Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 – With a history of nearly 25 years of game making and a wealth of experience accumulated in nearly a dozen large and small game titles, but perhaps the concept of “success” for Ninja Theory only truly came when the “miracle” Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice achieved success in 2017.

Choosing a psychological theme that is both unique and “picky” for players, and daring to design a gameplay style that is heavy on storytelling instead of focusing on the “hack and slash” genre like previous products, Ninja Theory and Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice have successfully won a total of 16 big and small awards around the world, including 3 awards from The Game Award 2017 for an indie game.

Needless to say, the “potential” of the past has truly been brought to fruition by the game, conveying overwhelming emotions to gamers and opening up an extremely bright future for the second part called: Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 , with even more groundbreaking ambitions.

With a fairly complete ending to the previous part, will the 7-year sequel continue to bring success to Ninja Theory and make Microsoft proud once again?

MarkGame will join you in Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 through the following review.

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REALLY AMAZING!

Although it was released nearly 7 years ago, it must be said that experiencing Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice at the present time is not “outdated” at all, thanks to its top-notch image and sound quality. These are also the two advantages that have won the most awards, and the sequel Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 continues to be raised to a new level by Ninja Theory.

“Overwhelming” is not a beautiful word to describe beauty, but perhaps it is the only word that is enough to describe the outstanding impressions that the writer has when experiencing the game.

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 is beautiful in every frame, beautiful in every ray of sunlight, beautiful in every smallest detail on the character models, from tree branches to blades of grass, or even the animation of each actor.

Senua’s journey in a new land with a more diverse environment is thought to be “difficult” for scene design, but no, these difficulties are the opportunity for Ninja Theory’s graphic experts to show their extraordinary level. The power of Unreal Engine 5 can be a difficult problem for many “inexperienced” developers, but for Ninja Theory, it is extremely “good” in Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 .

Character models with extremely high density polygon quality, along with meticulous attention to detail on all characters including enemies, are all extremely excellently expressed by Ninja Theory.

In close-up camera angles, not only are the wrinkles and hairs “drawn” sharply, but also the lines of sweat running down the character’s neck, the small drops of rain on her cheeks and falling onto her chin, or even the layers of lime and ash spread on Senua’s face are all extremely realistic.

As for the setting in Iceland, it must be said: no discussion!

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 does not indulge in details but restrains and directs the player into a more melancholy, deathly atmosphere. From the shore with rocks and roaring waves in the storm, glimmering with the glimmer of sunlight for the hope of the unfortunate slaves; or the scene of a barbaric sacrifice in the night, with pounding drums and flickering fires filled with a ghostly feeling, then the nightmare of life and death passes when the dawn breaks, bringing warmth and salvation to the player.

The most magnificent scenes with extremely wide angles both break the suffocation and “tease” the player about the potential dangers that the harsh world out there is waiting for Senua, something even bigger and more terrible.

Along with that, thanks to the heavy setting and extremely linear gameplay, the ability to tell a story using only the context of Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 is said to be very effective! The manufacturer also carefully provides gamers with a Photo Mode system that is arguably the most sophisticated today, without the need for “third-party software”.

The game’s Photo Mode provides all the necessary tools from free camera settings, visual effects, lens types, character status adjustments, or even allowing gamers to manually set the lights for the scene they want to capture. With all these tools, players can easily tell the story of Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 with just extremely artistic screenshots.

Personally, I have to admit that I spent… twice as much time as I actually did to “beat” the game because every few steps I had to stop the game to play around with Photo Mode. Sometimes, players just need to randomly take a photo while experiencing Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 to have a beautiful desktop wallpaper!

What’s even more surprising is that despite the extremely high graphics quality of Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 , the writer’s experience is almost extremely smooth, gentle and without any technical graphics errors. Testing at the highest setting at 1080p with the i7 13700K and RTX 3060 Ti configuration with DLSS Quality enabled, the game still gives extremely stable frames at 45-65FPS, with very little lag and action scenes that require smoothness can be kept above 50FPS.

However, if you want to play Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 at 4K HDR resolution with the highest settings (DLSS Native), even the RTX 3090 Ti or RTX 4070 Ti are a bit “weak” with FPS only around 35-45. In this case, DLSS Performance is probably a “savior” when it can pull performance up to more than 50% (over 60FPS).

This is definitely a big plus, because even though it is a product that is somewhat “picky” about its players, approaching gamers with excellent graphics with low configuration requirements is a rare thing at the present time. It must be admitted that Ninja Theory’s ability to “polish” and optimize will put many of today’s major game developers to shame!

Along with the excellent graphics, every aspect of the game’s sound is also… unquestionable. It is best for players to prepare themselves a high-quality headset to be able to immerse themselves in Senua’s inner self, feeling her wounded inner self more deeply.

The tempo and rhythm of the Nordic-inspired background music sometimes gently immerses the player in the peace of Iceland, sometimes it is intense as if it is pressing down with tons of pressure, combined with miserable screams that seem to want to tear the player’s emotions apart.

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 ‘s Iceland , with its combination of sound and visuals, is both enchanting and terrifying, a fear imbued with spiritual elements that haunts players even more than what they experienced in part one.

The graphics quality of Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 is extremely high, but the writer’s experience is almost extremely smooth, gentle and without encountering any technical graphics errors.

REACHING THE CINEMA LEVEL

A growing trend can be seen in the past few years when the film industry and the game industry are following a common path: “adaptation”.

Many games have been successful after being brought to the big/small screen, bringing in a lot of revenue and brand marketing. There are also many games that emphasize the cinematic element, instead of focusing too much on the ability to “push” with complex gameplay.

From the beginning, Ninja Theory intended Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 to be a game with the most “cinematic” elements possible, the frame rate will always default to 21:9 and there will be no options to customize other ratios (other than Photo Mode).

At first, the writer felt the most uncomfortable when experiencing Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 on a 16:9 screen, with two extremely large black borders on both the top and bottom, but after only 15 minutes of experience, the writer had to nod because this factor made the game different from what the writer had imagined before clicking “Play”.

You can completely relax on a soft armchair to enjoy Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 like an exciting action movie, experiencing the gameplay without having to pay too much attention to the control skills required.

The game also does not “hold the player’s hand” to tell them what to do, but forces them to use their “game sense” to play. Everything happens continuously, one scene follows another naturally without any stumbling.

This continuity is very well balanced between the “telling” and “playing” stages, so players do not feel too uncomfortable when having to switch between “chill” and “play” states continuously.

In terms of acting, actress Melina Juergens continues to shine with an even more outstanding performance than before, not only has her ability to describe the character’s emotions been upgraded, but every detail such as wrinkles, sweat dripping down her chin, or every hair on her cheekbones… has increased in authenticity to the point of almost blurring the line between reality and fantasy.

The writer dares to bet that readers will be “shocked” when setting Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 at the highest graphics settings and witnessing Melina Juergens’ impressive transformation.

Especially in the breathtaking action scenes, the most typical of which is the giant hunting of Senua and her “comrades”. The battles in the game are arranged and have a very attractive pace, divided into segments with different scenarios taking place in an extremely “smooth” sequence.

When combined with the excellent music, it is so impressive and emotional that it feels like you are sitting in the theater and enjoying a breathtaking one-take action blockbuster!

Accompanying Senua now are not only two opposing personalities in her head, but now the story of Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 will have the participation of more supporting characters, also played by talented actors.

Thanks to that, the “cinematic” element of the game is also more impressive, because the authenticity in the above acting is multiplied many times with the number of NPCs.

Of course, the quality of the models, acting, and effects for each NPC are all taken care of to the maximum by Ninja Theory.

This continuity is very well balanced between the “telling” and “playing” stages, so players do not feel too uncomfortable when having to switch between “chill” and “play” states continuously.

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7 YEARS FOR… 7 HOURS OF PLAY?

It’s like a joke, before coming to Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 , the writer was quite skeptical when there was information that the game was only about… 5 hours long. In reality (if not counting the time spent “playing” Photo Mode), Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 is probably only about 7 hours long.

With its modest length, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 can be seen as a step back, but it is strangely appropriate. Because the “playing” experience that the game brings, as mentioned above, is not much.

The author himself, with previous experiences with Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice , will not be too surprised by the development direction of Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2. But if readers have not played part one and start with this part, the game will be no different from a boring and unattractive “walking simulator” game.

Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice already had an extremely minimalist gameplay, divided into two action-puzzle sequences that alternated from beginning to end, then in Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 this minimalism is even more… “extreme” when the “play” scenes are “repressed” much more, if not counting the “puzzle walking” scenes.

The number of enemy encounters is not much and they are often very… “Chinese gentlemen”, one after another “lining up” to fight Senua, so in terms of cinematography it is very impressive, but to say whether it is “cool” enough or not is not enough. In addition, as mentioned above, although not “hand-holding”, the difficulty of Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 is quite easy once you have mastered the control mechanism, so if you demand a “hands-on” gameplay, the game will certainly disappoint you to some extent.

In addition, a minus point in terms of content of Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 and also what makes the writer feel regretful: when the game’s story has been expanded a lot but has not been handled as well as its potential. The new story will not only be the war deep inside Senua, but also the war of her entire nation, of a new land with a new “culture”, people and beliefs, which will again make Senua fall into another unreal internal war.

This may sound like a lot, but the way the producers “packaged” it into a 7-hour experience is too fast. The plot is handled very condensed and lacks the necessary transitions, sometimes too simple, other times very rambling.

Ninja Theory was too “greedy” when trying to convey too many “perspectives” about the events taking place in Iceland, in which the presence of NPCs represents reality. When expressing it from the perspective of a schizophrenic patient, it was too confusing in expression and at the same time monotonous in plot (when compared to the previous version).

The plot is handled very concisely and lacks the necessary intermediate transitions, sometimes too simple, sometimes very rambling.