"Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2" Review

Publisher: Xbox Game Studios

Developer: Ninja Theory

Platforms: Xbox Series X/S, Microsoft Windows (Reviewed)

In 2017, developer Ninja Theory shocked the world with a game the likes of which they'd never done before and the likes of which the world had never seen: Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice. The game told a tale reminiscent of the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice with a Norse backdrop rather than a Greek one. After her lover was sacrificed to Hela by the Northmen, protagonist Senua took her lover's head with her to Helheim to petition Hela to return his soul to her. But Senua had a constant set of companions on her journey: the voices in her head. Part of what made the game one of a kind was the way in which Senua's psychosis was integrated into the storytelling and gameplay. The voices in her head would constantly sow the seeds of doubt as quickly as they'd warn Senua that an enemy was about to attack her from behind. So, while not everybody was a fan of the title's overly-cinematic nature, it was hard to argue that it wasn't a unique experience. Fast-forward to 2024 and we now have a sequel in Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2. I was a big fan of the original game, so I was already looking forward to this...but then it came out that the development team was hiring my absolute favorite live music experience, ancient folk band Heilung, to do the soundtrack for this ancient Icelandic adventure. So, I think it's fair to say that this game was made with me in mind....and that's why you should take me seriously when I say that Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 BLOWS.

If I had to compare the original game's story to the story of Hellblade 2, I'd equate the saga to the classic Dreamworks film Atlantis: The Lost Empire and the follow-up straight-to-DVD sequel, respectively. Not only is Hellblade 2's story entirely unnecessary, a downsize in scope, and an overall cheaper experience, but it also feels like it's meant to be the pilot to a TV show that is doomed to never get off the ground. Remember how Senua's goal in the first game was to petition the goddess of death for the soul of her lover? In this sequel, Senua's goal is to...............save people............because (let me do my best Oscar Isaac impression) somehow...the Northmen returned. Her only goal is to save people. Saving people is all well and good as far as goals go, but as a follow up to an Orpheus-esque journey, it just shows the writers didn't have any inspiration. 

In the original game, Senua was up against gods and other titans of Norse mythology, and she handled them fairly easily. In this sequel, however, she's up against giants...and for some reason, she can't kill them without learning their true names and more or less destroying them with the power of therapy...I'm sorry, are giants supposed to be more powerful than gods? Because the game just kind of handwaves the question away. 

The original game was as atmospheric as it was partly because it was a lonely experience with Senua as the only character. However, Senua is joined by a merry band of the most abjectly forgettable characters of the year in this sequel. Really, the best new character is a slaver who has a fairly predictable character arc. Other than him, there's a boring as hell white dude who doesn't feel like he belongs in this setting because he's a man-bun-and-bath-robe-wearing millennial. Then there's a boring as hell tough girl character of nondescript ethnicity who doesn't feel like she belongs in this setting because her actress doesn't even try to hide her boring American accent. So, not only is the feeling of isolation gone, it's replaced by easily the worst cast of characters of any game so far in 2024.

In a veritable ocean of terrible story aspects, the most prevalent misstep is the treatment of Senua's psychosis. In the original game, the voices had things to say....in this sequel, all they do is run through the same sentiments over and over again for each new scenario that happens: 

If a character is talking:

1) "we can't trust him/her"

2) "we HAVE to trust him/her"

3) "they might betray us"

4) "they might not betray us"

If Senua has to go somewhere new:

1) "she has to go in there"

2) "I don't want to go in there"

3) "she has to go in there"

4) "she's not brave enough to go in there"

5) "she's too weak"

6) "she CAN do it"

Without fail, the voices will cycle through these talking points over and over again. There's just NO originality in the voice writing anymore. But as bad as the writing for the psychosis is, it's at least not laughable in an M Night Shyamalan kind of way. The same can't be said for how the voices are used from a story perspective. The psychosis was something that Senua eventually learned to accept and live with as a hardship prior to this title. Now, however, psychosis is a super power. I'm not even kidding. Senua is basically the chosen one because she can "see the world in a different way" because of the voices in her head. As I've already implied, this is the kind of treatment I'd expect from the director of The Last Airbender. 

Even with everything I've said so far, there's still more negatives to discuss on the story front. For one thing, the game won't shut up about how there's always a choice and how important your choices are...but at not one point in the story do you ever make a choice. There's exactly one segment where the game pretends like it's asking you to choose a character to save, but the illusion is dropped almost instantly. So, choices don't matter, big deal...I played the last couple of Telltale games before they went bankrupt, I'm used to choices not actually mattering. But the big problem is that, in the name of this theme of choices, the game doesn't actually end. Rather, at a moment where Senua has the opportunity to kill the revealed-at-the-last-minute mustache-twirling non-character villain, the game just zooms out and self-importantly navel-gazes about how your choices impact the people who care about you...you don't get to make a choice, Senua doesn't make a choice herself, and nothing at all happens. The game just ends, scent of its own flatulence still in its nostrils. 

What even was the point of this sequel? Nothing important happens, and there isn't even a complete story. And it's not like Ninja Theory needed to wrap things up quickly. This sequel is shorter than the original game by a handful of hours....so they could've easily fleshed some things out or at least given the story a gods-forsaken ENDING.

Is there anything positive to be said about the story/characters/setup side of things here, you might ask? 

No.

There also isn't much nice to say about the gameplay experience. Like in the original, Hellblade 2 is made up of combat segments and puzzle segments. There's more puzzle variety in this sequel than there was in the original, and they're all inoffensive bits of pacing that keep the game from being any shorter than it already is. So, I'm at least grateful for that.

Though combat was prevalent in Senua's Sacrifice, it was never a major focus. Nonetheless, it was decently fleshed out with a couple different attack types, some amount of strategy around breaking enemy stances, and the very real danger of facing more than one enemy at a time. Plus, it featured full bosses, one of which won my Boss of the Year award for 2017. So combat wasn't a huge deal in the original game, but it was good. In Hellblade 2, however, the combat experience has been streamlined and homogenized into basically an interactive movie. That normally doesn't bother me, but it bothers me bigtime when it's used to replace an actual combat system with nuance. You have a regular attack and a "heavy" attack that does no discernibly different damage and just takes longer to execute. You can also block and enter slow motion when you land enough hits. It's about as simple and uninspired as it gets. Oh, and also, while the original game pitted Senua against shadowy pagan-ritualistic-coded figures, Hellblade 2 pits her against a far greater enemy type: shirtless dudes. There are a handful of segments where she fights Draugr, but it's mostly shirtless Northmen. Why? Well the most obvious answer is the fact that not one person at Ninja Theory had a single idea of how to handle this sequel...but it's also clearly to demonstrate the game's only redeeming quality: the graphics (more on that later). While enemies don't have traditional health bars, every attack you land leaves a wound that bleeds for the rest of the battle...which is impressive to look at, but it's so nakedly a tech demo rather than an inspired artistic choice. So, the enemies are uninspired and the basic combat has even less meat to it than in the original game....what else? Well, you'll only be up against one enemy at a time no matter how many enemies are in the area. Sometimes this is because NPCs will be fighting the other enemies off camera, which does lend a legitimately good bit of cinematic feel to certain combat encounters. But most of the time this is just "because." Furthermore, there are no bosses in this game. While in Senua's Sacrifice, there were bosses against Norse gods, there's nothing comparable when facing the giants. Rather, when it comes time to face a giant, Senua will enter some kind of spiritual realm and have to make her way to the giant through a series of scripted environmental challenges such as firey explosions and massive waves. These, like all bits of the game's presentation, are impressive, but they're just interactive movies where actual bosses with thought used to be. I'm so sick of seeing every outlet known to man giving this game 7s and 8s when it charges more money for significantly less story and significantly lazier gameplay.

But I guess it's time to talk about the only thing this game cares about: its technical state. The graphics, lighting, textures, motion capture, and sound design are all possibly the best out of any game this year. Damned if I can't commend the game for that, at least. All the care in the world went into presentation, and it shows. And as much as I'd like to be smarmy and dismissive, I can't. See, my PC clearly isn't as powerful as I thought, as it just couldn't keep up with this game. As a result, I had to play on the lowest possible graphical settings and on a not great framerate. Even so, this is probably a shoe-in for the best graphics award at the end of the year. On the lowest possible settings. I have to give credit where it's due: I'd say with 90% certainty that if you play this game, your experience will look twice as good as mine did.

But I do have one complaint that is about as subjective as can be. At the start of this review I mentioned that the developers hired Heilung to do the soundtrack. Heilung is amazing, and the music they created is up to the quality one would expect....but it isn't utilized well. You'll hear maybe a minute of their music at most across the game's full runtime, the rest you'll have to seek out on your own. It seems to me like if you're going to pay for the Heilung historical pedigree, you ought to use it in your game for more than a couple seconds at a time. 

Folks, I know I've been taking this utter disappointment of a game to task, but believe it or not, it isn't the worst game I've played this year. Just close, and saved only because it doesn't feature any greed other than its exorbitant price tag. That anyone who played the original game can refer to this shameless cash grab as an atmospheric or storytelling masterpiece just tells me that the general public will accept anything that looks pretty, substance be damned. I don't dislike the game because it isn't an action-fest like Doom Eternal, nor do I dislike it because it's mostly walking around. I dislike it because it doesn't do a single meaningful thing right. Literally the only thing this game has going for it is Heilung's music, and it doesn't even have the good sense to put it front and center. While I'm sad that Ninja Theory will likely be shut down by Xbox after this, I'd gladly sacrifice them to have Tango Gameworks back after this travesty. Seven full years and a much heftier price tag for less content. What a shameful display.

Let us review:

Psychosis handling - 1.0

Pointless meandering story - 1.0

Self-indulgent non-ending - 0.5

Worst characters of the year - 1.0

Homogenized combat - 1.0

Terrible value-for-money proposition - 1.0

Poor music utilization - 0.3

The final score for Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 is...

4.2/10 - Below Average

Shame on you, Ninja Theory, shame on you!