I Played Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II.
Dropping somewhere in late May, the second entry in the Hellblade series was one that I was looking forward to on a curiosity level, but nothing that I had really considered in terms of adding to the game’s mythos or narrative. In the series debut, Senua’s Sacrifice told a distinct story of psychosis, self-doubt and perseverance of the main character, and while there were very clear antagonists throughout the story, the biggest hurdle that Senua was trying to overcome were those very internal struggles. Ninja Theory, the game’s studio, did deep research and committed a great deal of their effort and care into handling an individual grappling with their collapsing mental health. There’s a great documentary (here) that dives deeply into the work they did, not only with mental health professionals, but also ways that they constructed the visual and audio portions of the game to properly and appropriately demonstrate what their experience might be.
The first game’s crescendo results in Senua coming to terms with her struggles and, in a way, embracing and accepting its role in her life. She manages to find a way to parse through those manifestations and find her way standing on the other side of it. Clearly, it’s never entirely in “the rearview”, but it’s no longer as harrowing as it once was.
This second game holds tightly to those vocal manifestations, those visions, her uncertainty about herself and brings them to the fore once again. There are things that we see in-game that we can’t truly tell are “real” or not until later on in the game. But as whole, I think this character has now become something of a tragically composed figure. Where the first game spotlighted these psychoses, the second game uses them as framing devices. I wouldn’t necessarily say that they disrespect the struggle, but instead they have taken the messaging out of the game and focused more on the action aspect of their mission statement. You will still hear voices, you will still experience visions, you will still find yourself in moments where you cannot discern grounded reality from hallucination. But these are all folded into the deck of gameplay without it screaming at you about its message or its purpose. I think the biggest thing about this game that feels like a step back from the first game in the series is that this game isn’t saying anything. That being said, I’m not entirely sure that it’s this game’s responsibility to continue its important messaging from entry to entry.
The major issue here is that this game made an immense statement about its initial purpose in the first game. It highlighted it, it raised a banner. And if I’m not mistaken, I’m pretty sure that Senua’s Saga is the first game that we started hearing about as an exclusive release for the Xbox Series of consoles. That was four and a half years prior to its release. This is about the time I would imagine a Triple-A title would need to be released. So playing through this game and it lasting approximately 8–10 hours, I think that was a bit of a disappointment on some level. To be fair, the length of the game feels right for the game that we’re playing and the story they’re trying to tell. In fact, I believe that there are moments in the game where the pacing feels a little bit stretched beyond what it should have been. Visual and environmental puzzles seem to add one extra element beyond what feels appropriate. Caves go just one more tributary deeper than they might need to. Combat goes just a couple of enemies too many to feel like it honors the rhythm of the game.
The visuals of this game are an absolute treat. I have never seen a game working so hard to look so beautiful. Iceland looks photorealistic. There are massive shots that are utterly gorgeous. Skies are painterly dreams. Even dark combat encounters with small highlights of light are incredible. Facial animations, body movement, human expression… these are all just a hair away from being unbelievable representations of actual real life video. I cannot believe what I was seeing sometimes. A gracious Photo Mode allows you to swing the camera wherever you like, and sometimes I would pause the game in the middle of a cutscene just to peer closer at different elements in the background and at reflections in characters’ eyes. This game looks better than video games need to look. I think this represents a point in video game production that I will always remember as a representation of how far we have pushed the medium. It will act as a line in the sand of what came before and what came after this. I think based on all of the hype and tech that was discussed as possibilities for the Xbox Series X, this is the first game (in my opinion) to really come through on the promise of all of the highly touted expectations that they set. Best graphics in a video game I’ve ever seen. Mark it down.
I had the combat set to Adaptive Difficulty and aside from the first battles I had, the game was extraordinarily forgiving and I felt that it really did learn where it needed to set the difficulty curve for me. I never felt overpowered and encounters never felt overly easy. On the other side of the coin, it never felt like I dreaded a fight coming up where I thought I would be overmatched or would have to strain myself to win a fight. As long as I paid attention and was deliberate with my button-pressing, it remained fair. There is a truly wonderful balance in terms of just how many fights there are as well, with each skirmish feeling like it made sense in that very moment. It never got to a point where it felt like they were throwing opponents at me just to fulfill some predetermined quota. The bad guys were where they needed to be. I did mention earlier, that there were times where it felt the quantity of them was a little off? Where I would continue to fight guys 8–10 deep where it felt like the game might be suggesting I lose to proceed with the storyline (that is never the case; keep fighting, keep killing), but I think outside of that, even the fights were great.
A big feeling around the game seems to still linger around the plot and the importance of the message the game is trying to tell. For me, A Bonehead, I honestly didn’t miss any of the elements of needing the game to have A Point or A Thesis or A Statement. Senua embracing her strength as a warrior is a great story arc. Her demons remain, and they always will. The stereophonic voices continue to whisper into our eardrums about how we are not good enough, that we are not meant to trust others, that we are the reason that darkness and death comes to the individual people and places we journey beside and into. But it’s that perseverance and forward sense of finding solutions and outcomes to those trials that serves as yet another way to how Senua can persist. I think on some [diminished] level, it maintains the same voice. In that sense, it does feel a bit more like a spin-off than it does a mainline entry. But to be clear, I didn’t mind it. This is what I wanted from the game. I didn’t come into it with some kind of academic mentality.
I wanted a dark game, both from a thematic and a luminous standpoint, with structured combat and a powerful protagonist. I got that. I was satisfied.
There’s a cool sense of community offered up here throughout the title as well. Over the course of the game, we gain a “party” of sorts, and in some kind of loosely focused vision, we do kind of get the sense of traditional roles as well. A sorcerer, a druid, a warrior, a ranger. We don’t get to see a wide range of how these characters might work together through various plot structures, but we can see an early foundation being built to how a group of adventurers might organically come together. Being an Old [2nd edition] AD&D Person I absolutely love the concept of a party heading out into the dark wood or fortress or cavern or tavern to unify against a common obstacle. Whether it’s evil or riches that proves to be the sinister conundrum, there’s a cozy feeling I have whenever I encounter a story with this kind of premise. Lord of the Rings, Record of Lodoss War, Delicious In Dungeon, it all feels really cool. I hope that if they intend to explore further in this series, we get a broader sense of this companion group.
Boss Battles in this game come in the form of attempting to get within the minds of Giants, tragic figures who are enslaved by their own crippling shame, rage and pride. The way that these levels play out is brief, and there’s a bit of hand holding, but I really did appreciate the way that they structured these portions. Would love to do way more of that in a future installment. In fact, while playing through these segments, I was getting an idea of Hellblade as a Game Service and each Season or DLC would just be new Giants to encounter within different regions of Iceland and beyond.
Super cool game, man. I do respect that I played this game via the Game Pass subscription service, so I was able to download the game as part of it. I’m not sure if I could justify this as a purchase over $20–25, but I highly recommend a download of this title if you are a member of Game Pass, without question. This game was a great experience, especially for a game that lasted me a few nights, and just under 10 hours. Even if only to get a taste of the visuals, I think this game is worth a playthrough.
