Talking Point: Two Months On, Did Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 Live Up To The Hype?

Loved it, TBH. I even stayed up late to be played it at launch time. But I loved the first one, so...

About the hype...Was it really a "hyped" game? It got a very "quiet" marketing campaign, and Ninja Theory didn't lie about the type of game they were making.

I get why most didn't like it at all, but I don't know if people got their expectations a little too...unrealistic, let's say. From (nearly) day one, I knew Hellblade II was going to be a game too similar to the first one. Respect to Ninja theory for doing the game they wanted to make (now, let's hope the studio will live to make another game...).

All in all, it lived up to my hype, that's for sure.

So I went back and played the first one beforehand. I got bored midway thru the 2nd and just can't seem to get motivated to stick with it. The gameplay is very slow.

I haven’t played it but I’ve watched it sections of it.

It looks beautiful honestly one of the best looking games out there.

it’s my game of the year an experience I won’t forget

@Paulbuck27 It's currently my GOTY.

Depends on who you ask. It seems a lot of people billed this game as the next huge thing when we knew exactly what it was. If your expectations were set to a beautiful 6 hour game with way more narrative focus than gameplay then you probably enjoyed it.

I really enjoyed it and it lived up to my expectations for it.

I really enjoyed the first one, and I'd say HB2 is as good, if not better. It's easily one of the best looking games this generation.

I haven't played it and I doubt that I ever will. I didn't think the first one was all that (and didn't bother finishing it) and from what I hear, Hellblade II was just the first one but prettier.

Loved the first and really enjoying this one

Hm it was not unfounately as good as thought that it be would which I find unfortunate.. I hope Ninja Theory gets another chance to create something cool becuse I know they are a very talelented studio.

I really liked it - more than the first. And of course it looks incredible. But if it wasn’t what people were expecting then… wtf were people expecting. I’m not sure it was ever advertised as more than it was.

If you load up Fable and it ends up being a puzzle game then I can understand disappointment but when Hellblade 2 is like Hellblade 1, I just don’t see the issue!

It didn't live up to the hype at all.
First of all, it was the game they chose to show off Xbox Series X way back in 2019.
The first Hellblade was made by 15-20 people and took 7-8 hours to complete, had multiple people attack at once and was also quite linear. It got a 60fps upgrade on Xbox One X and Series X.
Hellblade 2 is about a 5-6 hour game, plays incredibly slow and was made by 80 people. I think many of us expected a better game due to more money, time and developers.
This was never going to be a game for the masses, I just hope Ninja Theory goes and makes something more for the majority next time.

really looking forward to play it eventually, but just dropped down to gamepass core as the backlog is big enough already!!

but recently started hellblade 1 and loving it, so will get this eventually when on sale

First off, I wanna say I kind of like Sad Dad Simulators. Not perfect, but can be fun.
However, Hellblade 2 was quite disappointing as a game (almost no actual gameplay, and realistically "experience " is just boring) and visually on XSS things get quite blurry. Given hype and development time I really expected more.

i didn't start it cause i know i would not finish it.

Have not played it. Waiting until I can buy a physical copy. I really liked the 1st one though.

Loved Hellblade 2. Perfect lenght. Great story, Godtier audio and graphics. Puzzles didnt overstay and combat did what it was supposed to do. 10/10 GOTY contender in my book. And if not GOTY, Senuas actress needs to win all the awards. Seriously.

Preferred it to the first...defo was an experience

I think the first game is better, but both are good games. I guess it didn't live up to the hype of it being some huge blockbuster, but it never should have been hyped like that. It was announced too early and shown way too many time over the years, allowing expectations to get out of whack.

I enjoyed it a lot more than the first game.

I played the first game and this back-to-back and I enjoyed the first game a lot more. The combat was better, the voices had meaningful things to say and didn't narrate every action all the time and the story had a satisfying conclusion. Second game had worse combat, constant voices and one of the worst, most unsatisfying endings I have ever seen in a video game. This was one of Xbox's big releases of the year and was supposed to restore a lot of faith in its fan base, but what we got was a big-budget 5 hour walking simulator. With a company as big as Xbox and this being a big-deal Xbox exclusive from a first party studio, it just can't be a 5 hour walking sim... it just can't be.

@Moby I did the same thing and loved the second as it felt like a continuation different outcome for different people I guess.

I got fed up of the scripted combat a little and it does become repetitive but my prime game is narrative so yeah 7 or 8 out of 10 for me!!

Love it, my type of game, the best game experience in years! I prefer short games, i finished it 2 times even hard level, worth it, i enjoyed to discover new ways of how they could kill me

Best graphics ever! If they had leaned more into the pretty decent combat instead of "visual puzzles" one after the other the game could have been better. Unfortunately they decided to go with those "puzzles" (very poor puzzles indeed) for most of the playtime.

Is just as boring as the first one if not more, easily my most disliked game of the year. Hopefully the series ended with part 2 and NT can go back to making fun games again like DmC & Enslaved!

Short game, underutilized combat, no replaybility , they could have made a roguelike mode in which she is in a dream/trance fighting her past enemies to keep her urges in check, instead the game ends in a few hours leaving you in awe, I really liked the game, its messages, combat and presentation, and I want more..simple

When this one released I installed the first one.
I played it for about an hour.
It was so bad!
I uninstalled it.
I refuse to try this one.

Having skipped the first one completely, i went into it recently with little expectation outside of a pretty game. So for me, no hype, but excellent game.

It made me want to go play part 1, which is unusual for me since i usually look forwars, not backward.

@HarmanSmith they actually did like saying they have worked on the combat improving it … which people took as talking points

Absolutely loved the first one and parts of the second but story wise the second one lost me after 1 hour or so. Graphics were amazing and the faces were very nice but there were times where I asked myself what the game was about. In the end you’ll figure out some parts but I felt it was very hard to keep my focus and attention throughout the middle part of the game.
In the end : happy to have played it with gamepass ,

I can see people set the bar low for what a AAA release is for Xbox

Now I've found out it's only 6 hours long, I will start it tomorrow!

It seems if you played the first one, your opinion generally carried over to the second or you were let down.

I also feel it provides a game that is different than the standard Xbox fare…but seems a lot in the core Xbox/Gamepass fanbase just continually want shooters when AAA games added to gamepass.

It lived up to my expectations in that I still have no desire to play it.

I have already made my feelings about HB2 known on PX, but since you’re asking: as a fan of HB1, I was very disappointed with HB2. Aside from graphics and audio, this game is a downgrade from HB1 in all areas. It was my most anticipated XSX game, too. Luckily, I rented it via Game Pass so I wasn’t that upset.

This franchise isn't for me (I gave up on the first one cos I was bored) there is nothing in the sequel to make me think I won't have the same outcome.

HB2 is another niche marmite game coming from an Xbox studio at a time when I think they really something with mass appeal.

Oh well ...

Eh. It looks phenomenal, but the gameplay just isn't there. I beat the game the day it came out, and it was just kinda tedious to play through. For me the first one was a 7, this one was a 6.

I subbed for a month to try it, got about 2.5 hours into it and couldn’t bother to pick it up.

Sure, it’s gorgeous and the audio is superb, especially if you’re playing with headphones but the gameplay is quite lacking. Plain combat and the puzzles were boring as well.

The aspect ratio gets really annoying as well.

It's everything I wanted from a sequel, an incredible experience that I'm grateful NT decided to make and stick by their vision.
And whilst I can see how some can be/are disappointed with it, my hope is that in the future, it'll get ported to the likes of Switch 2 and PS so more people can experience it 🙂.

Great graphics and sound. But the "gameplay" was barely there.
The combat felt like glorified QTE sequences.
The pretentious "mental problems" crap, just felt forced, like in the first game. But at least the original, had more actual gameplay.

No more psycho-girl simulators for me.

I really enjoyed it, but it's time for them to move on to a new game now.

Absolutely average. But great graphics!

Even with playing the first game, the work on keeping closed off walking areas very cramped that just show off the graphics was much more tiring much faster than the 1st game. As well as the puzzles it became too much simplified and repetitive.

The concept to get out something a bit different fell too short, even with some interesting scenery.
The combat ended up being basically exactly the same which wasn't exactly a strong point in the first.

Not sure why they spent so much time focusing on the bog standard story when the first game was an interesting/weird personal mental quest.

It was very average and well below average experience at the same time but was beautiful to see only at very specific points (non playable cinematics)

Xbox needs to get away from this type of thing and bring back the very gamey games that you want to stick with (or at least is way out with way too much information & story there that you want to replay) not these more 'walking simulator' style games without hardly any actions or gameplay systems to find interesting. This was a one and done.

Played the first one and it's one of the worst games I've ever played so I don't hold much hope for the sequel it is definitely not worth buying a new Xbox to find out I'll stick with white one x for now until Microsoft pull their finger out and make a decent game with upgrading for or a significant price drop

@thehereandnext a sequel to enslaved would be good

Absoluely loved the first one, but couldn't finish 2. Everything that made Hellblade 1 fresh and exciting was... there again! Which is the opposite of fresh and exciting.

It needed a "gravity gun" - not literally of course (although the idea is funny) but in the sense that it needed at least just one new ingredient adding to the gameplay.

I played it for about two hours. Haven't gone back to it yet. It was ok. Definitely, the best looking video game out there. No doubt.

@Dampsponge What? That was painful to read. Try separating your sentences with periods.

Try understanding some people are dyslexic

@TheSimulator Oh, good point. I didn't read that bit about combat (or If I did, I forgot). Thank you!

@Dampsponge I loved Enslaved. It deserves another shot and a whole new audience to experience it. Hopefully, it's something they'll revisit. Here's hoping anyway!