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dkirschner's Senua's Saga: Hellblade II (PC)

[July 22, 2024 03:34:36 PM]

Best looking game I've ever played. I hardly ever play new stuff, but thanks to Game Pass, I get to see brand new games! Seriously, you feel like you are walking over the volcanic rocks in Iceland, getting sprayed by ocean surf. The environment is amazing. The game has the most realistic rocks I've ever seen.

The sound design is also incredible. Wear headphones. As with the first game, the "furies" (the voices inside Senua's head) are in your left and right ear, respectively, and other audio is also directional and will "swirl" around your head. Some cool effects. I found the furies to be less hostile to Senua in this game compared to the first. That's probably due to the fact that she has accepted her psychosis and sees it more as a strength rather than something that terrifies her. Indeed, she becomes something of a leader in this game.

It's similar to the first game, but everything is refined. I re-read what I wrote 4 years ago, and I said that the combat and puzzles were tiring and frustrating. I had no problems with either in this one. I thoroughly enjoyed the combat and the puzzles. Combat may play largely the same, but it was more challenging than I recall, and it's really meaty. The puzzles may have been more straightforward than the previous game, where I said they were tedious. There aren't many of them, and most of them involve "focusing" on these spheres of liquid, which either hide or show various parts of the environment, revealing and concealing paths. You just have to figure out how to reveal where you need to go to line up the runes, like the last game. The game is linear, with side paths here and there for some additional lore.

The only possible negative thing I can say is that some segments of the game are incredibly slow. One part in particular, Senua is pulling herself through some rocks on her back. It was s-l-o-w and took probably two minutes for her to pull herself through. There were a few other really slow moments like that. And I get the point of it. She's struggling, it's building serious atmosphere, etc. But man, I wonder how much game time would be shaved off if she moved faster.

Anyway, I thought Hellblade II was incredible. The settings are jaw-dropping, the story is compelling, you're always moving forward. It sucked me right in.