Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II Review

Mental health and the struggles that intertwine with it are something a large majority of people try to avoid talking about or even acknowledging even today. When Ninja Theory released Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice back in 2017, it sort of changed the game for gamers, at least in terms of how mental health should be viewed. Throwing players head first into the mind of Senua, someone with psychosis, and using groundbreaking audio technology. Senua’s first journey was truly a masterclass on how video games can succeed at being art while not having traditional gaming tendencies. Now seven years removed, does Senua’s next journey live up to expectations, or has some of the magic been lost with such a long window in between?

Being immediately reunited with Senua has she has been willingly taken captive by slavers in an attempt to find where her people are being kept. Throwing the player straight into thematically tense situation works well as being a comparison to daily life psychosis. While Senua physically is the same woman as before. you can almost immediately tell the growth she has undergone. The voices in her head, which she once referred to as “furies,” are less aggressive and more often than not lead to self-doubt and questioning of Senua’s actions. At times they almost feel encouraging, while at other times the voices are almost more melodic in harmony and have conversations with meaning and purpose behind them compared to the wild, exacerbated tones of before. The changing and strengthening grasp of Senua’s own demons comes with a more questionable outlook on the events you’ll encounter. From battling against undead draugr to coming face-to-face with giants that represent the most disgusting and unnerving parts of human nature, you’ll question what is and isn’t as it seems. No matter how you take the story, provided there’s enough to find enjoyment on either side, if you’re here for the upfront representation of the story given to you, great. If you want to create your own head cannon and mentally separate and dissect what's happening around you and the effect it has on Senua, there are enough layers there to send you down a rabbit hole you’ll want to discuss with others as well.

  From the first scene that comes into view, you’ll immediately be captured by the graphical powerhouse Ninja Theory provides. Everything from the smallest detail to every single pore on a character's face has been given immense time and care to make the experience as awe-inspiring as possible. At times, it’s almost hard to believe some of the vistas and landscapes as being part of the game, almost as if the game is actively trying to play tricks on you, as Senua experiences. I can openly say this was the first game I’ve spent time with in photo mode, trying to capture the impact and cinematic cuts of fight scenes and appreciating the artistic details at every turn. A beautiful detail I appreciated every time was that during transitions between chapters, instead of fading to black and opening on the next scene, the camera pans out and will glide through the environment, showcasing the wider landscape, allowing passage of time and movement between locations to happen seamlessly.

The atmospheric set-up and technological leaps the team has made are really the shining points for Hellblade II, the audio team expanding to a small group of seven solely to work on audio. In case you somehow haven’t seen it through marketing or word of mouth, the ideal way to experience Hellblade is through a set of headphones. They make this very clear when starting up the game and have fundamentally created the game in this direction for the best experience. The team implemented a new recording device known as a Neumann microphone, which resembles a human head and absorbs audio as you would naturally hear it through your own ears. Having the voice actors circle the microphone as they speak allows the team to assemble the voice through your own headphones. It may not sound exciting just to read about it, but it’s definitely something to experience firsthand. I caught myself jumping in my seat at times, as I’d become too comfortable with the voices, and then all of a sudden I was hit with a different pitch or tone than I was used to, sounding like it was right behind me, sending a shiver down my spine.

With all the focus on graphical fidelity and technical leaps forward, there’s bound to be some parts that fall behind in the grand design of things. With Senua’s Saga, sadly, that fully falls onto the gameplay department, while exploring the beautiful scenery and set pieces are a joy, doing so for extended periods of time with little to break it up starts to feel like a lot. Combat is pieced together throughout but has been cut back on while being innovated on at the same time. Let me explain. In Hellblade 1, combat was present and would often put you in the center of large groups of enemies, dodging every which way and fighting to make it to the next encounter. This time around, encounters happen more on a one-on-one basis, with the surrounding landscape fading away at times and shining a spotlight on the two combatants. Some of the encounters almost felt like they were crafted to represent a deadly dance, dodging and countering at just the right time to unleash a flurry of finishing blows.

Your experience with Senua’s Saga will be as open-ended and up to interpretation as Senua’s personal journey herself. If you approach the game knowing this is meant to be an art piece, let yourself be open to the idea of this being a device meant to tell you a story and lead you along the struggles of a character who feels entirely fictional but relatable at every turn. You’ll have a memorable time. If you come in expecting this to be the next big action-filled 40+ hour epic that’s supposed to test your skills at every turn, well, you’re simply not going to find that here. Ninja Theory has set out to make a passion piece that, in today’s day and age, is almost a shot in the foot. Taking a gamble and spending years on this may of otherwise cripple a studio if sales didn’t mean certain marks for investors. With the right backing, the team proved there is more than a welcome spot for these titles in the wider gaming landscape. With all of its successes and challenges put into view, we here at BadlandsBacklogs give Senua’s Saga:Hellblade II a 7/10. Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II is available on Windows, Xbox Series X/S, and GamePass.