PLOD OF WAR

SENUA’S SAGA: HELLBLADE 2 fails to find a new path for its hero

- Robin Valentine

In retrospect, the original Hellblade was never going to be an easy game to make a sequel to. Protagonist Senua’s personal journey to self-acceptance was introduced and fully resolved, and most of the events of the story were seemingly hallucinations. That doesn’t give you a lot to springboard off into a wider world, and indeed Hellblade 2: Senua’s Saga struggles throughout to rise to that challenge.

Seeking to stop the Viking raids on her homeland at their source, Senua allows herself to be captured and brought to Iceland, with bloody vengeance on her mind. But she arrives to find a cursed land where the people live in fear of man-eating giants and, now trapped in Iceland herself, resolves to track down and slay them, recruiting the aid of local people and weirder allies as she goes. For the player, that means about eight hours of cutscenes, lightly interactive set-pieces, puzzles and sword fights.

It’s a visually spectacular world. The landscape is scanned in from the real world using photogrammetry, and Iceland’s bleak but beautiful vistas are just as startling and strange as any alien planet or fantasy realm. Mocap is used to phenomenal effect, both in the subtle performances of the human characters, and the deeply unsettling movements of the giants. There’s a robust photo mode, and I couldn’t help but snap shots of every horizon, skybox and character close-up. And it all runs smooth as butter, on my machine at least, with no bugs or stuttering or even a loading screen along the way.

But what kind of world are we in, here? The dark fantasy setting creates an immediate disconnect with what Hellblade is supposed to be about.

MIND GAMES