Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II is a masterpiece of storytelling and character development. There is no other way to put it. It is the perfect example of developers concentrating so hard on telling the story of a character’s journey that they build the gameplay around it instead of vice-versa. Rarely do you find that type of dedication in a video game, as that development structure typically is reserved for motion pictures or BBC shows (looking at you, Life on Mars).
The eight-hour initial adventure is mostly story that does its best to impress with visuals that haven’t been seen like this before from the Xbox side of the tracks and does a great job of instituting new gameplay elements and mechanics to make for a smoother experience that leaves you wanting more by the end but in a good way. It certainly won’t be everybody’s cup of tea, and some will complain about its length versus its price tag ($49.99) but ignore that noise. This game wants to expand the universe of Senua, develop her character even further, and give hope that there is more story to be told. It does all of this.
So, get those voices in your head in check, let’s sharpen our swords, and attack this review with everything we have got.
Senua’s Story is First
In the grand scheme of this game’s design, there is no doubt that Ninja Theory knows and has accepted that Senua’s story is far more important than actual gameplay. You can approach that two ways – yay or nay. For me, it’s yay. I’m a huge fan of good stories and the first game, Senua’s Sacrifice: Hellblade, as it certainly proved it could be successful in telling an epic journey without bowing down to complicated gameplay mechanics that may have gotten in the way. The sequel follows this same formula, but let’s dig into the story before we dig into the gameplay.
Senua’s journey picks up where the last game left off, she is self-aware of her situation now and has become driven to seek and destroy her lover and family’s murderers. The story begins with her acting as a kidnapped slave aboard a ship that is sailing into a terrible storm. Her hope is that her captors will lead her directly to their village where she will systematically wipe out and stop them from ever taking or murdering other people. Along the way, she hopes to also understand why they did what they did, and there is good reason for it, though not what you would expect.
Anyway, unexpectedly, Senua’s ship is destroyed in the storm, and she is set adrift on the island that she is seeking, and is begrudgingly helped by her own captor, whom she has kidnapped herself. As she is being led to her captor’s village, the people who maimed and murdered everyone she loves, she inadvertently runs into a secondary problem plaguing the island and its residents, a problem she must address before completing her own journey. Senua finds a bigger adventure that is far more complicated than she anticipated waiting for her on her way to completing her revenge tour.
The bridge between the first and second games is seamless. Senua leaves the first game angry as hell, as she reclaims herself and comes to terms with the loss of her lover which leads her to seek out whoever caused his and her family’s death. As the second game begins, she doesn’t miss a beat with reigniting those intentions and drags the player back into the scrum of her emotions and trauma, which makes it easy to buy into what she needs to do to finally put the past behind her. Of course, the story is far more complicated and not as cut/dry as this, as Senua’s need to put her lover and family’s tragic end is merely a drop in the bucket within the story compared to her need to finally come face to face with the trauma she has been handed. Along the way, she also discovers who she is and what her purpose is for having survived her journey so far. If I go any deeper than this, I will spoil the game, and I certainly don’t want to do that, as it is central to its entertainment, so I will end the summary now. You can complete the rest on your own.
Just know that Ninja Theory did an amazing job of making sure that the bridge between the two games was fully secure from the start of the sequel until its ending. Senua will meet up with new characters, find new enemies, and have a chance to put her revenge to rest. Ninja Theory certainly could have gone a different direction with this story and kept Senua in her already established world with her already established enemies. The devs certainly could have dialed it all in and made a solid buck without much effort. But they chose the hard road and took a chance with changing her scenario, expanding the world of Hellblade further, and creating new enemies for Senua to face. It was a chance to take, especially with the pressure of making this game as impressive as the first.
My biggest worry with the sequel was that Ninja Theory wouldn’t be able to address the mental health issues as they did in the first game. The first game was clearly about trauma, especially with Senua being verbally abused by her father to the point where she didn’t feel worthy of life or of someone’s love. Those subjects in the first game are a wonderful case study in mental health issues and disorders and probably spoke to a lot of gamers who had suffered the same feelings in their life. Life is hard and sometimes you need a reminder that you’re not alone in your own journey of dealing with your own feelings. The first game echoed those sentiments quite loudly and did so in a respectful manner.
The subjects broached in the first game are deep trauma and doubly so for a video game. The technical side of the first game with added voices that Senua created in her head to help dictate her every move to prevent further trauma only amplified the message of what it was trying to do and the narrative it was trying to tell. The first game introduced a direct and in-your-face set of connections to MHI, something that has always only danced with gameplay and not directly led it in other games that approached the MHI topic. At the end of the day, that initial journey was amazing as much as it was horrifying. The first game set standards and expectations in storytelling that are unrivaled. The sequel took that concept and precedent of MHI storytelling and maintained it.
You will walk away from this journey with a more defined main character in Senua who is far stronger thanks to her journey. You will also see her development in dealing with her own MHI. You will find that her MHI isn’t forgotten, rather it is given more context and used as a device to push the narrative a lot further than in the first game. Trauma is a helluva deep hole to get out of and when you come out of it, you’re not the same person. The sequel’s story certainly follows that road and then some.
The Gameplay in the Background
There was some concern that making a sequel meant the devs might have to change how and what story they wanted to tell with Senua in order to offer a deeper and richer gameplay experience. While the first game truly focused more on MHI and technical achievements, it never really established anything in its gameplay mechanics that separated it from a typical video game. Solving simple puzzles and fighting enemies felt canned but purposely so when pushed to the background as the story was in the foreground. For the most part, mainly due to the story’s content, that was okay. Most people were focused on hearing Senua and her tale, rather than controlling Senua and overshadowing the message with action-oriented gameplay. The sequel follows the same direction, but the gameplay has been changed up a bit and smoothed out.
The action in Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II, specifically the fighting, feels far less like an afterthought when compared to the first game. The fighting gameplay element is smoother in its action/reaction, and less quick time event-like with its intentions. The main reason, other than tighter button-pushing to reaction on screen, is that the animation looks and works in a smoother and more natural manner. You will find that out with the first fight, where the enemy understands the fight more and doesn’t just walk into Senua’s attacks. Enemies are more aware of Senua’s actions and dodge accordingly when the advantage arises, all in a fluid more natural manner. The first game just had the enemies deal with the blows and work through them. The enemies in the sequel anticipate and react and do so when the time is right. The reactions are perfect, and seamless, and help to intensify the situation and make the battle more meaningful with actual stakes.
The fighting in Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II is also less gimmicky and stays grounded. Mythical ghosts appearing out of thin air was most of Senua’s action in the first title, and this feels less like that in the sequel and more well-placed enemies that belong in the situation that Senua is presented. The fights in Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II feel real, and the characters involved or initiating them are more vicious because of it, as the story pushes them along and keeps the action grounded. Of course, this doesn’t mean that you won’t crossover to mythical, as you certainly will at some point in the story, but for the most part the fights are just where they should be in terms of realism and intensity.
Now, having said this, the game doesn’t push the mechanics of the first game too far. While the animation and reactions of enemies and Senua are spot on what you would expect from a fight, you’re still pushing a minimum number of buttons and rinse-wash-repeating the action over and over again. You will still block at the right time, swing your sword for a quick attack, a powerful guard-breaking attack, and the mirror from the first game will come into play at some point. You will find different ways to attack bosses and break the typical common enemy fighting groove, as was the case with the first game, but nothing too out of the ordinary or overly inventive beyond what was established in the series.
The puzzles are the same way and are actually much easier than the first game, and, thankfully, less repetitive. The puzzles in the sequel will have you matching up visual symbols to unlock gates or making your way through an endless puzzle that has death always knocking on the door. There is a wonderful underground level where you have to light torches to reveal paths, while avoiding the darkness and certain death, something not seen in the first game. While there are a good number of changes to puzzles, and they don’t drag you down too long, for the most part, they are easy to navigate. Some players will certainly find this to be tedious and boring but the story and the need to see more of it will be solid motivation to get through. The puzzles will not hold the story back one bit.
The story in Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II is in the driver’s seat and everything in the back is simply there to push it along. That’s not a bad thing but if you’re expecting a bit more substance and gameplay than the first game, then you might be just a tad disappointed with the delivery. There are some good changes that make the action less mechanical and the puzzles less of a drag, but not enough to say this is a gameplay-led title. It’s not meant to be and I’m certainly happy that Ninja Theory didn’t lose the focus that they established with the first game. I’m a story first reviewer and this is a story first game.
Visuals Unseen from the Publisher
If Xbox had somehow gotten this game out last year it would have established some confidence in how powerful their Series X truly has been toted to be all along. The hardware is solid, and this game shows that without a hitch. While I reviewed this on the PC, and it made my 3060 struggle just a bit at times, this game will prove that the Xbox Series X certainly is worthy of its hardware praise the year it launched. Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II is the most gorgeous game to be published by the Xbox Game Studios family of developers. Ninja Theory found a way to up its game from the first, and Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II was a visual marvel.
The models and environments in Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II are run on Unreal Engine 5 and the devs managed to get the most out of it without sacrificing too many resources in the process. You will find an enormous draw distance containing gorgeous lighting, proper ray tracing, and a gorgeously detailed landscape that seems to go on forever. You will also find unrivaled character models that only a metahuman could be happy with. The skin textures, eyes, and reaction animations are something to behold. I’m not sure that the PlayStation 5 has achieved this level of gorgeousness in all its games, including God of War: Ragnarök, which is stunning. Whatever magic that Ninja Theory worked to push the visual boundaries of this game, I can only hope that Phil Spencer is truly seeing it because every game published by Xbox should have this much gorgeousness dripping out of it, which would certainly signify that the Xbox ain’t dead yet. There is more it can do, and this game proves that it can do it well.
If you have a powerful PC, I highly recommend going this route with Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II, as high-performance GPUs will ignite and draw out every ounce of beauty this game announces. It’s a wonder to behold and sets a new standard of expectations coming out of the Xbox division.
On that note, let’s wrap this review up.
Conclusion
Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II from developer Ninja Theory and publisher Xbox Game Studios proves there is more story to tell from Senua’s journey, and that the story is still centric to the game. The sequel extends and expands Senua’s character, opens her world to more possibilities, and maintains its quest to replicate and address mental health issues and disorders caused by trauma. The gameplay mechanics and action are still essentially the same as the first title, although those elements appear to be far smoother in their execution and less of a drag to the story.
