Summary
Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2is finallyout todayand the reviews are in. At the time of writing, it has an average of 83 on OpenCritic, earning it the ‘Strong’ rating.
Eurogamergave it a full five stars, calling it a “confident sequel” with “tremendous ambition”.Game Informerscored it a nine out of ten, claiming that it retained the “thoughtful storytelling and artistry” of the original that “few triple-A games possess.”
Hellblade is an impeccable story of coming to terms with trauma and making difficult decisions, punctuated by moments of outstanding beauty and strength -PCGamesN
IGNwent a little lower but still scored a respectably high eight out of ten, writing that the sequel is a “Viking-worthy feast for the senses” that matches the original rather than surpassing it.Game Rantlikewise gave Hellblade 2 a four-star rating, praising its visuals, sound design, and “visceral” combat.
While Hellblade 2 has a fairly high score in the 80s on OpenCritic right now, digging deeper into the individual numbers paints a more mixed picture.
Inour review, Editor-in-Chief Stacey Henley gave Hellblade 2 three stars, arguing that combat was “repetitive” and that the new characters “dilute instead of adding”.
The sequel does less interesting things with it than the original, and stays largely in its shell, with growth instead spent on combat and helping it hang with the triple-A crowd instead of embracing its true nature as an odd little indie about something weird and wonderful - TheGamer.
VGCandNMEalso went with three stars. The former criticised its “boring puzzles, paper-thin combat, [and] meandering narrative”, while the latter said that “much of this six-hour adventure feels wasted”.
PC Gamergave it a slightly lower score of 58 out of 100, writing that it “fails to escape the shadow of its predecessor with a muddled tale that Senua herself feels out of place in.”
Lowest of all,Metroscored it five out of ten, calling Hellblade 2 a “joyless slog of barely interactive entertainment and a muddled portrayal of mental illness that just so happens to have the best graphics ever on a video game console.”
Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2
WHERE TO PLAY
Following her trials and tribulations in her debut game, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 sees the titular protagonist again have to battle the darkness in order to liberate others from a tyrannical regime.
