The original Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice was a fascinating experiment that used AAA production value to create a stripped-down, claustrophobic action game about psychosis. Despite being acquired by Microsoft, developer Ninja Theory keeps that same focus with Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II ($49.99). This sequel (available on PC and Xbox Series X/S) triples down on being a harrowing but therapeutic mood piece. Although you’ll swing a sword and solve puzzles, Senua’s Saga clearly cares about character and atmosphere above all else.
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The Mad WomanYou once again enter the troubled mind of Senua (deftly played by Melina Jürgens), a warrior woman who wants to stop slave drivers in windswept 9th-century Iceland. Senua’s characterization, particularly her various trials and turmoil, is what sets Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II apart from other big-budget titles. As with the first game, Ninja Theory worked with doctors to accurately portray Senua’s fragile psychology. Her psychosis manifests as Furies, voices in her head that confuse and belittle her as she tries to accomplish goals. The constant hushed chatter sounds like antagonistic ASMR, but these intrusive thoughts can also guide you in the right direction if you listen and separate the signal from the noise. The sound design makes you feel like the walls are closing in on you; doubly so when you’re inside tight, dark cave corridors. Like the Tomb Raider reboot, all the misery makes it that much more empowering when Senua overcomes her internal and external obstacles.
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Although Hellblade II has many supernatural elements, its take on Norse mythology is closer to The Northman’s boiled-down, semi-realistic history than God of War Ragnarok’s epic fantasy. Your relationships with other characters are more about dealing with their guilt, not admiring their weapons. Despite the arguably silly title, this is a grounded game, thematically and visually.
In general, pursuing expensive, realistic graphics in modern game releases has increasingly diminishing returns. However, I can’t deny that Senua’s Saga’s copious amounts of motion capture, scanned real-world locations, and painstaking detail look fantastic. The realism also makes the eventual unreal elements more ethereal and unnerving, as if you’re losing your mind.
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It’s good that Senua’s Saga is so nice to look at, because there are many relatively long stretches of walking, observing, and listening. It’s commendable that the development team prioritized artistic intent over immediately fun moment-to-moment gameplay. That said, Tales of Kenzera: Zau strikes a better balance. You must approach Senua’s Saga on its own terms, and that means accepting an immersive narrative at the expense of robust interactivity.Body and MindSenua’s Saga isn’t a slow, point-and-click adventure, though. It’s an action game, and a tightly paced one. Like its predecessor, Hellblade II lets you complete the journey in roughly five or six hours. I applaud that restraint. Not every game needs to be long enough to devour your life. Hellblade II isn’t bursting with content and distractions, but everything it offers is meaningful.
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Each battle sequence is a close-quarters, desperate struggle against a single goon. You have light and heavy sword attacks, as well as a parry and a dodge maneuver. You also build up a focus meter that lets you briefly freeze time to land numerous hits. Combat is purposefully straightforward, with an emphasis on pattern recognition similar to Nintendo’s Punch-Out!! series. Whereas games like Sekiro and Stellar Blade make swordplay feel fancy, here you’re flailing and scraping by to survive.There aren’t that many enemy types, but they are unique. Fighting a foe with a shield and spear is much different than dodging an enemy who spits fire. Similar to Rise of the Ronin, Hellblade II’s simplified fighting system is effective and serves its point. Still, the basic combat grows repetitive although there aren’t many fights. The presentation works overtime to make everything appear much cooler thanks to cinematic camera angles, swift transitions between skirmishes, and an overall sense of brutality as Senua screams and hacks through bodies.
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Hellblade II also has many environmental puzzles, which demand slightly more mental effort. Like Alan Wake 2, Hellblade II challenges you to manipulate the environment through dream logic in order to find the path forward. Other puzzles include manipulating light sources and lining up your sight to view hidden symbols. Some puzzles live in contained locations, but I enjoy how others seamlessly flow into each other. It reminds me of Inside. Still, as with the combat, the puzzles serve the storytelling, rather than being substantial mechanics unto themselves.The game’s action-to-puzzle ratio shifts as you play. The beginning has a good mix of the two before moving into a more methodical, puzzle-heavy middle section. Finally, the last third, which I can’t talk about in much detail for fear of spoiling it, picks up the pace. This action stretch has my favorite game moments, by far. The sequences wonderfully convey the massive, mythological mental health metaphors that give Hellblade II its identity.
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How Well Does Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II Run?Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II’s narrow perspective lets it pump out dazzling, Unreal Engine 5-powered graphics without overwhelming your system. I played Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II on an Xbox Series S and experienced zero performance issues despite the impressive visuals (which are capped at 30 frames per second on console). The short length also makes this first-party Microsoft title an easy recommendation for Xbox Game Pass subscribers. On PC, your rig needs at least an AMD Ryzen 5 2600 or Intel i5-8400 CPU; AMD RX 5700, Intel Arc A580, or Nvidia GTX 1070 GPU; 16GB of RAM; and 70GB of SSD storage. For more, check out our full breakdown of Senua’s Saga’s PC system requirements. I couldn’t test the PC version before release, but hopefully it hits at least 60fps.
Why You Should Game on a PC
Verdict: An Emotional Trip to Hell and BackSenua’s Saga: Hellblade II isn’t a titanic tentpole holding up Xbox’s shifting business plan. It’s more Hi-Fi Rush than Starfield, though hopefully not as doomed. The game commits to its vision, taking you on an intense odyssey through Senua’s inner and outer worlds. It’s an empathetic interactive ode to beautiful, broken things.For more in-depth video game talk, visit PCMag’s Pop-Off YouTube channel.
Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II
The Bottom Line
Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II is essentially an interactive arthouse action movie that combines potent gameplay elements with a visceral psychological journey.
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