Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 review. The sequel is worth the wait

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 was announced in 2019 right after the presentation of the next-generation Xbox Series X|S consoles. The trailer impressed with its atmosphere, animations, and detail, although at that time, the game development was just about to begin. In less than four years, did the authors manage to realize their vision and repeat the success of the original game? Read about it without spoilers in our review of Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II.

(not)Savior

As promised in the finale of Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, Senua still has many adventures ahead of him, and one of them is related to slave traders. The Normans raid the islands and kidnap people, including Senua, who has just returned from a trip to Hel. To try to stop the human trafficking, the heroine decides to surrender herself in order to get to Iceland and kill the man responsible for the kidnappings. From that moment on, a new chapter in Senua’s story begins.

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 is a game whose impression depends entirely on the personal perception of the story. Creatively, it’s an almost flawless story that doubles the achievements of the original. Senua continues to fight old and new demons in herself, but this time she is not alone.

Heroes don’t come somewhere just because the scriptwriter wanted them to. They are led there by the story. Every stop and every action is a consequence of the heroine’s actions. And there is only one thing that haunts me.

In the new installment, the writers make it clear that this time the main setting is the real world, and everyone we meet and kill is a real person. But the peculiarity of Senua can modify this perception of reality by giving it fantasy colors inspired by Scandinavian mythology.

And up to a certain point, this technique works, but closer to the end of the game, it becomes increasingly difficult to identify «real» game setting. When trying to analyze several game scenes, doubts and questions about the logic of the universe begin to arise. The main reason for this is the other people we meet.

In Senua’s Sacrifice, it was logically explained that everything we saw was not real, and Senua lives in a «realistic», not a fantasy world. In Hellblade 2, direct interaction with people calls into question the game’s realistic setting.

You can try to explain and justify anything, and perhaps the developers will give answers during repeated playthroughs, but I would like to see at least the logic of the world that was in the first game.

In addition to the Pillars, the game added Stone Faces behind which the Story Trees are hidden. I didn’t manage to find all the faces, so I don’t know what impact they have on the story.

Senua has not lost the voices that either encourage the heroine to continue her journey or, on the contrary, to give up. And sometimes both at the same time.

I liked the realization of voices in the subtitles: from which side we hear a voice, the subtitles appear on the other side. It is a very elegant solution that allows players who do not speak English not to get lost.

(not)Flawless

Before moving on to the game elements, it is necessary to understand the context of the visual component of the game. The graphics radically changes and brings the sequel to a completely different level of perception compared to the original.

In 2019, the development of the game was just beginning, so the announcer trailer played the role of a concept in which the developers showed their vision of the sequel: its atmosphere, mood, and the technical state they wanted to achieve. So often do Naughty Dog, authors of Uncharted and The Last of Us.

The following trailers have already shown real gameplay footage, and surprisingly enough, they are fully consistent with the release version of the game. Technical specialists like Digital Foundry will make a detailed comparison of the promised graphics and the real ones, but now looking at the image on the screen, it’s hard to imagine a game more beautiful than Hellblade II.

Screenshots, especially of dynamic scenes, don’t even come close to conveying the detail of the environment, the quality of the effects, and the cinematic quality of the game. Even during the opening scene during the storm, it’s hard to believe that this is not a pre-rendered video. Some landscapes can be easily confused with real photos of the island. I am sure that soon after the release we will see a lot of photos comparing real and virtual Iceland.

To enhance the game’s cinematic look, the developers decided to broadcast the image in a 2.39:1 aspect ratio. Also, taking into account the viewing angle and bokeh, the game simulates an anamorphic lens. For example, if a 50 mm anamorphic lens has a compression ratio of 2.0, the vertical viewing angle remains 50 mm, but the horizontal angle corresponds to a much wider focal length of 25 mm.

And although the rocky volcanic surface of Iceland by the end of the game has already begun to cut the eye a little, it is impossible to stop enjoying the beauty of open spaces. Mountain peaks on the horizon and villages with detailed designs.

However, technological sophistication has its price. The developers chose Unreal Engine 5 and decided to make the game at 30FPS for the current generation of consoles. Most players perceived this fact as an inability to optimize the engine on the Xbox Series, and there is some truth in this. The new Unreal Engine is really demanding on hardware.

Decisions about «base» frame rate are made at the design stage because it affects the detail of the environment, animations, effects, and other visual components. Games that were designed for 30FPS may have visual glitches or less smooth animation if they are simply added to 60FPS without additional processing.

Hellblade 2 is not a dynamic game, so the decision to maximize the visuals at the expense of high performance is quite logical. I played on a PC and at 60FPS everything was perfectly playable. However, on the second playthrough, I tried to play in «mode» 30FPS and to my surprise, the gameplay experience hasn’t changed at all. Playing at a higher frame rate is more enjoyable, but if I had a choice to play at 30FPS but with better graphics, I would choose that option.

As for the optimization, I got the following frame rates on my hardware with the highest possible graphics settings without DLSS (Ryzen 2700x, RTX 4080 Super, 32 GB of RAM at 3200 MHz):

1080р	70 FPS
1440р	55 FPS
4К	35 FPS

In particularly heavy scenes, the frame rate in 1080p and 1440p drops, but with a modern processor, you can count on a stable 60FPS with VSync enabled for a smooth image. For a stable 60 frames in 4K, you will have to enable DLSS/FSR/XeSS, or sacrifice some graphical settings.

I also want to point out that even with the lowest possible graphics settings, the game still looks beautiful. So even owners of not mighty PCs can enjoy this story with 30FPS and minimum graphics settings.

Graphics settings in 1440: High, Medium, Low

(not)Warrior

Many hopes were placed on the rethinking of the combat system, which in the first part was simple and at times frankly dragged the game out. Unfortunately, almost nothing has changed in terms of mechanics in this aspect of the game. Even some elements have been removed. For example, the running kick.

But after Senua’s Sacrifice, it became clear that the authors are making a story-centered game where the main element is the story. Everything else works for it, so now the simplified combat system doesn’t disappoint because there are not many battles in the game relative to other elements.

The small number of battle scenes allowed us to shoot each of them separately. Just like in the first part, we fight face to face with the enemy, but this time there is always only one enemy in front of us. Thanks to this decision, each battle feels personal, super tense, and as if it were the last breath.

The dynamics of the battle are added by the environment, which creates the feeling of a real battlefield where soldiers are gnawing away at lives. Other enemies or innocents are constantly flying into the frame, and they can kill them without batting an eye. People can crash into us just when we are trying to make the final blow against an almost finished enemy. Sparks fly from behind us as houses go up in flames, and a downpour washes the blood of a draugr we just killed off our faces. Add to this a modern technological performance, and all the impressions and emotions will be multiplied tenfold.

In Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2, the battle scenes are better dosed. I never once felt like I was tired of the large number of consecutive arenas. This was a sin of the original, especially towards the end of the game.

In addition to the combat system, the developers have revised the approach to puzzles. Rune searches have been reduced several times, but they are still focused on small arenas. Some spatial puzzles have been eliminated altogether, and new ones have been added in their place. They are also repeated, but now some long levels can exclusively consist of small puzzles that open the way in a long «corridor».

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 is the most technologically advanced audiovisual experience of our time, in which a simplified combat system only complements the narrative component. And the importance of the topic of people living with psychosis strengthens the player’s emotional connection with the protagonist.

But even outside the context of a socially important topic, I recommend everyone to try Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II. Today it is very important to support the developers of good games, especially since the game is available as a Game Pass.