It's a funny thing, I very nearly didn't play Hellblade 2 at all. May and June had been chockablock with both game releases and personal events. However, after I had hit the publish button on Ghost of Tsushima, it seemed my Game Pass subscription had ticked over for another month. What to do? So I spent a few minutes scanning for anything that jumped out: Still Wakes the Deep and Hellblade 2 made the cut.

It would be impossible for me to avoid the press coverage regarding game releases as I'm buried in YouTube for hours a day. The prevailing sentiment regarding Hellblade 2 was that it was short, (too short for many) visually stunning and it had also failed to hit the same impactful story beats as the original. So let us have a non-spoilery squint at this controversial sequel. 

The Value of Time

Everyone sees value differently. For some, a game's worth comes from how long it lasts, regardless of quality. I have done my fair share of MMO grinding, killing the same mobs with the same three skills for days. I have torn apart the same camp a thousand times in the latest Ubisoft open-worldathon. Yet, like a fine dining experience, I have come to appreciate smaller morsels of gaming delights.

I love short games, as long as they use their time well and deliver something engaging. One title that springs to mind is FAR: Lone Sails (and its sequel). These games were very short indeed, didn't have any combat and yet delivered a mesmerising experience I will never forget. Senua's Sacrifice clocked in at around eight hours and so oddly with the sequel we lose an hour. I think it's fair for fans to have expected a little bit more game, given the time in development and quadrupled team size. 

Here's the really odd thing: when Hellblade 2 is trying to be a game, I found it to be dull and tedious. There are plenty of puzzles to work through and all are bafflingly stark of enjoyment. Moving terrain through different states to make a path or lining up objects has all been done before. It also doesn't help that our blood and muck-encrusted protagonist walks slower than the Pope.

In contrast to the puzzles, when Senua is interacting with the environment, the level of immersion can be jaw-dropping. There's a part near the beginning where you must push through an enclosed space under a boat and just the way it is animated is stunning. Each movement is unique and personal. I've been saying this for years, that I wished developers would connect characters to their surroundings better. Some games have flirted with this, like how Nathan Drake will touch a wall he is passing or sometimes stumble when hopping over a wall. This technique has been dialled up to eleven in Hellblade 2. 

Face Value

One aspect of Unreal Engine 5 that has seen plenty of interest is Metahumans. This is the ability to motion capture real hoomans gadding about, while at the same time capturing hyperrealistic facial animations. This technique has been around for a while now, but Ninja Theory has taken this to the next level. Now an actor can perform physically complex scenes while their face is also being captured in real time. It seems the days of animating game characters through conventional means are numbered. 

The actress Melina Juergens provides a good deal of herself for the character Senua. In all the promotional videos it is her face that is front and centre. While the actress herself is very attractive, we rarely see Senue in flattering circumstances and Melina's acting ability brings Senua's suffering to life. There are many scenes where the camera is so close you can see individual pours on her skin and this intimacy also makes the game feel very claustrophobic.

Voice Attack

My playtime clocked in at just under seven hours and I wasn't rushing. I can see that the team at Ninja Theory have put a lot of passion into this game, but unfortunately, I'm not sure it pays off like they were hoping. When I think back over the whole game you do see quite a few different locations considering the very short story. There are some very exciting sequences that are both visually and emotionally exhilarating. It is a shame that these high points are bookended by long walking sections, mostly listening to Senua's inner voices talk dribble. 

I understand the role of these voices and how they represent her mental condition. The first game seemed to make them more relevant and interesting. In the sequel, they are mostly annoying, like someone trying to get a laugh by retelling the same joke over and over. They would even drown out some of the real NPCs, which was even more irritating. I'd say for the next game make the voices fade in and out or they just become white noise.

If walking and puzzles are two main components of this game then the third would be the combat. The first few fights felt brutal and withering, yet also exhilarating. You have a light and heavy attack, followed by a dodge and parry. A short while in you also get a magic mirror that builds power and gives you a brief slow time ability. Each time you strike your opponent or they connect with you: the beautiful animation and stellar sound really make you feel it. It is unfortunate that the combat encounters don't change all that much from the start, with the odd new enemy to deal with. However, I think they get away with this as the game's run time is so short.

Is it PC?

This game is a technical marvel that, if nothing else, shows what we potentially could see from games in the future. The developers have clearly spent a long time cracking open the new Unreal Engine 5 and putting its power to good use. Everything from the crashing waves to the way the wind acts upon the grass is at a level I don't think we've seen before. Lighting is also very interesting with the true blacks on show in a night sequence where bursts of flame escape into the night air briefly illuminating the surroundings. Throughout my time moving through the various locations, light was used to exquisite effect, both for storytelling and guiding the player down the path. 

As already mentioned, the way Senua moves through each space has been meticulously animated which gives the sense you are playing a cut scene. Granted, most of the time this is happening you are just pushing forward and allowing the movement to take place. It baffles me that a developer would spend so much time on the way a game looks and completely drop the ball on the controls. On Controller the game works fine, but the mouse implementation is awful. When moving the view it looks janky and not smooth at all. Altering the sensitivity in the menu doesn't seem to change the input much and in the end, I had to alter my mouse dpi manually. 

Conclusion

I think if we are being fair, half of the issue with Hellblade 2 has been expectation management. Microsoft has used this game as something big to sate the understandable frustrations Xbox owners have. Maybe if there has been a few more massive open-world games on offer, this smaller offering would have been allowed to be what it was meant to be. While I can see many walking away from Hellblade 2 disappointed, I will say for my part I enjoyed what I experienced. I would have liked a few more hours and one more ‘big’ event at the end, but unfortunately things do come to a pretty abrupt end. If you enjoyed the first game I would recommend you either pick up Game Pass or wait for a sale, but certainly try the game for the visuals alone.