A nuanced journey that plays it too safe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Hellblade 2 loses its identity as Senua finds hers.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/hellblade\/news\/senuas-saga-hellblade-ii-review-a-nuanced-journey-that-plays-it-too-safe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Senua's Saga Hellblade II review: A nuanced journey that plays it too safe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Hellblade 2 loses its identity as Senua finds hers.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/hellblade\/news\/senuas-saga-hellblade-ii-review-a-nuanced-journey-that-plays-it-too-safe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Dot Esports\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" 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Hood","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/1303692ca42bb2f7c479ba135c0ec81d","url":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/bh24qjJI_400x400-96x96.jpg?resize=96%2C96","contentUrl":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/bh24qjJI_400x400-96x96.jpg?resize=96%2C96","caption":"Vic Hood"},"description":"Vic is Gaming Editor at Dot Esports. An award-winning games journalist, Vic brings experience from IGN, Eurogamer, TechRadar, and more to the Dot Esports table. You may have even heard her on the radio or speaking on a panel. Not only is Vic passionate about games, but she's also an avid mental health advocate who has appeared on both panels and podcasts to discuss mental health awareness. Make sure to follow her on Twitter (@hood_vic) for more.","sameAs":["https:\/\/uk.linkedin.com\/in\/vic-hood-7928a5135","https:\/\/x.com\/hood_vic"],"url":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/author\/vichood"}]}},"raw_content":"Spoilers for Hellblade: Senua\u2019s Sacrifice ahead. Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice has one of the most gut-punching ending sequences I\u2019ve ever experienced. Ninja Theory\u2019s dark and captivating journey climaxed in a boss fight that shook me to my core. The overarching message? You cannot fight grief, you cannot bargain with it. This would always be a tough act to follow with the sequel, Senua's Saga: Hellblade II. How do we move on when we\u2019ve come to terms with the darkest, most painful parts of ourselves? Hellblade 2 aims to answer this question, perhaps with more nuance than its predecessor. But while Senua learns to live with her darkness and grows more confident in the sequel, the sequel seems to lose its own identity. Breathe deeply While Senua\u2019s Sacrifice is set in the late 8th century, Hellblade 2 follows Pict warrior Senua yet again, this time in the 10th century. Intent on hunting down the Northman slavers who ravaged her village and killed her lover, Senua gets captured on purpose, hoping her captors will take her to the source of the slavers. During their voyage, however, the vessel is shipwrecked, leaving Senua washed ashore in Iceland where she must find the slavers herself.\u00a0 Hellblade 2\u2019s portrayal of Iceland is proof that Ninja Theory is a master of technical game development. The studio has recreated real Icelandic environments with breathtaking authenticism thanks to photogrammetry tech. From the rippling lakes to the grooves of each rock face, you can almost smell the salt in the air.\u00a0 This level of detail applies to Senua and the characters she meets, too. Sacrifice proved Ninja Theory is a leader in realistic game mo-cap. Hellblade 2 builds upon this legacy further, with new-gen hardware letting the developer push the boundaries even more. At times, cutscenes look like they\u2019ve been ripped from a live-action film, while the smaller details during real-time gameplay\u2014like how Senua\u2019s eyes look around her environment, and how shadows cast themselves as she moves\u2014mean the transition between the two never feels abrupt.\u00a0 What truly makes Hellblade 2 feel immersive, however, is its use of audio. I highly recommend, as does the studio, wearing headphones to get the full immersive effect. The Furies, the auditory hallucinations Senua hears, consistently chatter to her (and you) as you play. With headphones, you experience a 3D effect that makes it sound like each voice is speaking right into your ear. It\u2019s a deeply unsettling but eye-opening experience, especially combined with the often reality-altering visuals. The intention of this is for players to experience a sense of what it\u2019s like to have real-life psychosis which, in itself, is a controversial topic. Stormy seas Ninja Theory\u2019s attempt to tackle the heavy subject of mental health issues in Sacrifice was a divisive one. While many applauded the studio\u2019s realistic depiction of psychosis and diligent research, others felt it didn\u2019t go far enough to explore the day-to-day lives and social context of those living with psychosis, or that it used these people\u2019s traumatic experiences as entertainment for others. In Hellblade 2, it feels like Ninja Theory has taken this feedback on board, at least partly. Senua isn\u2019t magically cured of her psychosis and trauma in the sequel, but she\u2019s accepted it and is learning to live alongside it as best she can. Anyone with mental health struggles knows this is no easy task.\u00a0 In Sacrifice, Senua was at the mercy of her Furies. They were all-encompassing and loud. In Hellblade 2, the voices remain (as does her altered reality), but they\u2019re often more like background noise. Senua can make her own choices, despite their fearful pleas and their role in this game being much less pivotal than in its predecessor.\u00a0 We also see how Senua\u2019s psychosis plays into how she interacts with others in Saga\u2014which was lacking in the first game. Senua meets other characters who join her on her journey, each with their own experiences of trauma, loss, or darkness, and we see another side to the Furies. Rather than amping up in acute scenarios that feel like life and death, we see how they factor into day-to-day scenarios, reinforcing Senua\u2019s negative feelings about herself and how different she feels. This is a much more balanced approach compared to the previous game and overall, it feels like Ninja Theory plays it particularly safe with Hellblade 2. Unfortunately, in doing so, the sequel struggles to find its identity. Senua\u2019s severe psychosis in Sacrifice was the crux of the first game (rightly or wrongly). Pulling back on this in Hellblade 2 and offering a more nuanced approach is understandable (and welcome), except the nuance isn\u2019t strong enough to keep the game afloat.\u00a0 The game\u2019s overarching message feels shoehorned, and the subtleties of the first game\u2014that eventually climaxed in that incredible end sequence\u2014seem non-existent. I kept feeling like I didn\u2019t know where the story was going, and neither did the studio.\u00a0 The main story doesn\u2019t even pick up until a few hours in, and even then, it felt like it was ramping up to something that never came, and I walked away from Hellblade 2 disappointed and deflated. There are sequences where you crawl through tunnels that genuinely take up several minutes of your time, the combat feels repetitive, and the puzzles pose little challenge. I finished the game in seven hours and despite there being Lorestones and hidden statues to find, I feel no need to return.\u00a0 Finding Senua Ninja Theory had a tough task on its hands. It had to learn from the feedback of those with lived psychosis experiences to create a more nuanced depiction of mental health, but in doing so, it becomes evident how much the game relied on Senua\u2019s acute illness. As someone living with a mental health disorder, part of me loves seeing Senua managing her illness and battling her day-to-day realities. Having followed her to Helheim and back, I\u2019m strongly invested in Senua as a character. But by adopting this more realistic, nuanced approach, it feels like Ninja Theory loses the thread of the series. What made Sacrifice great wasn\u2019t Senua\u2019s severe psychosis, it was the pacing and breadcrumb storytelling that gradually built up to an epic conclusion. By comparison, Hellblade 2 only becomes more lost as Senua finds herself.","apple_news_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Unknown-2024_05_16-17_55_11.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1234674"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2187"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1234674"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1234674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1234711,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1234674\/revisions\/1234711"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1234675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1234674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1234674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1234674"},{"taxonomy":"invoiceable_action","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/invoiceable_action?post=1234674"},{"taxonomy":"internal-label","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/internal-label?post=1234674"},{"taxonomy":"article_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_type?post=1234674"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1234674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

A nuanced journey that plays it too safe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Hellblade 2 loses its identity as Senua finds hers.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/hellblade\/news\/senuas-saga-hellblade-ii-review-a-nuanced-journey-that-plays-it-too-safe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Senua's Saga Hellblade II review: A nuanced journey that plays it too safe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Hellblade 2 loses its identity as Senua finds hers.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/hellblade\/news\/senuas-saga-hellblade-ii-review-a-nuanced-journey-that-plays-it-too-safe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Dot Esports\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" 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An award-winning games journalist, Vic brings experience from IGN, Eurogamer, TechRadar, and more to the Dot Esports table. You may have even heard her on the radio or speaking on a panel. Not only is Vic passionate about games, but she's also an avid mental health advocate who has appeared on both panels and podcasts to discuss mental health awareness. Make sure to follow her on Twitter (@hood_vic) for more.","sameAs":["https:\/\/uk.linkedin.com\/in\/vic-hood-7928a5135","https:\/\/x.com\/hood_vic"],"url":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/author\/vichood"}]}},"raw_content":"Spoilers for Hellblade: Senua\u2019s Sacrifice ahead. Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice has one of the most gut-punching ending sequences I\u2019ve ever experienced. Ninja Theory\u2019s dark and captivating journey climaxed in a boss fight that shook me to my core. The overarching message? You cannot fight grief, you cannot bargain with it. This would always be a tough act to follow with the sequel, Senua's Saga: Hellblade II. How do we move on when we\u2019ve come to terms with the darkest, most painful parts of ourselves? Hellblade 2 aims to answer this question, perhaps with more nuance than its predecessor. But while Senua learns to live with her darkness and grows more confident in the sequel, the sequel seems to lose its own identity. Breathe deeply While Senua\u2019s Sacrifice is set in the late 8th century, Hellblade 2 follows Pict warrior Senua yet again, this time in the 10th century. Intent on hunting down the Northman slavers who ravaged her village and killed her lover, Senua gets captured on purpose, hoping her captors will take her to the source of the slavers. During their voyage, however, the vessel is shipwrecked, leaving Senua washed ashore in Iceland where she must find the slavers herself.\u00a0 Hellblade 2\u2019s portrayal of Iceland is proof that Ninja Theory is a master of technical game development. The studio has recreated real Icelandic environments with breathtaking authenticism thanks to photogrammetry tech. From the rippling lakes to the grooves of each rock face, you can almost smell the salt in the air.\u00a0 This level of detail applies to Senua and the characters she meets, too. Sacrifice proved Ninja Theory is a leader in realistic game mo-cap. Hellblade 2 builds upon this legacy further, with new-gen hardware letting the developer push the boundaries even more. At times, cutscenes look like they\u2019ve been ripped from a live-action film, while the smaller details during real-time gameplay\u2014like how Senua\u2019s eyes look around her environment, and how shadows cast themselves as she moves\u2014mean the transition between the two never feels abrupt.\u00a0 What truly makes Hellblade 2 feel immersive, however, is its use of audio. I highly recommend, as does the studio, wearing headphones to get the full immersive effect. The Furies, the auditory hallucinations Senua hears, consistently chatter to her (and you) as you play. With headphones, you experience a 3D effect that makes it sound like each voice is speaking right into your ear. It\u2019s a deeply unsettling but eye-opening experience, especially combined with the often reality-altering visuals. The intention of this is for players to experience a sense of what it\u2019s like to have real-life psychosis which, in itself, is a controversial topic. Stormy seas Ninja Theory\u2019s attempt to tackle the heavy subject of mental health issues in Sacrifice was a divisive one. While many applauded the studio\u2019s realistic depiction of psychosis and diligent research, others felt it didn\u2019t go far enough to explore the day-to-day lives and social context of those living with psychosis, or that it used these people\u2019s traumatic experiences as entertainment for others. In Hellblade 2, it feels like Ninja Theory has taken this feedback on board, at least partly. Senua isn\u2019t magically cured of her psychosis and trauma in the sequel, but she\u2019s accepted it and is learning to live alongside it as best she can. Anyone with mental health struggles knows this is no easy task.\u00a0 In Sacrifice, Senua was at the mercy of her Furies. They were all-encompassing and loud. In Hellblade 2, the voices remain (as does her altered reality), but they\u2019re often more like background noise. Senua can make her own choices, despite their fearful pleas and their role in this game being much less pivotal than in its predecessor.\u00a0 We also see how Senua\u2019s psychosis plays into how she interacts with others in Saga\u2014which was lacking in the first game. Senua meets other characters who join her on her journey, each with their own experiences of trauma, loss, or darkness, and we see another side to the Furies. Rather than amping up in acute scenarios that feel like life and death, we see how they factor into day-to-day scenarios, reinforcing Senua\u2019s negative feelings about herself and how different she feels. This is a much more balanced approach compared to the previous game and overall, it feels like Ninja Theory plays it particularly safe with Hellblade 2. Unfortunately, in doing so, the sequel struggles to find its identity. Senua\u2019s severe psychosis in Sacrifice was the crux of the first game (rightly or wrongly). Pulling back on this in Hellblade 2 and offering a more nuanced approach is understandable (and welcome), except the nuance isn\u2019t strong enough to keep the game afloat.\u00a0 The game\u2019s overarching message feels shoehorned, and the subtleties of the first game\u2014that eventually climaxed in that incredible end sequence\u2014seem non-existent. I kept feeling like I didn\u2019t know where the story was going, and neither did the studio.\u00a0 The main story doesn\u2019t even pick up until a few hours in, and even then, it felt like it was ramping up to something that never came, and I walked away from Hellblade 2 disappointed and deflated. There are sequences where you crawl through tunnels that genuinely take up several minutes of your time, the combat feels repetitive, and the puzzles pose little challenge. I finished the game in seven hours and despite there being Lorestones and hidden statues to find, I feel no need to return.\u00a0 Finding Senua Ninja Theory had a tough task on its hands. It had to learn from the feedback of those with lived psychosis experiences to create a more nuanced depiction of mental health, but in doing so, it becomes evident how much the game relied on Senua\u2019s acute illness. As someone living with a mental health disorder, part of me loves seeing Senua managing her illness and battling her day-to-day realities. Having followed her to Helheim and back, I\u2019m strongly invested in Senua as a character. But by adopting this more realistic, nuanced approach, it feels like Ninja Theory loses the thread of the series. What made Sacrifice great wasn\u2019t Senua\u2019s severe psychosis, it was the pacing and breadcrumb storytelling that gradually built up to an epic conclusion. By comparison, Hellblade 2 only becomes more lost as Senua finds herself.","apple_news_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Unknown-2024_05_16-17_55_11.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1234674"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2187"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1234674"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1234674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1234711,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1234674\/revisions\/1234711"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1234675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1234674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1234674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1234674"},{"taxonomy":"invoiceable_action","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/invoiceable_action?post=1234674"},{"taxonomy":"internal-label","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/internal-label?post=1234674"},{"taxonomy":"article_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_type?post=1234674"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1234674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

Rokurou

{"id":1234674,"date":"2024-05-21T03:00:10","date_gmt":"2024-05-21T08:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/?p=1234674"},"modified":"2024-05-21T03:00:12","modified_gmt":"2024-05-21T08:00:12","slug":"senuas-saga-hellblade-ii-review-a-nuanced-journey-that-plays-it-too-safe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/hellblade\/news\/senuas-saga-hellblade-ii-review-a-nuanced-journey-that-plays-it-too-safe","title":{"rendered":"Senua’s Saga Hellblade II review: A nuanced journey that plays it too safe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spoilers for Hellblade: Senua\u2019s Sacrifice ahead.<\/em><\/p>

Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice <\/em>has one of the most gut-punching ending sequences I\u2019ve ever experienced. Ninja Theory\u2019s dark and captivating journey climaxed in a boss fight that shook me to my core. The overarching message? You cannot fight grief, you cannot bargain with it.<\/p>

This would always be a tough act to follow with the sequel, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II<\/a><\/em>. How do we move on when we\u2019ve come to terms with the darkest, most painful parts of ourselves? Hellblade 2 <\/em>aims to answer this question, perhaps with more nuance than its predecessor. But while Senua learns to live with her darkness and grows more confident in the sequel, the sequel seems to lose its own identity.<\/p>