Triple-A games have been taking control away from us for a long time. They want to be cinematic, but that can’t always be accomplished if the player is free to do whatever they want at any given moment. A developer’s creative vision might limit control, wrestle camera angles away from the player, or allow actions to play out that advance the narrative which we ultimately have no influence over. This has resulted in some amazing games, but is it worth it?
Hellblade 2: Senua’s Sagais being praised for its graphical flair and technical wizardry, while also being lambasted for overly simplistic combat. Its gameplay blurs the line between player control and orchestrated cinematic moments to an extreme where you might as well be watching a film at points. It was never going to be a masterpiece of mechanical sophistication, but it feels like this sequel has taken a step back from the first game, which was already on the simple side.
When Did Video Games Start Trying To Be So Cinematic?
Gaming has always chased the prestige and presentation of film, because so many of those behind them view the medium as inferior. Not that it can tell stories and take us places films never could, but that we must do everything in our power to replicate them. For me, the first time I felt the tables turn was withGrand Theft Auto 3in 2001.
We’d seen cinematic games before, but Rockstar’s first fully three-dimensional open world was its own beast. It helped to cement not only the open world design blueprint for decades to come, it also told a story that felt pulled straight from a Hollywood blockbuster, something that Vice City, San Andreas, and pretty much every single Rockstar game since then has also tried to do.
Games likeHeavy RainandUnchartedwould follow in its footsteps, and while we’ve had open world game design shift under the weight of Rockstar ever since, it still remains the cream of the crop. Gameplay sequences that shift between player control and cutscene, and quick time events which turn otherwise extravagant battles into simple button sequences, all help to emphasise these cinematic qualities, but often at the cost of what it really means to be a video game. I want to be performing these actions myself and living out an epic power fantasy, not letting the hero I control suddenly gain sentience as they do it all on their own.
I feel hypocritical because some of my favourite games of the past two generations are very cinematic by design.The Last of Ushas you killing infected and bandits alike while interacting with the world you explore, but the most memorable parts of that game are the story and characters, not the things you do with them in real time.God of Waris yet another modern blockbuster where you kill monsters and solve puzzles, but it often wrestles control away to serve the narrative, even when you feel more immersed in making these decisions yourself.
Video games haven’t reached a place where that can feel natural, or players can’t make the whole ordeal feel hilariously dissonant by mucking about during the most serious moments.
But would this be better than turning some of the most expensive and labour-intensive titles in the medium into short, glorified films which don’t really push the right boundaries?
How Hellblade 2 Is Held Back By Its Cinematic Ambitions
There are moments during combat where Senua pulls off some spectacular feats, ripping the flesh of enemies from their bodies or using objects in the environment to perform devastating kills, but all of these animations are carried out in response to a pretty basic mixture of light or heavy attacks which never grows that complicated.
Puzzles seem to solve themselves at points since they’re that simple, while cutscenes will start and stop in such a seamless way that it’s never exactly clear when you have control.Coming in at six to ten hours, it feels like the gameplay side of things must be simple so as not to disrupt a sense of narrative pacing, but even so it still falls over itself consistently,not doing enough to explore the themes of mental illness that made the first game resonate with so many.
I don’t think anybody was expecting Hellblade 2 to be a 40 plus hour epic, and it no doubt would have suffered from beingtoolong, but even its limited runtime feels hamstrung by its lacking agency and desire to look, sound, and feel as good as possible despite feeling detrimental to its status as a video game.
We’re reaching a plateau with cinematic blockbusters like this that are propped up by a lack of player interaction, outdated design, and a focus on visual might over innovation attached to mechanics that actually help video games stand out from other art forms. Hellblade 2 is a massive achievement in plenty of ways, but is it a good video game? I’m not so sure, and its desire to be an unparalleled cinematic experience only serves to hold it back in the end.
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.
