3.5/5 ★ – ChucklesBiscotti's review of Senua's Saga: Hellblade II.

Hellblade 2 was born to be a launch game. Its beauty, use of HDR, use of surround sound, the way it tells its story, short runtime, and the story it’s telling are a fusion of what would have been a memorable launch title for the Xbox Series X. It’s a showpiece, but it has a soul to it that would put it above what you might otherwise show off to your friends with the launch of a new console (i.e. Car Racing Game X or FPS Y). It’s more or less a “glorified” walking simulator – much like the first Hellblade – where easy enough puzzles and intense but simplistic combat break up the cutscenes and interactions with the environments. In that sense, Hellblade 2 is not very much different from the first game -- in fact, it's even more linear than OG Hellblade. And my descriptions might come off as backhanded in a sense, but Hellblade 2 is the exact type of game I love to play. It is the closest thing to an interactive movie there is out there. It’s a guided experience that everyone will play the same way while perhaps getting different messages from it. It has a very specific purpose. It has a very specific message. It has very specific themes. And it’s still dealing with some topics that otherwise really don’t see the light of day in gaming – while still being something that’s enjoyable to play whether you care about those things or not. On top of that, any game that makes me audibly go “oh shit!” due to the spectacle or can spook me out of my seat is certified Chuck. However, I wonder how much attention – and for how long – Hellblade 2 will get that attention coming out years into a console cycle. It is probably the most beautiful game I’ve ever played, but I’m not sure how much focus a 6-8 hour game will get coming out right now. I hope it gets a lot, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we move on in a week or two from discussions surrounding it. I’m not sure if it will end up involved in GOTY discussions, but I do think it will at least get mentioned when it comes to graphics, presentation, and story. Beyond the original Hellblade, games that came to my mind while playing this were Ryse: Son of Rome, Alan Wake 2, The Order: 1866, and Returnal. Ryse was a launch game and showpiece put forth by Crytek, and I think the bones of that game are really on display here. It’s tons of close-up shots of Senua and other characters, everything is very tight to the action, and it’s really about putting you in Senua’s shoes without going into first person. Returnal’s audio is still some of the best around, but the out-of-body experience of the storytelling and the way the audio surrounds you lines up here with Hellblade 2. The Order and Hellblade 2 both went for a widescreen look that blocks off the top and bottom of the screen, probably in part to handle the graphics and keep the 30fps consistent throughout the runtime. On top of that, I think the lessons learned with The Order probably were applied to many graphical powerhouses down the line, and the same will likely be true with Hellblade 2 as it's the prototype for how to pull off the sickest (and locked) 30fps possible. And, lastly, Alan Wake 2 and this game are sharing a lot of the same visual tricks as we slip between worlds and perspectives, and I would not be shocked if they had been in contact with each other to figure out how to pull off some of these incredible visual moves. All this is a way of getting back to my point about wishing this were a launch game. Launch games get an outsized focus and are remembered for a much longer period of time than most other games that come out at any other point – for better or worse. I have zero doubts this would have been remembered as one of the best launch games of all-time, and I think a wider audience would have ended up remembering it -- even if it is on Game Pass on day one and thus theoretically a much larger base can play it right now than the one that would have a console at launch. Still, I fear that the discourse may be overwhelmed at times by talk of how short it is or become just another bullet point in the ongoing discussions about whether Game Pass is killing its own games. I hope I’m wrong because this game deserves to be talked about on its own merits, but I’ll have to wait and see on that one.