Game Cover

The past is never past.

Previous Hellblade review:

• Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

Platform played on: Xbox Series X

# Review

In the follow up to the compelling narrative experience Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, the sequel sees Senua being willingly enslaved to travel to the land of the slavers. Senua’s adventures take her to a bleak and desolate Iceland filled with Norse mythology and culture. Senua must explore the new world to uncover its dark secrets.

New characters introduced to the game

The story is good and the character development is phenomenal, not only for Senua but also for her companions. The pacing, as with the first game, is mostly slow with bursts of action. As with the first game, sometimes it can be frustrating how slow the pacing is, especially with movement. Holding LB to walk marginally faster during some of the puzzle sequences gets boring fast. The puzzles feature the same environment matching mechanic as the first game, but a new mechanic of changing the level by focusing on orbs is also introduced. The puzzles are good but still mainly focus on trial and error.

New puzzle mechanic

The combat feels much more polished and immersive with the gameplay this time round. Some of the fights were actually tough and the combat never ceases to be satisfying, especially the gruesome death animations. The combat does get a tad repetitive near the end of the game but overall I really enjoyed how the fight sequences blend seamlessly with cutscenes and non-fight sequences.

Cinematic combat scenes

My favourite aspect of the game, by far, is the atmosphere. While the voices in Senua’s head contribute much to the atmosphere, what really blew my mind is the graphics of the Unreal Engine 5, which makes the entire game look like one long cutscene. The graphics are gorgeous and the colours are amazing.

Gorgeous graphics

# Conclusion

A continuation of the compelling narrative.

# Overall rating: 8.5

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