QUICKIE -- Senua's Saga: Hellblade II

Senua's Saga: Hellblade II is a 2024 action-adventure game developed by Ninja Theory and published by Xbox Game Studios. The game serves as the sequel to Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (2017) and is set in 9th century Iceland, drawing inspiration from Norse mythology and culture. 

Plot

*** SPOILER WARNING ***

In the 9th century, the Orcadian warrior Senua is willingly captured by Northmen slavers and taken across the sea from Orkney to Iceland, hoping to free her enslaved people. A storm destroys the slave ships and Senua washes up on shore. As she navigates along the coast, Senua experiences vivid hallucinations and is haunted by voices only she can hear that encourage or intimidate her, including the Shadow, the memory of her abusive father. Senua defeats the slave master, Thórgestr, taking him prisoner so he can lead her to his settlement of Borgarviki.

Along the way, they encounter a razed settlement, which Thórgestr fearfully blames on the draugar, a legion of feral and cannibalistic barbarians. Senua follows the devastation to a Draugar camp and frees the captive Fargrímr, sensing his importance to her journey. The draugar are alerted and summon the giant Illtauga, who causes a rockslide which buries the camp. Senua and Fargrímr escape and return to the restrained Thórgestr, whom she decides to free because she senses good in him. The trio travel to Fargrímr's settlement which is on the brink of ruin due to Illtauga's attacks.

Fargrímr explains that the Askja volcano eruption broke the walls between Midgard and Jötunheimr, allowing the giants into their world, and Borgarviki sacrifices slaves to appease the giants. Believing Senua is a seer because she hears voices, Fargrímr sends her to find the Hiddenfolk, god-like beings who live underground, who may know the giants' weakness. After passing tests to prove her worth, the Hiddenfolk tell Senua that Askja blackened the sky and blighted the land, causing famine, conflict, and the emergence of new, crueller gods. A desperate woman, Ingunn, left her infant in the Hiddenfolk's caves, hoping they would protect it and, in her anger, sought power from Asjka to survive, turning her into Illtauga. Senua confronts Illtauga with her true name and returns the bones of her infant, turning Illtauga to stone. Seeing her victory, Thórgestr resolves to join Senua's journey.

Senua, Fargrímr, and Thórgestr travel to Baroarvik for resources, where their leader Ástríðr asks them to kill Sjávarrisi, the giant devastating their shores. The Hiddenfolk tell Senua that Sjávarrisi was a good man but, overcome by fear following Askja's eruption, he secured his safety by betraying Ástríðr's father into a fatal ambush. The settlers exiled Sjávarrisi and he was swallowed by the sea, becoming a giant. Draugar attack Baroarvik and although they are defeated, Senua blames herself for their arrival and the ensuing deaths. Senua and her allies lure Sjávarrisi from his cave, where Senua absolves him, turning him to stone.

While traveling through the haunted Járnviðr forest on route to Borgarviki, Fargrímr, Thórgestr, and Ástríðr are stricken with fear and doubt, but Senua supports and leads them to safety. At Borgarviki, Ástríðr and Fargrímr free the restrained slave sacrifices left outside while Senua and Thórgestr confront his father and Borgarviki's leader, the goði. He refuses to listen to Thórgestr, and Senua deduces that the goði needs the giants because their threat allows him to maintain control over his people. Learning the slaves were freed, and with the giant Tyrant approaching, the goði captures Senua and attempts to sacrifice her, but Thórgestr confronts him. Senua is drawn away by the Hiddenfolk who reveal that Tyrant was a noble leader dedicated to protecting his followers following Askja's eruption. However, he was corrupted by the power they instilled in him and, when things improved, he gave them something new to fear by creating the giants and blaming them for natural disasters.

Returned to reality, Senua witnesses the goði mortally wound Thórgestr. Before dying, Thórgestr warns Senua that if she kills the goði someone else will take his place. Senua defeats the goði, revealing his lies about the giants to his followers and turning them against him. She is tempted to kill the goði and take his place, becoming like her father and controlling her people to keep them safe at any cost, in turn receiving power, love, and fear. She relents, however, embracing the supportive memories of those she has saved and the realization that she is not bound by destiny.

The Verdict:

I finished Senua's Saga: Hellblade II over the past month on Xbox's PC Game Pass after clocking a total of roughly 12 hours of gameplay since it launched last month.

While I don't feel that it's deserving of an in-depth review like the original, I thought it was at least worth a playthrough for fans of the original.

Senua continues her journey of navigating her personal anxiety and psychosis or how this game interprets it, her unique way that she perceives the world around her. The people she encounters in this sequel regard it as her "superpower" in a sense, so Senua is learning how to integrate herself back into society again while on this quest of redemption for something she blames herself for causing. As someone who deals with and lives with anxiety, I can easily identify with Senua with this game being best played with a headset like the original. The Furies AKA the voices that taunt and echo in Senua's ears while traversing this world are back, but they are a little less subdued as Senua hears them but she doesn't always takes their advice as the right path/action to take. I personally found the whole game to be interpreted as a metaphor for free will in a sense as Senua navigates through her own darkness but doesn't allow it to control her like so many hostiles that she encounters.

This story has a few gripping moments but it's nowhere as compelling as the original Hellblade. That being said, this is a gorgeous game to look at in action. I ran into several random crashes, but I'm looking at the Xbox PC launcher to blame for that. Otherwise, this game ran beautifully and sounded even better for full immersion while playing. The biggest issue with this game is that it rarely feels like a game, instead it feels like you're just guiding Senua through a cinematic experience and you as the player are just piggybacking along. The gameplay is nearly nonexistent and non-consequential too.

This could be considered a minor spoiler, but there's a point in the story where Senua (and the player) is convinced that she would have to choose to save the life of one of her companions while forsaking the life of another. Who you choose to "save" has NO repercussions nor consequences on the gameplay at all. It's a far less cruel "lie" as the looming dread of death in the original game concerning repeated failures/Game Overs. There's no emotional tension here as there's instantly no danger nor sense of dread that adds to Senua's anxiety and personal psychosis. I will admit that it's an unique spin on Senua's journey of navigating through the world while living with her own personal psychosis and unique manner of seeing the world. Instead, she's the one guiding everyone else through the horrors that they are seeing to regain their own sanity. From a story perspective, it shows a level of growth of Senua's psyche where she's learned not just to live with her own psychological trauma but gained strength from it to aid others. 

Speaking of the gameplay, that's my biggest disappointment with this game. At the end of the original Hellblade, Senua felt like a powerhouse once you mastered parrying and obtained the Gramr sword of legend as part of the story. She would face against multiple opponents at once and with style and precision, make short work of most of the adversaries you came up against, including the 3 titular bosses that became sub-bosses late into the game.

In this sequel, Senua is limited down to 1v1 affairs in terms of cinematic tension and framing. Each encounter is tense and hectic, but the parry timing NEVER feels right. You almost have to allow enemies to hit Senua outright before it registers. Otherwise, she will block normally and most likely be thrown off balance. I did like the roll/evade dodging move you have, but even that isn't safe as a lot of enemies seem to have bizarre tracking to them. If you get the rhythm down, there's a stylish dance to the combat, but it never feels as empowering as the original game. Your Focus ability never feels as strong as it did in the previous game as you just merely get a window to land a series of strikes before it wears off. Parries, when you do land them perfectly, are an instant kill/takedown of that adversary, but in VERY rare instances. You don't learn any new skills and it overall feels like a regression instead of an evolution of the first title's combat. It was really glaring while fighting the final boss and he fights like just every other enemy that you have encountered to that point without any major differences.

In defense of this game's direction in terms of the combat, I understand it from a cinematic perspective and one in terms of immersion. In terms of actually controlling it as a player though, it leaves a lot to be desired. There's a flow, or rather, a rhythm to the combat that has to be learned in terms of reading your opponent and properly responding for Senua can make the most of the situation, whether it being backing up, evading, or merely blocking at the right pivotal moments. If you are performing well, the Furies will cheer you on, but if you're getting your ass handed to you, they will encourage you to keep fighting and do better. I personally HATED fighting the fire-spitting enemies with a passion and would use my fully charged Focus to dispatch them as soon as they stepped into the battlefield. 

Whatever they are paying Melina Juergens to voice Senua and do all of her motion capture is definitely not enough despite all of her accolades from the original Hellblade. Juergens personally fought for Senua's story to continue where her psychosis doesn't just magically disappear since she's somehow "cured" in this sequel, but instead, it's a point of the narrative where Senua has to live with it and continue to navigate her own psychosis in her day to day life now as she faces new challenges and obstacles in her life. She, along with her accompanying cast members (returning and new to this sequel), did a marvelous job in bringing this game to life. Walking away from this game when the credits finally rolled left me with a bigger feeling of wanting more and not in a good way. I applaud the cast's performances but I wish this was a longer adventure that was more than 6-10 hours long. By the time the credits roll, it felt like that Senua was merely scratching the surface of what she could do in this new territory to help save lives. Then again, I guess Ninja Theory is saving that for rounding out this story into a trilogy. 

I will gladly die on the hill that Ninja Theory has arguably the best motion capture work in the gaming industry today. I fell in love with their work back with ENSLAVED: Odyssey to the West and don't plan on stopping anytime soon. If they ever decide to hang up the boots on game design, I'd love to see them make full length films instead.

Last but not least, I think I should mention that if you have any anxiety or other psychological issues, this game might be a tad triggering for you at various points of the story as I know I had to take the headset off and just walk away from playing this for long stretches of time. It's nowhere as intense as some of the scenes in the original for me personally (outside of one or two sections in this game in particular), but it's enough for me to go "that's enough for me for one day" at various points of the game. 

I should note that the game has a little bit of replayability in terms of not just the collectibles from having a keen eye for locating the unique formations in the environment to use Senua's Focus to expose branching paths away from the main journey of her quest in these environments along with the Lorestangir posts that return from the first Hellblade, but this sequel offers alternate narrators that are unlocked after completing the game once. 

A second playthrough will offer additional insight into this world as not all of the characters Senua interacts with will see the world the same way she does. It offers a little more clarity on the ending as well. Senua exposes Aleifr's lies and reveals to everyone that he has been ruling them with lies to retain his own power and dominion over them with the fear of the giants. The giants she faces aren't real at all, but psychological manifestations that Senua conquers in her mind. When she faces Sjavarissi with her newfound allies and companions at that point of this game, the other people claim that they have seen the giant as well, that is another "illusion" as they are experiencing a shared trauma and seeing things and supernatural elements that don't exist. The other narrators even point out that Senua isn't the only person who can see the unseen. 

The Hiddenfolk's explanations throughout the game about the giants are up to interpretation. It's stated that "Aleifr created the giants", but there's multiple meanings to that phrase. One could take away from that statement that he actually brought real giants to his lands, or he used the lie of fictional giants as a means to explain the natural disasters in the region and control his people through fear. The second meaning holds more weight as it was proved in the final battle when Senua tears away the veil on his blanket of lies and exposes him in front of his own people. 

Play It or Don't Bother?

If you can get this for free as part of your Xbox Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass subscriptions, then by all means, play this at launch like I did. Otherwise, I can't recommend paying full price for such a short game. Wait for it to go on sale if you don't have Game Pass for PC or Xbox. That being said, I would be shocked to see if this sequel gets as much praise as the original did when the Game of the Year awards become the topic of conversation in December. From reactions online, the reception seems to be mixed at best, with my own feelings leaning towards the impression that this isn't as monumental as the original. That being said, I don't regret a moment from playing through this game as someone with my own struggles with mental health who can identify with Senua's journey to be functioning human being who wants to be a contributing member of society. 

I want to add that I feel that it's a little unfair to call this a video game. This is one of those perfect examples where it is hard to distinguish the difference between a cinematic experience or a video game. Senua's Saga: Hellblade II feels more like a visual novel more than a video game. Senua's actions are essentially on rails as there are little to no diversions from her quest, thus limiting player freedom, but offering full immersion into who she is as an individual from the constant echoes and whispers from the Furies commenting on her every move and every decision. In a sense, it's a little terrifying to see how much control is stripped away from players in favor of a more cinematic experience for this level of storytelling. Ninja Theory provides players with just barely enough control to maintain the illusion of immersion with this title, but I cannot fathom all players will be comfortable with this direction for other video games, despite the masterful cinematic attention to detail and heavy narrative beats this game provides. 

The total adventure only clocks in roughly 10 hours of gameplay so keep that in mind before you decide to drop a lot of dough on this ($49.99 price tag) if you're not a Xbox Game Pass subscriber.