2017’s ‘Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice’ was an emotionally impactful story, told through the psychosis of the main character Senua. The story while simple, was told in a way that was extremely artistic, dark, and at times beautiful. While the games combat and puzzles got repetitive, and didn’t offer much compared to other titles, they didn’t detract too much from the game. The games graphics, audio design, story-telling, music, art direction, acting, and cinematic direction, made it one of my favorite story games, and one that I’ve replayed multiple times, despite its flaws.


With the sequel taking this long to release, and Ninja Theory under Microsofts ownership, giving the studio a bigger budget and much more staff, you’d expect the game to reach new heights… I’m sorry to say, this is not necessarily the case.

Hellblade II’s biggest strengths are still the same as the original. The game is beautiful, and geniunely one of the best looking games I’ve played, up there with Star Citizen and Forbidden West. The audio design is impactful, using high-end ASMR equipment, and amazing mixing, to create a terrifying audio landscape. The music is beautiful and intense. Every scene and shot is expertly crafted to be as cinematic and movie-esque as possible. The acting is phenomanal. If you want to play the most cinematic game to date, one that rivals movie level quality, that in general feels like a playable movie, this is it. However as a game, it leaves a lot to be desired, just like the original.


The combat was talked about a lot before the game released, with lots of discussion about how many days they spent acting out scenes in mocap suits, and I got to say, it looks amazing. I mean every motion in combat feels incredibly cinematic, dynamic, with lots of different camera angle trickery that makes it again, feel like a playable movie. Compared to the first game the combat just looks and feels more intense and entertaining, with a lot more dynamic shots, animations, and finishers. When fully immersed I found myself on the edge of my seat, which I can’t say for a lot of action combat games. However when boiled down, the combat is much simpler than the first game, which was already quite simple.

In Senua’s Sacrifice you would have to listen out to voices that would tell you an enemies behind you, making you turn just in time. You’d have shield enemies you’d have to kick or attack right after dodging to deal with. Wave after wave of enemies left for extremely intense situations. There were multiple bosses, each with their own moveset and gimmick. You’d have times where you’d charge enemy after enemy, rotating between multiple moves depending on who you were fighting, similar to Shadow of Mordor’s combat, just from a different perspective. However in Hellblade II you have a heavy and light attack, parry, and dodge… And that’s it. You always magnet towards enemies, and each encounter is a forced perspective that you can’t move out of. You can’t switch targets, and when you do switch targets it’s because the game forced you to. While the combat is more visceral, cinematic, with a lot less repetitiveness to animations, with each move feeling unique throughout the fight… It’s too simple, and I’ve yet to find anything remotely challenging. The parry and dodge windows feel a bit tighter, but without feeling overwhelmed as you’re forced to fight one enemy at a time, it’s not all that difficult.

The combat is a let down, and if it was a combination of the first games moveset, and this games cinematic array of animations, I wouldn’t complain, as it geniuenly does feel less repetitive than the first, but there’s not enough to make the combat challenging. In general it feels streamlined to a fault.


The puzzles… Well there’s not much to talk about. They are okay, and there was maybe one puzzle I found myself spending extra time on, but overall they feel very linear; the game leads you to where you need to go, and which order to complete most puzzles. The first game had a bit of this, but I found the puzzles a lot more endearing in the first game, with a lot more illusions and confusion throughout.


The in-game settings and menu page is great. You can pause in-game, and manually tweak settings to see what the current pause looks like on different settings, with no need to apply. You also have a graph going over statistics like VRAM usage, fps, and other negative/positive effects each setting change is doing. You have chapters for each level, as well as each level breaking down what you’ve missed in terms of collectables. Compared to the first game, and a lot of other games, the menu/pause screen/settings is streamlined to an extremely high quality, and it geniunely makes the product feel a lot more premium.

As for UI, there is none. Like seriously, not a single bit of UI ever. No prompts, mash x button, arrows, compass, mini-map, inventory, or anything. The game is made to be a cinematic playable movie, so if you want to know how to do anything, just pause and look at the on-screen controls. Everything feels intuitive however, being a good showcase that gamers don’t need long-winded tutorials or to be told exactly what to do at any given moment.


For me the price is fine. It’s not necessarily good, but I value the effort put into making the game the most beautiful and cinematic game I’ve played. It doesn’t feel too lacking in combat and puzzles compared to a game like ‘Scorn’, which was another “expensive” short game, and this is a lot higher budget than that game. I mean even ‘Stray’ was extremely popular at a price point to hour ratio I wouldn’t say is great, with gameplay that was okay at best. You’re not getting the same amount of hours you would a long RPG, but nowadays you’re paying $70 USD + more if you’re getting microtransactions or deluxe editions for most RPGs, and most of the gameplay boils down to repetitive grinding. So it’s hard for me to say the price is necessarily bad, but the game is short, and you have to take that into account. It’s also on Game Pass, so if budget is a problem, get it there, or if you want it on Steam, wait for a sale.


Hellblade II is a great game if you want a playable movie. However if you want in-depth action combat and brain altering puzzles, this game does not offer that. A good comparison would be ‘Ryse: Son of Rome’, however in this case the games even more cinematic, and I personally enjoy it a lot more than that game which I really didn’t like. Hellblade II is an important showcase of what the future of gaming is going to look like, and how to expertly handle a story within the gaming landscape. While it didn’t necessarily evolve much from its predecessor, if you enjoyed the previous game, you will enjoy this one, and if you haven’t played the first game, I’d go play that first before even thinking of picking this up.

Overall my main takeaway is that this game was never going to have the same impact the first did. The natural progression of Senua’s story wouldn’t allow for that. So while I am not as deeply enthralled with this title, I still thoroughly enjoyed my time with it. Nothing overstayed its welcome, and what you’re left with is an expertly crafted piece of cinema.

Expect anywhere between 5-10 hours.

[h2] The First Game [/h2] 2017’s ‘Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice’ was an emotionally impactful story, told through the psychosis of the main character Senua. The story while simple, was told in a way that was extremely artistic, dark, and at times beautiful. While the games combat and puzzles got repetitive, and didn’t offer much compared to other titles, they didn’t detract too much from the game. The games graphics, audio design, story-telling, music, art direction, acting, and cinematic direction, made it one of my favorite story games, and one that I’ve replayed multiple times, despite its flaws. [h2] Introduction [/h2] With the sequel taking this long to release, and Ninja Theory under Microsofts ownership, giving the studio a bigger budget and much more staff, you’d expect the game to reach new heights… I’m sorry to say, this is not necessarily the case. Hellblade II’s biggest strengths are still the same as the original. The game is beautiful, and geniunely one of the best looking games I’ve played, up there with Star Citizen and Forbidden West. The audio design is impactful, using high-end ASMR equipment, and amazing mixing, to create a terrifying audio landscape. The music is beautiful and intense. Every scene and shot is expertly crafted to be as cinematic and movie-esque as possible. The acting is phenomanal. If you want to play the most cinematic game to date, one that rivals movie level quality, that in general feels like a playable movie, this is it. However as a game, it leaves a lot to be desired, just like the original. [h2] Combat [/h2] The combat was talked about a lot before the game released, with lots of discussion about how many days they spent acting out scenes in mocap suits, and I got to say, it looks amazing. I mean every motion in combat feels incredibly cinematic, dynamic, with lots of different camera angle trickery that makes it again, feel like a playable movie. Compared to the first game the combat just looks and feels more intense and entertaining, with a lot more dynamic shots, animations, and finishers. When fully immersed I found myself on the edge of my seat, which I can’t say for a lot of action combat games. However when boiled down, the combat is much simpler than the first game, which was already quite simple. In Senua’s Sacrifice you would have to listen out to voices that would tell you an enemies behind you, making you turn just in time. You’d have shield enemies you’d have to kick or attack right after dodging to deal with. Wave after wave of enemies left for extremely intense situations. There were multiple bosses, each with their own moveset and gimmick. You’d have times where you’d charge enemy after enemy, rotating between multiple moves depending on who you were fighting, similar to Shadow of Mordor’s combat, just from a different perspective. However in Hellblade II you have a heavy and light attack, parry, and dodge… And that’s it. You always magnet towards enemies, and each encounter is a forced perspective that you can’t move out of. You can’t switch targets, and when you do switch targets it’s because the game forced you to. While the combat is more visceral, cinematic, with a lot less repetitiveness to animations, with each move feeling unique throughout the fight… It’s too simple, and I’ve yet to find anything remotely challenging. The parry and dodge windows feel a bit tighter, but without feeling overwhelmed as you’re forced to fight one enemy at a time, it’s not all that difficult. The combat is a let down, and if it was a combination of the first games moveset, and this games cinematic array of animations, I wouldn’t complain, as it geniuenly does feel less repetitive than the first, but there’s not enough to make the combat challenging. In general it feels streamlined to a fault. [h2] Puzzles [/h2] The puzzles… Well there’s not much to talk about. They are okay, and there was maybe one puzzle I found myself spending extra time on, but overall they feel very linear; the game leads you to where you need to go, and which order to complete most puzzles. The first game had a bit of this, but I found the puzzles a lot more endearing in the first game, with a lot more illusions and confusion throughout. [h2] Menus and UI [/h2] The in-game settings and menu page is great. You can pause in-game, and manually tweak settings to see what the current pause looks like on different settings, with no need to apply. You also have a graph going over statistics like VRAM usage, fps, and other negative/positive effects each setting change is doing. You have chapters for each level, as well as each level breaking down what you’ve missed in terms of collectables. Compared to the first game, and a lot of other games, the menu/pause screen/settings is streamlined to an extremely high quality, and it geniunely makes the product feel a lot more premium. As for UI, there is none. Like seriously, not a single bit of UI ever. No prompts, mash x button, arrows, compass, mini-map, inventory, or anything. The game is made to be a cinematic playable movie, so if you want to know how to do anything, just pause and look at the on-screen controls. Everything feels intuitive however, being a good showcase that gamers don’t need long-winded tutorials or to be told exactly what to do at any given moment. [h2] The Price [/h2] For me the price is fine. It’s not necessarily good, but I value the effort put into making the game the most beautiful and cinematic game I’ve played. It doesn’t feel too lacking in combat and puzzles compared to a game like ‘Scorn’, which was another “expensive” short game, and this is a lot higher budget than that game. I mean even ‘Stray’ was extremely popular at a price point to hour ratio I wouldn’t say is great, with gameplay that was okay at best. You’re not getting the same amount of hours you would a long RPG, but nowadays you’re paying $70 USD + more if you’re getting microtransactions or deluxe editions for most RPGs, and most of the gameplay boils down to repetitive grinding. So it’s hard for me to say the price is necessarily bad, but the game is short, and you have to take that into account. It’s also on Game Pass, so if budget is a problem, get it there, or if you want it on Steam, wait for a sale. [h2] Conclusion [/h2] Hellblade II is a great game if you want a playable movie. However if you want in-depth action combat and brain altering puzzles, this game does not offer that. A good comparison would be ‘Ryse: Son of Rome’, however in this case the games even more cinematic, and I personally enjoy it a lot more than that game which I really didn’t like. Hellblade II is an important showcase of what the future of gaming is going to look like, and how to expertly handle a story within the gaming landscape. While it didn’t necessarily evolve much from its predecessor, if you enjoyed the previous game, you will enjoy this one, and if you haven’t played the first game, I’d go play that first before even thinking of picking this up. Overall my main takeaway is that this game was never going to have the same impact the first did. The natural progression of Senua’s story wouldn’t allow for that. So while I am not as deeply enthralled with this title, I still thoroughly enjoyed my time with it. Nothing overstayed its welcome, and what you’re left with is an expertly crafted piece of cinema. Expect anywhere between 5-10 hours.