Step into one of the most cinematic of adventure games with excellent visuals, acting and music.

There's a cinematic mode in games, and then there are cinematic games. This is the most cinematic of games...

Senua's Saga: Hellblade II

Continuing on the story, the adventure takes us to the lands of the "Northmen", the solar-poor race of people making sense of existence with sacrifices of "slaves" from another (eng)land.

Our protagonist willingly gets herself captured as a slave to infiltrate the islands to put a stop to the madness at once.

While the story is quite simple, the overall presentation is so good that you can even ignore the short duration this adventure takes.

Graphics in the first game were no slouch, but this is a whole new level. A truly "next-gen" rendering.

The camera especially moves seamlessly between scenes and even in long camera movements, we can pause and enter the fully responsive photo mode at any time. Everything is rendered in-engine.

I'll also mention the excellent HDR implementation. The fire is insanely bright while we're down in the caves, and the bio-luminescence lighting up the dark areas is well done.

Sound design and music is excellent too, with both headphones or atmos speakers supported with noticeably distinct channels.

The mind-scape presentations are beautifully done, although I wish there were more "giants" to defeat in the story.

We've a more expanded supporting cast of (alive) characters this time around, and they get their moments to shine.

As with the first game, the story might not be for everyone — as with every contemporary films (e.g. The Northman) — but it's not something that prevents the enjoyment of the title.

The combat might look simple at first (light, heavy, parry and dodge), however the dynamic difficulty will have you dying a couple of times before learning the various enemy types (fire guys are the worst!).

As with the rest of the game, the combat is extremely cinematic. I like the aesthetic 2.39:1 aspect choice the whole game uses. Also helps save a bunch of screen space for demanding graphics.

Not much else to say about it, recommended. It's even on good discount these days. I'll probably not attempt the platinum due to the super-hard mode.