Eh, this game is a bit of a mess. This game wants to be revolutionary; it's a 'narrative action' game with a live-action TV show between each act. It tries to combine a rich story with engaging gameplay but I'd say it fails on both sides.

The story is fine, it started out fairly interesting but I found it to become more generic and make less sense the further I got into the game. There's a lot of optional lore you can read as you explore in the form of emails but this didn't interest me. The unique aspect of the game is the live-action scenes, every in-game character is played by a real actor and each ~90 minutes or so you stop playing the game to watch them, it's essentially an extended cutscene. I'd say the quality of these was just okay. They felt like something you'd see on Syfy. The weird thing was that they covered elements of the story quite far from the main character that you play as. It's more like a spin-off TV series than something I felt was a key component of the game. I think I could have totally skipped it and my experience of the game would still play out pretty much the same.

Strangely, before each of the live-action sections, you have the choice to alter the story somewhat by making a decision from the perspective of the antagonist. Your decision impacts which cutscene you watch and changes the gameplay a bit from what I'm aware. I didn't really understand the point of this or why we would make decisions on their behalf, I didn't feel much impact on the gameplay either. Maybe for repeat playthroughs you would see a benefit here but I'd say it's nothing like The Walking Dead games or As Dusk Falls.

As for the gameplay, a lot of it is your run-of-the-mill walking sim type gameplay, wandering around, interacting with stuff and watching cutscenes. This is fine. What I didn't like was the combat, which sadly there is a lot of. It's entirely shooting sections with special powers that are clunky and awkward to use. The shooting requires aim-down-sight which drastically reduces your sensitivity to the point where it was effectively unplayable for me. For some reason you can't modify this so I chose to play with auto-aim on which felt awful. The abilities you get never felt great to me so the combat was never something I looked forward to, it's just not fun and the poor checkpoint system didn't help. For some reason you can't change the difficulty after you've started playing so that's a nice fuck you from the developers. The awful combat sections were my main problem with this game.

Sadly, there were also technical issues with this game. The live-action sections didn't work in-game so I had to watch them on youtube. There were also graphical bugs that varied from minimal to making the game effectively unplayable, most of the time these were fixed with a game restart but would always creep back over time. The visual style of the game is quite novel so sometimes it was hard to tell if the game was being buggy or just trying to look interesting.

You might think: why did you even play this game to the end if it was so horrible? That's a good question, overall a lot of elements were good enough that I was happy enough to play more, the game is short with a great reputation and my experience wasn't bad most of the time. The gameplay was fine outside of the combat, the story was alright and the visuals were very cool when they weren't bugging out. It was only really during the final play session that I realised how flawed the experience was.

Bramble is a very pretty, very linear... action/adventure? 3D cinematic platformer? in the Little Nightmares vein, with a beautifully realized Scandinavian folk horror setting. While the strengths of Bramble's art direction, atmosphere, and varied level design were enough to keep me playing through most of its duration (less so its story, which doesn't ultimately add up to much), it unfortunately commits a lot of game design sins that lead to unnecessary frustration: readability is often lacking, making it difficult to distinguish scenery from traversable paths; fixed camera angles lead to unnecessary difficulty gauging the distance of jumps; stealth sequences are tedious; the handful of boss battles generally go on for too long and make for frustrating difficulty spikes, even with mid-battle checkpoints, given that one hit always means death (I ultimately gave up at the last boss and watched a playthrough of the rest of the game on YouTube instead); and there's just too much reliance on trial and error in general, which is exacerbated by the previous points in this list. I'd still give it a qualified recommendation for fans of cinematic platformers or very linear horror action/adventure games, but definitely play it on Game Pass or wait for a sale.

Hellblade II was...an extremely unique experience, to say the least. I'm still trying to decide what it is. Interactive art? An immersive, cinematic ride? I ask these questions because I wouldn't necessarily pin it as a "video game". The gameplay itself is by far the worst part of this title, but it is nontheless interesting, and in my opinion, worth the experience (especially given its length).

Short notes:
Presentation/performances: Stunning, 10/10. Melina's performance as Senua is incredible and almost worth the ride alone. I also kept continually entering photo mode during cutscenes just to check and make sure the game was still rendered and not a switch to FMV.

Gameplay: Lacking, uninteresting. A walking simulator with mediocre, albeit raw, meaty combat and puzzles that might as well just not have existed.

Story: Interesting, but somewhat of a retread from its predecessor. There is a big new fun twist to the major plot points, but overall I think I liked the more focused plot of Senua's Sacrifice more.

I suppose I would recommend the game if it piques your interest, but it's best to know the kind of experience you're walking into so you can keep an open mind about it.

Wow this was extremely disappointing.

The game is absolutely beautiful, probably the best game as far as graphics and fidelity go. I was in awe and literally had my jaw drop upon starting this game. Many scenes breech upon photorealism.

Melina Juergens is fantastic and her performance was amazing. She is a great actress and I would love to see her in more projects.

But man, this game is a massive step down in almost every other way.

Upon a recent replay, i found myself loving how simple yet brutal and realistic the combat was, and pretty much the same for the puzzles. I enjoyed them alot and was looking forward to seeing them just ever so slightly refined in this next entry. The combat LOST a few mechanics from the previous game. I could not believe that. It was so satisfying to bash a shield with a kick and then slice the shield warriors. To charge into battle and leap with an overhead slash. This game removes one of those and locks the other behind the over reliant focus mode. The puzzles were so much MORE simple, and more scarce it felt as well.

Most of this game was just moving forward, squeezing through crevices, and vaulting over ledges. While it was nice to enjoy the amazing scenery, I really wanted more depth, and found myself very disengaged throughout most of the game.

There were a few highs in the story and I really wish the game was firing on this cylinders more frequently due to how short this experience was. The overall narrative really was a massive step down from the first game, and I really did not enjoy what the message seemed to be at the end.

I hope ninja theory can stay afloat amid the disastrous XBOX ecosystem, and I hope this was just a tech demo for the next entry in the series. I hope they come back swinging with a game that looks this good and has a much more refined and engaging narrative experience next go around. I have hope.

- 5.5 hours played

As you can tell by the score, Hellblade 2 wasn’t a game for me. Which is sad seeing as I loved the first game. I’m a fan of walking sims and games where not much actual gameplay is required. Games like Until Dawn, Firewatch, Everybody’s gone to the Rapture and the Telltale games. If gameplay is lacking you have to offer something else to hook me. This game sadly didn’t do that.

For some the hook is the visuals. This game does look amazing and it’s one of the very few games I have played this gen that I can truly say belongs on this newer generation graphically. The motion capture performances are fantastic and the environments look stunning. But that’s not enough. Because the game whilst stunning, is mainly stunning caves and rocky hillsides. It doesn’t matter how beautiful that mountain off in the distance is if I’m stuck following a very linear path and can’t get anywhere near it. The environments offer no level of interactivity. Senua can’t pick up and investigate items. She’s doesn’t talk about details in the environment. She can only mantle ledges, open doors and pick up balls for the puzzles. She doesn’t feel like she exists in these places so you just breeze through them on a track. Holding LB and up on the left analogue. It’s a very pretty rollercoaster ride with very few rises in the track. There are two cool set piece moments but these end up offering the same gameplay of sprint behind cover and time your next sprint. All that’s different are the visuals and the fact you have to hold onto the cover in the second sequence. Also the world of Hellblade is brutal and oppressive. I’m actually glad it was only 5 hours long because it’s a depression fest. There were some seriously grim scenes in this game of violence, decapitation and murder. It’s also audibly horrific. The music, the way the enemies shout and the guttural noises being made all mix with the visuals to create a fever dream of horrific images. But it’s all looks because in its gameplay it’s severely lacking.

It’s a walking sim and a very cinematic one at that. Gameplay involves walking forwards. Sometimes running when the game allows. Some basic flashy combat and rudimentary puzzle solving. There’s been a 7 year gap between this game and the original and nothing has improved other than visuals and animations. Combat feels worse. It’s looks amazing. The enemy transitions between each fight are very fluid and cinematic. But it’s extremely basic. You have a light and heavy attack. A block/parry and a dodge. And you also have a focus meter that slows time. Every fight in the game is a simple 1v1 no matter the story situation. The animations between each 1v1 fail to make the encounter feel grander. And every enemy you fight is either a man or a humanoid creature. There’s nothing like the big hell dog monster from the first game. Fights are here to offer variety but lack that element themselves. Therefore they just get mixed in as another boring element of a boring game. The puzzles are no better, they are another tedious element of variety that actually do more damage than they do help. I was bored of the walking and talking but I preferred that to solving the same visual puzzles from the first game. And the new find the ball and place it on the pedestal puzzle this game offers is no better. Neither the combat or the puzzles had me scratching my head in confusion or frustration which would have helped me feel something at least. It’s a very linear game where nothing stopped me moving forwards at all. In the end it all became a rather rote experience.

Now the story. The one element that usually carries a walking sim. This also failed for me. Senua is in a better place this time around but still suffers her psychosis. She’s still hearing the voices. She’s on a quest to avenge her people after the north men murder some and took the rest as slaves. The mental health issues are no longer a major part of the story and therefore this game lacks what made the first special. Here they are just voices and become one of the many ingredients instead of the games special sauce. We meet other characters along the way and they seem to take a lot of the limelight but at 5 hours this game doesn’t have enough time to flesh them out. Also one character is “redeemed” by the end and I just couldn’t buy into it. Because the things that character has done have been horrific and 5 hours is not enough time to forgive that. Sure Senua spent longer in game than the 5 hours I spent but it’s not conveyed very well how much time has passed and by the end I couldn’t believe in the redemption. Also the first game had Senua as the sole character. What made that interesting is that anything that happened in the game could be taken as either literal, or her mental battle against her demons and psychosis. Now in this game with 3 villages worth of people all experiencing the same things as her makes you believe they are happening. But a twist at the end may mean it’s maybe all not as it seemed. And once you start pulling on that chord, the whole middle of the game unravels and starts to make no sense what so ever. Also unbelievably for such a short game, the ending is super abrupt.

The credits rolled on this after 5 and a half hours and I was glad. I think this is a game for a very niche audience. It was not for me at all and to be honest it barely felt like a game. I only paid £8 for gamepass to play this, I can’t believe they are charging full price for this physical. I’ve also seen some people state that this game is reveloutionary in the graphical department but I disagree. It is beautiful but as an overall package it’s severely lacking, therefore I don’t think it will be remembered or talked about enough to change anything.

A waste.

I didn't finish the original Hellblade. I remember spending about an hour wandering through a forest where traveling through a gate would change the surrounding terrain, and it just kept going and going and going far longer than it had any right to. It was a ridiculously badly-paced section that was placed early in what was set to be a padded game, so I stopped. In the wake of the news of Xbox shutting down some of my favorite modern studios, I was surprised to see that they'd picked up Ninja Theory back in 2018; I hadn't noticed, given how many companies Microsoft has been keen on acquiring in the past few years. To be perfectly transparent, I was going into this sour. It was with my arms folded and my face screwed up that I downloaded Hellblade II — a sort-of defiant "well, let's see what Xbox thinks is worth keeping alive if not Arkane and Tango". What I had managed to play of the original game was, at the very least, interesting. I figured Ninja Theory would be able to tread water and release something that was about on par with the last title.

It's worse.

I wrote in my Breath of the Wild review that people who thought that game was doing anything seriously impressive or novel probably haven't played many games. It wasn't an especially polite thing to say, and it ruffled some feathers, but I stand by it. I'd like to take this opportunity to go further and suggest that anyone praising Hellblade II for being like a movie probably doesn't watch many movies; if they do, they don't have any actual understanding of the medium beyond blind, uncritical consumption. I've seen praise get heaped on this for its cinematography when it's comprised almost exclusively of over-the-shoulder shots, the most bog-standard drone flyovers you've ever seen in your life, and simulated shaky-cam group shots where everyone stands stark still in a circle while having a conversation about nothing of importance. This is shot, cinematographically speaking, like shit. Watching this feels like someone gave a film student an eight-figure budget. Take a shot every time you're in one of the over-long combat encounters and Senua gets grabbed from behind to transition into the next battle.

While I was settling in expecting a visual feast, this is more of a visual buffet. Maybe a visual McDonald's. It looks good, to be certain, but it's really not that impressive. The mandatory upscaling present here forces some compromise to be made where it really ought not to be; DLSS is hailed as being the best option of the lot, but it still leaves shimmering artifacts on the edges of models where it can't quite get the anti aliasing right. Switch over to FSR and you can mostly get rid of the edge-shimmer, but it similarly demands that you manually set the sharpness a bit too high and fuck up the graphics everywhere else. I can say without hesitation that I've seen a lot of games that look significantly better than Hellblade II. For probably the same amount of money and about six months earlier, Alan Wake 2 does everything that this wants to and more convincingly. Go back a few years to Detroit: Become Human or Death Stranding and it's plain to see that those are far more impressive works from an entire console generation prior. I wouldn't normally give a fraction of a fraction of a fuck about graphical fidelity, but seeing all of the praise for how good this game looks makes me wonder if our eyes are working the same way.

I appreciate Crystar for pointing this out in her review, but Hellblade II has a very funny concluding monologue. Ending the game on the statement "all the questions were answered" implies that any answers were given, and further suggests that any questions were asked. There's not all that much that's ambiguous here, and the parts that are don't manage to raise any interesting questions. I had a feeling that the giants didn't actually exist, which Senua seemingly confirms at the end when she screams it at the final boss. "There are no giants, it's just you", she says. Unfortunately, the giants not being real means that most of the game didn't actually happen. All of the characters who were talking about giants weren't. All of the characters who died fighting the giants didn't. Everyone who thought they saw Senua kill a giant didn't. The natural disasters that the giants caused were just random and unrelated; whether they ended after Senua "killed the giants" is either another coincidence, or they didn't actually end at all. Cut all of this away, and there's really not much story left. Senua and her friends (who may not exist) trek across the land (which might be ravaged by natural disasters) while fighting the undead (who may not exist) so that Senua can get a blessing (that definitely doesn't exist) from a group of underground mystics (who definitely don't exist) until they get to the slaver king's doorstep and beat him in a fight. This reads like one of those early-10s fan theories about Rugrats being Angelica's dying dream. I know I like to exaggerate for comedy's sake when writing reviews like this, but this is a stone-faced recap of what happens. There are no jokes here.

The command to not pay too much attention to the writing comes a little too late into the game, long after you've already sat through dozens of ridiculously trite scenes. The bar for the writing sits around the point where Senua cries while looking at her bloody hands, and the voices in her head say "you have blood on your hands", just to make sure that you understand. The voices aren't much more than exposition fairies. They exist to recap story events that just happened with breathless awe, never giving you a chance to think about anything being said. A character will mention something that Senua hasn't heard of — giants that control the weather, let's say — and the voices immediately pivot to acting like confused toddlers. "Giants? What are giants? Can we kill a giant? Are giants real? They can't be real. There's no such thing as giants. We don't know what's real. Giants might be real. What does he know about giants? Why is he telling us about giants? I wonder how much he knows about giants. Does anyone know what giants are? What if he's lying? Can we ask someone else about giants?" It continues at this pace for about five hours until the game ends. The voices chattering on and on is one thing, and I could at least understand it as something the devs were doing to intentionally provoke the player, but this constant motor-mouthing falls apart when you enter into combat. The voices somehow don't have enough lines to cover these incredibly strict and linear fights, so they're constantly repeating themselves. I heard the line "their bodies strong like rocks, you have to hit harder!" four times in a single encounter, and at least ten in total before the game ended. I was half expecting them to start asking if I had any potions, or food. Add this to the canon of game characters who manage to annoy the player by spamming voice lines like they're running HLDJ.

Pacing is, regrettably, another factor that Ninja Theory has regressed on. A vast, vast majority of this game is spent holding the left bumper and up on the left stick. You walk forward, and you walk forward, and you walk forward, and Senua's never really in much of a hurry to get anywhere. You'll have a good twenty minutes where you're doing quite literally nothing besides walking in a straight line while the voices ask questions about shit that you already know. They'll also celebrate you figuring out the solutions to the ridiculously simple puzzles in the most simpering way imaginable. I do not need to be told that Senua is a very, very smart girl who can do no wrong when the game told me where the symbol was, and then automatically solved the puzzle for me when I held the focus button vaguely in its direction. These over-long sections where you walk around and do nothing are occasionally interrupted by over-long combat encounters where you tap dodge and spam light attacks, and that's where the fun really begins.

Most of these fights are fucking silly; the part where Senua interrupts the ritual is easily five minutes, as is the cave fight, as is the undead raid on the village. This is only as much of a problem as it is because Senua can only ever fight one enemy at a time, which makes them drag. There are about nine distinct enemy types that exist in the entire game, and they all take turns to lazily swing at Senua and slowly get chipped down. A lot of games that do mob fights will have some enemies hang back while others slowly come at you, but this doesn't even attempt to give you the illusion. Senua never has to fight more than one enemy at a time, regardless of how surrounded she is. What really gets me is the fact that this wasn't a problem in the original Hellblade. Enemies would come at you in twos and threes, and that was even in the earliest fights of the game. This is a total regression of a system that was already pretty thin, and the fact that Ninja Theory have cut out a majority of Senua's attacks to streamline the combat even further than it was boggles the mind.

There are glimmers of something good in here. I really do like the part in the cave where Senua starts to get the blessing from the hidden men, and the entire place lights up like a LIDAR scan. It's got some genuinely good pacing, too; you've got puzzle sections that lead into little combat encounters, and then those lead into walking sections, and that leads into a stealth section, and then it leads into another puzzle. It's the only place in the entire game where any of these systems feel like they're working together in harmony, rather than existing solely to interrupt one of the others for going on too long. It's a shame that Senua has to exist outside of that cave. I thought it was a good place for her to be. It was interesting, at least.

Anyway, I'm not sure I buy Ninja Theory's Games for Impact-bait shift in the past few years. I see their logo and I think back to how they would write Monkey killing escaping slaves because it was badass, or that GDC talk they did for DmC: Devil May Cry where they dedicated a section to making fun of Dante for being gay. The company, to my knowledge, has never really had a reckoning for any of that. Tameem Antoniades seems to have slipped out the back door just in time for this to release, but he's still got the sole creative director credit. I'm willing to believe that Senua's actress Melina Juergens actually believes in what she's doing — she's said in interviews that her father had a psychotic disorder, and she seems to have the most solid understanding of the crew when it comes to how the narrative ought to handle Senua's mental illness — but I'm not extending that faith much further than her. There's something about the documentaries that Ninja Theory self-publishes where they go over how very, very carefully they handled psychosis (we promise!) that doesn't pass the sniff test. I don't think it's bad that this exists, and I won't erase the people who have said that these games have been genuinely good reflections of their own mental illnesses; I just have some strong doubts that Ninja Theory is doing this out of the goodness of their hearts. One look at their back catalog suggests to me that they only wanted to make a Serious Mental Health Story because their old shit stopped selling and they could tell which way the wind started blowing. With the constant distractions of giant-slaying, risen undead warriors, and the sins of the fathers subplot, the current big game on the market "about psychosis" barely has time for the psychosis.

The conclusion that I'm forced towards, reductive as it is, is that people who love Hellblade II don't play anything else. They don't really watch anything else, either. I don't know what they do. It's not worth just harping on the fans, though; I don't think many people dislike this game for the right reasons, either. Complaining about a game not offering a good enough playtime-to-dollar ratio is peabrain shit. People also cry about Senua being Sweet Baby-core because she's got peach fuzz and bug eyes, all acting as though she isn't the the textbook definition of conventionally attractive. And the game isn't bad because it's story-focused — the game is bad because it's fucking boring. You engage with it in a boring way, and it tells a boring story. This isn't an inherently broken game. The concept is fine. It's the execution where Ninja Theory makes it clear that they've got no fucking clue what they're doing.

Great photo mode, though.

Up front, I want to admit I'm biased towards the cinematic action-adventure genre. The PlayStation-exclusive type of game design is not my thing, and I find it to be lacking as a a genre when it comes to producing an actual video game, which is what we're here for. However, some of them do hit for me, and I get some enjoyment out of them. Hellblade 1 was one of those. I thought it was good and I liked it.

I do not like Hellblade II.

I already knew something was up when reviews were left until release day, and how reluctant Microsoft seemed to be to market the game. I saw that Hellblade II reviewed "good" at a Metascore of an 81 or so, but it was a significantly lower mark than the first game.

After playing it, I'm not too surprised. Hellblade II gives you a garbage first impression by essentially being a walking simulator for the first 20 minutes, after which Senua picks up a sword and you're given a rude awakening by being introduced to the plodding, dull, and mind-numbing combat.

This is why I don't like "cinematic" games like this, because the combat and gameplay always feels stiff. There's so much effort put into cinematography, sure, but when every combat encounter results in the same 10 or so canned animations, with little to no variation whatsoever, it becomes a snoozefest. I can't count how many times I've seen Senua get knocked on the ground after parrying a strike with the same animation each time, or using one of the same selection of execution animations. And you'll see these often too! Especially since the combat amounts to building a charge for what is essentially a one-shot, which means that combat encounters can be breezed through fairly quickly so long as you charge up that execution move. By the way, the final boss uses the same canned combat animations you've seen for the whole game.

One thing you'll notice right away while playing Hellblade II is how stunningly beautiful it is. It is one of the best-looking games you'll ever see on a console thanks to the power of UE5. I can't take anything away from that - but Hellblade II's confusing, hollow, and bland experience is not helped at all by the graphic fidelity.

It is worth mentioning that Hellblade II only runs at 30fps. Which is fine, because you're likely going to be playing this off of Game Pass. My personal belief is that if a game is $70, there should be a performance mode. If the game is on Game Pass, however, I'm only paying $15 at max, so that's no big deal. For me.

Another minor technical issue: Hellblade does not work properly with Xbox Game Streaming. The Focus button, which you need to progress the game's numerous puzzles, does not work while streaming. I was able to work around this by turning the stream off and on. Later I reached a section where you MUST sprint to survive the level's design, and Senua just wouldn't sprint because the LB button didn't work properly while streaming. Since I like streaming my Xbox audio to my PC, I had to plug in an Elgato to proceed with the level. This is only going to be a problem for maybe 1% of people who play Hellblade, so I won't give it flak for this... but this is an XBOX game. Shouldn't XBOX Game Streaming work for it at launch?

What makes Hellblade II mediocre beyond the combat? Unfortunately, it's the story.

I beat Hellblade II in only 7 hours. Originally I thought it was 5, because it didn't feel like 7, but then again my console was on pause for what added up to an hour... so let's say 6 for good measure. Those reviewers and tweets you see weren't joking about its length. It is a very short game. Nowadays playing a AAA game that is so short is an anomaly, sure, but this game was in development for FIVE years, wasn't it? How did 5 years of development result in a 5 hour game?

Hellblade 1 had a story built around Senua's psychosis, and I think that's what made it excel, and it's why I liked that game despite my aversion to the genre.

Hellblade 2's story does not feel like it is built around Senua's story. After meeting some NPCs on her journey, Senua instead ends up hunting down giants that are ruining the land after spelunking in a cave to be proven worthy. There you go, that's the plot. I don't know how Senua's psychosis is relevant to that, because I don't think it is. The point is that Hellblade 2's story is extremely generic compared to Hellblade 1, and is a concern I had almost immediately within the first hour of playing.

Hellblade 1 really shined by being a solo experience built around Senua. Hellblade 2 features multiple companions and NPCs, which doesn't really lend itself well to using Senua's psychosis in the plot. Senua's psychosis no longer feels like a relevant portion of the game's themes and story, and instead is reduced to a background element of a dull story - a story that is somehow confusing and boring at the same time. Why? Because when the story is said and done, it's not even really clear on what happened for the most part or what it even means. While Hellblade 1 had a similar feeling, you at least got the idea and thought-provoking thematics they were trying to express.

Hellblade 2's ending presents itself as if the creators believed they had just made something profound, but instead you're just left scratching your head. What's funny about this is that the first line you hear in the ending cutscene is "All the questions answered." NO, THEY WERE NOT.

I don't know what Senua's plot or story arc is supposed to be here. Does she even have a character arc in this game? I don't think she does! The game tries to toy with this idea of Senua feeling guilty for people dying... when we just spent a whole game where Senua was all alone? Senua feels like the deaths of others are her fault, and the voices in her head try to remind her of that. (Which they do a good job of. The psychosis portrayal when it comes to Senua herself is still very well-done) It just comes across as forced and doesn't really suit the kind of character arc that Hellblade 1 concluded with. Senua's story felt finite and this attempt feels aimless, a vainful venture to continue a character arc that was already concluded.

Here's an example. At the end of The Witcher 3, Geralt's story is pretty much done. This is why many speculate that The Witcher 4 will feature Ciri or a custom protagonist. Because what else is there to tell? Geralt did everything he can possibly do and his arc is at a satisfying end, so any further attempts to tell stories for Geralt will feel forced. Same thing here. Senua's story felt done already, so her arc in Hellblade II is most comparable to a D&D DM who is struggling to continue a campaign after his players hit the end of the planned Adventure.

I'm at a loss of what else to say since the experience is so short of an acid trip that I'm grasping at straws here. It's not even good acid!

I guess I can mention that it's voice-acted pretty well. I'm surprised Senua's VA hasn't gotten more roles.

All in all, Senua's confusing mess of a plot and lack of steady direction only reinforces my own personal belief that Hellblade didn't need a sequel at all.

Score: 66

Senua's Slugfest: Hellbruh II

Man, this was such a let down for me that it's almost hard to put into words. Senua's Sacrifice back in 2017 was one of the neater gaming experiences I've had in recent years, a fantastic dive into the Celtic mythos coupled with a passionate tale of the general scorn and abandonment that those who suffer from mental illness have suffered for a heartbreaking amount of time. Even though it was largely basic in terms of gameplay, I felt like there was enough agency in movement and originality in the story to keep me going. Overall I gave it a four out of five stars, because the scant gameplay couldn't bog down what the message of the game set out to offer.

Senua's Saga however took the concept of the first game and somehow turned it into a numbing tech demo with a runtime almost insulting for the price its offered at. I played this on Game Pass, but saw it was lifted as $50 on retail websites, and even then it's not worth it. It feels like 75% of the gameplay loop of Hellblade II is walking through fantastically designed, yet unfortunately monotonous environments, at snail speed as voices speak into your character's ears. Trot, trot, trot you do with very little in the way of worldbuilding or interesting conversation with your party members. A story is there but its told in such a jolted and lazy fashion that I couldn't be bothered to piece things together. The other quarter of the game is boiled down to brainless puzzles that revolve around pushing the trigger buttons to open up pathways, and then combat that is so incredibly one note and boring that you could very realistically fall asleep while playing. Dodge, attack, dodge attack... ooh an npc runs into the enemy you're fighting and stabs them, but is killed by a NEW enemy... no way? Rinse and repeat that a million times until completion. Everything is boiled down to the same recycled one on one fight, sometimes the enemy has a different appearance, but every single one plays the exact same. I like to believe this was better in the 2017 title but man, I don't have the heart to know.

Hellblade II is a lazy glorified tech demo. It's beautiful and the cutscenes are something special, but you are missing absolutely nothing by skipping this game. For a game that was paraded as a flagship title for Xbox in the current generation, Senua's Saga is quite telling of Microsoft's gaming offering. Starfield, Senua's Saga, Halo Infinite... all have been so impressively garbage that they're being lapped by everyone else when it comes to putting out compelling video games. I'm not sad, I'm just incredibly disappointed. If you want good games in the creepy linear walking sim genre, just play the Plague Tale titles, at least those have something going for them.

Usually, when i play a game for the first hour-hour and 30 minutes, i get a general consensus as to what my experience with the game will be for the rest of the playthrough.

For a game like this, i'd like to use the example of God Of War 2018.
It started off slow, walking for a while, lots of cinematic presentation going on for roughly 10 minutes.
Then the central gameplay started and it was fun and intense, continuing to the first sets of enemies and the first tutorial boss.

Then it transitioned into walking for abit, a cutscene, and after about 10 minutes i i was starting to think "perhaps this game will just be cutscenes and small gameplay segments unrelated to each other" until the real first boss appeared, testing everything i learned up until that point and pushing away that mindset i had beforehand.

An hour in and i have gotten a consensus that this game will be just as entertaining if not more for the rest of the playthrough after this.

The reason im describing my experience with GOW 2018 is to relate it to my experience with Hellblade 2.

See, while GOW's first hour had intense fights, emotional cutscenes and an incredible boss fight to cap it off, Hellblade 2 tries to do that, but fails in so many ways.

First the walking aspect i mentioned beforehand, while abit of a nuisance in GOW, is showcased to its fullest effect in Hellblade 2 to an absolutely embarrassing amount.
The first 35 minutes were watching a cinematic, walking, watching cutscene, walking, hearing voices and walking.
It's as if the developers misunderstood why the walking in GOW worked, because it was offset by gameplay that interacted with the player, which brings me to my next point.

The gameplay itself is the most bare bones, safe, and easy "gameplay" system i've ever interacted with, to the point i can safely say the game plays itself.
You fight a single enemy at a time, the enemies themselves swing their swords which apparently weigh 30kg so slowly that i could quite literally walk BACKWARDS and the enemy could not hit me.
When you hit the enemy, and i was playing on the hardest difficulty mind you, 3 FULL TIMES you win, it doesnt matter which enemy you do it on unless there's a fucking bear i could've fought later on.

Thats not all by the way, you also have a parry, the window of that parry is so enormously large that i ACCIDENTALLY did it while figuring out the controls. Doesn't help that parrying allows you to hit the enemy 3 times again to end the fight before it even had a chance to start.

After all that, after all that walking and voice talking and boring bland cutscenes held up only by incredible performances, i atleast expected the first boss fight to give me some kind of challenge.

You can't imagine my disappointment when i realized "oh they really didn't try".
Parry, hit 3 times, cutscene, parry/dodge the slowest attack known to man, hit 3 times, cutscene, ending with parry, hit 3 times, cutscene, win.

This and Starfield are the biggest disappointments of the year for me, 2 games that i expected so much more from brought down to simplistic games lacking any kind of imagination, with bare bones gameplay and design lacking more depth than a fucking playstation 1 game.

I feel sorry for Ninja Theory, because i've been playing Heavenly Sword recently and while it has some problems, it showed me that Ninja Theory can somehow make a good game with decent gameplay,
and i'm sad that this game might be the reason for Microsoft shutting them down in the near future, like how they shut down Arkane and Tango Gameworks.

And even with that impending closure to another studio held by a greedy and uncaring company, i cannot recommend nor will i ever plan to replay Hellblade 2.

Hellblade 2 is launch game for the Xbox Series released 3 and a half years too late. It has the spirit of 2013's Ryse Son of Rome; a technological marvel brought down by a short for the asking price, 5 hour runtime, bad pacing and mediocre gameplay.

The shine of its amazing graphics wears off when you realize most of the time you are pressing up on the control stick and going through a corridor. Fortunately the brain dead puzzles and repetitive combat bring some sort of variety.

You might think the story would save this expensive to develop, gorgeous mess but that hope is squandered by the overtly annoying voices yapping nonstop, the predictable finale with a mustache twirling villain and a bipolar story pace that goes slow as molasses at the start and rushes through its final act. At least Senua's stellar performance makes up for the rest of the milquetoast cast and the graphics impress showing what the Unreal Engine 5 can do over its predecessor.

The creators should stick to developing live action as its obvious fun and game mechanics are not a priority. The long development cycle just gave us Hellblade 1 with a worse story and a gorgeous coat of paint. It will not age well.

After a 7 year wait, the sequel to Ninja Theory's cinematic dark fantasy look at psychosis has finally arrived. Xbox has positioned this game as a very high-profile exclusive, as they've proudly showcased it with much fanfare at both their own events as well as at The Game Awards. Unfortunately, Senua's second outing came up a little short for me thanks to its lack of compelling gameplay and inconsistent narrative.

Becoming a big budget Xbox title is an interesting trajectory for this franchise, since the first game was an effort to make a Triple A-esque cinematic experience outside of the studio system. Ninja Theory was tired of trying to meet publisher demands and were just going to do their own thing or die trying. As a result, they got scooped up by Microsoft and Hellblade II is coming at us from a very different angle than last time.

Senua's Saga first and foremost feels like a technical showpiece, with groundbreaking motion and facial capture that really is impressive and photorealistic. The faces looked so good at times that I was caught wondering if the game had switched to live action (a trick Ninja Theory has pulled in the past), but nope, all of this is in-engine. The work that has gone into the performances, as well as the Icelandic landscapes where the game is set can be at times stunning to hold. Of course, the audio design is still fantastic as well and plays as important a role as ever in the story.

Where the first game had Senua coming to grips with her psychosis while also learning to move on from her deceased lover, Hellblade II finds her in an arguably steadier place mentally as she has learned to live with the voices in her head. Hellblade I felt basically felt like a panic attack at all times, but here Senua feels more capable and confident. Resultingly, this game is more focused on Senua meeting some companions and slowly learning to become a leader, while also fearing that she is becoming a ruthless and violent killer. I enjoyed seeing her interact with some new friends and foes through the journey, which makes it all feel less isolated than the first game and a bit more ambitious in scope. That being said, Hellblade II's storyline feels sort of directionless for a good chunk and when it finally starts to coalesce, the game is nearly over.

Gameplay-wise, Hellblade II feels like a step in the wrong direction from its predecessor. You'll still see some of the perspective navigation puzzles as well as the rune matching parts from the previous game, but these are all made easier from the already pretty simple brain teasers you'd find in Hellblade I. I've found the rune puzzles to be tedious in both games but this one will basically just snap you to the solution as long as you're kind of looking in the general area of the right spot. I just think of something like the Plague Tale games where the environmental context of the puzzles are always so compelling and unique- whereas in Hellblade it feels like a forced layer of interactivity so the whole game isn't just a walking sim.

Speaking of which, this game does get closer to walking sim vibes than the first with lengthy sequences where you aren't doing anything other than holding forward or climbing up or down small ledges. There's some walk-and-talk with the companion characters at times but it makes the whole game feel a bit dull at times. It doesn't help that the environments, while pretty, blend together after a while and feel narrow in scope. The visual fidelity of course comes with plenty of tight caves, perfect for the typical wall squeeze animations to hide load times.

Like the perspective puzzles, Hellblade II also simplifies the combat from the first game. You still have your light and heavy attack, parry, and focus meter/special attack, but the rhythm of combat feels a lot different this time. Instead of facing some three, four, or five guys at once, in this game you'll only be going up against one enemy at a time. This choice is definitely to focus in on the excellent motion capture and fight choreography, but the challenge of keeping track of where all of your enemies are to make sure you're not getting jumped from behind has been removed. I read that the main inspiration for the combat was the Jon Snow tracking sequence in the Battle of the Bastards fight in Game of Thrones. There are some really cool moments in this game where you're cinematically clashing with various foes with your companions, though the game craftily makes sure you only need to focus on one guy at once in the context of the fight.

Outside of a few deaths to the annoying fire-throwing enemy type, the combat in this game is extremely easy. The parry window seems shortened or less consistent than in the previous game, but I still had no trouble blocking and dodging throughout. Any boss encounters are against normal human-sized foes, don't expect to go up any great beasts like in the previous game. Overall the combat can be entertaining in moments, but there isn't a lot of variety to it and the game would benefit a lot from adding some more depth here.

Hellblade II feels like the sort of tech demo-ish title that would come out right at a console launch, which is odd for a follow-up for a game about mental health. The game took me less than 7 hours to get through as well, so at a $50 asking price, I can't imagine many people who aren't already GamePass subscribers jumping into this one. This is an odd title to position as a can't-miss Xbox showpiece, and feels like a somewhat emptier and less inspired follow-up to the cult hit of the first game.

Kona is not a good game. I wouldn't say it's a bad game either because I really liked the setting and the survival elements. But it's very close to bad in my opinion. If the mystery was better and the ending was good, it could have been a great game. In it's current state though, I can't recommend it to anyone.

The Full Review(No Spoilers):

A Boring and Uninteresting Adventure
Kona is a walking simulator/survival game set in Northern Quebec. I was expecting to play something good, maybe great with a deep story and surprising twists. Unfortunately, that's not what I found.

In Kona, we play as private detective Carl Faubert in 1970. After getting a new job, he drives to Northern Quebec but finds himself in a huge snowstorm. After fixing his car and arriving at the town he was supposed to go, he finds the person who gave the job to him dead. And decides to investigate the town where it seems that no one else is alive.

Opening of the story is really interesting but unfortunately the story goes to some unexpected places that I did not like. Things won't go the way you think, that's all I'm saying. And this game does the terrible thing in all walking simulators; it shows it's characters as flashing lights.

Which leads you to forget their stories. You really should take notes while playing. There is an in game journal as well that your detective takes notes in and characters are featured in there but it wasn't enough for me.

One final thing about the story and characters, ending was very disappointing as well. Both story wise and even gameplay wise. Like wow. I really did not like that ending.

Speaking of gameplay, let's talk about that. In Kona, you will mostly walk, solve some light puzzles and investigate areas. But interestingly, there are also survival elements. Let's leave them for now on focus on the other things. Kona is an open world. Actually, it's more like an open area.

We have a map and we can see all the houses in the town. They are marked. We also see sheds and towers and the general store and a few other important things. Our job is to visit each of the important locations and witness 4 special memories.

I already talked about the memories a bit. You watch something that happened before you arrived and you see the characters as bright lights. Other than those 4 memories, every piece of story you get will be through environmental storytelling, photos or notes.

Most of the puzzles in the game are about exploring the environment and finding stuff to fix some stuff. They are not hard though don't worry. And if you follow the main story path only, you won't see much puzzles at all.

I have to say, I didn't like the exploration very much. I mean, it's kind of boring. But that's also caused by me not liking the story much. If you get immersed in the story, I am sure you will explore the town much more curiously.

However, very interestingly, I liked the survival elements. Because there is a snow storm, our character has a temperature meter. There are campfires across the map and there are usually fireplaces in every named location.

You need to find wood and I think a lighter to start the fire. Fireplaces and campfires are also your save points. You can only save the game at those points and there are wolves in the area so you need to be careful.

Other thing I liked about the survival elements is the psychology meter. Yes, you have a meter for that as well. Smoking cigarettes or drinking alcohol raises it the most but those lowers your health meter so be careful. Staying near a fire also raises it but that has a limit. It doesn't fully raise the meter.

And killing wolves decreases it. Yes, you can attack the wolves and kill them with your crowbar or axe but using a flare gun to scare them off or throwing steaks so that they get it and disappear might be better for your mental health.

Those resources are not infinite though and that's exactly what I liked. You have 3 meters to consider with your health, mental health and temperature but you have few resources and you have a mystery to solve. While I did not like the mystery, I have to say that these 3 elements combines to create something really unique.

By the way, don't worry if I made it sound very difficult. It's not very easy; but when you understand what you should do and where you can get the material, you will easily get through the game.

Technically, the game is fine. It doesn't look awesome or it doesn't sound great but I played it on PS5 and it had a native PS5 version. So I got clear images and smooth frame rates.

As for my trophy hunters, it's an easy platinum but 2 playthroughs will be needed for most of you. You can do everything in one but not without looking constantly at a guide. And because it will be your first time, you will get even more lost. I did it in 2 playthroughs and it took me 7 hours but the second playthrough was really boring let me tell you that.

Kona is not a good game. I wouldn't say it's a bad game either because I really liked the setting and the survival elements. But it's very close to bad in my opinion. If the mystery was better and the ending was good, it could have been a great game. In it's current state though, I can't recommend it to anyone.