Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 Review

It's hard to live with intrusive thoughts in your head. Incessant, annoying, blood-chilling... You just can't get those voices out of your head. Words that clearly don't belong to your mind. Hellblade 2 raises the bar of insanity to a whole new level, telling the story of a primitive girl trying to make sense of herself and her never-silent inner voices.

Xbox's Hellblade game series has become a benchmark in two aspects. The first is the depiction of mental health and the second is the graphical component. At first, those constant voices in the main character's head are annoying (but their realization is such that you will occasionally feel like the voices are sitting somewhere in the depths of your mind). Moreover, in the first minutes of the game I immediately went to the settings, to check the special features, to try to disable this feature.

But I was mistaken, for without all of this there would be no Hellblade. These ghosts literally burrowed into Senua's mind like a pair of bloodthirsty ticks you can't get rid of. They comment on everything you do. “You're not good enough to solve this puzzle.” “Geez, it's never going to end, is it?”. The weirdness started the moment I realized, over the course of a practically 7-hour playthrough, that in response to this, Senua was almost always reacting the way I was mouthing off in my head. Whoever did all that crazy voice acting is a true genius! It's the reason why there are goosebumps running up and down your body that get to your neck (or even higher) every now and then. It is for this reason that you do not cease to sympathize with the main character tired of everything.

But the story the game tells... is not as good as it was in the original. Yes, there are still the same heartbreaking themes - revenge gives way to a reflective, introspective tale of woe in which Senua tries to make sense of the meaning of motherhood. But despite all this, it's vastly inferior to the original Ninja Theory game. Perhaps the reason is that it's all wrapped up in a give or take familiar atmosphere, seemingly new but previously encountered locations. Despite Hellblade 2 being only 7 hours long, it doesn't feel like the story is worthy of that time.

There are many thoughtful shots depicting the splendor of Iceland. And in cinematography, Hellblade 2 is, in my humble opinion, hardly the best game to date. But that doesn't take away from the merit of Melina Jurgens, the actress who gave the character of Senua. Her performance is simply incredible, taking the highest stick for the gaming industry as a whole. The details of Jurgens' face, the light falling from the torch, the tears streaming down the girl's face...

The soundtrack was no less impressive. I beg you - don't even think of putting all this through tiny TV speakers. The soundtrack is rivaling The Last of Us Part II. If you have a Game Pass and decent headphones, I'd say you owe it to yourself to play Hellblade 2 just to see for yourself - Ninja Theory is head and shoulders above any other studio in this aspect.

In terms of narrative, Hellblade 2 isn't nearly as good. The puzzles just seem to get in the way of the narrative, and don't provide any sense of satisfaction that you've accomplished yet another task. I can't praise the combat system either.