Hellblade II: Senua's Saga is a visual and audio feast that offers tight gameplay and a strong, narratively driven story. It's a short, single-player experience with a linear structure and simple combat and puzzles. Combat consists of swordplay against a single opponent, where Senua can execute an attack and heavy attack, block/parry, or evade, with an added element (a mirror) to allow Senua to "focus" by slowing down time and delivering successive, uninterrupted attacks.
The puzzle-solving elements are straightforward in that they require Senua to "focus" on details in the environment to suss out symbols or progress through blocked passageways. The atmosphere of Hellblade II oozes with rich folklore, earthly characters, and a constant narrative that may either distract players or permit them to indulge in the nordic-inspired folklore. Combat, while straightforward, can teeter on the repetitive side, but it rarely outstays its welcome since encounters are short-lived.
Senua's Saga simply invites the player to go along for the ride and doesn't present much of a challenge. Instead, the developers hope the player can indulge in the narrative and story, particularly how Senua (and her hidden voices) view the world as events unfold around her due to her own actions. While not everything in the game is explained with absolute clarity, the overall themes of loss, love, guilt, rage, and fear cultivate an experience that offerings from developers such as Quantic Dream and Supermassive Games have failed to realize fully: an experience that seamlessly blurs the lines between heavy narrative with interactive gameplay. Ninja Theory's latest offering is a showcase in a variety of ways, and they have delivered a memorable, personal experience that patient gamers ought to experience for themselves.