Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 is a tremendously unique game that offers an experience like no other.
Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 is a narrative-driven action game almost like no other. Developer Ninja Theory’s sequel to the 2017 game Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice delivers a harrowing, bleak, and heavy experience that will live long in the memory.
Subtle and unobtrusive traversal, exploration, and combat mechanics collide with world-beating audio-visual design, out-of-this-world motion capture, and stellar character performances to bring a captivating adventure across Iceland in an unmissable tale.
While Senua’s journey in Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 starts in relative simplicity – to confront slave traders and end the theft of her fellow Orkney people by Icelandic raiders – it soon becomes something much deeper and darker as she crosses a clutch of distinct and rugged Icelandic landscapes that are rich in a thick sense of place and atmosphere.
Some parts of that journey are overly slow and empty, and combat does get repetitive, but this sequel improves greatly on all that came before it in the first game. Senua’s experience and endurance of the world, her enemies, and herself is an intensely gripping one.Norse code
This intensity is tangible from the beginning with Senua’s mental condition and voices in her head (The Furies) providing a constant soundtrack. Ever present in every step of her thought process, they immediately help to remind us of Senua’s mental state, but this time looking more outward than inward, informing how Senua sees the world.
Bringing this to life is breathtaking voice acting and performance capture, spearheaded once again by a stunning performance from Melina Juergens. Such is the conviction, grit, and intensity of Juergens’ portrayal of Senua, that it often feels like you’re channeling what Senua feels. The binaural audio design once again works video game magic to disorient, trick, and immerse you further into a unique cerebral experience.
From battling deep fear, guilt, and self-loathing, to concepts of sacrifice, a weight of responsibility to others, and the struggle to balance all these and keep pushing through the darkness toward the light, this is a character performance for the ages.
The supporting cast is an excellent addition too. A clutch of allies and companions join Senua across parts of her journey, offering insight, friendship, worldbuilding, and background. They are all voiced and portrayed excellently, and help to bring the journey and world to life with acute humanity and realism.Barren but beautiful
One of the other stars brought to life with intense realism and accuracy in Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 is the world and its spectacular environments. The landscape of Iceland has been rebuilt with such care and accuracy that you, and Senua, can almost feel the fury of the volcanoes and the tranquility of the ocean that formed it.
It’s one of the most atmospheric game worlds I’ve ever experienced, and one of the best-looking Xbox Series X games to date. The sense of place it has is so rich in every location: from the most isolated, destroyed fishing shack on a stormy cliff edge, to the deepest darkest caves subtly lit with flickers of Senua’s torch, and from gloomy mysterious misty forests to desolate barren Icelandic landscapes, each location is beautiful and vividly brought to life.
