly. Something never quite clicked at times for me in Hellblade 1, but I'm still trying.

Having said that I fully get that many out there likely don't Find Hellblade 2's puzzles all that engaging. If you want a brain twister, and want to dwell, and sometimes get hugely confounded, that isn't here. Hellblade II's "puzzles" don't require a lot of thought. They are more like cool interactions that encourage players to explore an area, and sometimes experiment or think of a mechanic in a slightly different way, and I generally liked that. I enjoyed the brief times the Rune puzzles returned, I also enjoyed the Cavern platform style puzzle interactions quite a bit. But most of all, I liked that they added some cool variance to the game, that worked wonderfully in context of Senua's mental health issues, were presented in incdibly cool and trippy ways, and that they were easy enough that I could just solve them and move on.

The puzzles were interesting, fun, perhaps a bit more simple than I would normally like, and it would be great to see even more creative variance, but the served their purpose well enough.

The Giants

Spoiler: Spoilers about the Giants

I think narratively, the Tale of Hellblade II's Giants was a wonderful tale. The way Senua hopped abord a slaver ship hoping to stop the atrocity, only to find out her people were being scarified as offering to keep Giants at bay, in a land dying of starvation was told in a beautifully grim way. I have no doubt that the way the Giants were handled from a gameplay perspective though, will be disappointing for a lot of people. Even if it didn't make sense within the context of the story, players really wanted to fight these things directly. But the game clearly and definitively impresses on the player that killing these things is impossible. How would Senua, with her small sword kill a Giant? it seems implausible. I suppose that's why I am ok with the way Ninja Theory handled these encounters in the end. As much as I wanted to climb on a Giant's back, Shadow of the Colossus style, this isn't that game. Maybe Ninja Theory can implement that next game, there certainly could be narrative reasons to push Senua to that point. But what Ninja Theory did present here, the journey to understand the Giants, to find its name, and the absolute spectacle and simple interaction of running across this field of sputtering lava, to break the Giant's chains, works perfectly within the narrative, was still engaging to play, and honestly left me feeling quite enthralled in the end.

The overall Journey
I honestly can't stop thinking about the game. To the point where I restarted a new campaign on hard with the alternate narrators, just so I can experience more and more fully understand the extras and depth in the story. Hellblade II isn't god of War, it's not trying to be Ninja Gaiden or DMC. It's a short, tight, narrative experience, that has pushed the presentation beyond anything else we've seen in gaming. It provides a dark horrifying glimpse into the struggles of a Nordic, grounded, but still slightly fantastical reality, and tells a great, tragic, hopeful, yet simple tale in an incredibly effective way. It also has the most cinematically captivating combat I've ever experienced in a game. Even if the core mechanics are simple, they are engaging, and well done. All I can say, is that I wish there was more. I beat the game in 9 hours, but if I wasn't stopping every 20 feet to take picture, I'm sure I could have run through everything in 5-6. Bring on Hellblade III! hopefully it's even more ambitious.

 

[ForgeForsaken]

There is no one there, only the main cast. It's all in her head.

Edit: that's my interpretation.

Click to shrink...

But!

Spoiler

the main cast seem convinced Senua can defeat the giants and say they saw it with their own eyes. Also, what's the deal with the Hidden Folk, is that just Senua's inner detective/story teller, or the Draugr who the others seem to acknowledge and fight as well. This is why I think the story is a bit of a mess and trying to have it both ways with the giants not being real

 

[Fantastical]

Spoiler

Ok… this game is about fathers? It really is like GoW. 🤭

 

[vixolus]

But!

Spoiler

the main cast seem convinced Senua can defeat the giants and say they saw it with their own eyes. Also, what's the deal with the Hidden Folk, is that just Senua's inner detective/story teller, or the Draugr who the others seem to acknowledge and fight as well. This is why I think the story is a bit of a mess and trying to have it both ways with the giants not being real

Click to shrink...

Yeah that's kind of where I'm at with it. It's hard to grasp

 

[BizzyBum]

But!

Spoiler

the main cast seem convinced Senua can defeat the giants and say they saw it with their own eyes. Also, what's the deal with the Hidden Folk, is that just Senua's inner detective/story teller, or the Draugr who the others seem to acknowledge and fight as well. This is why I think the story is a bit of a mess and trying to have it both ways with the giants not being real

Click to shrink...

Spoiler

Yeah, if the main cast are actually real it makes no sense why they would talk about the giants and say Senua can defeat them. The only thing I can think of is nothing is actually happening in reality and Senua is literally in Iceland by herself in the middle of nowhere just imaging everything. lol

 

[theAllseeingEYE]

But anyway, the voices are always going to exist with this character. And in HB2 I don't think they really add much. Bloodworth from Easy Allies called them backseat Twitch Chatters which is funny and kinda true. And their voices interrupting dialogue with these new other characters can be a little annoying. If there was ever a HB3, seemingly it would include other humans again and I feel like it just detracts from the experience at times. But it's her condition! You can't just get rid of it!

Click to shrink...

I don't really have context for Bloodworth's take on the furies. I can totally understand inner voices being too much, and I think that is always going to be a huge challenge for Hellblade games. Inner voices constantly chittering in your head can feel nauseating, dizzying.

It feels kind of reductive to compare the voices to Twitch chatters, but perhaps I'm missing some perspective there. The voices are much more akin to an amped up inner dialogue from Senua's loudest insecurities and inner voices, from what I recall. I think it's pretty clear those voices aren't just coming from backseat drivers, but they are brought forth from her insecure memories of her mother, father, perhaps from society or people in her past and inner circle. The demon and the angel of her subconscious. But due to her metal illness, those dizzying voices are even harder to block out than a normal person. The developers also use it, somewhat effectively, as a game design tool no doubt. So perhaps that is partly where those comments are coming from. I personally think it works really well in Hellblade II, it gives the game a really unique feel, and probably it's realistic for someone with her condition to hear guiding or contradicting voices like that, especially when going through tough the challenges and jouney she faces here, both in lone journey's and as a group.

It is a lot. I personally really enjoy that aspect of Hellblade, but I'm just really interested in Psychology, and trying to make sense of that type of problem or condition, especially in the context of an age where a character would have no access to the type of research and medical help we have today.

 

[ket]

The voices arent bad imo, their dialogue is just bland compared to the last game

 

[theAllseeingEYE]

Finished it and it's alright,
The actual ending though actually pissed me off though. I felt we got no real closure with any of the characters or events that just unfolded. Just felt like a waste of time.

Click to shrink...

I can't say I agree with that last part. There was closure, not only to all the story threads from each of the main characters, but also to the world at large. I suppose we didn't get that cathartic moment where the characters got to return home, and bring their newfound knowledge and good news to their people, but I don't think it was entirely needed, because all of that should have been assumed based on the outcome.

Spoiler: Explanation here in spoilers

The World/ Lands - The people are dying, and starving due to the giants. They cannot run away due to the Giants, the distance/lack of safe havens, and no doubt other beastly threats like the Drauger.

Closure - by ridding the lands of the Giants, the world is largely saved. Their crops will no longer be stomped out, they can farm food, and their chance of survival from normal threats is greatly increased. This also offers the small society's/ villages a chance to reunite and work together again.


Thorgestr - The despicable slaver. who deserves no redemption, was pushed by his despicable and monstrous father to gather slaves, so their people can use them as offerings to the Giants who threatened their existence. Thorgestr clearly knew the slaver sacrifices were incredibly wrong, but thought it was the only way until he met Senua. Throughout the journey, even though he didn't deserve it, Senua refused to kill him multiple times, and offered him multiple chances for salvation. Thorgestr grew substantially throughout his journey, more than any other character. Once he realized the Giants could be conquered, he had a change of heart, and offered to help Senua convince his father to stop with the slaving and sacrifices.

Closure - Thorgestr tried dearly to convince his father to stop his monstrous actions, but once he realized his father was truly an inconvincible monster, he had his biggest chance of heart yet, and chose to believe in Senua, and choose salvation for the world at large over his own blood. He confronted his father, and gave his life to protect Senua, a complete stranger, which was his final moment, and redemption.


Fargrimr - Fargrimr 's people are at their last stand. Giants are stomping out their crops, they are starving, and have nowhere to run.

Closure - Fargrimr's closure is similar to the world at large. With Senua defeating the Giants, Fargrimr and his people can live, they can farm food, and hopefully survive.


Senua - Senua bravely/foolishly let herself become captured by Thorgestr and his slavers, so she can find the root of the enslaving, put an end to it, and avenege her people and her lover. When she learned of the dark plight of Giants in these new lands, she put her main journey aside at times to help others, and the world at large. By delving back into her darkest depths, allowing herself to become confronted and enveloped in her inner struggles and demons once again, Senua met witht he hiddenfolk, learned how to overcome and defeat the horrible giants by showing them compassion and learning thier true names. She then set her sights back on Thorgestr's people, and tried to convice Thorgestr's father to stop the enslaving and that they can kill the Giant. When he refused, Senua was attacked and her life threatened. She fell back into the hallucination/enlightenment of the Hiddenfolk, and realized that Thorgestr's father was the true Monster/Giant that stalked his people all along, and the sacrifices were truly for himself.

Closure - By killing Thorgestr's father, the final giant, she not only saved the people of these new lands, but she put an end to the slaving, and saved her own people, perhaps at the cost of her own mental health.

 

[guerra08]

I think the main thing that really stuck with me after playing for about an hour are the graphics. It is truly life-like in some instances. Character models are godly.
In terms of gameplay and the overall changes from the first game, I do think more could have been changed or improved. For example, the combat is 1:1, and I do feel we walk around and stay "out of control" for too much time.

 

[AustinJ]

This game is beautiful, but otherwise it's not for me. I would drop it, but the easy achievements and short length will have me see it through to the end.

 

[MistahS]

The presentation of the combat makes me kinda not care that it's super simple if that makes sense? From the camera, to the music from Heilung, and the really visceral animations. Just really make it feel super cool to me.

 

[Crossing Eden]

The presentation of the combat makes me kinda not care that it's super simple if that makes sense? From the camera, to the music from Heilung, and the really visceral animations. Just really make it feel super cool to me.

Click to shrink...

It reminds me of that part in TLOU2 where you get that extended cutscene where Abby meets Lev and Yara which is followed by a segment where you have nothing but a hammer while stalkers are coming out of the woods. That moment is so immersive that most players don't even notice that the durability of the melee weapon is turned off in a game where weapon durability is crucial. Just peak immersion in a game wherein audio, controls, and visuals coalesce into an experience that sucks the player in even though their inputs aren't super complicated.

 

[Firefly]

The presentation of the combat makes me kinda not care that it's super simple if that makes sense? From the camera, to the music from Heilung, and the really visceral animations. Just really make it feel super cool to me.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, agreed. Don't need every action game to be a hardcore "character action" game. Its simple, intense and visceral and keeps you engaged. Kind of reminds me of Ryse.

 

[theAllseeingEYE]

The presentation of the combat makes me kinda not care that it's super simple if that makes sense? From the camera, to the music from Heilung, and the really visceral animations. Just really make it feel super cool to me.

Click to shrink...

Yep, I totally agree.

As I mentioned above, the presentation of it all is just incredible, and unlike anything else out there.

But also, while I absolutely love Ninja Gaiden and other classic 3D action-adventure games with deep combat, A game doesn't need to be complicated to be good, fun, and well designed. Hellblade 2 is all of that, plus it has this absolutely phenomenal visual, audio, mini narrative, VXF, and animation presentation on top of it all.

I liken Hellblade II's combat more towards some of my old school favourite player vs AI fighting games, like Mike Tyson's Punch Out, or Infinity Blade. Where it's less about complex combos, and more about, dodging the right way, blocking, finding openings, breaking an enemy's guard, and triggering your special ability at the right time.

Also, Hellblade II does a good job of making every encounter feel engaging and unique by having significantly more varied enemy types, attack patterns, enemy behaviours than the previous game. Those two main boss encounters too….absolutely incredible.

 

[vixolus]

I can't say I agree with that last part. There was closure, not only to all the story threads from each of the main characters, but also to the world at large. I suppose we didn't get that cathartic moment where the characters got to return home, and bring their newfound knowledge and good news to their people, but I don't think it was entirely needed, because all of that should have been assumed based on the outcome.

Spoiler: Explanation here in spoilers

The World/ Lands - The people are dying, and starving due to the giants. They cannot run away due to the Giants, the distance/lack of safe havens, and no doubt other beastly threats like the Drauger.

Closure - by ridding the lands of the Giants, the world is largely saved. Their crops will no longer be stomped out, they can farm food, and their chance of survival from normal threats is greatly increased. This also offers the small society's/ villages a chance to reunite and work together again.


Thorgestr - The despicable slaver. who deserves no redemption, was pushed by his despicable and monstrous father to gather slaves, so their people can use them as offerings to the Giants who threatened their existence. Thorgestr clearly knew the slaver sacrifices were incredibly wrong, but thought it was the only way until he met Senua. Throughout the journey, even though he didn't deserve it, Senua refused to kill him multiple times, and offered him multiple chances for salvation. Thorgestr grew substantially throughout his journey, more than any other character. Once he realized the Giants could be conquered, he had a change of heart, and offered to help Senua convince his father to stop with the slaving and sacrifices.

Closure - Thorgestr tried dearly to convince his father to stop his monstrous actions, but once he realized his father was truly an inconvincible monster, he had his biggest chance of heart yet, and chose to believe in Senua, and choose salvation for the world at large over his own blood. He confronted his father, and gave his life to protect Senua, a complete stranger, which was his final moment, and redemption.


Fargrimr - Fargrimr 's people are at their last stand. Giants are stomping out their crops, they are starving, and have nowhere to run.

Closure - Fargrimr's closure is similar to the world at large. With Senua defeating the Giants, Fargrimr and his people can live, they can farm food, and hopefully survive.


Senua - Senua bravely/foolishly let herself become captured by Thorgestr and his slavers, so she can find the root of the enslaving, put an end to it, and avenege her people and her lover. When she learned of the dark plight of Giants in these new lands, she put her main journey aside at times to help others, and the world at large. By delving back into her darkest depths, allowing herself to become confronted and enveloped in her inner struggles and demons once again, Senua met witht he hiddenfolk, learned how to overcome and defeat the horrible giants by showing them compassion and learning thier true names. She then set her sights back on Thorgestr's people, and tried to convice Thorgestr's father to stop the enslaving and that they can kill the Giant. When he refused, Senua was attacked and her life threatened. She fell back into the hallucination/enlightenment of the Hiddenfolk, and realized that Thorgestr's father was the true Monster/Giant that stalked his people all along, and the sacrifices were truly for himself.

Closure - By killing Thorgestr's father, the final giant, she not only saved the people of these new lands, but she put an end to the slaving, and saved her own people, perhaps at the cost of her own mental health.

Click to shrink...

Good reflection on it.

Did Senua actually kill Thorgestr's father? Did she not pull back on the rock (part of me was curious if the game would react to an attack input during that cutscene to finish him off or let you decide to not)? I saw it more of defeating him, seemingly by rallying the townspeople against him (you could hear them in the audience of the fight) by showing he isn't as strong as he appears.

 

[ThereAreFourNaan]

I find combat against enemies in the mid to late game frustrating. They are hard to get the parry timing right on, they have erratic swing patterns (can't work out how many strikes I need to dodge half the time before I can land a blow of my own), and I almost always feel like I'm forced to play defensive unless focus is ready in which case it's an instant win button.

I also rarely seem to be able to interrupt an enemy. They have full priority and can interrupt me but never or rarely the reverse. This is especially grating against flame enemies where since I can't deflect or dodge the up close flames, I thought surely if I land a blow it stops the attack - alas it does not. And those guys are just assholes.

This is offset by regenerating health and focus mode making it fairly hard to die despite eating hits very often. This acts counter to the immersive way the fights are set up when I'm just face tanking flames and sword blows constantly like it's no biggie. "It's all in her head lol" yeah OK.

I don't mind the 1v1 nature or cinematic flair but I think it's got real issues in design and flow.

 

[theAllseeingEYE]

Good reflection on it.

Did Senua actually kill Thorgestr's father? Did she not pull back on the rock (part of me was curious if the game would react to an attack input during that cutscene to finish him off or let you decide to not)? I saw it more of defeating him, seemingly by rallying the townspeople against him (you could hear them in the audience of the fight) by showing he isn't as strong as he appears.

Click to shrink...

You've actually got me wondering about that final moment now, ha. I'm just recalling what I remember, but I'm going to finish my second playthrough and perhaps watch the ending on youtube. That would be interesting if there are two paths you can take there, but perhaps I'm just misremembering that exact moment.

 

[vixolus]

I find combat against enemies in the mid to late game frustrating. They are hard to get the parry timing right on, they have erratic swing patterns (can't work out how many strikes I need to dodge half the time before I can land a blow of my own), and I almost always feel like I'm forced to play defensive unless focus is ready in which case it's an instant win button.

I also rarely seem to be able to interrupt an enemy. They have full priority and can interrupt me but never or rarely the reverse. This is especially grating against flame enemies where since I can't deflect or dodge the up close flames, I thought surely if I land a blow it stops the attack - alas it does not. And those guys are just assholes.

This is offset by regenerating health and focus mode making it fairly hard to die despite eating hits very often. This acts counter to the immersive way the fights are set up when I'm just face tanking flames and sword blows constantly like it's no biggie. "It's all in her head lol" yeah OK.

I don't mind the 1v1 nature or cinematic flair but I think it's got real issues in design and flow.

Click to shrink...

I also struggled with the flame enemy doing the close range flamespit. You just have to dodge backwards. He does a straight line far ranged flamespit which you sidestep, a sweeping one which you jump back for, and the explosion slam thing with the same. All the enemies have repeatable attack patterns so you should be able to memorize their moves or know when their combo ended.

 

[Andrew J]

Spoiler: chapter 3

That second orb puzzles made me feel real dumb. I visually parsed the bridge as just a wooden barricade to start, and I couldn't realize it actually provided a path up to a bubble to get an orb down to the floor.

 

[Boopers]

Played another hour tonight, and my feelings have changed from curiosity to adoration. Put another way: I love this game -- I absolutely love it. It's basically everything that I need right now, and I'm so thankful for its existence.

I'm still going to play just an hour or two a night, but it's going to be on my mind for all the other hours of the day. It's been a very special experience for me -- really the first game to make me feel this way since Chicory. <3

 

[Stooge]

I'm enjoying the game but it's very much a sequel to hellblade which is a very moody very pretty glorified walking simulator.

I think if you went in knowing what it was that would be fine. But they really let expectations for the gameplay get very out of hand.

Again I'm loving it. It's spooky as fuck, the acting is A+, the graphics are jaw dropping and I enjoy the symbol puzzles even if they are very simple.

 

[Suede]

Wut


View: https://x.com/regulator951/status/1794176937830883805?s=46

Click to shrink...

Very cool.

 

[Star-Lord]

I can't say I agree with that last part. There was closure, not only to all the story threads from each of the main characters, but also to the world at large. I suppose we didn't get that cathartic moment where the characters got to return home, and bring their newfound knowledge and good news to their people, but I don't think it was entirely needed, because all of that should have been assumed based on the outcome.

Spoiler: Explanation here in spoilers

The World/ Lands - The people are dying, and starving due to the giants. They cannot run away due to the Giants, the distance/lack of safe havens, and no doubt other beastly threats like the Drauger.

Closure - by ridding the lands of the Giants, the world is largely saved. Their crops will no longer be stomped out, they can farm food, and their chance of survival from normal threats is greatly increased. This also offers the small society's/ villages a chance to reunite and work together again.


Thorgestr - The despicable slaver. who deserves no redemption, was pushed by his despicable and monstrous father to gather slaves, so their people can use them as offerings to the Giants who threatened their existence. Thorgestr clearly knew the slaver sacrifices were incredibly wrong, but thought it was the only way until he met Senua. Throughout the journey, even though he didn't deserve it, Senua refused to kill him multiple times, and offered him multiple chances for salvation. Thorgestr grew substantially throughout his journey, more than any other character. Once he realized the Giants could be conquered, he had a change of heart, and offered to help Senua convince his father to stop with the slaving and sacrifices.

Closure - Thorgestr tried dearly to convince his father to stop his monstrous actions, but once he realized his father was truly an inconvincible monster, he had his biggest chance of heart yet, and chose to believe in Senua, and choose salvation for the world at large over his own blood. He confronted his father, and gave his life to protect Senua, a complete stranger, which was his final moment, and redemption.


Fargrimr - Fargrimr 's people are at their last stand. Giants are stomping out their crops, they are starving, and have nowhere to run.

Closure - Fargrimr's closure is similar to the world at large. With Senua defeating the Giants, Fargrimr and his people can live, they can farm food, and hopefully survive.


Senua - Senua bravely/foolishly let herself become captured by Thorgestr and his slavers, so she can find the root of the enslaving, put an end to it, and avenege her people and her lover. When she learned of the dark plight of Giants in these new lands, she put her main journey aside at times to help others, and the world at large. By delving back into her darkest depths, allowing herself to become confronted and enveloped in her inner struggles and demons once again, Senua met witht he hiddenfolk, learned how to overcome and defeat the horrible giants by showing them compassion and learning thier true names. She then set her sights back on Thorgestr's people, and tried to convice Thorgestr's father to stop the enslaving and that they can kill the Giant. When he refused, Senua was attacked and her life threatened. She fell back into the hallucination/enlightenment of the Hiddenfolk, and realized that Thorgestr's father was the true Monster/Giant that stalked his people all along, and the sacrifices were truly for himself.

Closure - By killing Thorgestr's father, the final giant, she not only saved the people of these new lands, but she put an end to the slaving, and saved her own people, perhaps at the cost of her own mental health.

Click to shrink...

I think we will sadly have to agree to disagree.
I don't want that typical ending of riding off to the sunset but it would have not had a vague ending where you don't see what's happening in the real world.

Spoiler

we get a fight with the one companions father who kills him which he gets the most proper send off. Senua has deep thoughts of being her own person and not her dad then it ends. The ending is erupt because you don't see coming back to "reality" she's just stuck in her head without seeing the impact she has done to the world. It's like you go this through journey with various campions and not even a goodbye or in case we don't see each other later on. I just wanted some type of closure and I didn't feel like I got it. You went through all of this and don't even get the decency to see the world after these events for a split second.

 

[Precious Tritium]

I can't say I agree with that last part. There was closure, not only to all the story threads from each of the main characters, but also to the world at large. I suppose we didn't get that cathartic moment where the characters got to return home, and bring their newfound knowledge and good news to their people, but I don't think it was entirely needed, because all of that should have been assumed based on the outcome.

Spoiler: Explanation here in spoilers

The World/ Lands - The people are dying, and starving due to the giants. They cannot run away due to the Giants, the distance/lack of safe havens, and no doubt other beastly threats like the Drauger.

Closure - by ridding the lands of the Giants, the world is largely saved. Their crops will no longer be stomped out, they can farm food, and their chance of survival from normal threats is greatly increased. This also offers the small society's/ villages a chance to reunite and work together again.


Thorgestr - The despicable slaver. who deserves no redemption, was pushed by his despicable and monstrous father to gather slaves, so their people can use them as offerings to the Giants who threatened their existence. Thorgestr clearly knew the slaver sacrifices were incredibly wrong, but thought it was the only way until he met Senua. Throughout the journey, even though he didn't deserve it, Senua refused to kill him multiple times, and offered him multiple chances for salvation. Thorgestr grew substantially throughout his journey, more than any other character. Once he realized the Giants could be conquered, he had a change of heart, and offered to help Senua convince his father to stop with the slaving and sacrifices.

Closure - Thorgestr tried dearly to convince his father to stop his monstrous actions, but once he realized his father was truly an inconvincible monster, he had his biggest chance of heart yet, and chose to believe in Senua, and choose salvation for the world at large over his own blood. He confronted his father, and gave his life to protect Senua, a complete stranger, which was his final moment, and redemption.


Fargrimr - Fargrimr 's people are at their last stand. Giants are stomping out their crops, they are starving, and have nowhere to run.

Closure - Fargrimr's closure is similar to the world at large. With Senua defeating the Giants, Fargrimr and his people can live, they can farm food, and hopefully survive.


Senua - Senua bravely/foolishly let herself become captured by Thorgestr and his slavers, so she can find the root of the enslaving, put an end to it, and avenege her people and her lover. When she learned of the dark plight of Giants in these new lands, she put her main journey aside at times to help others, and the world at large. By delving back into her darkest depths, allowing herself to become confronted and enveloped in her inner struggles and demons once again, Senua met witht he hiddenfolk, learned how to overcome and defeat the horrible giants by showing them compassion and learning thier true names. She then set her sights back on Thorgestr's people, and tried to convice Thorgestr's father to stop the enslaving and that they can kill the Giant. When he refused, Senua was attacked and her life threatened. She fell back into the hallucination/enlightenment of the Hiddenfolk, and realized that Thorgestr's father was the true Monster/Giant that stalked his people all along, and the sacrifices were truly for himself.

Closure - By killing Thorgestr's father, the final giant, she not only saved the people of these new lands, but she put an end to the slaving, and saved her own people, perhaps at the cost of her own mental health.

Click to shrink...

I think my biggest gripe with the story is that what you wrote is literally everything it encompasses. Like there are no moments where you get to contextualize any of these side characters learn more about who they are what's going on. Everything is a walk and talk, everyone feels paper thin, where the plot goes next feels completely objective based and being made up on the fly. The thing that worked for me was Senua's confidence / growth, because even if her pursuit was aimless and just kind of go with the the flow she objectively went through a lot and proved a lot to herself. So those moments near the end felt earned. Pretty much everything else with the side characters didn't for me.

 

[mcruz79]

I wasn't a huge fan of the first one but I am loving this so far , just a big step up in graphics and sound fx but I especially love the combat and some of the transitions.

The way you kill someone and the camera pans right behind you straight into another combat sequence is fantastic .

I'm loving it as a cinematic experience so far

Click to shrink...

as a cinematic experience this game is just surreally well realized.
The camera work is so god damn good!!

those transitions to one environment to another with the camera passing through whole landscapes is insanely good…

camera work in combat is also incredible!!

what a intense experience!!

 

[ugoo18]

No, I don't think its supposed to do that. Have you tried tweaking sensitivity settings?

Click to shrink...

Figured out what was happening, it was because Steam was open. Whenever Steam is open the controls in the Gamepass version go crazy. Once I closed Steam fully the controls were normal.

 

[mcruz79]

It almost hurts playing this game. 4 years of reading ignorant takes on the current-gen consoles, based on cross-gen games... I understand the economics of it, I understand why cross-gen was a thing for so long, but man do I wish RE4 (and a lot more games) looked liked this.

Better late than never, I guess. Really enjoying it so far!

Click to shrink...

Yes, is really awesome to see this level of production happening…
i was also waiting for games looking like this but I think we will still have to wait to see if more "open" games , with more mechanics , systems and logics going on are going to be possible to look like this in this gen hardware…

Still something we will have to wait to see…

 

[KodiakGTS]

Love how visceral the combat feels. Kind of claustrophobic and overwhelming even with the one-on-one focus. I definitely see this being in contention for my GOTY unless it really drops off in the second half.

 

[mcruz79]

In large part it's because it feels like Ninja Theory want to make a walking simulator but feel the need to add more traditional gameplay conceits like combat and puzzles, neither of which compare well to what you see in contemporary action games or puzzle games. This even extends to the Hellblade name which feels like it's there to widen appeal.

The games you mention like Journey feel a lot more comfortable in their own skin. They know what they are and they're much more focused as a result. By comparison Hellblade II feels confused, and I think that's the result of Ninja Theory wrestling with how mad an idea developing a walking simulator with AAA production values actually is.

Click to shrink...

And as strange as it can look, I feel that this is a strong point of this game…
Yes, it still a walking simulator a majority of time but just because of that, it doesn't need to be just this because other games in this genre are…
They add mechanics, yes light mechanics, but for me, they were added and didn't necessarily feel disconnected with the experience…
Combat is super simple but it Serves to theme very well with a incredible cinematic and visceral feel, puzzle didn't required UI elements and also served the storytelling. even the set pieces brought more intensity and were executed very well in my opinion…

it's still a extremely linear and mainly purely cinematic journey but with some additions of very light mechanics that didn't hurt the experience in any meaningful full way in my opinion and in The delivered a bit more interactive in the experience…

it was a brilliant work from Ninja Theory in my opinion…

 

[Hoggle]

Credits rolling. I enjoyed it. I think more than the first game, although I admittedly don't remember much from the first game and just the annoying bits. This had less or almost no annoying bits (once I turned difficulty don't to easy which was the right move).

It's a linear walking sim with insane visuals in a cool setting. The story didn't end up blowing me away, and seems less important than the first game's, but it kept me engaged from start to finish.

I didn't have a few gripes. The last companion looked a little too much like a "model" compared to the dirty, beat up main character, and I wish the voice actors were able to hold their accent better. And I'd have liked the game to be a bit darker to fit the setting better. Every character was too nice and likeable and I'd have preferred something bleak and miserable like TLoU2.

Still, I enjoyed it for what it was. An entertaining weekend romp through a Viking setting. The length was perfect, too. Any longer and it would have dragged.

 

[Boopers]

it's still a extremely linear and mainly purely cinematic journey but with some additions of very light mechanics that didn't hurt the experience in any meaningful full way in my opinion and in The delivered a bit more interactive in the experience…

Click to shrink...

I specifically love it because of this. It's not afraid to do its own thing — the game will even play itself for you if you want (it's an option in accessibility). It's just purely focusing on the cinematic experience, and it really delivers on this front.

All that said, I get why some people don't like it. But I already have so many other games, so I love that it's doing something different.

 

[LiftGammaGain]

as a cinematic experience this game is just surreally well realized.
The camera work is so god damn good!!

those transitions to one environment to another with the camera passing through whole landscapes is insanely good…

camera work in combat is also incredible!!

what a intense experience!!

Click to shrink...

Yeah there's rarely a cut with the camera, cut scenes included. Camera pans and travels everywhere and mixes with scenario changing. It's really well done.

A lot as been said about how good the faces look but the hands really impressed me as well. This has to be the best human hands displayed in a video game. There's a particular image of holding hands that looks beautiful. And trough out the game the detail of the warriors hands is insane, with all the bruises, blood, dirty under the nails. Insane.

 

[Hoggle]

I specifically love it because of this. It's not afraid to do its own thing — the game will even play itself for you if you want (it's an option in accessibility). It's just purely focusing on the cinematic experience, and it really delivers on this front.

All that said, I get why some people don't like it. But I already have so many other games, so I love that it's doing something different.

Click to shrink...

This is where I'm at. It's a AAA walking sim and I actually don't mind the few interactive mechanics in this one. I like these sorts of experiences from time to time.

 

[Firmus_Anguis]

Yes, is really awesome to see this level of production happening…
i was also waiting for games looking like this but I think we will still have to wait to see if more "open" games , with more mechanics , systems and logics going on are going to be possible to look like this in this gen hardware…

Still something we will have to wait to see…

Click to shrink...

There will be games that surpass this, there always is... But mostly by the end of the generation.

There are a lot more UE5 games on the way. Marvel 1943 is looking crazy good, just an example.

Not to mention Naughty Dog's and SMS's next games.

 

[horkrux]

I don't think there is much to gain from attributing all events in the game to Senua's psychosis. They've blurred the lines here to such a degree that superstition can't really explain it in full lol
Like sure, we can just say "yeah well it was all in her head again", but that's a boring interpretation for this 8h game.

 

[dstarMDA]

I think my biggest gripe with the story is that what you wrote is literally everything it encompasses. Like there are no moments where you get to contextualize any of these side characters learn more about who they are what's going on. Everything is a walk and talk, everyone feels paper thin, where the plot goes next feels completely objective based and being made up on the fly. The thing that worked for me was Senua's confidence / growth, because even if her pursuit was aimless and just kind of go with the the flow she objectively went through a lot and proved a lot to herself. So those moments near the end felt earned. Pretty much everything else with the side characters didn't for me.

Click to shrink...

I think the scope of the side characters is very deliberate. Senua has trouble connecting with people, and in this game they are first and foremost what she builds them up to be. It's hard to conceptualize who they "really" are for the player because it's hard for Senua, and most of what we perceive about them comes from Senua's voices much more than their actions.

As with everything in this game, Senua's role as an unreliable narrator due to her unique perspective on reality bends all the things the player sees, hears and experiences. To me this very constrained perspective (and what it entails) is precisely what's so interesting about the game.

 

[ket]

I think the scope of the side characters is very deliberate. Senua has trouble connecting with people, and in this game they are first and foremost what she builds them up to be. It's hard to conceptualize who they "really" are for the player because it's hard for Senua, and most of what we perceive about them comes from Senua's voices much more than their actions.

As with everything in this game, Senua's role as an unreliable narrator due to her unique perspective on reality bends all the things the player sees, hears and experiences. To me this very constrained perspective (and what it entails) is precisely what's so interesting about the game.

Click to shrink...

I dont think that's true because she had a friend named Druth in the past and she also fell in love with Dillon. She also had a good relationship with her mom Galena.

She's definitely capable of having relationships with people and seeing them as characters who had more depth than the side characters in the sequel.

I think a late game moment underscores my problem with the side characters in hb2:

Spoiler

the foggy forest part is basically about senua stepping up as a leader and helping her allies through their fears. But since imo these characters are very thin, I had no idea what those personal fears were and barely cared since the game gave us so little time to actually connect with them. This made the section feel pretty hollow and forced to me.

 

[Black Mantis]

I must say,
I completed the game the other day, and while I do have some criticisms, I think it was just an incredible experience overall. I'd probably give it a 9/10.

Visuals
Obviously, not much more I can say about the visuals. The whole experience, whether playing on PC maxed, or Xbox (I split my time pretty evenly) just looked absolutely phenomenal. I'd say it was, hands-down, the best-looking game I've even played. But it wasn't just the tech, or the pure fidelity and sheer amount of detail on display that impressed, it was how polished the experience was, how beautifully designed and seamlessly integrated the art assets, clothing, wood carvings and VFX were. It wasn't just the sheer quality and volume of unique animation on display in every inch of the game, but how beautifully acted, near seamlessly integrated, and choreographed everything was. Also, given that there is currently no support for Nanite on character models yet, I can't praise the character design and rendering enough. This felt like a glimpse into the future.

Narrative
I've heard some criticisms of the narrative, and how some older fans were disappointed with how the new game unfolds and integrates Senua's struggles, but I can't say I agree with that at all. I loved it all from beginning to end. I'm only about 30% through the first game, and will go back, but judging Senua's Saga as a standalone narrative, I thought the team did an incredible job overall.

I think the real standouts were the characters. Every single main character in the game had clear, strong and believable motivations, and a strong believable and demeanor. Each character's purpose, needs, and struggles beautifully intertwined with each other, and fed perfectly into the overall simple story arc. And beyond that, the acting was just delivered beautifully on point. It was also really unique getting to experience Senua's internal chatter, demon's, struggles, and watching her struggle through it all, to basically the darkest depths of her life, with such perfectly in character acting in basically every inch of the game. From gutteral screams, cries, and wails of pain she feels in every battle, to the her battered, but likable personality, that chooses redemption, and sympathy at the peak of her darkest and most unlikely moments.

Combat

Hellblade II's combat is simple but incredibly well done. You only ever acquire one extra skill/ ability throughout Senua's Journey, and I was concerned this wouldn't be enough, I initially wanted more, and I'm sure Ninja Theory could offer more should they choose in a sequel. But as I played further, I realized that I always looked forward to each battle scene, and loved each one. I was also absolutely blown away by two of the boss battles in particular.

Is Hellblade II's combat improved over Hellblade 1? heck yeah it is. But it isn't in Senua's moveset that we see improvements to the gameplay itself, it's in the significantly better enemy variety, the significantly more interesting and varied enemy attacks, and the way different weapons and enemy behaviors engage and challenge the player. In Hellblade 1, it was common to see the same enemy, with the same behavior sent after you numerous times in row, only for the player to be able to dispatch them in almost the exact same way every time. That's not the case at all in here. Hellblade II's combat isn't God of War, even if two of its boss Battles have even better cinematic integration. I would liken it more to something like Mike Tyson's Punch out, or Infinity Blade. Where your inputs are simple, where combat choice and creativity is limited, but the real engagement is in reading enemy attacks, learning which directions to evade, when to dodge, finding openings for attacks, learning to break enemy defense. It works really well, it's well designed and integrated, it's engaging, and I found that it carried the title right through to the amazing final encounter, even if I did at times yearn for a bit more depth or variance.

But the real star of the show, is in the absolutely phenomenal presentation. Not only does Senua believably, and savagely struggle through every inch of every fight in a way I've never experienced in a game, but the game is just seemingly littered with a huge amount of beautifully choreographed custom animation work that makes basically every enemy encounter not only feel like a unique experience, but fit almost like a mini narrative within the game. All this extra animation work is presented with beautifully savage and gory finisher moves, and battle of the bastards style cinematic enemy transitions that surprise and kept me at the edge of my seat.

Note:
While the game did feel a bit too forgiving originally, I am now on my second playthrough, and have altered the difficulty from Dynamic to Hard. Hard feels like the true way to play the game for me, I am dying more, and combat feels like it has higher stakes. But I still loved my original playthrough, it was kind of cool being able to hang on and recover from the edge of death to the point that I rarely originally died, even if rarely ever dying lessened my fear of death overall.


Puzzles
So, full disclaimer, while I do like some puzzle games, I've never found them to be my forte. In fact, the only reason I've never beat the original Hellblade, is because I kept getting stuck every time I restarted. I think Hellblade 1's puzzles worked wonderfully within context of the game, but what I loathe more than anything, is getting so stuck on an obscure puzzle, being left aimlessly wandering and experimenting to the point of boredom, and being forced to Youtube the puzzle's solution repeatedly. Something never quite clicked at times for me in Hellblade 1, but I'm still trying.

Having said that I fully get that many out there likely don't Find Hellblade 2's puzzles all that engaging. If you want a brain twister, and want to dwell, and sometimes get hugely confounded, that isn't here. Hellblade II's "puzzles" don't require a lot of thought. They are more like cool interactions that encourage players to explore an area, and sometimes experiment or think of a mechanic in a slightly different way, and I generally liked that. I enjoyed the brief times the Rune puzzles returned, I also enjoyed the Cavern platform style puzzle interactions quite a bit. But most of all, I liked that they added some cool variance to the game, that worked wonderfully in context of Senua's mental health issues, were presented in incdibly cool and trippy ways, and that they were easy enough that I could just solve them and move on.

The puzzles were interesting, fun, perhaps a bit more simple than I would normally like, and it would be great to see even more creative variance, but the served their purpose well enough.

The Giants

Spoiler: Spoilers about the Giants

I think narratively, the Tale of Hellblade II's Giants was a wonderful tale. The way Senua hopped abord a slaver ship hoping to stop the atrocity, only to find out her people were being scarified as offering to keep Giants at bay, in a land dying of starvation was told in a beautifully grim way. I have no doubt that the way the Giants were handled from a gameplay perspective though, will be disappointing for a lot of people. Even if it didn't make sense within the context of the story, players really wanted to fight these things directly. But the game clearly and definitively impresses on the player that killing these things is impossible. How would Senua, with her small sword kill a Giant? it seems implausible. I suppose that's why I am ok with the way Ninja Theory handled these encounters in the end. As much as I wanted to climb on a Giant's back, Shadow of the Colossus style, this isn't that game. Maybe Ninja Theory can implement that next game, there certainly could be narrative reasons to push Senua to that point. But what Ninja Theory did present here, the journey to understand the Giants, to find its name, and the absolute spectacle and simple interaction of running across this field of sputtering lava, to break the Giant's chains, works perfectly within the narrative, was still engaging to play, and honestly left me feeling quite enthralled in the end.

The overall Journey
I honestly can't stop thinking about the game. To the point where I restarted a new campaign on hard with the alternate narrators, just so I can experience more and more fully understand the extras and depth in the story. Hellblade II isn't god of War, it's not trying to be Ninja Gaiden or DMC. It's a short, tight, narrative experience, that has pushed the presentation beyond anything else we've seen in gaming. It provides a dark horrifying glimpse into the struggles of a Nordic, grounded, but still slightly fantastical reality, and tells a great, tragic, hopeful, yet simple tale in an incredibly effective way. It also has the most cinematically captivating combat I've ever experienced in a game. Even if the core mechanics are simple, they are engaging, and well done. All I can say, is that I wish there was more. I beat the game in 9 hours, but if I wasn't stopping every 20 feet to take picture, I'm sure I could have run through everything in 5-6. Bring on Hellblade III! hopefully it's even more ambitious.

Click to shrink...

Great write-up! I just finished it myself and have jumped straight back in to experience it again from the others POV. It took a while for me to grasp what was happening, things only really started to clear up after completing The Hidden Ones and meeting subsequent companions. Once I got it though, wow!

The psychosis element was causing me some concern as to how it was being handled initially, but again, things become much clearer later on and props to NT for how they've handled it again here. Also, the Psychosis video in the Extras is essential viewing.

 

[BarryFishFinger]

Finished it last night. Mixed thoughts on some aspects, but overall I really enjoyed it.

As an audiovisual experience it's exemplary, it looks and sounds incredible, it has interesting characters, atmospheric world, intriguing story etc etc.

As an actual game it's pretty bare bones, it's about as simple as it gets in terms of interaction, the combat is as close as it gets to a QTE without actually being one. Which is fine, it's not aiming for anything more complex mechanically, and the restricted nature means it can really push the cinematic aspect so every scene and interaction is beautifully presented and arranged for maximum impact.

But it does mean it gets repetitive, combat is fairly dull once you've established the boundaries of what you can't do and, at least to me, some of the fights drag on a bit too long considering it's the same 'dodge, dodge, slash slash' action each time, with the same death animations, the same set up.

But the narrative is compelling and it can't be overstated just how incredible it is visually, which is what drove the experience for me. I'm very glad I experienced it, but it's definitely a one and done game.

 

[JT_77]

Probably my GOTY so far. Awe-inspiring from start to finish. The musical score is incredible too. Definitely a special and unique experience.

 

[GrrImAFridge]

Just posting this for the threadmark:

Senua's Saga Hellblade 2: Xbox Series S/Steam Deck/ROG Ally - High-End Game vs Low-Power Hardware

Digital Foundry's Hellblade 2 coverage continues with a look at how one of the most graphically demanding games holds up on less capable hardware. How does X...

www.youtube.com

 

[Lightsong]

I am really dissapointed by the end of this game, appeared really anticlimactic to me and the whole game felt like it could've used some breathing room in between sections.