Now Playing: Senua’s Saga

When I played Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice back in 2018 I thought it was excellent, but I described it in my review as a ‘better experience than it is a game’. And whilst Sacrifice ends with Senua saying ‘Follow us, we have another story to tell’, I wasn’t entirely convinced. Sacrifice was such an enthralling and unique experience, and I didn’t really feel like it needed a sequel.

But here we are, and I’m both pleased and more than a little surprised to say that Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 is the sequel I didn’t know I wanted. It’s the perfect way to follow up Sacrifice. It is, more or less, a refined and superior version of the original, boasting some of the most impressive visuals and seamless animations you’ll ever see.

Once I’d completed it, I decided to replay Sacrifice, just to better compare them for this review. I then played Saga a second time and I’m glad I did, because it made me appreciate far more all the ways Saga improves upon the first game. What really struck me replaying Sacrifice and then Saga, was how better integrated the puzzle and combat elements are in the sequel.

In Sacrifice, there’s a noticeable disconnect between the ‘experience’ and the ‘game’. Combat, whilst fun, is clearly signposted to specific circular arenas, featuring set waves of enemies. It’s fast and flashy but it’s also very simple and very repetitive. Puzzles, meanwhile, are a little too tedious. The ‘rune’ puzzles can be unforgiving unless you line them up perfectly, and there’s a fair amount of tracking back and forth with Senua to get where you need to go.

What Saga does so brilliantly is to take the puzzles and the combat of the original and do the exact opposite of what you might expect. It doesn’t try to make them more complex. Instead, it refines them in such a way that they integrate seamlessly into the overall experience. I’ve seen some people disappointed that Saga didn’t expand upon the combat of the original. Typically, I might agree – but not in this case.

What people are asking for is for Saga to be something it’s not. ‘Expanding’ the combat means taking a path that leads to an even greater disconnect from the experience. It’s a path that inevitably leads to a generic skill tree, unlockable attacks, a health bar, a stamina meter and experience points. F**k that.

Combat in Sacrifice was very limited in terms of enemy variety and animations. Both are significantly improved within Saga. The combat animations in Saga are absolutely incredible. There’s such a perfect transition from direct control to canned animation that it really does feel – dare I say it – like you’re playing a movie.

That doesn’t mean you don’t have significant control over the flow of a fight. You still have light and heavy attacks, and alternating between these and knowing when to strike, dodge or parry is key to your survival. And survival really is the key difference between Saga and Sacrifice. In Sacrifice, fights were so frequent and lengthy that they became almost routine. In Saga, every fight feels like a battle to survive. Every enemy feels like they could be your last.

There’s an unrelenting intensity to Saga that you won’t quite believe unless you experience it yourself. The combination of outstanding visuals, sound and animation combine to create one of the most engaging, brutal and utterly enthralling combat systems you’ll ever experience. And whilst the combat may be simple, Senua’s fate is still very much in your hands.

Even replaying Saga, I encountered new combat animations I’d not seen before because I’d triggered them by finishing enemies using different attacks, or following up a parry or dodge from a different angle. At least, that’s how it felt – and if that’s not the case, the game does a fantastic job of convincing you otherwise. Yes, there are times you’ll see some animations repeat, but they’re relatively infrequent.

You only fight enemies one on one in Saga and I think it’s a smart change. Fighting multiple enemies in Sacrifice didn’t make it more ‘deep’ as I’ve seen some suggest. It just meant you spent more time circling around to line them all up before taking them out one at a time. And no, the ‘kick’ button didn’t make it ‘deeper’ either. It was mostly pointless outside of breaking the block of a shield bearing enemy – being able to press more buttons doesn’t add depth.

I’d argue there’s far more depth to the combat in Saga because of how reactive the game is to your approach and the animations that trigger as a result. Every enemy feels like a threat. Every fight has you on the edge of your seat. As much as I enjoyed Sacrifice, the combat felt like a formality. It was fun, but the difference between Sacrifice and Saga having played them back to back is like night and day.

And the same, I would say, is true of the puzzles. There’s a greater variety of puzzles in Saga and unlike Sacrifice where (like a lot of the combat encounters) it could feel like some puzzles existed purely to pad out the game, everything in Saga feels like it has a specific purpose. Puzzles either exist to teach the player, or to symbolise an aspect of Senua’s growth on her journey.

Learning to (quite literally, at one moment) help and save herself before she can save others. Learning to let go of control, of power, of perceived strength. There’s a lot more themes touched upon in Saga than in Sacrifice. Leadership is a big one – there’s one puzzle that has you literally ‘passing the torch’ which takes on a greater meaning towards the very end of the game.

Whereas Sacrifice was a very focused game about Senua overcoming grief and loss, Saga is the story of what comes next, of learning to live beyond that. It’s a story with a broader scope and one which introduces actual living characters with whom Senua can interact. Which is important because for me, the real heart of Saga is Senua learning to once again form bonds with others. To open herself up to others in a way she hasn’t since she lost her mother and Dillion.

The cover art for Hellblade 2 – if you can call it that given it’s digital only – are hands grasping around Senua’s head. It’s a pretty disturbing image the first time you see it and indeed, when you first see it in the game it’s presented in a way that’s oppressive and terrifying to Senua. And yet, at the very end of the game we come to see it in an entirely different light – and so does she.

With a broader scope there’s bound to be a lot of different interpretations of Saga’s story. There’s also an important theme of not becoming like those who came before you – a significant moment in Senua’s own personal growth relating to her father who was such a pervasive and threatening presence within the first game. Here, it feels like she can finally put that particular demon to rest.

The voices or ‘furies’ Senua experiences also don’t play such an oppressive role in Saga as they did in Sacrifice, in fact growing more peaceful and kind over time. She accepts them as a part of her in a way she didn’t before. Choosing her own path, accepting who she is, her past, and the influence of her mother and father – there’s a lot here to dig into.

I’m sure there will also be a lot of different interpretations regarding the general plot involving the giants plaguing the land. Are the giants actually real? There was a volcanic eruption that caused a famine and forced people to take extreme measures to survive. So are there really giants, or are they merely natural disasters interpreted as ‘giants’ by a superstitious people struggling to comprehend or explain what’s happening?

Does it matter? My take is the same one I had for Sacrifice – if it’s real to Senua, then it’s real for us. This is her journey and we’re seeing things through her unique eyes. So, as far as I’m concerned, if she perceives it as real, then it’s real – the actual ‘reality’ of it doesn’t matter, what matters is how she learns and grows from the experience.

I think Saga also lends itself to more replay value than Sacrifice thanks to a broader scope. There’s a lot more things you can pick up on each play. I also like the addition of alternative narrators you can unlock that offer yet another perspective on events within the game. It is also, overall, less relentlessly bleak and dark than the original. There are more quiet moments, moments of peace and beauty, to better counter-balance the darkness.

There’s something so refreshing about Saga – in a world of endless skill tress, experience gains, damage numbers, overbearing UI and bloated open worlds it’s very nice to play such a refined and visually stunning game that strips all that bullshit away. So yes, like Sacrifice it’s a better ‘experience’ than it is a ‘game’ but that’s exactly what it’s striving for and that’s how it should be judged.

No, it’s not perfect – I thought the opening of the last chapter set within a forest was a little weak on my first run and even more so on my second – it just doesn’t quite live up to what comes before or after. Thematically, it sort of works, but I feel like there’s a lot more they could have done with it. I also kind of wish there had been at least one ‘monster’ type boss fight like we had in the first game. Just one. Just to mix it up a little.

Overall, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 is an incredible technical achievement and one of the most immersive and engaging experiences you’ll ever play. It’s a game that deserves to win awards for its visuals, story and performances. The critical reception, however, hasn’t really surprised me – I gave up on games media in general a long time ago and I think it’s even worse now as even mainstream publications take great delight in tearing games down both before and after release, only to cry crocodile tears when said games fail and studios get shut down. I call it the ‘negativity dump’ and those peddling it are always looking for a new target. Even a game as impressive as Hellblade 2 can’t escape unscathed.

But I don’t want to end this review ranting about the hypocritical and unprofessional nature of modern games media. I want to tell you once again how special this game is and how it’s worth giving a spin, even if you’re not sure you’ll like it. You won’t have experienced anything like this before and you might not ever again. Games like Hellblade 2 remind me why I love this medium so much. I f**king love video games and it’s because of games like Hellblade 2 that I do.

9/10