Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 is a sport that’s not significantly good in a conventional sense, but remains to be price taking part in by means of.
Choosing up the place the 2017 unique left off, it’s a sequel that doubles down on the perfect and worst options of that first expertise, leaning into cinematic storytelling, excellent visuals, and distinctive sound design. The graphical and auditory expertise makes developer Ninja Idea an business chief in its distinct discipline — you’ll wrestle to seek out many different PS5 titles that look and sound higher than it.
Nevertheless, these standout parts solely go up to now when the act of truly taking part in the sport is so rudimentary. Hellblade 2 bridges the hole between its cutscenes with loads of strolling, unhealthy puzzles, and fundamental fight. As an general package deal, it makes for an extremely uneven expertise.
Senua returns within the lead function for a follow-up that explores her battle with psychosis and efforts to free her folks from slavery by journeying to the Viking homeland of Iceland. Shipwrecked on the shore, she makes a prisoner of 1 Viking and has him information her to their chief.
With simply six hours of content material, even accounting for locating all of the collectibles, the plot shortly develops and introduces companion characters carrying tales of giants and the hidden folks. Or does it?
Leaving a lot to interpretation, the sport embraces the hallucinations and inside voices Senua experiences to the purpose the place you’re by no means positive what’s actual and what’s not. Characters fade out and in of existence, and the surroundings shifts and adjustments with a sweep of the digital camera.
It is a good factor, for the title’s unreliability provides suspense and depth to sequences that will in any other case have Senua merely stroll by means of the countryside. Its sound design is great; inside voices will whisper in your ears, bouncing between your headphones and providing commentary on Senua’s actions. Extraordinarily unnerving, you’re consistently stored on edge even in probably the most unassuming scenes.
It’s an additional layer that’s desperately wanted, because the moment-to-moment gameplay of the title is detrimentally fundamental.
Truly taking part in the sport, and never simply taking in its stunning vistas and unsettling audio, consists of strolling, fixing easy puzzles, and sword fights. These are the crux that make up many PS5 experiences, however they’re sorely missing in Hellblade 2.
Coming back from Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice are the image puzzles, the place it’s essential to search the quick space to seek out objects you’ll be able to line up at a selected angle to kind the form blocking your path. They’re joined by a brand new puzzle sort that entails amassing orbs from pedestals, accessed by altering the surroundings round you.
Each sorts show really easy to unravel that they’re hardly price classing as puzzles within the first place. Whenever you’re near an emblem, the main focus characteristic will routinely snap your digital camera to the answer. Then, amassing the orbs is so simple as shape-shifting a single piece of terrain.
The fight system doesn’t fare any higher. Senua has a typical and heavy assault, and might block and dodge enemy strikes. She finds a mirror — charged by touchdown blows on the enemy — that permits her to decelerate time and get a simple kill. Whereas many encounters will characteristic a number of combatants, the digital camera at all times fixates on a single enemy, turning each contest right into a one-on-one duel.
Regardless of the actual fact some enemies have completely different appearances, each single battle — from the second you choose up the mirror within the second chapter by means of to the ultimate boss struggle — performs out precisely the identical. Their repetitive nature grates additional on the general providing, making it extra of a chore to play the additional in you’re. There comes some extent the place the sport’s easiest immediate, to plainly stroll by means of its stunning surroundings, turns into the perfect factor about it.
From the sweeping digital camera pans of the Icelandic environments to the person rocks positioned on both facet of the linear path, the sport is simply rivalled by Demise Stranding 2 as one of many prettiest video games out there on PS5. Its landscapes are jaw-dropping, its lighting system shines in cave programs with solely a flame to seek out your manner, and its characters impress with sturdy performances and visible design.
It’s only a disgrace to be offered with such a shocking world, just for there to be so little to really do in it. You may admire, however no touching.
Consequently, the bottom sport is a disappointment, however one with one thing to supply — and maybe even admire. Its gameplay won’t ever fulfill, although the visible splendour and absorbing auditory expertise will. Melina Juergens as Senua as soon as once more supplies an outstanding efficiency, and powerful haptic suggestions help ties the protagonist’s inside voices again into your controller rumblings.
It signifies that, in a uncommon function reversal, Hellblade 2 is at its greatest throughout all of the elements that don’t require you to correctly play it.
Rounding out the package deal are the additional modes and technical updates Ninja Idea has included on this new Enhanced version for PS5, which arrives after 15 months of Xbox console exclusivity. The unique launch ran at 30 frames-per-second on Xbox Collection X|S, however this upgraded model now affords a 60fps Efficiency Mode on each base PS5 and PS5 Professional.
Our playthrough on the latter system was performed utilizing this new mode, and it proves to be an especially easy, satisfying expertise. That is the optimum technique to play, with no body price drops in sight.
The opposite additions are developer commentary and a brand new Darkish Rot mode, which follows by means of on the warning the primary sport got here with. In Senua’s Sacrifice, the sport informed you that for those who died sufficient instances, a Darkish Rot would devour Senua’s physique, and also you’d have to start out your playthrough over from the start. This was a double bluff: the Darkish Rot by no means really took over, irrespective of what number of instances you died.
In Hellblade 2, this elective mode makes the warning a actuality. On an elevated issue mode past Laborious, you’re allowed to die 3 times. On the fourth loss of life, your save information is wiped and you must begin over from the start.
This mode, together with the developer commentary, is simply unlocked after finishing the bottom sport, with good motive: it’s completely brutal. We by no means managed to make it previous the second chapter in our makes an attempt. The fight stays extremely bland, however at the very least the Darkish Rot mode provides significantly extra stress to it.
