Hellblade II was truly an excellent game imo, it doesn't quite match up to the effectiveness of the story and message of the first Hellblade, but this game tells its own new beautiful story that utilizes a different aspect of Norse mythology. The gameplay itself is relatively the same as the first game with combat and puzzles, but combat in this game definitely feels a touch more difficult (the window for parries are a lot more tighter), but it also feels just right for realism, which I know isn't everyone's cup of tea but it works for a game like this. One other little nitpick I have is the new lore collection that you need to find behind faces in the environment. I feel like this was a bit tedious because I had to carefully look for anything that resembled a face along the walls of the environment which is a bit of a problem considering you are in an entirely mountainous and rocky region where just about anything could look like a face or the faces could blend in (granted, I played with my brightness a little too low so maybe that might have impacted my ability to find the faces, so take this with a grain of salt, but it still felt tedious to look around and find them). However, one thing I really loved about this game was how it presented puzzles as it felt really creative and gorgeous to work through.

Regardless of that one little nitpick though and the different type of story from the first game, this was truly an amazing story and I really loved what it was trying to tell. If you played the first Hellblade you will definitely see that this game is different from the first, but I would recommend it nonetheless. Really hope Xbox doesn't close Ninja Theory for making something wonderful like they did with Tango Gameworks.