Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II Enhanced Evaluate (PS5)

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 is a recreation that’s not notably good in a standard sense, but continues to be price enjoying via.

Choosing up the place the 2017 unique left off, it’s a sequel that doubles down on the very best and worst options of that first expertise, leaning into cinematic storytelling, excellent visuals, and distinctive sound design. The graphical and auditory expertise makes developer Ninja Concept an trade chief in its distinct discipline — you’ll battle to seek out many different PS5 titles that look and sound higher than it.

Nevertheless, these standout parts solely go to this point when the act of really enjoying the sport is so rudimentary. Hellblade 2 bridges the hole between its cutscenes with numerous strolling, dangerous puzzles, and fundamental fight. As an total bundle, it makes for an extremely uneven expertise.

Senua returns within the lead position for a follow-up that explores her battle with psychosis and efforts to free her folks from slavery by journeying to the Viking homeland of Iceland. Shipwrecked on the shore, she makes a prisoner of 1 Viking and has him information her to their chief.

With simply six hours of content material, even accounting for locating all of the collectibles, the plot shortly develops and introduces companion characters carrying tales of giants and the hidden folks. Or does it?

Leaving a lot to interpretation, the sport embraces the hallucinations and inside voices Senua experiences to the purpose the place you’re by no means certain what’s actual and what’s not. Characters fade out and in of existence, and the surroundings shifts and modifications with a sweep of the digicam.

This can be a good factor, for the title’s unreliability provides suspense and depth to sequences that might in any other case have Senua merely stroll via the countryside. Its sound design is great; inside voices will whisper in your ears, bouncing between your headphones and providing commentary on Senua’s actions. Extraordinarily unnerving, you’re consistently stored on edge even in essentially the most unassuming scenes.

It’s an additional layer that’s desperately wanted, because the moment-to-moment gameplay of the title is detrimentally fundamental.

Really enjoying the sport, and never simply taking in its lovely vistas and unsettling audio, consists of strolling, fixing easy puzzles, and sword fights. These are the crux that make up many PS5 experiences, however they’re sorely missing in Hellblade 2.

Coming back from Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice are the image puzzles, the place you will need to search the speedy space to seek out objects you’ll be able to line up at a selected angle to type the form blocking your path. They’re joined by a brand new puzzle sort that entails amassing orbs from pedestals, accessed by altering the surroundings round you.

Each varieties show really easy to resolve that they’re hardly price classing as puzzles within the first place. Once you’re near a logo, the main target characteristic will routinely snap your digicam to the answer. Then, amassing the orbs is so simple as shape-shifting a single piece of terrain.

The fight system doesn’t fare any higher. Senua has an ordinary and heavy assault, and may block and dodge enemy strikes. She finds a mirror — charged by touchdown blows on the enemy — that permits her to decelerate time and get a straightforward kill. Whereas many encounters will characteristic a number of combatants, the digicam all the time fixates on a single enemy, turning each contest right into a one-on-one duel.

Regardless of the actual fact some enemies have completely different appearances, each single battle — from the second you choose up the mirror within the second chapter via to the ultimate boss combat — performs out precisely the identical. Their repetitive nature grates additional on the general providing, making it extra of a chore to play the additional in you might be. There comes a degree the place the sport’s easiest immediate, to plainly stroll via its lovely surroundings, turns into the very best factor about it.

From the sweeping digicam pans of the Icelandic environments to the person rocks positioned on both facet of the linear path, the sport is just rivalled by Dying Stranding 2 as one of many prettiest video games out there on PS5. Its landscapes are jaw-dropping, its lighting system shines in cave programs with solely a flame to seek out your manner, and its characters impress with sturdy performances and visible design.

It’s only a disgrace to be introduced with such a shocking world, just for there to be so little to truly do in it. You may admire, however no touching.

Consequently, the bottom recreation is a disappointment, however one with one thing to supply — and even perhaps respect. Its gameplay won’t ever fulfill, although the visible splendour and absorbing auditory expertise will. Melina Juergens as Senua as soon as once more gives an exceptional efficiency, and robust haptic suggestions help ties the protagonist’s inside voices again into your controller rumblings.

It signifies that, in a uncommon position reversal, Hellblade 2 is at its finest throughout all of the elements that don’t require you to correctly play it.

Rounding out the bundle are the additional modes and technical updates Ninja Concept has included on this new Enhanced version for PS5, which arrives after 15 months of Xbox console exclusivity. The unique launch ran at 30 frames-per-second on Xbox Sequence X|S, however this upgraded model now presents a 60fps Efficiency Mode on each base PS5 and PS5 Professional.

Our playthrough on the latter system was carried out utilizing this new mode, and it proves to be an especially clean, satisfying expertise. That is the optimum strategy to play, with no body charge drops in sight.

The opposite additions are developer commentary and a brand new Darkish Rot mode, which follows via on the warning the primary recreation got here with. In Senua’s Sacrifice, the sport instructed you that for those who died sufficient occasions, a Darkish Rot would devour Senua’s physique, and also you’d have to begin your playthrough over from the start. This was a double bluff: the Darkish Rot by no means truly took over, regardless of what number of occasions you died.

In Hellblade 2, this non-compulsory mode makes the warning a actuality. On an elevated issue mode past Onerous, you’re allowed to die 3 times. On the fourth demise, your save knowledge is wiped and it’s important to begin over from the start.

This mode, together with the developer commentary, is just unlocked after finishing the bottom recreation, with good cause: it’s completely brutal. We by no means managed to make it previous the second chapter in our makes an attempt. The fight stays extremely bland, however a minimum of the Darkish Rot mode provides significantly extra rigidity to it.