Why Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2’s Runtime of 9 Hours is Completely Fine

Hellblade 2 is confirmed to be around 9 hours in length, and there's a strong case as to why that relatively short length will likely be one of its strongest suits.

[FPSRUSSIA]

It's Good Since it's on Game Pass I wouldn't Pay 50 for it since it's Digital Only

[Eonjay]

The first game was a similar length but if I remember correctly it didn't carry the full price of AAA games when the first on launched. If I were them, I would take a note from the pages of some of the most successful games this year and keep it a $39.99. I think the result is they will sell more. It will balance out because at the higher price they will sell less. I think in the end the lower price will wind up generating the most revenue. Of course I am talking about the PC release and then the eventually PS5 release whenever it hits.

[Terry_B]

It was not. The first game had a length of about 4-5 hours.

I bet the new game is similar long.

[neutralgamer1992]

I think MS can take that chances of a 9 hour game because of GP. Vast majority of Xbox gamers play games using GP(no doubt excellent value)

Personally I bought the first game when it was under $20 and I would have done the same if I didn’t have GP. I rather have 9 hours of quality content than 50 hours of fetch quests. As I grow and have less time for gaming I honestly don’t mind medium size games because there are way too many open world games

[Obscure_Observer]

9 hours is totally fine. Especially for Senua's fans who beat the first game.

[Eonjay]

This. In fact I think the original was only 8 hours so this is right in line with expectations.

[TheCaptainKuchiki]

Okay but they didn't have MS' money for the first game. Now they do so 9 hour is unacceptable.

[jznrpg]

Strongest suits ? I don’t buy very short games until they are very cheap.

[Redgrave]

Let us see if it truly does somehow improve the game after the time spent waiting, or if this will be cited in the downsides of reviews.

[Sonic1881]

It took me 7 hours to beat the first game. But since it's on gamepass on PC and Xbox who cares about the length

[staticall]

Really depends on how enjoyable those 9 hours will be. And we will have to wait and see, i guess.

If the game will be 9 hours of gameplay, full of interesting battles with an engaging combat system, good puzzles, atmosphere and story (with right direction and satisfying ending) - sure, 9 hours is plenty.

But if it's 9 hours of cutscenes, slow walking, awkward combat, braindead puzzles - dunno, not worth it, in my eyes.

IMO, games not overstay their welcome, but they also shouldn't be like an appetizer with a cliffhanger ending. But again, will have to wait and see for myself first.

[Terry_B]

4-5 hours of them will be cutscenes, another 2-3 hours will be walking and listening to senua.

[anast]

It's a "game reviewer's" dream and it's no big deal to them because they get free games, so they can review it quickly and they don't have to pay for it.

[Fishy Fingers]

Hellblade length confirmed while PS4 exclusive:
Team A - "justify"
Team B - "LOL short"
Goes multiplat:
Team A & B - "cool cool"

Hellblade II length confirmed while XB exclusive:
Team A - "LOL short"
Team B - "justify"
Goes multiplat:
Team A & B - "cool cool"

[ravens52]

Lol. Exactly

[RNTody]

Accurate 😂

[RhinoGamer88]

You give the XBOX team too much credit. Killer graphics - female hero - action/slasher = ship it

[ocelot07]

Yes its short but you can rent it for like £6.

[romulus23]

Nine hours is like maybe two sittings max but it could easily be tackled in a single sitting if someone wanted to and it's been well established on this very site people don't like "one and done" games, especially short ones, now all of a sudden its a "strong suit"? smh

[Alos88]

For me it depends on the price. Sixty bucks for 9 hours isn't a great value proposition for me.

[wesnytsfs]

Seems short to me and I felt the 12 hour spiderman 2 game was to short. I feel the same way about this game. Luckily its part of Game Pass so I will still play it but would have debated full price like i did with Spiderman 2.

[Charlieboy333]

How the hell did Spider-Man 2 take you only 12 hours?? You must have just sped through the main story.....don't look left.....don't look right....just skip everything and go. I only did about half of the side stuff and missions and it still took me over 20 hours.

[Sonic1881]

I agree. I don't know how it took him just 12 hours to beat. He definitely skip a lot of side missions

[jwillj2k4]

10 years of development for 9 hours of game play is a wild ratio.

[Petebloodyonion]

The simple facts that lots of ppl agree with you just show that ppl want to hate Xbox just for the sake of hating
10 years really?
the 1st game was released in 2017 :)
Unreal 5 engine was released in 2022 but hey nice try.

[Cockney]

They started this game on unreal 4 but hey nice try

[AdonisIsBeast]

ITS BEEN OVER 6 YEARS

[VersusDMC]

I didn't have a problem with Ico, Miles Morales or RE3 being short so not really a problem here either. Especially since it will be a gamepass rental that costs me 5 bucks.

[HyperMoused]

As long as the price is on par

[Nacho_Z]

9/10 hours for a quality SP game is absolutely fine. There are more than enough lengthy games out there if that's what you want.

[CrashMania]

We were told with MS massive cash this would be much bigger. Turns out after 6 years it's basically the same length, and the 'gameplay' if you can call it that is mostly the same. Well at least it looks pretty, even if it's 30fps with a letterbox view.

Funny that the Xbox fanatics always talk crap about PlayStation's '3rd person narrative movie games' yet a 9 hour walking simulator is suddenly the next thing since sliced bread lol.

I can appreciate shorter games though. A great 9 experience can be better than a 30 hour repetitive drag fest.

[Psychonaut85]

The Order was full price, should not have been. This is $20 cheaper than full, I’d argue $40 is the better price, but still.
I don’t really get the Miles Morales comparisons, The Order, absolutely, I enjoyed The Order but it was a terrible value proposition. In Miles Morales if you just run the main story, sure, 9 hours, but there’s a lot of side activities and a much higher replay value that ups that number for most fans significantly. It is legitimate to point out that this game is quite short for the money, and mostly like doesn’t have a lot of replay potential. That being said, it could be an amazing experience nonetheless, and I hope it’s worth it for those who get it at launch. We simply won’t know til then. It may be the next Order, or it may justify its asking price. We shall see.

[Inverno]

Hellblade 2 is 50 bucks, only 10 less than The Order was originally. So this should, if we're being fair, bomb critically for it's short length. I personally couldn't care less, mind you I bought The Order when it was cheaper, but with the amount of work that most likely went into Hellblade it's price is justified and it's length is a non issue. But people bitched and moaned about short games, so why is it different now?

[northpaws]

"a strong case as to why that relatively short length will likely be one of its strongest suits"... xbox games waited years for this...

[DarXyde]

People were also criticizing The Order: 1886 for its length. Good to see people finally coming around to the idea that games don't all have to be very long. Of course, I suspect the people who criticized The Order are now okay with Hellblade II... BUT let's set that aside.

The way I see these types of games, they work best at either a discounted price or rented.

I don't see this game selling very well at all. High uptake on Game Pass, sure. The $50 purchase though? Not likely, I suspect.

[tay8701]

It's going to flop on xbox. They will rely on playstation users to recoup the dev cost for sure. Certainly not the system seller they were hoping for when they showed the game all those yrs ago. Depending on the price and what else is in the release window for ps5 I might check it out. I love cinematic game, just a bit unsure when it comes to replay value and have to see what the combat is like.

[DarXyde]

The thing about Ninja Theory games (in my opinion, anyway) is that they are all narrative with less attention to gameplay.

I'm sure people will love it and that's perfectly fine. But for me, their games better fit the mold of "one and done". People like to say that a lot about playstation games, but I've replayed Uncharted, The Last of Us, God of War, and others multiple times. The story is great, but the gameplay is really fun. I don't get that from NT games

[jjb1981]

This definitely worth a $1 Game Pass Trial for a week.

[Exvalos]

While I disagree with the logic of everything is okay because.... gamepass. A game lacking should never be justified...with the excuse "We'll it's in gamepass." However a shorter game is absolutely welcome as these days games are to long and full of bloat I welcome a game that can deliver an amazing story and get to the point without filler.

[jwillj2k4]

It’s been in development for a decade. Expect more from your devs.

[Barlos]

But it's the first game ever that is 'true next-gen' according to Obscure Observer. Whatever that means.

[derek]

Hahaha, 6 years development for a 9 hrs game. Lol. Microsoft first party straight stealing money from them.

[z2g]

Fine with me. I usually don’t finish super long games anyway unless they are absolutely brilliant perfection to me. At some point I usually get bored. Quality over quantity

[Petebloodyonion]

It's so funny hearing some ppl complaining about length and price when they were praising a PS4/PS5 game called Spiderman Miles Morales
I'm pretty sure that the 49$ to justify an expansion was quite okay back then.

[Barlos]

I got it free with my copy of Spider-Man Remastered. I definitely wouldn't have paid for it.

[Petebloodyonion]

So you're saying that you're not ok with paying 50$ for a shorter game but you're okay with paying 50$ for an upgrade that PC players and Xbox players usually get for free.
Let's see the cost of remasters on PC and Xbox
Witcher 3 0$
Resident Evil 2-3-7 remake 0$
Quake 2 0$
Doom Eternal, Forza, Gears...... 0$

[Barlos]

@Petebloodyonion

That's one hell of a reach man. No, what I'm saying is that I hadn't played it originally on the PS4 so I bought Remastered for £45 when I bought my PS5, and it also came with Miles Morales. How is that saying I'm ok with paying for upgrades that usually come for free on PC and Xbox? For the record, those upgrades you mentioned were also free on PS5, with the exception of Gears, Forza that weren't on PS5 anyway.

I'm not sure how you reached your conclusion, but whatever works for your narrative I guess.

[il-JumperMT]

Meanwhile if it was a PS Exclusive game it would been ripped to shreds.

The Order is one of the best games last gen. The only criticism you can have against is the length.

[LoveSpuds]

If the gameplay and puzzle design haven't moved on from the 1st game, then 8 or 9 hours will be fine, because its going to get super repetitive, super quickly.

[Nerdmaster]

Good to see they're not padding the game with boring stuff like Ubisoft's open world shenanigans. It was one of my fears when they announced it would be bigger and have a higher budget.
I was excited to play Spider-Man for a long time, but when I finally did, I stopped playing after a couple of hours because of that reason. The finding towers and going around collecting random stuff and doing random missions is not fun for me anymore.
I can play around 30min / 1 hour a day. So a 9 hours game would take me 9~18 days to finish it, what would be enough. The older I get, the more I enjoy games that last around 10 hours at most.

[RNTody]

Don't care about length, care about how good the hours are. Not every game needs to be 50 hours and take over your life or become a second job. Not sure why this is a debate. It's good to see what started out as basically an indie game become a big triple A title.

The concern however is whether what was once a niche game can justify its investment with its reviews and performance. I suspect MS will have to go multiplatform by next year with this one. I maintain that Games Pass isn't sustainable for new triple A games.

[RupeeHoarder]

Why hellblade 2 is fine being 9 hours….because Xbox hasn’t had a good game in 10220.011 hours (equivalent of 14 months). :(

[shadowT]

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 campaign was just over 6h and full price

[Crows90]

Games used to include multiplayer, unique modes, CO op, couch co op modes and unlockables as part of the game. All for a lower price than 70$

The time it takes to beat isn't indicative of the price. The quality of the game is indicative of the price.

For me it's all about the quality. Don't care about amount of content if you give me quality

[ChasterMies]

I like shorter AA games including the original Hellblade (even though the combat was super repetitive for such a short game). I don’t like a 7 minute video that basically serves as an ad for the game.

[dveio]

I have to agree.

I can even imagine playing a 9hrs God of War or The Last of Us.

I think it's something many developers should truly evaluate on. Shorter AAA titles, reducing costs, equal revenues, lesser development time, more games.

[Crows90]

Game prices are out of control in the AAA industry.

Has to be mind blowing breathtaking experience to warrant 70$

[RhinoGamer88]

Fine for a GamePass game or bought at $29.99

[JL2930]

7 years for 9 hours of game and lot of that time spent in cutscenes.