Side Quests: Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 Review

mmorpg.com:

Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 is a harrowing tale filled with uncomfortable tension, deep and authentic emotion, and masterful performances heightened by incredible visuals and top-notch audio design. It's also not much of a «game,» as the pace at times is off-puttingly slow and the core gameplay loop becomes predictable – and that's despite the game being about six hours in length all told. Fittingly, I'm having an intense internal argument about Senua's Saga, and both sides have a compelling argument. 

Hellblade 2 returns to the saga of Senua, who, at the end of the last game, has just killed a god in her quest to rescue her lost love. Now, she is traveling north to the homelands of those who took her love from her, her intentions changing from rescue to revenge. I'm not going to go into more detail about the story than that, but suffice it to say this is one you're going to want to experience for yourself. 

There are times in Hellblade 2 that genuinely made my skin crawl, with most of them involving claustrophobia in some way. Senua is sometimes forced to crawl through tight spaces, and the camera work accentuates her struggles in such a way that I began to feel like the walls are closing in. Senua's facial expressions – the struggle of each movement, the fatigue of her life's work, etc – only serve to heighten the anguish further and make for some powerful moments. 

Claustrophobia is but one of the many uncomfortable feelings Senua's Saga presents, but they're all done in such a masterful way that I find myself drawn into them rather than put off. The slight changes in screen color when the voices in Senua's head start to get more frantic, the constant sound of her breathing even in moments of respite, and the way the game plays with light and darkness have me fully engaged from start to finish. A lot of time, effort, and love went into making these moments as authentic and devastating as possible, and that work shines through in every scene. 

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