Hellblade II: Senua’s Saga

在1代基础上除战斗外的全面升级，画面有电影质感，配音和节奏都有了更好的打磨效果。但是战斗一言难尽，没有一代刀刀到肉的质感，以及弹反的判定更难了。但是不失为一款好游戏，尤其是背后的对精神病学术研究的深度，让这个作品除了游戏性以外，又多了很多普世意义！

It's pretty hard to review this. Don't get me wrong, Hellblade II is a great and unique game, which I can easily recommend. It's just significantly worse than Hellblade I. Everything apart from the visuals is inferior. It didn't have the same impact. It didn't feel as personal. And it didn't hook me in nearly as much as its predecessor. Yes, in the end the story did kick in. But right at that very moment, the game ended. It's less than 7 hours of pure gameplay. And would be like 4 if the running speed wasn't locked to an annoying snail's pace. And the combat sequences in which you always kill one guy only to then be suddenly grabbed from behind by another dude were honestly funny. But I seriously doubt that was the intention... So yeah. Still great. Still unique. Still recommended. Just keep in mind you are basically getting a technical demo with great visuals and sound design. It unfortunately does not match the first game in terms of overall quality.

Несмотря на то, что эта игра уже вышла давно, она все равно одна из лучших по лицевой анимации и кинематогрофичности. В плане детализации лиц и бесшовной режиссуры Ninja Theory задали планку, которую до сих пор мало кто смог перешагнуть.

Суперська бойовка, та звуковий супровід, гарна графіка та атмосфера

Easily the most cinematic and realistic game ever made. Combat is a little simple, but it still feels amazing to play. Beautiful depiction of mental health.

Amazing visuals, loved making friends along the way, the cinematic transitions between areas was super cool almost like you were watching a movie.

Just like its predecessor, this game polarizes. Some don't get it and label it as a boring walking simulator and move on. For others, these games represent the most intense gaming experiences they ever had. For the second group, these games push the boundaries of the entire medium due to the tasteful but accurate representation of complex mental illnesses and their integration into story and gameplay. I fall into the second group. I've played the first Hellblade three times and loved every minute of both Hellblade 1 and 2. I can only urge everyone to make sure to play the first game first for story context and use headphones while playing, as both of these make a huge difference. Especially the headphones cannot be overstated. I have a Dolby Atmos Sound system in a dedicated home cinema room, but the experience with headphones is leagues ahead of every speaker system due to the native, binaural recordings for this game. With headphones, the voices inside Senua's head sound like they swirl inside your own instead of around you like with speakers. Keep an open mind and experience how our beloved medium has a growth spurt with these brilliant games. There is one point of criticism I'd like to talk about, though. In the first game, I loved the combat. After my first playthrough, I always set the combat difficulty to "hard" and it was so much fun to fight against multiple enemies at once. In this sequel, they reduced the combat system further so that you only ever face a single foe, which gets replaced by the next once you defeat him. This gets old fast in my opinion. Also, the timing window for perfect blocks is tiny and even when I fought the final boss of this game, it still felt more like luck than anything else. This spoiled the fights a bit for me, especially compared to the first game. From what we've seen from the third game so far, however, they seem to have learned from player feedback and I hope they get the chance to make that successor, now that Microsoft is out of control. From a technical perspective, this is the king of graphics. Nothing can beat Hellblade 2 purely for visuals in my opinion. Not Alan Wake 2 with path tracing, not Cyberpunk 2077 with path tracing, nothing else comes to mind with this level of graphical fidelity. No pop-in thanks to Nanite, photo-realistic scenery thanks to photogrammetry and beautiful art and lighting realized through Lumen. Absolutely stunning. There is, however, some traversal stutter here and there as is unfortunately the norm for Unreal Engine 5. Still, it's not that bad compared to most UE5 games. Sound design is also some of the best in the industry, but I think that should have become clear in my section about headphones. So, all in all, it's not perfect and will continue to polarize people's opinions due to the restricted gameplay. But, it is a technical marvel and one of the most intense gaming experiences I have ever had. Can't wait for the third game (fingers crossed).

OK, OK ;) (see last sentence) I've finished the game today. Yuhuu! :) It's gorgeous visually - just a bit over the top with the chromatic aberration and motion blur - and ok in terms of optimisation? The 1st chapter was peak!!! This one isn't...So I feel like they slapped the franchise a bit. The story is very diluted, but I got goosebumps in many points and have shed a few tears. One thing that it shares with part 1 is the "therapeutic" value. People with "parents issues" will understand what I mean... The soundtrack here is good, but not as unforgettable as it was in part 1. Here some puzzles are a true pain the neck, extremely confusing and annoying, I only got through by watching guides with 2-3 times I didn't as an exception to the rule. Some parts of the game gave me SHIVERS and that's so priceless. Honestly, I'm grieving the death of an NPC :( I would have loved to have romance options and steamy scenes this time around, since the story and gameplay would have potentially allowed that. I hope the next chapter will have a much more fluid combat system. Looking forward to it, it's a tough time for devs in general - so let's pray it won't get cancelled. I really don't understand the "walking simulator" criticism not the "too expensive/too short"... Go play SuperMario for 100€ digital download, then tell me how that feels LOL Ah and at some point Senua said "OK" in the game!!! That completely turned me off. Who reviewed the dialogues?!

Прикольний досвід, навіть не знаю з чим порівняти, треба просто зіграти )

One of the best games I've ever played.