Senua's Saga: Hellblade II Review

This was a game that took me a while to try when I first heard about it, mostly because I was more interested in other games. I finally decided to give it a proper chance once it released on PS5 and, between the story, visuals, and photo mode, I haven’t been able to put it down since! Let’s get into the good — and not-so-bad — of Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II.

First Impression

When you start the game, it gives you a recap of Senua and her story. It touches on Senua’s childhood, her parents, the man she loved, and reminds us of the journey she took to Hel.

After the recap, Senua’s new journey begins on a slave ship during a heavy storm. She allowed herself to be captured so she could help free her people from the Northmen. Unfortunately, the ship ends up being torn apart by the storm and almost everyone on board dies. Senua washes up on the shore of a land completely unknown to her. This is where you take control and stumble across rocky terrain while the voices in Senua’s head taunt and berate her — but also encourage her to keep going. The recap, atmosphere, and presentation of the world immediately drew me in. Couple that with the intense way the game starts off, and I found myself wondering how Senua was going to keep going. I was hooked!

Gameplay

As for the gameplay, it doesn’t offer anything we haven’t seen before, but that isn’t always a bad thing. It’s a good balance of traveling, sword fighting, and cutscenes that blend back into gameplay so seamlessly it’s almost unnoticeable at times. There’s also a small bit of exploration involved in the essentially linear areas. That’s where Senua’s focus ability comes into play. You’ll come across an obstacle with a symbol on it that stops you from progressing forward. You need to explore the area to find different pieces of the symbol, shaped by the environment around you. Trees, floating debris, and different objects form the symbols and open the obstacle, allowing you to move forward. All of these aspects are executed beautifully by Ninja Theory.

As you travel to your next destination, the voices in Senua’s head (known as The Furies) are always commenting on something — whether it’s the surroundings or Senua’s thoughts. These voices are a prominent presence no matter what’s going on in the game, and it’s amazingly done. (More on this later in the review.)

The combat at times can feel a bit repetitive, but I enjoyed it and found myself excited when I knew a fight was coming. You eventually get the ability to use Senua’s focus during combat, which allows her to slow down time around her while remaining unaffected. This can help against the faster enemies.

Dark Rot mode also returns after you finish the game for the first time. It offers a permadeath option for all the hardcore gamers. Essentially, every time Senua dies, dark rot spreads more and more throughout her body. If it reaches her head, it’s game over.

Atmosphere, Visuals, and Motion Capture:

The atmosphere of the game is very dark and dreary, but it still has bright moments, scenic views, and beautiful landscapes. One moment you’re in a burnt, smoke-filled area with the glow from fire being the only light source, and the next you’re traveling across a path with greenery and golden rays filling the area around you. It’s very fitting for a story filled with darkness while the protagonist tries to find the light within herself.

Graphically and visually, this game is absolutely stunning. Everything from the water to the trees looks beautiful, and the characters look incredible too. The game also uses real-time cutscenes, so the visuals don’t change between cutscenes and gameplay.

Ninja Theory utilized motion capture and even built a custom motion capture studio just for this game — and it definitely paid off. This really made the performances come to life more than a typical gaming experience, and you truly felt every emotion that was shown thanks to the amazing acting and tech.

Senua’s Struggles

Psychosis plays a major part in the story and even shapes the world around Senua at times. During moments of darkness or negativity, it’s storming and there’s little to no light. When Senua feels calm, even for a moment, the sun shines and the weather is serene.

Senua’s psychosis began at a young age, shortly after she witnessed Galena (her mother) being burned at the stake by Zynbel (her father). Galena also suffered from psychosis, which led Zynbel to believe it was a curse from the gods. He thought the only way to keep the village safe was to get rid of Galena and assumed it would appease the gods. Years later, Zynbel still torments Senua — now as a manifestation of her psychosis. He appears as a shadowy figure with a low, gravelly voice that demeans Senua and only wants to see her fail.

The voices are also caused by her psychosis, and I found it very interesting that these voices weren’t always negative. Often, they encouraged her to move forward and push through. When it seemed like Senua was at her end, they would pop up and tell her she couldn’t give up.

Ninja Theory used binaural audio, especially with the voices, to simulate what it’s really like for someone who hears them. This makes it feel like the voices are literally surrounding you. They also worked with a professor from the University of Cambridge who specializes in neuroscience, as well as individuals who live with psychosis, to make this depiction as accurate and real as possible. Someone who has never experienced psychosis will obviously never know what it’s truly like to live with it, but Ninja Theory delivered an experience that gives you an idea of what it’s like for those who do — and they did an amazing job.

Photo Mode

This is probably where I’ve spent most of my playtime in this game. It has all the typical features you’d want from a good photo mode, and it’s pretty close to a perfect one at that. It’s missing time-of-day/weather changes and poses, but if it had those two things I’d definitely call it perfect.

As for lighting, Ninja Theory provides you with 10 lights. Yes, 10 different lights! For the most part, this might seem excessive, but as someone who often wishes for just one more light, I love this. I actually found myself using almost all of them for a few shots (mostly environmental), so props to Ninja Theory for giving us the option.

They also added a new motion feature within photo mode, which I think is awesome. You can choose to move the camera forward, backward, left, right, up, down, and even rotate it in all directions. They let you adjust the movement speed and apply a real-time effect, which makes the environment shift like it does in-game. Once you pick your direction and hide the HUD, the camera moves, creating cinematic shots. When you bring the HUD back, it resets you to the starting point. This essentially allows you to make short movies or trailers within photo mode — and that’s insane to me. I’ve already made a couple and plan to make plenty more.

I should also mention that Ninja Theory allows full camera control and all photo mode settings during cutscenes. Thanks to the real-time cinematics, visuals never change, which makes this even better.

Conclusion

This is a game that isn’t for everyone, but I believe everyone should at least give it a try. It favors cinematics and story over gameplay, which is a negative for some, but in this case I think Ninja Theory made the right move. The story has a lot of depth and the cinematics are beautifully done, so the gameplay/combat didn’t need to be a huge spectacle. That doesn’t mean it’s bad — it’s just nothing groundbreaking.

I’ve also noticed some discourse about the length of the game and the price point, but personally, I think it was as long as it needed to be. With a story like this, adding unnecessary content could easily dilute the impact. Ninja Theory managed to deliver the perfect amount of story with excellent pacing.