It begins as it ends… alone, in the dark.October is the month of the macabre, with spooky scares and haunted horrors taking center stage due to Halloween looming at the end of the month. The Playlist usually follows suit, with some sort of twist on a horror theme, and this year was no different – the October 2024 TA Playlist poll offered a quartet of “Spooky Sequels,” horror-themed games that were the second in their respective franchises.Our nominees included two zombie thrillers, Dead Island 2 and Resident Evil 2, as well as supernatural survival-horror Alan Wake 2, but the community elected to go away from the more traditionally spooky titles and delve into a tale of psychological horror with our October 2024 TA Playlist game, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II.Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II is the sequel to the critically acclaimed Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, which released for PlayStation and Windows in 2017 and came to Xbox One in April 2018. The first Hellblade was created by a small team of around 20 people, but after the success of the original, developer Ninja Theory was acquired by Xbox Game Studios, and began work on the second game with an expanded team and higher budget.Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice pushed the limits of graphical and audio fidelity, bringing us along on an intense exploration of the Norse underworld as Senua, an 8th-century Pictish warrior, battles her way through the monsters of Helheim (and the demons of her own mental illness) to rescue the soul of her beloved Dillion, who was captured by Norsemen and sacrificed to the gods. It was a gritty, emotional story that dealt with topics of emotional trauma and psychosis in unique ways, often blurring the line between what is real and what is entirely in Senua’s head.The first Hellblade received heaps of praise for its impressive graphics, stunning audio design, and insightful take on mental illness. With all that as a baseline, it’s fair to say that expectations were quite high for the sequel, and there was a lot of anticipation to see how Ninja Theory could improve with a bigger studio and a triple-A budget. Would the studio be able to deliver?Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II was finally released in May of 2024, and if you just look at the critic reviews, you’d think it did pretty well. It’s got a Metacritic rating of 81, with glowing reviews from the likes of IGN (8/10) and Eurogamer (5/5 stars). TA’s own official site review gives it a 9/10, calling it “An unforgettable narrative adventure that is brought to life through impeccable sound design, gorgeous visuals, and a story that will stick with you long after the final credits roll.”But the buzz on social media was a bit different. “Disappointing.” “Mediocre.” “Boring.” YouTube videos started popping up with titles like “Hellblade 2 is a Complete Failure” and “Another AAA Disaster…”So, was Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 an amazing masterpiece? A disappointing failure? Somehow, maybe… both? Reviews in our forums were certainly mixed:AndroidIT6 said:Without a doubt one of the best games I’ve played this year. Sit back, calm down, listen, and live Hellblade. Amazing visuals, an immersive soundtrack, and a massive and brutal story.o Heres Jonny o said:Really pretty game and the audio is amazing. That’s where the good ended for me. Boring story, poor combat, too much following a liner path to another cut scene. Found this to be very over rated. Glad I am done with it. Although, good to see what me series x is capable of.GustavoDrN said:I played Hellblade 2, and while I found the game to be visually stunning, I must say that in terms of fun, I enjoyed the first game more. There were no new mechanics in the combat or environment interaction, nor in the puzzles—they essentially repeated what was done in the previous game.Overall, I found the game less interesting than the first, especially considering it didn’t innovate much compared to the original. It’s no longer an indie game made by a small team, but a major production with Microsoft’s backing, and it was supposed to be one of the standout titles for the Xbox Series X.Let’s start with the positives. Almost everyone agrees that Hellblade II is one of the best-looking games ever made, achieving a level of graphical fidelity and photorealism that few games have managed to attain. Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice became a surprise hit thanks in part to the surprisingly high-quality graphics coming from a relatively small studio, and it was clear that the team wanted to push the visuals even further in the second installment, going to great lengths to capture the natural beauty of Iceland and delivering a cinematic experience for the player.KiDLUCiF3R said:Hellblade definitely leans into that ‘cinematic’ experience. Even just from watching a let’s play, it’s visually stunning and feels like the future of gaming, with graphics that really heighten the immersion. The pacing and sparse combat are common critiques, but I think that slower journey pulls you deeper into Senua’s mind.TTV Aerico34 said:Honestly, I was so surprised with the graphical and visual appearance of this game made it so immersive for me, and honestly one of the more enjoyable games released this year, generally very pleased with this completion with no downsides just very straight forward with good storytelling and great visuals.Famously, all the motion capture work for the original game was done in a converted boardroom, rather than a dedicated studio, and using only two cameras – one focused on the performer’s face, and a portable camera to film the scenes as they would take place during the game. The actress who plays Senua, Melina Juergens, was a freelance photographer and video editor who was just filling in for basic mo-cap work in the early stages of the project, but they decided to just keep her as the main character instead of hiring a professional actress to play the part. All of these cost-cutting measures contributed to the unique presentation of the first Hellblade game, and made the final product all the more impressive.For the sequel, Ninja Theory had the big budget of a full AAA studio and the backing of Microsoft. That meant around four times as many developers working on Hellblade 2, working in a custom-built state-of-the-art motion capture studio. Melina Juergens returns as Senua and is once again nominated for Best Performance at the 2024 Game Awards (an award she won in 2017), along with several new faces to the franchise.Danixpxd said:Loved Melina’s acting all throughout!With all the extra resources and around five years of development since its official announcement at the 2019 Game Awards, many people were anticipating a major improvement for the new chapter of Senua’s Saga. With such high expectations, perhaps the sequel was bound to disappoint.KiDLUCiF3R said:I think the expectations around Hellblade II are much higher given Ninja Theory’s growth since the first game. The original set such a high bar with its groundbreaking portrayal of mental health and Senua’s personal journey that even a faithful sequel might feel less impactful by comparison. […] familiarity with the style and the backing of Microsoft may have made players expect a bigger leap forward. Personally, I will see it as HB1 is HB1 and HB2 is HB2.Most would also agree that the game’s audio is excellent, with the return of “The Furies” – the voices in Senua’s head – who alternate between berating Senua and offering helpful advice. Presented in full binaural sound, the voices and other sound effects from Senua’s environment add a layer of immersion with a full three-dimensional soundscape. Just like the first game, Hellblade 2 comes with a recommendation to play with a good set of headphones for the full audio experience.JohnnyInterfnk said: As mentioned before but always worth mentioning again, the audio continues to be amazing and is a game seller in and of itself. Even the soundtrack was subtle but effective.If your primary criteria for judging a game are visual fidelity and audio design, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II was absolutely made for you. However, more than a few of our commenters were of the opinion that Ninja Theory’s focus on making a game that looks and sounds good overshadowed other aspects, like the story and gameplay.VirtuMint said:Graphically to die for, it looks absolutely amazing. But then you actually come to play it and it’s all style and no substance. It’s an easy 1000GS on Game Pass which is well appreciated of course but it’s not much in the way of entertainment whilst you go about itRinckenstock said:Amazing graphics, unfortunately very tedious game. The first one doesn’t look quite as spectacular with it being several years older (although it still looks great) but it’s much better to actually play. I was looking forward a great deal to Hellblade 2 and I was extremely disappointed when I came to play itHellblade II picks up a short time after the events of the first game (spoiler warning from here on out if you haven’t played it yet!). Senua has returned from her journey to Helheim with a renewed sense of purpose, no longer believing that her visions and voices are a curse to those around her. When her village is once again attacked by slavers, Senua allows herself to be captured and taken aboard the slave ship, intent on finding the settlement of the Northmen and putting a stop to their marauding once and for all.Shipwrecked on the rocky shores of Midgard – modern-day Iceland – Senua defeats the slave master, Thórgestr, but spares his life so that he can lead her to his village. After encountering a village that has been destroyed by feral cannibalistic barbarians known as Draugar, Senua rescues a captive known as Fargrímr, and together they escape a rockslide caused by the giant Illtauga.Senua, Fargrímr, and Thórgestr reach Fargrímr’s settlement, under siege by Illtauga. Fargrímr explains that the eruption of the Askja volcano broke the walls between Midgard and Jötunheimr, unleashing giants. Believing Senua is a seer, Fargrímr sends her to find the Hiddenfolk, god-like beings who might know the giants’ weakness. Senua is able to learn Illtauga’s secret and turn her to stone, which impresses Thórgestr, who thought the giants were unstoppable. Thórgestr promises that if Senua can defeat the giant terrorizing his people, they will have no more need to capture slaves and human sacrifices.Senua’s relationships with Fargrímr, Thórgestr, and later, Ástríðr, are one of the key differences separating this game from its predecessor. Some people liked the addition of other characters that Senua could bond with, showing that she’s no longer letting herself be isolated by her “curse.”dygital angel said:I didn’t enjoy the first game and found it a little boring in places, so really only started the sequel as I wanted to see what the fancy graphics were like and knew it wouldn’t be a long game.I found myself enjoying this one far, far more, and I think that’s because of the other characters. They added more depth and gave the story more focus. In the first one I just walked around and got heckled, but in this one, I felt like I was making genuine progress to a conclusion.As Senua interacts with her companions and builds relationships with them, we get to see some of her character’s growth. She’s no longer wallowing in the self-doubt imposed by her Furies and the grief and depression brought on by Dillion’s death, and we can see her improved disposition as she forgives Thórgestr, accepts help and advice from Fargrímr, and bonds with Ástríðr.TymanTheLong said: Part of the point of both Hellblade games is Senua healing from her traumas and learning to live with herself and the parts of her that are debilitating but that she just cannot change. I do think Hellblade 2 gave a good sense of that journey. It feels like the game is a very drawn out way of saying “our only agency is to make the decisions in front of us right now.” Too much looking back is obviously a millstone around Senua’s neck and I guess that’s in general a good life lesson as is too much fear of the future (in Senua’s case, become what her father is or what he claims she will be).The developers make it pretty clear that Senua suffers from psychosis (though it’s arguable that it’s clearly not just psychosis, given her life traumas) but I think people with other mental health burdens like PTSD, depression, anxiety or a lot of others can see some of themselves in the story and Senua’s trials. These things are alienating for those who suffer and often throw up barriers to living in the world or even benefiting from social comfort from those that want to help.However, it can also be argued that having outside perspectives other than Senua’s muddied the waters a bit in terms of the game’s narrative, and even detracted from the themes that were explored in the original Hellblade.Cylon 118 said:The giants also raise an niggle with me as in the first game it seemed clear that all the strangeness we were witnessing and hearing were coming from Senua but in this one the other characters can clearly see and interact with the giants making them real in game and not a viewpoint.GustavoDrN said:The story was also less exciting than the first one, which had a more interesting pace and a journey that made more sense for the character. The biggest disappointment for me was how they handled the supernatural elements. One of the things I loved about the first game was the ambiguity—you never really knew if what Senua was seeing was real or just a manifestation of her schizophrenia. That layer of mystery let each player interpret things differently.The original Hellblade started with Senua already entering Helheim, and she didn’t meet any other characters along the way, apart from enemies, so it was a fair interpretation to say that everything took place in Senua’s mind as she was fighting the inner demons of her emotional trauma, rather than actual physical demons from Hel. In Hellblade II, the giants appear to be very real, with other characters seeing them and interacting with them.TymanTheLong said:One of the big questions about Hellblade is how much of it was real. I think Hellblade 2 put that to rest. I suppose the arguments that Senua’s companions are just physical manifestations of her psychosis have some merit but I think that’s probably not accurate (after all I doubt she chained herself up and sailed north). To argue otherwise seems like it would necessitate 100% of everything to be in Senua’s head and she might as well be living in a psych ward somewhere in 2024. Senua is still tormented, it just seems to me that she is a real actor affecting the world around her and that world is rather fantastic to us.Still, it’s not explicitly ruled out that there is some sort of dual reality going on, with Fargrímr, Thórgestr, and the others seeing the effects of the giants’ attacks, while only Senua sees the giants themselves. I’ve seen theories that the giants are manifestations of natural disasters –Illtauga for earthquakes, Sjávarrisi for tidal waves, etc. – all things that Iceland might be experiencing following a large volcanic eruption. Norse superstition creates deities and monsters to explain these natural phenomena, which manifest in Senua’s mind as real entities. It’s hard to say for certain, and even the “real” people Senua interacts with are open to some interpretation.FruitofPassion said:I’ve seen some ideas online that the giants are metaphors to different fears. I’ve seen some say they represent parts of Senua from the first game and others say they represent the fears of the people Senua helps along the way. And we could go deeper into that but I’m curious to throw this out there: What if her followers were never real either?I could personally see all of them also just being metaphors to Senua’s journey. These different people she is helping guide, is her growing to be a leader to be strong enough to save everyone’s at the end. This being especially noticeable in the forest scene. Maybe Senua from the start was on her own journey to stop the slavery and the final fight was what really happened but everything up to it was her character building. Or maybe they are real, and all that was imagined with them fighting and interacting with the giants was just part of the fear conquering that the giants represent. Or rather the fighting was just internal that the others wouldn’t see.I was debating this idea during my playthrough due to their interactions with the giants and even dragur (which also couldn’t be real). Part of me wonders if this is simply a developer trick to keep the player confused like Senua. But another part wants to get my board of conspiracies stringed up xDAdayin said:I enjoyed both entries and their stories, but the first one definitely blurs the line between psychosis and mythology more. It’s harder to tell what’s supposed to be real. This second outing brings a lot of myth and magic forward, which makes it harder to tell what is supposed to be psychosis. Right until the very end. It would have been nice if the story was longer, with more weighted decisions and more struggle with those outcomes, instead of the main character just plowing through and blunting the effect of the voices in her head.Whether they are “real” or not, when Senua does face off against the giants, she doesn’t fight them directly in a traditional sort of Boss Battle. Rather, Senua must make her way across dangerous terrain to reach the enemy, and use the knowledge gained from the Hiddenfolk to stop their rampaging. Most people agreed that these were the highlights of the game.TymanTheLong said:Overall I liked the set piece boss fights (why did they shy away from this for the last one? Who knows? But it felt like a mistake) where the giants became more of a cinematic puzzle than any kind of epic fight. Having just replayed the original this felt like a real improvement to both the story and the game play.If fighting the giants of was one of the best parts of the game, most people in our forums said that fighting all the other enemies was the worst. The combat in the first Hellblade was criticized for being too simplistic and repetitive, and if anything, the combat system in Hellblade II is stripped down even further, reduced to just a light attack, heavy attack, parry, and dodge. No surprise, but our forums were filled with lots of good comments about the combat system:DK ShadoW999 said:The visuals and audio are second to none, but the combat is way too dumbed down and easy. The story was acceptable, not on the level of the first game, but still enjoyable. Too bad it is a very short game, even with all the collectibles it is a max 5-6 hour completion.Cylon 118 said:Found this game to be weaker than the first for the most part. Its visuals are obviously an upgrade but from a gameplay standpoint it is def weaker as the combat has just become one on one fights one after the other instead of a group of enemies in the first game, making it feel like nothing but quicktime events. The first game’s music also stuck with much more than this one with the only track that really stuck with me being the first “boss fight” against the volcano giant which I think is by far the most memorable part of this game anyway.Moe GZ said:I preferred the combat in the first episode, they were way more dynamic, we faced several enemies at the same time while in Hellblade II we only fight one enemy after another. And the dodge mechanic had a very nice visual effect, while in Hellblade II I had issues with the timings.Brasshande said:Some of the most impressive graphics you’ll see anywhere but it’s nowhere near as good to play as it is to look at. Slow-paced and featuring some truly shocking combat that you can fortunately turn off to basically make it a video of Senua having a fight. Not a terrible game but certainly not an excellent oneAs Brasshande notes, there is an option in the game to simply turn off combat, and just watch Senua fight against the Draugar on her own, without any player input, making it even more like an interactive movie than a game. Just the fact that this option was included shows that Ninja Theory was more focused on making an artistic cinematic experience than challenging or interesting combat gameplay.JohnnyInterfnk said:During combat, the game often rips control away from you to make the fight more cinematic, but that control loss gets really annoying when you’re trying to master the controls. To start, you can never tell where the threshold is for when the game is running itself and when you’re in control. While this effect makes combat look cinematic to any outside observer, this severely breaks the rhythm of combat and makes it feel janky to the player. As well, even if combat looks complicated on the outside, every enemy seems to be boil down to two sequences: dodge and counterattack (like against fire breathers) or parry and counterattack (like against axemen). Therein, once you figure out which sequence to do, the fight is essentially over, you’re just learning parry/dodge timing and fighting the janky cinematic effect from above. And while early the game does a good job of hiding its one-on-one only combat system, it gets comically noticeable mid-game in the caves where the enemies encircle you, but only jump in to fight one at a time.The “cinematic jank” never went away though — it was an issue for the entire game (though it really only heavily affected combat). In essence, for the game to look cinematic and “one take”, the game takes control away from you at times BUT it never tells you it’s doing this so you never know at what points your inputs don’t matter and at what points they do, which gets frustrating for me as I’m trying to learn/perfect the gameplay loop. Most games show prompts etc to indicate when you’re playing and when you’re not, and this game makes a very specific choice not to do this for that “one take” feel. To their credit, it does succeed at making the game more visually appealing, but at the cost of player agency. Which is better? Probably depends on who you ask.It always comes back to personal preference. For some people, the combat problems, combined with the slow pacing and the other issues, were enough to turn them off to this game completely. For others, it was just a minor complaint in an otherwise enjoyable experience.demon jonzey said:Love the game but, as others have said, the combat downgrade from the first has knocked a grade down for me. It wasn’t as engaging and seems near impossible to fail (unlike the first where there was a couple of trickier sections, not hard but harder). However I still thought it was fantastic and yeah it’s short but I don’t mind it. The achievement list sucks and poses no challenge which is a bit of a shame but no real problem – lets me move on to another game to get back to my backlog.Adayin said:The second game has much easier combat than the first. There are some cinematic battles with what feel like scripted “struggle” points, but overall it’s much easier. A little overhyped, but definitely a worthy series that tackles some important issues other than just “good vs. bad”.Outside of the combat, the most prominent gameplay element is the puzzle solving, which, like the previous game, mostly involves moving Senua around to find the correct viewpoint to align elements of the environment in order to open up new pathways. The mechanic fits well thematically with Senua’s mental condition – it’s not about manipulating the environment by pushing buttons or flipping levers, but about changing Senua’s perspective so she can see things differently. Some people enjoyed the puzzles, but they didn’t vibe with everyone.JohnnyInterfnk said:I felt overall the puzzles were better implemented if not better designed. So, for example, trying to line something up to change perspective and reality was less finicky but the puzzles themselves sometime felt either a bit too big or too pointless. Some puzzles evoked a feeling of descent, dread, disorientation, etc. and some just felt like a needless roadblock to pad out the game play.Spa1h said:The visuals and audio design in Hellblade 2 is the best I have ever seen. I also liked a lot that they now change between a friendly and a dark setting regularly – the first game was somehow always dark and became darker the further you went.Compared to the first one, they didn’t overuse the rune puzzles, and brought in some variety instead. I had no problem in finding all solutions by myself also because of the excellent player guidance on the one side, and the narrowness of the puzzle areas on the other side.Hachibi33 said:I completed it when it released. Very beautiful but the game is too slow, the puzzles are easy and boring and the fights are rare but too long when occurring…“Slow” is another criticism that is often applied to Hellblade II, with many critics labelling it a “walking simulator” due to its long sections of Senua travelling across the landscape without any other action. In fact, from the opening of the game, it’s more than half an hour of watching Senua navigate the shipwreck and the rocky beach before you do anything other than press up on the left thumbstick.TymanTheLong said:I played most of Hellblade 2 on auto combat so it was more of a walking simulator and honestly the game was better that way (I played through the opening normally).I think my absolute biggest criticism of Hellblade 2 was its poor pacing compared to the first. If you did very well in combat in Hellblade it could become monotonous as every enemy needed to be beat on quite a lot before dying. During my replay of Hellblade I turned the combat down to easy part way through instead of the “variable based on performance” and the pacing immediately became pleasant. It had been enough time that I only had vague recollections of a few puzzles and those also went quickly.Hellblade 2 failed on pacing, especially the opening. That shipwreck beach is a whole lot of nothing interesting while Senua slowly trudges from rocky bit of sand with nothing to rocky bit of sand with more nothing. The few set pieces, story bits, and tutorial are far too spread out. Followed by a mini boss fight that really demands more timing skill from new and returning players than even the first game’s boss fights (the dodge, dodge, pause, dodge vs dodge, dodge, dodge was especially too much for the first major fight)! It was as if they’d created the opening chapter and tutorial and never returned to it to clean it up.Now, shortly after the opening I turned combat off after which I liked the game much better. With combat automated I had more of a Dear Esther or What Became of Edith Finch experience punctuated by some mini games and cinematic combat along with some puzzles and Hellblade 2 seems to work so much better that way. The game still retains pacing issues (the whole thing feels too slow, especially if you’re looking everywhere for faces in the rocks), it was all stretched out more than the story actually merited but not so much that it ruined the game. It merely detracted a bit from it.JohnnyInterfnk said:Its funny how two people can get two different reads on something. For example, I liked the opening sequence a lot (probably more than most). It was slow, yes, but the fact that you got swept up onto a rocky crag (vice a sandy beach), onto a gray sky, with wind sweeping in and a desolate landscape — the slow pacing at the beginning (where you’re doing a lot of stumbling and crawling) really gave a feeling of isolation, loneliness, and a sense of “burden”. When you finally encounter another person, it becomes almost a great relief, even considering the person is trying to kill/enslave you.I think you’re absolutely dead on about the pacing being a big problem though. Even if you enjoyed the slow pace of the start, it should have picked up the pace afterwards and been more consistent, which it definitely wasn’t.Again, though, whether or not the game was “too slow” comes down to your own personal preferences, and the expectations you had coming into the experience.FruitofPassion said:It may be important to know what you are getting into if starting this game. There is a lot of walking around and not really doing anything. Overall it’s more so an interactive film than a game. This isn’t a bad thing though, it’s absolutely phenomenal at what it is. But just know if you’re not big into slower paced story heavy stuff or didn’t enjoy the first one, this may just not be for you.BigTymer2047 said:Great game. Slow paced, story based game. Don’t expect non stop action but expect insanely beautiful graphics and solid, smooth game play. Overall, a very good game!Even so, a sprint button would have been a welcome addition, according to at least one of our forum posters:BigBanjo K said:You could probably finish all 3 of the other playlist games before you reach the 1st checkpoint in this one. Senua moves at 0.5 mph. And the first game was slightly better on mute for what that’s worth. Mostly finished the first game out of spite.At the very beginning of the month, I asked a question regarding the more negative reception of the sequel: is Hellblade II actually a worse game than Hellblade I, or is it more the case that no one had any expectations about the first Hellblade, so it was a pleasant surprise, while the expectations were set very high for the sequel, and it failed to live up to everything that people were hoping for. It’s clear that a lot of people prefer the first game for a number of valid reasons, but I also think that it was always going to have a hard time living up to the original.Xynvincible said:It’s a good game, not as good as the first but I’m assuming those that hated on it just expected something different than what they got.FruitofPassion said:There does appear to be some “been there, done that” feel to it. The first game you yourself didn’t know what was going on, there was no explanation, no ui, no direction (plus the scare of permadeath). And the voices for the first time was awesome. You were just as lost as Senua was. But now you don’t really have that advantage. Senua is also more mature now so it’s a bit of a different approach to the world. More revenge now instead of ignorance.For what it’s worth, my take on it is that a lot of the criticism stems from a mismatch between what people wanted from the sequel, and what Ninja Theory chose to develop. Ninja Theory played to their strengths, focusing on improving the visuals and sound design that they had already done so well in the first game, while gamers wish they would have spent more time developing the weaker aspects of the first game, such as the combat and puzzle design. If you were expecting major steps forward in those areas, you would certainly have been disappointed.RumbleFish10 said:I thought this was a good game, but I’m on the fence about it being better than the first game… I still feel like the combat could have been developed more since it just felt overly simple. Overall I didn’t feel as invested in the sequel, for whatever reason. I think I was hoping for a lot more.ZeBeDee32 said:Already completed this when it came out. Definitely didn’t deserve all the negative criticism IMO, maybe people were expecting something more than this was ever intended to be. I thought some of the scenes were truly incredible. Played on a PC at 60 fps with headphones and was very immersive.So, what’s the final word on Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II? It’s not a perfect game, by any means, but I think by and large the developers were successful at making the game they wanted to make, even if many fans and critics wished they would have made different choices and focused their attention on other aspects of the experience. I also think that this is a game that’s likely to be viewed more favorably over time, as the initial bad taste from the game’s launch is forgotten. But that’s just me… here are some other “final thoughts” from some of our regular TA Playlist contributors:JohnnyInterfnk said:All in all, not as focused at the first, but with a few standout set pieces (the second “major goal” sequence in/around the coastal cave being the standout). Combat still hasn’t come together yet unfortunately. The game looks and (especially) sounds as great as everyone says. If you can deal with the combat jank and iffy combat, its worth your time.TymanTheLong said: So what do I think of Helblade 2? It’s complicated. It’s so ambitious that it’s bound to have failed to reach said ambitions and fail it did. The game play retains warts and issues that seem weirdly fixable given the very long development cycle and support the game had. But even with all that the experience was worth having. A few things, such as automatic combat and an alternate narrator New Game + are inspired enough I expect to see those ideas pop up in future games. Hellblade 2 is overall a must play, given its short length, outstanding visuals, and ambitious ideas. It ultimately fell short but expectations were also ridiculously high.Spa1h said:I liked both similar, but I would the recommend the first game more. The visuals and audio design in Hellblade 2 is the best I have ever seen. I also liked a lot that they now change between a friendly and a dark setting regularly – the first game was somehow always dark and became darker the further you went.Compared to the first one, they didn’t overuse the rune puzzles, and brought in some variety instead. I had no problem in finding all solutions by myself also because of the excellent player guidance on the one side, and the narrowness of the puzzle areas on the other side.My biggest negative point for Hellblade 2 is its linearity. In the first game you could from time to time decide where you go, but here everything is laid out for you. Also the paths are so narrow at times that it really makes me feel the game plays itself, and that broke immersion for me. Also there were sections that dragged out way too long – or were way too simple – like the dark-cave section or the forest near the end of the game.The plot is mediocre, as the reveal that everything was imagination doesn’t fit to the rest of the journey well imo. On the plus side, i like that they now included other characters and you don’t always travel alone.I would recommend this game to people that like atmospheric walking sims, with a bit of gameplay. Unfortunately, there is not much more to it. I would compare this game to Plague Tale-Requiem, which has a similar feel but does everything, but presentation, better than Hellblade 2.Thank you all for some really great discussions and observations this month. The sheer amount of quality posts is one of the reasons this article took so long to put together… the other one, we’ll talk about as we get to this month’s stats!A total of 3,963 tracked gamers unlocked at least one achievement in Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II during the month of October, with a whopping 2,039 starting the game for the first time, and 645 tracked gamers finishing the game during the month. That adds up to 15,567 achievements unlocked during the month for 1,430,225 total Gamerscore and 2,045,862 TrueAchievement score – an overall ratio of 1.43 for the month.Not surprisingly, the most common achievement during the month, unlocked by 1,890 tracked gamers, was also the very first story-related achievement, “The Next Sign”, with its 1.04 ratio for surviving the shipwreck and capturing Thórgestr. Technically, though, that’s not the first achievement that could have been unlocked in the game, since it’s possible to open up photo mode before that point and earn “Worth a Thousand Words”, which was the second-most unlocked during October. This sort of achievement is great for Bean Divers, who can dip in and pop an achievement in seconds, but arguably it’s stretching the definition of the word “achievement” for some of our commenters.Allgorhythm said:In another thread, we were talking about achievements. Hellblade 2’s achievements look like your typical shovelware game. There are only 11 and most of them are unmissable story achievements. A couple are particularly lame: andI tend to be a purist as I’ve discussed throughout my tenure on TA. To me, an achievement should only be awarded for accomplishing a significant undertaking requiring skill, tactics, or some other significant ‘game move.’ Photo mode and additional narrators are, as you say, neat features. But they are not gaming accomplishments. Their discovery is their own reward.Moe GZ said:The photo mode is good, it gives a different view on the game and had many options to change light, etc. I used it naturally because the game has impressive visuals and I wanted to take pictures. And the alternate narrator is unlocked after finishing the game, the weird thing is that they had to record voices that many players will skip. Well, I was too bored after my playthrough to replay a chapter with the alternate narrator… IMHO they are not as bad achievements as you see them. They are good incentives to discover parts of the game than people may miss, and way better achievements than many shovelware.Let us know in the comments below which camp you’re in… do you appreciate these achievements that guide you to features you might not have explored, or are they simply too easy to justify the Gamerscore?The two least-unlocked achievements during October are controversial for an entirely different reason – collectibles. Both “Tales of Midgard” (unlocked 662 times during the month) and “Glimpses of the Gods” (unlocked 656 times) require finding particular items in the world; the former for finding all the Lorestangr (“lore stones”) and listening to a tale from Senua’s old mentor Druth, and the latter for finding all the hidden faces that reveal secret paths to spirit trees that tell stories of the Hiddenfolk.Now, to the second reason this wrap-up took so long… Shout-Outs! Usually, I can download a report each month listing all the people who both started and finished a game during the month, but for some reason, that function wasn’t working in October. Maybe there were just too many – after manually searching through the 100% Club leaderboard for Hellblade II, I found a whopping 269 gamers for the October 24 Shout-Out list! Not surprising for a game that can be completed in less than a day. The first gamer to earn a spot on this month’s list was Kostja93, who completed the game in 8 hours and 49 minutes between October 1st and 2nd, but the fastest completion goes to AohJay with a recorded time of just 2 hours 36 minutes! (That’s based on the notoriously wonky console time information from Xbox, rather than the normal metric using the site’s achievement timestamps, so maybe take that with a grain of salt.)And that, finally, will wrap it up for this wrap-up of the October 2024 TA Playlist game: Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II. Look for the wrap-up for last month’s game, Spec Ops: The Line, to be out later this month, and in the meantime, head on over to the Spoiler-Free and Spoiler Discussion Threads for the December 2024 featured game, Psychonauts 2. See you there!
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