We were all there, watching that 2019 Game Awards showcase. From out of nowhere, Microsoft decides to unveil their brand new console, the horrendously-named Xbox Series X, as well as a trailer for an upcoming game. That game was the sequel to Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, the “independent AAA” darling that captivated us with its amazing visuals, brutality, and take on mental struggles. It’s wild to believe that initial unveil happened five years ago. Since then, we’ve seen it all. Pandemics, uprisings, wars, acquisitions, shutdowns, you name it. It almost feels like 2019 happened a decade ago. But the game is finally out. Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II, the first official Xbox Series X game to be announced, is out in the wild.

If you’re a keen follower of gaming news, you may have seen other reviews for Hellblade II, and you’re probably aware that they are all over the place. “A masterpiece that elevates the medium”, some have said. “Barely a game at all”, others have complained about. Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II is an incredibly divisive game in many aspects, but also, undeniably, a crown achievement in technology. Ninja Theory wanted to push the medium forward in terms of graphics, sure, but they were also tasked with giving Senua a fitting sequel, after the impactful ending of the first game.

At the beginning of the game, which takes place an unknown amount of time after the ending of the first Hellblade, Senua is willingly captured by Icelandic slavers, and is taken to Iceland, hoping to free her enslaved kin. As per the traditional rules of gaming clichés, the slaver ship is destroyed in a storm, Senua survives, starts freaking out once again, but manages to find a slaver warrior, one she defeats in combat. By bargaining for his life, Senua is taken to where the slaves are being kept. I’ll stop mentioning anything else about the story from then onwards, but let’s just say that shenanigans ensue. If you were a fan of Robert Eggers’ The Northman, boy oh boy, have I got a treat for you.

I will admit that I found the story to be a mixed bag. It felt disjointed. At times, it was way too slow-paced. From out of nowhere, it started feeling rushed, as if many cutscenes and areas had to be cut in order to fit into the project’s budget. I don’t know how a game that lasts for six hours at the most could ever feel slow-paced at times, but here we are. With that being said, I loved Senua in this sequel. Even if the first chapter acts almost as if there had been no character growth from the ending of the previous game to now, she grows more confident as Hellblade II goes on. She becomes courageous, a natural leader, a true hero.

Furthermore, Senua is likeable. She is relatable. By knowing how her inner demons interact we her, we know how she feels throughout the entire journey, but she doesn’t act weirdly or shy away from a heated argument with someone, if needed. At the same time, she isn’t afraid of showcasing a more vulnerable side. She is everything Ellie, Aloy, Amicia de Rune and reboot-era Lara Croft weren’t able to achieve. In no moment did Senua feel obnoxious, arrogant, irritating. On the contrary. I have many gripes with Hellblade II‘s plot progression, namely its third act, but I can’t help but love Senua, as well as Ninja Theory, once again, doing an honest attempt at portraying mental health issues in gaming. It’s not always subtle, but you can’t help but appreciate it.

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II‘s main selling point isn’t it story, or even its masterful usage of binaural audio, something carried over from its predecessor which is still used masterfully in here. No, it’s the visuals. These graphics. Man… I don’t even know what to say. Are these the most realistic graphics ever put into a videogame up until now? It may sound like an exaggeration, but I honestly can’t think of another game which looks as good as Hellblade II. This damn thing is downright shocking, taking advantage of every single Unreal Engine 5 trick in order to deliver fantastic lighting effects, environments that look more realistic than Iceland itself, fluid animations, and human characters that, well, are just freaking lifelike.

There isn’t a HUD. There are no icons to guide you, no map, no nothing. The letterbox stripes are mandatory, giving the game a perpetual movie-like aspect ratio. At first, I was annoyed by it, but I learned to live with that artistic decision. I loved how the game tried to convey a Birdman-esque illusion of it being comprised of a single, continuous scene, with no camera cuts from the beginning to the very end of Senua’s journey. Pretentious as all hell, sure, but still neat.

What impressed me even more was how the game was able to run smoothly and steadily on my computer’s GPU, which isn’t bad at all, but ain’t no RTX 40 series, either. Very rarely am I able to play a game like this, with maxed-out settings. Hellblade II achieved 60fps, with very occasional dips, whilst never demolishing my rig’s memory. UE5’s smart usage of geometry, loading times, and its Lumen system (which isn’t ray-tracing per se, but damn if it doesn’t look as good as the real thing), resulted in a less bloated usage of the GPU’s memory cache.

That’s all fine and dandy, but Hellblade II isn’t a tech demo. This is a pricey game, a sequel to an action-adventure title which had been previously been criticised for, well, not having exactly a lot of gameplay included in the package. We gotta judge this bad boy (or girl?) for what i can offer in terms of interactivity. And honestly, this is a very controversial point to discuss… there’s not a lot of it, if I’m very honest.

I am not going to try to sugarcoat the fact that most of this game’s runtime is comprised of watching extended cutscenes and doing long walks towards your next destination. Granted, you will be constantly looking at some of the most impressive and realistic locales ever put in a videogame, but that only barely qualifies as gameplay, especially since a game like Hellblade II isn’t exactly meant to be a laidback, relaxing experience. I can forgive Endless Ocean Luminous for being all about fooling around and doing nothing of importance, because it was meant to be a relaxing, casual game. These long walking sections in Hellblade II are here to artificially extend the duration of an otherwise pretty short game.

That’s not to say that the game is a walking simulator completely devoid of action and puzzles, but that’s not a huge chunk of the experience. They are also quite shallow in their execution. I feel like this sequel has even less puzzles than the original Hellblade. The amount of perspective-based puzzles has been reduced drastically. They are here, sure, but in small quantities, and are easy to solve, since the voices in your head constantly tell you where to go in order to get rid of an obstacle. Other puzzles are based around lighting torches and transferring platforms between two planes of existence. These are the most interesting puzzles in Hellblade II, but again, are few and far between.

Then we have the combat. That’s a controversial bit. I really don’t care if Ninja Theory says they have done any kind of improvement in this aspect of their game; it just feels the damn same, and by that, I mean that it’s still shallow as a puddle. It’s clearly not the focus of the game, but given how Hellblade II‘s setting is so dark and violent, the fact these combat mechanics are so simplistic is still incredibly disappointing. Battles are still heavily scripted. There are very few enemy types, and they can all be dispatched with ease by dodging to the left (yes, always to the left) and attacking, or using the mirror Senua carries alongside her at all times.

This mirror allows Senua to slow down time for a few seconds, forbidding an enemy from parrying or dodging her attacks. In essence, it’s an automatic win against a single enemy. A “get out of combat” card, if you will. That, by itself, isn’t an issue, but the mirror replenishes itself quite quickly, effectively rendering each battle obsolete, at least from a mechanical standpoint. I did not die a single time during a combat section. I never even got close to reaching death. I looked awesome while fighting, however. Sadly, the combat sections are here for spectacle purposes. They look brutal, bloody, desperate. If you record a fight and post it on Youtube, you’ll look like Amleth from The Northman. Little do your viewers know you’re barely pushing buttons during these sections.

There are some hidden collectibles scattered throughout the game. They don’t require a lot of effort in order to be found, and the rewards for finding them all aren’t impressive. They are just a minute-long diversion from the critical path. I appreciate the fact they are here, and some of the “audiologs” you collect are quite interesting, as they describe some aspect of old Norse culture. But that is all Hellblade II has in terms of extras. You can unlock an additional feature after beating the game once, but I don’t think the game is very replayable. It’s a quintessential “one-and-done” experience.

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II is a tricky beast. On one hand, I was impressed by the realistic visuals, the voice acting, the music, and Senua’s growth as a character. On the other hand, its pacing was awkward, even though it was short. It suffered from a lackluster third act. It’s pretentious, to an arrogant degree. It was also quite devoid of gameplay, focusing more on spectacle than substance. Let’s just say that this is a game that you will love if you were a fan of the first Hellblade, and will loathe if you didn’t care about it. It will not turn you into a fan of the franchise. With the exception of the visuals, it didn’t exactly evolve at all from its predecessor. I’m still glad it exists, and I don’t regret playing it. On the contrary, I liked it. But as previously mentioned, it was a one-and-done experience.

Graphics: 10 Possibly the best-looking game ever crafted up until this point. Surprisingly enough, it also managed to maintain a steady framerate on a mid-range GPU even with all bells and whistles set to high presets.	Gameplay: 6.0 It’s a lot of walking, a lot of cutscene-watching, and not a lot of puzzle-solving or combat. The former happens more often than the latter, but it’s quite easy. The combat looks awesome, but it’s shallow as a puddle.
Sound: 10 Between the excellent voice acting, binaural audio, and occasional (but very effective) usage of Heilung’s pagan-as-hell folk music, it’s hard to complain about Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II‘s sound department.	Fun Factor: 6.5 Sadly, a huge chunk of Hellblade II was comprised of meandering and showcasing its impressive visuals. The combat and puzzles did not evolve at all from its predecessor. Thankfully, the storytelling and characters (Senua in particular) were a highlight, with the exception of an underwhelming third act.
Final Verdict: 7.5

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II is available now on Xbox Series S/X and PC.

Reviewed on Intel i7-12700H, 16GB RAM, RTX 3060 6GB.