Hellblade II Review: Ninety Minutes of the Best Moments in Gaming, and a Lot of Walking
Jaw-dropping presentation, two unforgettable giant encounters, first-grade puzzles and an ending that sent us to fan theories. The most divisive game of 2024 split us too.
We all played the first Hellblade, with very different results. Josh loves it, and Paul still mocks him for once calling its audio the best he'd ever heard. Paul played it in VR expecting hack-and-slash action, got a long canoe ride and symbol-matching puzzles, and quit 75% of the way through. Ryan played it right before the sequel and found it oddly cozy. So in our 2024 draft, Hellblade II went for $50, behind only Dragon's Dogma 2, Black Myth: Wukong and Shadow of the Erdtree. The hype was real.
If you can set the right expectations for somebody, it completely changes how they approach the game.
So here they are: it's about six hours, it's mostly a cinematic walk, and the combat is light.
Where it picks up
Senua lets herself be taken by slave traders to find her people. A storm wrecks the ship, and she washes up on the Icelandic coast. Then you walk. And climb. And walk some more. Ryan thought the slow opening was fine at first. Fifteen minutes later, he understood Paul's complaints. Josh thinks the gray, drab opening is deliberate, so the world can open up later and give you room to breathe.
The Furies, the voices in Senua's head, are back and voiced by the same actors. Josh found them oddly comforting, like hearing old friends again. Ryan argued with them out loud.
Combat
It's one-on-one and incredibly cinematic. The background fades into mist, every hit has weight, and a knock to the head makes Senua see double. A perfect parry triggers one of several brutal finishing moves. There are maybe 8 enemy types, and the time-slowing mirror power makes things easy. Josh cranked the difficulty to max and only died three times. Paul's only death came from a surprise fire-bomber.
The presentation
I don't know that I've played a game in my entire life that has better presentation than this game does.
There's no UI at all: no health bar, no minimap. Cutscenes flow seamlessly into gameplay, so you're never sure which is which, and close-ups of faces look real enough to fool your brain. Josh modded out the letterbox bars and played maxed out with good headphones. Even in the slow stretches, he always had something to look at or listen to. Our nitpicks: crashing ocean waves look oddly bad, and the paths are so narrow that a huge, beautiful world feels small. (Ryan kept sending his family screenshots of rocks.)
The unforgettable moments
- The Draugar village. You sneak toward a nighttime ritual with fire-breathers lighting up the dark, drums pounding, and a crawl beneath a bridge you'll never forget. Josh just stood and watched it for ten minutes.
- The giant Illgaun. A six-story horror crawls through a lava cave while drums pulse waves of energy, and you dash between pillars to cut her chains. Ryan calls it one of his favorite levels ever, and it alone sold him on the game.
- The sea giant. You lure it, set it on fire and hurl flaming spears while running for your life.
The low points
The puzzles are first-grade level. You can spot the solution the second you walk into a room. The haunted forest that nobody comes back from? It's a one-way path you hold forward through. Paul calls the game disjointed: 90 minutes of the coolest stuff in years, separated by an hour of nothing, just when he's ready to give up.
The ending (very light spoilers)
The ending pulls back the curtain on what was real and leaves a lot open. Paul wanted more clarity. Josh played the Norse-mythology surface story ("I fought giants!"), then fell happily down a rabbit hole of fan theories about what each character represents in Senua's mind. Ryan sees the two games as one arc: in the first, she thinks she can fix everything; in the second, she accepts who she is. Paul compares it to Lost: amazing setups, a shaky landing, and still memorable.
The VGP take
Josh ranked it highest, his 25th of 113 games. He loves fast-paced action, but no spectacle has ever blown his mind more. He calls it a laser light show you'll remember. Ryan ranked it right in the middle of his list. The highs are incredible, but $50 for six hours is steep, and he'd feel better at $30. Paul ranked it 51st. If the whole game were those two giant fights, it would be in his top five, but the long stretches bored him.
If budget isn't an issue (or you have Game Pass), play it with good headphones. If money's tight, wait for a sale.