Hellblade 2
There will be a lot of debate Hellblade 2’s length, which should not be a surprise to many, given that the first game was not long, and the developer said this one would be similar. I am in the camp that short games can be great, and in some instances, are preferable to sprawling blockbusters or 100 hour open-world explorers. But if you want to know exactly how short is short for Hellblade, as someone who beat a review copy already, I can tell you.
My own playthrough clocked in at 6.5 hours. What did that entail?
On average, Hellblade 2 seems shorter than Hellblade 1. Estimates put just the main story of the first game at 7.5 hours to beat, doing some amount of side things, 8 hours, and being a completionist at 9 hours. From what I’ve experienced, it being an hour shorter sounds right, though again, that may increase if you really go out of your way to explore in the limited ways that are available or combat or puzzles really stump you. Or if you’re stopping to mess around with photo mode to take pictures of the pretty landscapes, which I would not blame you for.
It’s a short game. This is certainly not inherently bad and especially on Xbox Game Pass, you don’t really have to make the “is this 6.5 hours worth $50 judgement?” since it’s already included. My own review is not especially positive and I do not think it used even that short amount of time wisely, as it suffers from overlong segments that raise pacing issues, but the overall length itself is certainly not the problem. Hope you enjoy it.
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