Senua's Saga: Hellblade II

Hellblade 2 continues Senua's story with grace, confidence, surprising brutality and thundering conviction.

Senua's Saga: Hellblade II is intense, captivating, and breathtaking. From the moment I began to play, the beauty and quality of this game has enthralled me. It was difficult at times to even consider it 'just a game'. I could spend long periods just admiring the textures and use of light and color. Even in simple moments when you are merely wandering a path or exploring a hut, it looks like a movie.

Senua's Saga: Hellblade II is a classic example of the old mantra: get past the start, and you'll love it. If you have Xbox Game Pass, you have no reason not to try this game.

Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 improves on its predecessor in numerous ways, making it a must-play for fans of dark, cinematic adventure games. Visually it's unparalleled, offering photo-realistic characters and environments, and its audio design is spectacular, too. It's just a shame that its combat gets repetitive all too quickly – but in the grand scheme of things, it's a small price to pay.

The sequel to the award winning Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, Senua returns in a brutal journey of survival through the myth and torment of Viking Iceland. Intent on saving those who have fallen victim to the horrors of tyranny, Senua faces a battle of overcoming the darkness within and without. Xbox Series X version reviewed. Review copy provided by company for testing purposes.

Senua's Saga: Hellblade II showcases a level of visual prowess that blows anything we've seen so far out of the water and uses it to present a journey that, while short, excites from beginning to end.

Hellblade 2 remains the most technically impressive experience I’ve ever played through. Through the chosen medium of games, Ninja Theory tells a compelling narrative that, if you can put up with some rather archaic gameplay, will leave you deeply satisfied - and maybe just a little traumatised.

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II features intense audio, beautiful graphics, and wonderful camera work, creating a powerful presentation that’s worth experiencing. However, the narrative doesn’t quite stick the landing.

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II won’t be for everyone. But if you are looking for a brutal continuation of a fantastic story that feels like you’re actually playing a movie, you’ll have a great time here.

Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 is the best-looking video game we've ever played. It sounds incredible, Melina Juergens acts herself inside out, and on a purely technical level this is just next-level stuff all round. However, we still don't feel as though extending Senua's plight into a Saga is a good idea. We remain unconvinced, and it's because this sequel feels like diminishing returns, as we had worried it might. It's not as vital or as unique in 2024, and it goes for bombast as a means of smoothing things over, resulting in a good game, an interesting eight hour romp, but nothing that screams ...

What made Sacrifice great wasn’t Senua’s 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.

Visually spectacular but narratively limp, this cinematic sequel fails to find a new path for Senua.