Hellblade II: Senua's Saga - A visual masterpiece.

(Played via Xbox Game Pass, subscription provided by Xbox UK)

By Sam Coles: 

The first time I played the original Hellblade back in 2018, it was an experience that really stuck with me. Senua’s journey really stood out at the time, and that was mostly due to the bold move of Ninja Theory to explore psychosis. It was and still is an unsettling game, especially if you played it with a set of 3D surround sound headphones which I did back in the day. Now we have Hellblade II, a sequel announced all the way back in 2019 alongside the Xbox Series X and it is finally here. Is it as good as the original, in short yes and it had a similar impact that the first had on me.  

Hellblade II sees you step into the shoes of Senua again; this time she is being held captive on a boat as a slave heading towards Iceland. A storm hits the boat, and she is then stranded on shore, where she gathers her thoughts watching as each captive is slaughtered across the island she washes up on. She ends up in a confrontation with the head slaver, captures him and uses him to find the giants that protect Iceland so she can kill each one.  

What immediately stands out in this game, is that Senua is surrounded by other characters whereas in the original she was on her own only surrounded by the echos of her past. It works really well as Senua is having to balance the voices with her psychosis as well as the conversation at hand, so she is mostly distant and delayed with her responses as she is really having to focus and mostly ignoring the scalding of the voices in her mind. The performance from the cast is amazing, Melina Juergens who once again portrays Senua, does a brilliant, haunting and heartbreaking job as the character as there were a few scenes that got to me.  

Now onto the gameplay side of things, and this is the aspect of Hellblade II that has the internet divided and honestly, I don’t know why as it is similar to the first game. The game mostly consists of exploring, solving puzzles, and getting into brutal combat while taking in the story. Yes, it is mostly about walking around while experiencing the story, but it is not a “walking simulator” as some have dubbed it, some of the combat encounters while not difficult had me dying a couple of times as it does require timing with blocks and dodging. The game is very linear, but honestly, I don’t see that as a bad aspect of the game as we are drowning in hundred-hour open world games, and this shorter experience was a breath of fresh air.   

Visually this game is a real showcase for Unreal Engine 5, it is amazing how far we have come with graphics in the past 25 years and this game looks believable with how realistic character models look. It was one of those moments when I wasn’t sure if the game had started, but it did and the graphics are incredible, characters move believably, they capture every emotion, twitch and smirk and it is nothing short of amazing.  

Not just the visuals, the audio design in this game is fantastic! The voice work for the inner voices that are on Senua’s journey are very unsettling, I didn’t play with surround sound headphones this time, but it worked well on a decent stereo set up. You hear them constantly throughout the game, it really threw me off during combat and puzzles but that is the entire point as it makes you question your own capabilities like Senua is in the story. Plus, the audio in combat is great, you really feel every stab, slash and plunge with wet sickening sounds as your opponents bleed out, or blood curdling screams as you slit their throat wide open. It adds an extra layer of brutality to the combat and makes it more immersive.  

Overall, I think Hellblade II is a great experience. It is a thought-provoking tale that is a technical masterpiece with its visuals and audio design. Not only that, but it also shows what actors can do in a video game story when technology is really pushed, as it looks very believable coupled with great writing and performances. Give it a go, especially if you have Game Pass.  

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Immortals Fenyx Rising - A charming Greek mythological adventure!

By Sam Coles:  

Ubisoft tend to get a lot of flak, and when their name is mentioned in current conversation you would think they broke into your house and kicked you in the stomach. Anyway, specific analogies aside they tend to do questionable things in the gaming industry, but I love most of their games regardless. However, there was one game that floated under the radar back in 2020, not because it was a bad game, quite the opposite as it is fantastic!  

That game is Immortals Fenyx Rising, a game that was announced a long time ago under a different name, originally code-named Gods and Monsters in 2019, it was a project that went very quiet which is always worrying when publishers do that, but it was great, nevertheless. Then it was just released in 2020 when everyone was in a low part of their lives, but I could never get into it at the time for obvious reasons. Fast forward four years later and I am enjoying it, and I am playing it on Switch because of course I am! I just want to talk about the game for a few paragraphs, as it is a wonderful experience that everyone should play!  

Immortals sees you play as the titular Fenyx who you can customise, anyway the world has been destroyed and taken over by Typhon who has imprisoned the gods. You are tasked with setting the gods free, so they can help you battle Typhon. It is a simple save the world story, but what makes it so fun, and amusing are the characters, for one it is narrated by Prometheus who is being held captive by Zeus and what makes it fun is that the story changes when Zeus gets bored or when he makes a funny joke. The dialogue is funny and well written, and I can’t help but have a smile on my face throughout, especially Hermes’ wisecracks. It is dialogue that I often see people bemoan about online, but some people just need to lighten as it is fun.  

In terms of the gameplay, people often drew parallels to Zelda: Breath of the Wild. However, that is a rather shallow assessment because outside the colourful art style, the stamina meter for climbing as well as the vaults (which are basically shrines). It does draw inspiration from that game with its open-ended design, but on the other hand you don’t have to contend with weapon degradation as your weapons stay with you throughout the game and can be upgraded with gems you collect. Not only that, but the Greek mythological setting also makes it more unique with combat encounters, plus the vaults are enjoyable to conquer as they have good puzzles to solve.  

The game’s world is just a joy to explore, you can start the main quest or just faff about for a bit collecting upgrades for stamina, health and much more. In typical Ubisoft fashion, you must climb an elevated position and scout each region for main and side objectives. I find that I spend about 5 minutes looking for every side objective to unlock from the top of a statue, so I can be as powerful as I can for boss encounters, as it is fun to unlock upgrades when I don’t usually bother in most open world games. You are rewarded in this game for going off the beaten path, and it is not one-use items you will get it will contribute to your overall goal to beat the final boss of the game as well as other more powerful foes. 

That is another aspect that I enjoyed about this game, are the boss fights as they are varied as they have an entire melting pot of Greek mythology to take from. You will be fighting cyclopes, Gorgons and other creators and corrupt demi-gods. The combat isn’t in-depth by any means, but the enemy variety alone stops it getting boring.

 

Visually this game looks incredible, it doesn’t go for a realistic look but instead it uses a cartoonish and vibrant aesthetic. The use of colour in this game is beautiful, especially in Aphrodite’s region, with the blue hues of the rivers and the red sunset warming the green grass. The character models are exaggerated, they look like something out of a Pixar film, and it fits given the lighthearted nature of this game’s narrative and world. Plus, considering what is going on in this game, it runs very well on the Nintendo Switch.  

Overall, I feel that Immortals Fenyx Rising is a very underappreciated game and if you haven’t played it, I highly recommend it. It understands what makes an open world game fun, freedom of exploration. This game is insanely cheap, and I would say grab a copy if you see as you get more than your money's worth these days.   

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