Hellblade 2’s masterful presentation is let down by dated gameplay

It’s a rather odd time for Hellblade 2 to finally be released.

The game was originally announced alongside the Xbox Series X, as a sign of things to come for the console. And yet, here it is, as Microsoft‘s plans appear to be shifting somewhat.

In many ways, Hellblade 2 is exactly the type of game Microsoft and Xbox fans have been crying out for – a third-person, narrative-focused game with a heavy emphasis on presentation.

However, while the game does indeed deliver presentational might that’s virtually unchallenged this generation, it’s unfortunately paired with gameplay that would feel more at home in the previous generation.

Marry this to a narrative that barely fills its already slimline 6-hour length, and it’s difficult not to feel disappointed by Hellblade 2, even considering its best-in-class technical achievement.

The game follows Senua as she grapples with not only the mental scars left over from the first game, but also a desire for revenge against the raiders that destroyed her home.

The character of Senua is far and away one of the game’s highlights. She is incredibly well-rendered, both graphically and narratively, and while her arc isn’t as transformative as it was in the first game, she’s nevertheless a magnetic on-screen presence.

Melina Juergens’ performance as Senua is captured perfectly. She, alongside the game’s visuals, are the game’s undisputed highlights. The rest of the game’s cast is less memorable, sadly, due in part to the short amount of time you get to spend with them. The plot is also somewhat meandering and feels like it’s building to the end multiple times before it actually does.

Iceland, the game’s setting, is utterly breathtaking. On PC at maximum settings, some sequences are indistinguishable from live-action footage. The landscape is stunning, as are the surrealist sequences full of flash and flourish. The character models are also among the best seen in the medium to date. There aren’t many, but all of them are astonishingly detailed.

“Melina Juergens’ performance as Senua is captured perfectly. She, alongside the game’s visuals, are the game’s undisputed highlights.”

Hellblade 2’s sound design also merits mention. If you can, use headphones when playing through it, as the spatial audio does a lot to add to the tone and the atmosphere of the game. The score is imposing, and the constant dialogue, both internal and external, creates a frantic feel which goes a long way to convey Senua’s psychosis.

While it may look and sound exceptional, however, the game stumbles when it comes to its mechanics, which don’t feel like they’ve advanced since the last game. The majority of Hellblade 2 is spent walking through linear levels, occasionally interrupted by some limited combat and puzzle-solving.

The puzzles themselves, sadly, feel plucked out of a game from over a decade ago. They’re so simple that the challenge often isn’t solving them, but being distracted by something like your phone while you do. The only real saving grace is, again, the game’s visuals, which mean that even if you’re not engaged with the puzzles, the detailed locations they’re set in will still keep your attention to some extent.

The puzzles may generally be uninspired but the exception is one particular type of collectable, which has you looking for huge stone faces hidden in the rockery around Iceland. These are cleverly hidden and started playing tricks on our minds, as we started seeing faces in the rocks where there were none. There’s no real puzzle to finding them, but they’re an inventive addition.

The combat is similarly basic. Senua has two attacks and a stun, as well as a parry. While it looks fantastic due to the fully motion captured animations, the actual fighting is so stilted and simple that fights can often feel like a chore.

Combat is almost always reduced to arenas where enemies spawn one at a time. There are a handful of different enemy types, but the solution is almost always a simple parry and a heavy attack. By the time each enounter had finished, we’d already had our fill of the combat.

Outside of its presentational might then, there’s little genuine evolution between the first game and Hellblade 2. Senua is still a highlight, and every screenshot looks like magic, but actually playing it doesn’t match that level of wonder.

Even though Hellblade 2 is already a short experience, you could easily take another two hours off the game’s run time and probably end up with something stronger. This isn’t even a case of “it’s fine for Game Pass”; there are better games on the service to spend your time with.

Hellblade 2 does deserve immense amounts of credit for its visual, audio, and acting achievements, which are all truly fantastic. Every hour we played had its fair share of “I can’t believe this is what games look like now” moments. The problem was that each of those hours felt like three, because what players are actually expected to do in this stunning world is quite uninspired.

Ultimately, Hellblade 2 has to be considered a stumble as Xbox gets its first-party story back on track. The game will likely receive some acclaim during the coming awards season, but this will almost certainly be on a technical basis, and not related to how the game actually plays.

It would have been passable as a launch game, but in the middle of the generation, Hellblade 2 isn’t the sequel we’d hoped for. Fans of the first game could perhaps split it across a few nights for a better experience, and Melina Juergens’ performance deserves to be seen. It also deserves a more engaging experience, however.