Hellblade 2 is out, and the reviews are in. The highly anticipated sequel to the 2017 title Senua’s Sacrifice: Hellblade came out around 24 hours ago, and people have been running to get their hands on it via Game Pass or Steam.
The game being excluded from PlayStation consoles has given another reason for people to throw oil on the never-ending console wars. This time, the crowd is comparing the new Hellblade with a PS5 exclusive via their review scores, and the competition is close.
Stellar Blade vs. Hellblade 2: Which One’s Better?
Stellar Blade had a smashing release despite being a new IP. Even pre-orders for its physical release broke records, and Shift Up confirmed sales were beyond expectations.
The new Hellblade, on the other hand, was on Game Pass day one, so there’s no traditional sales number to follow, per se. Plus, it’s a very niche series; beloved by those in the fandom, but not known much outside of it.
LOOOOOOOL pic.twitter.com/u2gcJ8tKik
— UNLeashed (@OmoiteS) May 21, 2024
Sales-wise, it’s tough to compare. Some gamers have decided to use another metric to compare the two; their Metacritic scores. While the Sony exclusive scored an 81 on Metacritic from 131 critic reviews, the new Hellblade scored 80 from 56 critic reviews.
Some people might consider this a very negligible difference that doesn’t matter in the long run as critics don’t represent an entire group’s reviews, but others felt differently; the bashing on Ninja Theory’s latest release and Xbox began.
This is the funniest thing XD
Also Ghost of Tsushima on Steam is outshining it too.
I'm laughing so much, I said earlier that everyone will give no f's about Senua— Daryl Hadvard (@Daryl_Hadvard) May 21, 2024
Even Ghost of Tsushima, a former PS exclusive that was recently ported to PC, was brought into the conversation. On the other side of the debate, one player claimed the game was better than “any single-player game by Sony,” and it wasn’t even competition for them.
Its better than literally any single player game from Sony by a mile
— Trunks(C0mmission Open) (@Trunks_MS) May 21, 2024
Another user brought up the fact that the original tweet was comparing a four-hour game with a 53-hour game, and the former managed to closely match the score of the latter, falling behind by a single point.
4 hour game falls 1 point behind a ps5 53 hour completion game LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL good one @OmoiteS 🤣👍🏻
— Gwain (@Gwainzy) May 21, 2024
So, who wins the debate? Either of them, both, or none, depending on where you stand. But at the end of the day, does it matter?
Is This a Debate That Needs to Happen?
One would think that games that aren’t remotely similar in any shape or form, including gameplay, target audience, story, themes, etc. would be hard to compare. However, where there’s a will, there’s a way.
While a majority of the replies to the tweet were dunking or defending either of the two games in question, some people felt there was no need to compare or bring them down.
Hellblade II looks fun plus it got an 80 ON RELEASE
Stellar Blade is also fun and has a 81 almost 1 month in
I have played Stellar Blade and I am having fun plus I am gonna try Hellblade— IAmFoxDen (@FoxenBruh) May 21, 2024
One player praised both games, saying they had fun playing Sony’s exclusive and that the Xbox game also looked fun, and they would give it a shot. An 80 and 81 are great Metacritic scores, and debating over a single-point difference feels like reaching at straws at this point.
What’s your opinion on this whole debate between the new Hellblade and Stellar Blade? Let us know in the comments below!
