Senua's Saga: Hellblade II

The Good, the Bad and the Beautiful.

Preamble:
I played the game to completion on a Series X using headphones, exploring a couple of chapters per day over the course of three days. As with all my reviews, this is based on my personal experience with the game, and is entirely subjective.

Review:
'I can't believe this is all realtime'. I actually said that out loud several times during the course of my 9 hour play through of Hellblade II - the game looks that good. If you want an example of just how impressive the Series X can be, this is the game to show people. And just in case there are any doubters out there, you can activate photo mode at any point during the game; yep, even during the cutscenes. Turn the auto focus on, put the aperture to full and go around zooming in on everything. They even put hairs up Senua's nose. Characters have their own individually modelled teeth, for crying out loud. And if you like geology? Well, this is basically boulder porn. Yes, it's unreal 5. Yes, it's all been scanned in. But it still takes great artists and modellers to put it all believably into a game, and the folks at Ninja Theory have done a flawless, impeccable job. It's the best looking console game, ever.

The sound is also stunning. Every drip of water, every gust of wind, every crunch of leathered feet on gravel - it's just real. It really feels like you're there. Then of course there's the dialogue, the voice acting, the emotion, and the best-in-class motion capture. It's absolutely stunning to experience, bringing the world and the characters to life.

Aesthetically, Hellblade II is a work of art. It just is. A marvel on every level. The question you all want the answer to, though, is how it plays. This is a sequel to a sometimes divisive title that favoured cinematic spectacle over gameplay. Can we find more balance this time? Does it play as good as it looks?

Well, no. But it's more complicated than that.

Ostensibly a third person action-adventure, Hellblade II features three distinct modes of play that rarely cross over during it's short, 7 to 8 hour runtime. You'll either be walking from A to B, solving environmental puzzles, or engaging in sword wielding melee combat. These activities are stitched together fairly well in the seamless, loading screen free, HUDless environments, but they are distinctly separate from one another.

A lot of your time - and I mean a lot - is spent holding up on the left stick whilst holding RB to move slightly faster through the stunning landscape of 9th century Iceland where the game takes place. If you like photo mode in your games then this is for you, as there are endless opportunities for amazing looking screengrabs as you saunter along the coasts, cliff tops, fields and caves of the world. Atmospherically it's amazing, but at the end of the day, you are just walking, listening to the endless voices in Senua's head, or talking to an occasional companion. During these times you can seek put the occasional alternate path that will lead you to a collectible - either a lore stone or a rock face hidden in the environment - which flesh out the world with myths and legends they tell upon finding them. But apart from that, it's just walking. And jogging. Then a bit of a mantle, then more walking. It's not exactly riveting stuff.

At certain points your path will be blocked, and you'll have to solve an environmental puzzle to open the way forward. Returning from the first game are the runes you need to find in the environment, which require you to reach a vantage point and look in a certain direction. There are also floating orbs which you can stare at to open and close pathways - these also require you to reach a vantage point and look in a certain direction. This is often combined with either finding stone orbs to place on a plinth, or lighting and extinguishing braziers to reveal a path forward. These puzzles are never difficult, never challenging, even. Despite this, Ninja Theory seem to think that you need your hand holding the whole way through every one of them.

Pathways which can be revealed by the orbs are brightly coloured, as if covered in a slick of oil. Pathways revealed by the braziers are encompassed in a cyan glow, like a ghostly image of what the solution looks like. Because of this, you're never lost for what to do - you never get stuck. But the hand holding doesn't stop there.

The Furies - the voices in Senua's head - literally tell you what to do.

"There's something there! You need to DO something, Senua. You NEED to DO something. Over there, look! A light! A light! And a brazier. You need the light! Light the brazier, Senua! Yes! You've done it. The path is open now! You've done it!"

It's much, much worse than Lara in the modern Tomb Raider games with her heavy-handed vocal hints, and I already found that oppressive. Let me just take in my surroundings and allow me to see that there's a puzzle before you start giving me hints, let alone direct instructions on how to solve it.

Unfortunately, the voices extend to the game's combat, too. Fights are only ever one-on-one, for which you have four basic moves at your disposal: A quick attack, a heavy attack, dodge and parry. Okay, so, let's figure out what this next enemy's attack pattern is. How strong is he? How agile? Should I dodge and attack quickly, or parry and hit him hard?

Except you can't do that, because you're explicitly told how to fight. Not just once, but every time, against every enemy, in every battle.

"He's too strong, Senua! He's too strong! But you're quicker, Senua! You're QUICKER than him!" Quick attack, then.

"He's so tough! How will you damage him? He's so tough!" Strong attacks it is.

Even the guesswork is taken away from dodging for a counter attack, as the enemy will momentarily slow down and glow up red like a firecracker to show where your window of opportunity lies.

Don't worry though, if that still sounds like too much of a challenge, Ninja Theory have got you covered as well. Very early on in the game, you'll find a mirror. As you dodge and attack, this mirror will charge up, glowing with a rune when it's at full charge. Hit either trigger at this point to slow your enemy down to a crawl, essentially giving you a bullet time attack that ends with the enemy dying. It's all very "gamey" for a title which leans heavily into its cinematic styling. Having said that, the fights look seriously impressive, with each combat having been motion captured pretty much just for that moment.

I don't want to dwell on the story here as I don't want to spoil it, but it does seem a bit confused. There are, as players of the first game will expect, sequences where you're not sure if they're real or not. These sequences are cemented one way or the other by the ending, but that just leaves you with questions about the journey, as for a good chunk of it you're with other people. No matter how I try to quantify it, some events simply don't make sense. To say more would be serious spoiler territory.

Achievements:
Very straightforward. Disappointingly, there are only eleven achievements, and 8 of them will come from playing through the game to completion. Once you've done that, you'll unlock a new narrator who talks occasionally while you play - starting a chapter with that enabled will give you your ninth achievement. Finally, there's one achievement each for the two types of collectibles in the game, Lore Stones and Hidden Faces. It's a very easy 100%.

Overall:
Hellblade II is a bit of a weird one for me. Despite my complaints about the combat and puzzles which I've dwelled on above, I did enjoy it overall. The atmosphere, especially during Chapter 4 where you're exploring a cave system, really pulled me in. Aesthetically it's stunning, and if you enjoy games which are lighter on gameplay but heavy on atmosphere, you'll enjoy your time here. I played it through Gamepass, but I wouldn't spend more than £25 on it. If you go in expecting God of War, you're going to hate this. If you go in expecting a highly detailed, technically masterful game about exploring Iceland with the occasional puzzle and fight thrown in, you'll enjoy it more.