Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 Review – Hell Diver

Back in 2017, Hellblade: Senua’s Saga was very much the textbook definition of surprise hit. Straddling the line between AAA and indie, the action-adventure title was praised widely for not just its technical, cinematic, and narrative accomplishments, but also how utterly it devoted itself to meaningfully and properly conveying Senua’s psychosis. With a unique core message, top notch audio-visual design, and proof in its pudding that smaller teams and budgets could also successfully deliver gorgeous, premium-feeling gaming experiences, Hellblade became a fan-favourite overnight.

With Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 being developer Ninja Theory’s first big flagship release as a first-party Xbox studio, for some, expectations may have been that the sequel would significantly expand on its acclaimed predecessor in more ways than one, and the fact that the game has taken as long to come out as it has has only served to further fuel that notion. Hellblade 2 is not, however, a revelatory sequel. It’s more of the same, to the extent that it often feels not like a separate game, but as part of a single, contiguous experience alongside its predecessor. From its strengths to its weaknesses, it echoes the first Hellblade almost exactly, but this time, Ninja Theory has honed its craft to ensure that the experience’s high points are even higher, and low points much less prominent. The end result is a stunning, jaw-dropping technical and cinematic accomplishment, even if it often feels too familiar and, by extension, too straightforward from a gameplay perspective.

"Hellblade 2 is a stunning, jaw-dropping technical and cinematic accomplishment, even if it often feels too familiar and, by extension, too straightforward from a gameplay perspective."

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 picks up not long after the events of the first game. Having come to terms not only with the loss of her lover Dillion, but also with the relentless voices she has heard inside her head for as long as she can remember, Senua is a much more assured and confident protagonist this time, though the threats that she faces feel appropriately more formidable. What starts as a journey to track down and thwart the slavers that invaded Senua’s home quickly devolves into madness, both literal and metaphorical, with the captivating story twisting and turning to rope in everything from draugr and giants to several other fascinating bits and pieces of Scandinavian folklore and mythology.

As intriguing as all of that is, what shines even brighter in Hellblade 2’s narrative is Senua herself, and her own personal arc- which should come as no surprise to those who played the original game. Much like in the 2017 title, Senua is the star of the show in Hellblade 2. Buoyed by a stellar, career-defining performance by the impeccable Melina Juergens and stellar facial and performance capture across the board, Senua’s continued growth as a character and her drive to find a way through the darkness and look for the light even in the face of overwhelming odds make her a massively compelling character. Hellblade 2 has a wider cast of characters than its predecessors, and many of the new people it introduces surely are well-written and well-acted personalities, each of whom makes their mark on the story in their own way, but from beginning to end, Senua remains the heart and soul of the experience.

Something else that deserves special praise is Hellblade 2’s spectacular cinematography, and the excellent job it does of not only pulling you into the game’s captivating and wonderfully produced cinematics, but also seamlessly blending gameplay and cutscenes together so indistinguishably well that it almost feels like sorcery. Every single cinematic, whether it’s a brutal and heart-pounding swordfight or a quieter and more introspective moment, is expertly directed, and it all feels a seamless and intricately interwoven part of even the gameplay experience, thanks to the game’s nonexistent HUD or UI and its almost complete lack of camera cuts.

"Combined with its jaw-dropping art design and the industry-leading technical accomplishments on display here, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call Hellblade 2 one of the best-looking console games out there."

And of course, the audio design is also one of Hellblade 2’s most massively impressive accomplishments, which is something else that fans of the first game won’t be surprised by in the slightest. Ninja Theory has been touting the long-awaited sequel’s audio improvements for a while now, and while I lack the technical knowhow to properly understand those nitty-gritties, the spectacular work on display here is painfully apparent to even my technically illiterate self.

This is a game best played with headphones (as the game itself tells you at the outset), because its audio design elevates it to entirely unimaginable heights. From the constant conflicting internal monologues in Senua’s head to the aggressive, pulsating musical thrums that blare in the background during intense combat encounters, from the ambient sounds that fill the air as you’re walking through the more quite environments to the haunting, skin-prickling whispers and growls that often explode in Senua’s head during moments of duress, this is a game that is constantly showing off in the audio design department. Combined with its relentlessly trippy and visually striking cinematography and art design, Hellblade 2 does an incredible job of setting itself apart as a game with an entirely unique and singular (and gleefully unsettling) audio-visual identity. Combined with its jaw-dropping art design and the industry-leading technical accomplishments on display here, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call Hellblade 2 one of the best-looking console games out there.

It is, however, also a game of two halves, in some ways. Parts of it are extremely impressive, from its visual and audio design to its eye-catching cinematography to its engrossing narrative and more. At the same time though, parts of it feel surprisingly straightforward. While many would have expected the game to be a much deeper and more mechanically complex gameplay experience than its predecessor, it’s actually, once again, more of the same- which means simplistic combat, barebones exploration, and an emphasis on environmental puzzles.

"While many would have expected the game to be a much deeper and more mechanically complex gameplay experience than its predecessor, it’s actually, once again, more of the same- which means simplistic combat, barebones exploration, and an emphasis on environmental puzzles."

That’s not to say there are no improvements. In the combat department, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 feels like an acceptable step up over the first game. Fights are now all always one-on-one, while every move that Senua and her enemies make is derived from complete performance capture, and those two elements combine for actual, tangible upgrades. Mechanically, things will be familiar, with players being tasked to dole out normal and heavy attacks while also dodging incoming blows, with other factors such as a time-slowing Focus mechanic, parries and blocks, and different enemy types all bring wrinkles of their own as well.

But though things are by and large similar on paper to the first game, every combat encounter in Hellblade 2 feels much more intense and involved. Incredible animations allow every attack, every dodge, every block to feel incredible in motion, while every hit also lands with satisfying, crunching audio, visual, and tactile feedback. During longer sequences, moving from one enemy to another feels deeply cinematic, while the feeling of working your way through a combat gauntlet only adds to the already intense nature of the game’s combat encounters.

Beyond the combat, however, I found Hellblade 2’s gameplay offerings as underwhelming as I find them scarce. Unsurprisingly, I find them underwhelming because they are scarce- every chapter allows for some optional challenges to take on, including lore stones and hidden faces to find, but that amounts to limited branching paths and optional puzzles, and little else- and when I say limited, I mean limited. Like the first game, the overwhelming majority of Hellblade 2 is a highly focused, railroaded, and linear experience, with little to see across its runtime outside of its main story, to the point of almost feeling like a walking sim for significant lengths of time.

"Like the first game, the overwhelming majority of Hellblade 2 is a highly focused, railroaded, and linear experience, with little to see across its runtime outside of its main story, to the point of almost feeling like a walking sim for significant lengths of time."

In the end, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 is almost remarkably similar to its predecessor. It impresses in a lot of the same ways, and feels a bit too limited in a lot of the same ways. If you were expecting Hellblade 2 to be a more elaborate and complex game than the first one, you’re likely to be left disappointed. At the same time, however, there’s little doubt that the game is much stronger in the areas where its predecessor excelled as well, and the experience it delivers in the end is still one well worth paying attention to. Even though Hellblade 2 is disappointingly unambitious on the gameplay front, purely for its technical, narrative, visual, and narrative achievements, you owe it to yourself to play it nonetheless.

This game was reviewed on the Xbox Series X.