{"id":49537,"date":"2024-05-21T12:00:05","date_gmt":"2024-05-21T11:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.xtremeservers.com\/blog\/senuas-saga-hellblade-ii-review\/"},"modified":"2024-05-21T12:00:05","modified_gmt":"2024-05-21T11:00:05","slug":"senuas-saga-hellblade-ii-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.xtremeservers.com\/blog\/senuas-saga-hellblade-ii-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II Review"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n

Watching Senua emerge from a shipwreck onto the shoreline bruised, bloodied, and struggling to breathe immediately drags us back into the depths of desperation and despair of Senua\u2019s Saga: Hellblade II\u2019s psychosis-affected lead from the outset. What follows is a supremely taut, six-hour tour across the human realm of Midgard that\u2019s conveyed through staggeringly vivid action sequences, stunning Nordic-inspired locations, and intense encounters with towering terrors intimidating enough to make a Viking mess their furs. Hellblade II serves up another satisfyingly brutal and consistently enthralling heroine\u2019s journey, even if its streamlined swordfighting favours cinematic spectacle over substantial gameplay depth.<\/p>\n

<\/section>\n

Although it\u2019s been some seven years since Hellblade: Senua\u2019s Sacrifice<\/a>, the events of Hellblade II take place shortly after the original\u2019s vengeful highway to Helheim, with Hel\u2019s belle now feeling empowered by her psychosis rather than encumbered with it. (Suffice it to say, if you\u2019re jumping into Senua\u2019s story here then the included story recap is mandatory viewing.) However, after the Icelandic slave ship she stows away on is wrecked during a severe storm, survivor\u2019s guilt sees her prior struggles with self doubt reemerge to clash with her own stoic sense of justice, setting her down another gripping and tortured path towards battling both her own inner demons and the bloodthirsty monsters roaming Midgard as they take human and mythical forms.<\/p>\n

<\/section>\n

Senua is joined along the way by a handful of human companions, including a shackled slave master who begrudgingly accompanies her on her path and a settler she saves from a sacrificial altar. None of these supporting characters are given enough screen time to really develop much of a personality beyond the surface, but I appreciated having them along for various parts of the quest since their incidental conversation felt like a far more organic method to process exposition than the superimposed live action vignettes of the first game. <\/p>\n

I completely bought into her determination to battle through the fear and self-loathing.<\/section>\n

It\u2019s the battle-scarred Senua herself who is the star, though, portrayed to stirring effect by Melina Juergens, returning from the still gorgeous original game now in near-photorealistic form. Juergens is a truly courageous and compassionate presence, and I completely bought into her determination to battle through the fear and self-loathing, from moments where she\u2019s paralysed by anxiety through to shocking outward bursts of blood-boiling rage. <\/p>\n

<\/section>\n<\/p>\n

Hellblade II once again takes Senua to some dark and disturbing places, but the sequel\u2019s environments have been painted from a broader colour palette than the mostly bleak backdrops of the original. Sure, you\u2019re still forced to hold your breath during crawls through heinous pits of blood and gristle and infiltrate marauder camps decorated with gruesome bouquets made out of human bones, but these darker moments are contrasted with peaceful mountain treks beneath beautiful coral-coloured skies and jaw-dropping glimpses of aurora borealis so vivid you can almost smell the steamed hams cooking in Principal Skinner\u2019s kitchen. The impressive lighting and fog effects employed throughout bring added depth to each destination, making for a journey that feels grounded even as it shifts between reality and the haunting altered states that spill out of Senua\u2019s psyche. The tradeoff is that Hellblade II runs capped at 30 frames per second on Series X, but I felt its visual design was gobsmacking enough to justify that limit. <\/p>\n

Playing with headphones on is an absolute must.<\/section>\n

These immaculate visuals are once again reinforced by first-class binaural audio design, and playing with headphones on is an absolute must in order to really appreciate the detailed environmental touches like flies buzzing around mutilated corpses and drops of water echoing in underground caverns. More importantly, the swirling voices in Senua\u2019s head seem so close you can almost feel their breath on the back of your neck. This time around not only do these disembodied backseat drivers serve as the bickering angel and devil on Senua\u2019s shoulders casting confusion over every decision she makes, but they also cleverly sow suspicion about the supporting characters around her, making it tough to know who to trust along the way to the story\u2019s thoroughly cathartic conclusion. <\/p>\n

<\/section>\n

En Garde in Midgard<\/h2>\n

Whereas much of Senua\u2019s war in the original Hellblade was waged against demonic manifestations of the Northmen who raided her village and murdered her lover, in Hellblade II the majority of her foes are flesh and bone human warriors. This means that every attack you land feels all the more brutal, with Senua\u2019s sword splitting surface wounds in her opponents\u2019 skin that continue to bleed for the duration of battle, and enemy encounters can be brought to a viciously abrupt end by jamming Senua\u2019s blade so far down their Nordic necks that they\u2019d need to perform a Helheim-lich maneuver to cough it back up again. <\/p>\n

Enemy encounters can be brought to a viciously abrupt end.<\/section>\n

The combat camera is so tight on each conflict that every weighted blow lands with concussive force, and I was acutely aware of Senua\u2019s knees buckling under her as I blocked an incoming series of powerful slashes. Dodging feels far more physical too, lurching you out of harm\u2019s way but leaving you open to a followup attack in the brief moment it takes Senua to regain her footing, if you don\u2019t manage to time it just right. Timing is also now more key to performing successful parries relative to the original, and the window in which to do so has been shortened to the point where I wasn\u2019t able to just calmly deflect each and every enemy assault with Jedi-like consistency anymore. That made each fight feel like a little less of a foregone conclusion.<\/p>\n

<\/section>\n<\/p>\n

That said, while I remained consistently engaged in each ferocious and remarkably fluid fight to the death, I do wish the team at Ninja Theory had done a little more to build upon the fairly modest combat template established in the original Hellblade with what they\u2019ve served up here. Admittedly, Hellblade II\u2019s swift six-hour run time leaves little room to cram in a skill tree to flesh out or additional attack combos to unlock, but it does feel a touch familiar to play through another campaign with the same basic two-button mix of light and heavy sword slashes, as superbly animated as they may be. <\/p>\n