The long-awaited sequel to Senua’s Sacrifice is here, but not everyone is happy with it. Sequels tend to have very high expectations from fans, and Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 doesn’t seem to work for everyone.
The game lasts around eight hours, more or less. Or, if you’re like me and forget to turn it off when you go to sleep, that’s about 20 hours. Jokes aside, one of the main complaints I see about the game is how short it is, and I don’t understand that very well.
Not every game can be a quintuple A 40+ experience with more content than imaginable. Those games are great, but you shouldn’t expect so many hours from each game. Senua’s story is complete and has a good conclusion in both the first and second games; I don’t see the point in lengthening it. As someone who has had the opportunity to play Hellblade 2 and at 100%, eight hours works perfectly well for this story.
If the complaint is that the length does not justify the price, keep in mind that you will also get a higher quality production compared to the first, especially when it comes to graphics and sound. Rarely is there a game with motion capture as good as Senua’s Saga. It looks incredibly realistic without leaning into the strange.
I recently played Indika, an indie game with around four hours of gameplay, several puzzles, and a great cinematic story. That game is priced at $25, and if we do the math, Senua, at twice the length, should cost twice as much (which it is).
Then you have games like Skull and Bones, Ubisoft’s pirate game that has a lot of content but feels extremely incomplete even when you explore the large map. That game was originally priced at $70, and has now been reduced to $60 after so many people complained.
As @_TheImpureKing_ mentions on X (formerly Twitter), Rift Apart, which lasts about 10 hours, also costs $70. I admit that game prices have gone up a lot, and in the current state of the economy, it may be too expensive to get all the games you want to play.
It all comes down to preference, and for me, the $50 price tag isn’t too much for an amazing experience like playing Senua’s Saga has been.
If your complaint is that it’s too similar to Hellblade 1, with more of the same old stuff, I guess that shouldn’t be a surprise in a sequel game. While Senua’s Saga relies on many similar mechanics to the first game (like puzzles, for example), they are enhanced with new aspects that you didn’t have in the first game, such as the Hiddenfolk puzzles.
There have also been complaints about the combat, and that baffles me even more. The combat in the first game wasn’t very good either; Time makes the heart grow bigger. My biggest problem with combat in Hellblade 2 is the lack of enemy variety (although Firebreather can disappear; I hate that guy). But the fighting felt more real and immersive, especially when you had to fight your way back up and avoid getting killed.
For me, Hellblade 2 has similar flaws to Hellblade 1, which can be easily overlooked in both games. If you liked the first one, you’ll like the second one. At the end of the day, if you’re not sure, you can wait for the game to go on sale and get it then.
If you want to know our opinion on the continuation of Senua’s story, check out the review of Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II – An Intense Story with Stunning Visual and Audio Background at Pro Gaming Guides.