Review
Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II review: nerve-wracking, bombastic and simply incomparable
by Philipp Rüegg
Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II review – nerve-wracking, bombastic and simply without equal
12.8.2025
Translation: Patrik Stainbrook
Hellblade II is so powerful audiovisually, it just takes your breath away. You get a true sense of Senua’s physically and mentally arduous journey. I could’ve done with less of those trivial puzzles and repetitive battles, mind you. Now, one year after the PC and Xbox Series X/S release, the game has arrived on the PS5.
Our review was originally published on 21 May 2024. This is a slightly adapted version for the PS5 release.
I creep through a camp permeated by thick fog. The ground is littered with corpses, others are strung up on wooden poles. What madness took place here? The voices in my head urge me to turn back. No, I have to push forward, put one foot in front of the other. Or is everything hopeless anyway? There’s no time for my inner turmoil. The music swells menacingly as disfigured grimaces jump out at me from the darkness. A dance of life and death begins.
After I pull my bloody sword from the lifeless body of the last enemy, peace returns. The fog lifts, and for a moment the scene seems almost peaceful. But quickly, the corpses around me and my clashing inner voices bring me back to reality. You never quite know what’s real and what isn’t in Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II. The only thing that’s clear is that Ninja Theory’s sequel to Senua’s Sacrifice has ended up a fantastic game.
Source: Ninja Theory
What’s it about?
In part one, Celtic warrior Senua set out to save the soul of her dead lover. For this, she travelled through the Viking hell and tangled with gods. I thought the idea was better than what the game delivered. The shallow puzzles and annoying fights in particular made me not want to finish it. A shame, I liked the story and especially the visuals of the original. Fortunately, part two goes one better in all respects.
Source: Ninja Theory
Hellblade 2 follows on directly from the original. Senua has allowed herself to be captured and taken onto a slave ship. It allows her to travel with these Viking invaders to her home – Iceland. She wants to find out what the Northmen are up to and put an end to slavery.
A path of suffering
After the ship is caught in a storm and capsizes, Senua is thrown overboard and washes up on a beach. She doesn’t have time to catch her breath; some slave traders survived too, their leader Thórgestr among them. After a short, bloody battle, Senua takes him prisoner. She needs him to guide the way to his tribe and his father. Thus begins an arduous and breathtaking journey through a mysterious world full of myths and monsters – some of which live in Senua’s head.
Source: Ninja Theory
The warrior suffers from psychosis. In order to present this as authentically as possible, Ninja Theory worked with Paul Fletcher, a professor at Cambridge University, among others. He’s an expert in just this field. While all the internal dialogues are sometimes a little exhausting, they still craft a unique atmosphere. Our protagonist is struggling with and against herself. Every decision is questioned, confirmed and rejected.
As the story progresses, Senua is accompanied by Thórgestr, Fargrímr and Ástríðr. Fargrímr has a deeper knowledge of the supernatural occurrences of the world, and Ástríðr is a tribal leader who wants to protect her people from a giant. A large part of the story revolves around these mystical beings. However, the focus lies squarely on the four travellers and their quarrels, especially Senua. She’s battling demons, both real ones and those inside her.
Source: Ninja Theory
Eerily beautiful
Hellblade 2 gripped me from the very first minute. This is thanks to the audiovisual presentation, paired with a first-class cast. Thanks to motion capture, movements and facial animations are reproduced perfectly. Every little uncertainty, exhaustion or frustration is clearly visible. I’ve never seen more photorealism than in this game, all made possible by Unreal Engine 5. This is particularly true of the surroundings. The rocky fantastical landscape of Iceland is captured perfectly. It seems I’ve discovered a new fetish for myself: rock porn. I finally understand those hungry Rockbiters from The Neverending Story. Those boulders look good enough to eat, hot damn! Just like the rest of the game, really. You’ll find pretty, moss-covered stone huts, caves illuminated by crystals and breathtaking fjords with rushing waterfalls.
Source: Ninja Theory
Most of the game flows without any noticeable cuts, similar to God of War. There’s no fade to black during a time jump, for example. Instead, the camera zooms away, flies over the dreamlike landscape like a drone and finds the adventuring party again, now arriving at a different location. This fusion of reality and visions is just as impressively put together. I enter a deserted village when suddenly a dark figure appears, bathing the entire screen in red and black shadows. The next moment, my world turns upside down and the surroundings become a surreal nightmare.
Source: Ninja Theory
The game has a 2.39:1 aspect ratio, which does take some getting used to at first. It originates from the film industry and is rarely used today. If, like me, you don’t have an ultra-wide monitor, get ready for some black bars. Still, it gives the game a more cinematic feel. It helps that the game has no user interface at all.
The sound design impressed me just as much as the graphics. Ninja Theory recommends headphones, and for once I have to agree. Even with my 5.1 surround system, the soundscape doesn’t really come into its own. And what a soundscape it is. A deep rumbling that could’ve come straight from hell sounds out as monstrous grimaces pounce on me. The sound swells into an orchestral symphony of horror, making my heart beat into my throat. It rumbles and thunders, and just as suddenly calm returns – that sudden absence of sound conjures a wonderfully melancholy mood. The soundtrack regularly gave me goosebumps.
Source: Ninja Theory
Repetitive battles and underwhelming puzzles
While the story and staging completely entrance me, the fights and especially the puzzles keep pulling me out of the narrative flow. I can forgive the fights somewhat; they’re entertaining and over after just a few minutes. Nor do they occur nearly often enough for me to call Hellblade 2 an action game. They don’t have enough complexity for that anyway. There’s a heavy and a light attack and I can dodge. What’s more, my focus builds up over time. When I activate it, time slows down and I make short work of any enemies.
Source: Ninja Theory
Enemy attack patterns are very easy to read and the dodge window is generous. What’s more, enemies attack one after the other. Still, at least they look top-notch. For one, enemies with masks or disfigured faces, usually only vaguely recognisable, are wonderfully scary. On top of that, battling with the sword provides plenty of punch, and it’s all staged in a really dynamic way. One moment I’m plunging my sword into an enemy’s belly, the next someone pulls me to the ground. Only at the very last moment do I snatch away his axe and ram it into his skull. Fights always follow the same pattern, so there could’ve been a little less of them. Still, they help to convey the brutality of this world.
Where I can’t find any positives is with the puzzles. Most of them hardly deserve that moniker. Most of the time, you have to find certain symbols in the environment and aim at them from the right angle. That, or you have to collect three orbs to open a magically locked gate. To reach the orbs, you can interact with larger luminous spheres that change the environment – a bridge suddenly becomes visible, a wall disappears, that sort of stuff. The puzzles are staged in such a way that I’m automatically guided to the right place and hardly have to think. With a few exceptions, I would’ve been happy to skip them. They merely inflate the playing time.
Source: Ninja Theory
Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 was provided to me by Microsoft. I tested the PC version. The game’s also available for PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Game Pass.
In a nutshell
Short, gripping and cinematic
Hellblade 2 takes you on a disturbing and gripping journey through the mystical Iceland of Viking times. Reality and visions merge into a hellish trip, perfectly capturing Senua’s inner turmoil. It’s never clear what’s real and what’s delusion. Six to eight hours is all the adventure you get, but my heart wouldn’t have been able to take much more anyway. Senua’s fight against Icelandic slave traders, mysterious giants and her own past is nerve-wracking.
This is mainly thanks to the impressive staging. Graphically and acoustically, Hellblade 2 sets an extremely high bar. The sensational visuals and atmospheric soundtrack perfectly convey the emotions of both Senua and her companions.
My only criticism is the repetitive battles. They’re well staged, but pop up a little too often. What annoys me even more are the trivial puzzles, which disrupt the flow of the game and are usually just boring.
However, these little imperfections don’t detract significantly from the overall experience of Hellblade 2. Ninja Theory tells a gripping and mature story in a surreal world, incredibly beautiful to look at despite its horrors. If you like cinematic games with a gripping story, go for it.
Pro
- Groundbreaking audiovisually
- Beautiful landscapes
- Thrillingly staged
- Emotional story
Contra
- Repetitive battles
- Pitiful puzzles
Philipp Rüegg
Senior Editor
Philipp.Rueegg@digitecgalaxus.chBeing the game and gadget geek that I am, working at digitec and Galaxus makes me feel like a kid in a candy shop – but it does take its toll on my wallet. I enjoy tinkering with my PC in Tim Taylor fashion and talking about games on my podcast http://www.onemorelevel.ch. To satisfy my need for speed, I get on my full suspension mountain bike and set out to find some nice trails. My thirst for culture is quenched by deep conversations over a couple of cold ones at the mostly frustrating games of FC Winterthur.
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