Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II Review | Bytesized

Since I suspect the comments will be divisive on this one, I want to make it super clear that if you did not enjoy Hellblade 1, you will most likely not enjoy this one either. It's very much a more interactive cinematic experience than it is a traditional video game. If that's not something you like in games, you will not find anything to like here.

Microsoft: “That’s a niche interesting game you have there. Be a shame…”

I'm pretty sure "next gen experience" just means "will melt my PC like it's the reactor of Chernobyl in 1986"

Seeing SW actually answer people's questions in the comments and engage in a positive way is amazing. It's like a vision of the internet we might have had if people didn't mostly suck.

Not my kinda game but I stayed for the review anyway. I'm really enjoying Bytesized, it's nice watching reviews that just get to the point and say what an on-the-fence gamer needs to hear while waiting for the ramen water to boil.

I remember playing the first one through a shared library on Steam and once I finished it, I wrote an email to the developers about how much it meant to me, a thing I've never done before. When Hellblade II was revealed, I began to tear up. I'm glad that it's finally out. I plan on playing it once I return from work today.

I misheard 1:15 to "Melina Juergens' stand-up performance" and now i'd like to see that happen.

Not even youtube's compression can hide how pretty this game looks, like wow!

Is that Heilung I hear in the background?? EDIT: LITERALLY when I posted he said it was. OMG, great group, couldn't imagine a more fitting game for their music.

Good to see a developer going for 7 hours of compelling, story driven gameplay rather than giving in to bloating it out to 40+ hours of grinding unpleasantness As much as I like open world gameplay, not every game nowadays needs to have it, and if every studio keeps trying to do the box ticking exercise of modern AAA games then it just becomes boring (or has already become boring to be more honest about it) Anyway, congrats to Ninja Theory for bucking the trend. Too bad their new overlords will probably shut down the studio for demonstrating some independent thought

So glad bytesized has been retooled to be the successor to 3MR. That and Hidden Gems were my favorite videos, now they’re both back.

Only review I'm watching before I play it myself, and I can't wait! Always appreciate your thought-out and calm approach to reviews, Nick.

Thanks for the speedy review!

Man oh man, I've been waiting for this one. I replayed the first one like 3 times, and I can't wait to experience the thrills and chills of this game all over again.

Heilung did the soundtrack - hence the quality

That "FEELS" like a next generation experience. I would argue it LOOKS like a next generation game but not at all next generation when it comes to gameplay.

I don't really even see any divisive comments tho

I hope it doesn't have anyother section where I fight for 30 minutes until I realize I'm supposed to lose 😩

After the inevitable Full Ramble's out I'd love to hear Nick, Frost and Yahtz get together to discuss this one.

Glad that the game delivers on being just a general improvement on the first. The first game is probably one of my favorite games I’ve played in the last 5 years, but I will never play again and won’t play the sequel. The way it made me feel was something that I don’t want to experience again. I’ve seen people talk about the first game being problematic, but to me it really delivered on what the studio seemed to be going for even outside the game. I had difficulty sleeping for days after finishing it, and honestly just felt in ways that other games haven’t done for me. But I just can’t go through that again. All this is to say again, though, that I loved the first one. I was concerned initially that the studio was going to be pressured to change things because of the acquisition. Seems that fear was unfounded.