Fortunately , a lot of the positives from the first game come back here. The psychosis is still unlike anything another game I've played has done, paired with incredible use of spatial audio once again. NinjaTheory's interpretation of this era of Vikings is stunning too with its art direction (though, noticeably much less varied than the first). This is pretty easily in the top three best looking console-games I've played falling ever slightly behind Alan Wake II (mostly due to UE5 feeling grating to me personally after staying in the same "biome" for extended bits). The cutscene direction is stellar which may be a negative to some but as someone who has come to watch a lot more movies these last few years some of the combat animations actually had made my jaw drop, seriously unlike anything I've seen before in a game. The combat though is kind of questionable, it seems somewhat stripped down from the first which already felt barebones, more scripted, less gamey.
Where it struggles for me though is the narrative and with that I guess the point of all of this? Senua's arc in the first one I find so moving and this one it feels... almost nonexistent? There is maybe one moment in this story where there is something tangible, but other than that there's no real through-line for this story. Beyond that though I just found this whole plot to be somewhat contrived we are giving next to nothing as to why the plot is in motion, I would've loved to see what happens leading up to the opening cutscene as I think that would have done a lot for both the character of Senua and add urgency to it.
This all leads me to having really conflicted feelings towards why this sequel even exists. Announced alongside Xbox Series brand consoles a game like this makes PERFECT sense to be a show-pony for what your new systems can do... but it has released a quarter away from the consoles fourth year on the market. I may had been more lenient if this was a trimmed down version ready to go at some point in 2021, that would make sense. Now, I am glad that if Xbox is doing anything right currently, it's giving their studios as much time as possible to work on their games, but the five years of anticipation they sought for this game... isn't really amounting to much. I'm also wondering if being a "show-pony" is why this was greenlit to begin with, because the story does not do really anything meaningful to Senua in my opinion. I'd almost prefer it just didn't exist at all, especially with some of the choices towards the end.
Where it struggles for me though is the narrative and with that I guess the point of all of this? Senua's arc in the first one I find so moving and this one it feels... almost nonexistent? There is maybe one moment in this story where there is something tangible, but other than that there's no real through-line for this story. Beyond that though I just found this whole plot to be somewhat contrived we are giving next to nothing as to why the plot is in motion, I would've loved to see what happens leading up to the opening cutscene as I think that would have done a lot for both the character of Senua and add urgency to it.
This all leads me to having really conflicted feelings towards why this sequel even exists. Announced alongside Xbox Series brand consoles a game like this makes PERFECT sense to be a show-pony for what your new systems can do... but it has released a quarter away from the consoles fourth year on the market. I may had been more lenient if this was a trimmed down version ready to go at some point in 2021, that would make sense. Now, I am glad that if Xbox is doing anything right currently, it's giving their studios as much time as possible to work on their games, but the five years of anticipation they sought for this game... isn't really amounting to much. I'm also wondering if being a "show-pony" is why this was greenlit to begin with, because the story does not do really anything meaningful to Senua in my opinion. I'd almost prefer it just didn't exist at all, especially with some of the choices towards the end.