Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice Review

  As of late, there are two types of games that have been coming out.  There are the large full feature, full priced games being developed by large studios and on the other side are smaller, cheaper games being developed by indie studios.  Ninja Theory hit somewhere in between with Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice offering a more compact experience for a smaller price tag.  They did this while also taking on the touchy subject of mental health.

The Game:   

  Hellblade is a pretty basic adventure game.  There are no leveling mechanics, no inventory, no upgrades sprinkled over a map to make you stronger.  You will play as Senua who is armed with her sword, a mirror, the head of her former love, and the voices in her head. 

  You will be traveling down a well-defined path as you help Senua reclaim the lost soul of her beloved Dillion.  The path will be blocked with puzzles where you will use Senua's ability to focus on symbols hidden in the land or fragmented structures that she can bring back together.  

  The combat is a 3rd person perspective.  Senua is a talented and fast Celtic warrior. She has the ability to block, dodge, and unleash quick or heavy attacks.  She can also use her run to unleash some strong attacks that can knock an enemy back.  When you dodge or successfully land attacks you will be building up a charge that, once reached, can be used to slow down time or pull an enemy from their shadow form.

 Besides some symbols that when focused on will give you an oral story, there isn't anything else to the game.

My Thoughts:

  If there is a game that was highly deserving of all the accolades and awards it has received this is it. Hellblade is a dark walk in the chaos that is Senua's life.  The creators of the game wanted to recreate the experience of psychosis so you are barraged with the voices that plague Senua, an aspect that did a surprisingly good job of pulling me into the game and setting the mood.  Her psychosis is also used as a means for creating puzzle or dilemmas that make for some interesting challenges.

  I really want to talk about how great this game looks.  While I had some map clipping on a spiral stair case here and there the rest of the game was very tight and constantly full of eye candie.  The land is very scenic and the animation is great.  The small things like slices opening up in an enemies skin really add to the combat and make you feel like you are causing some damage.

  The soundtrack is small but well placed.  The voice acting was incredibly well done.  There was not one voice in this game that didn't sound authentic.  Nobody took me out of the game in any way.

  The combat was fun for me.  I know people had some complaints but the fluidity of Senua's moves but the fact that a dodge will take presidence lead to some really fullfilling fights.  Learning an enemy and knowing when you could swing hard or just try to manage a quick stricke made the combat dynamic and did not become repetative.

  When it comes to psychosis I don't have a lot of experience.  I did find the 25 minute video that they placed in the game is pretty interesting as it added some insight to what was going in Senua's head.  Its interesting on how little thought I had put into just how crazy here ideas were.  I guess I had just surrendered to the game logic and didn't see it was all apart of her delusion. 

  One issue I has was around the 2nd or 3rd gate.  I had found the symbols and they disappeared off the gate but it still wouldn't open.  I ran far back and came back to the door, which didn't work.  After leaving the game, coming back in, and resolving the puzzle again it did open for me.  Looking online it does not seem like I was the only one to have this issue.  This was the only real complaint I had.

  Hellblade is just an all around great game.  It was light on features, which was actually pretty refreshing.  It wasn't bogged down by needless mechanics and just did what it did well.  I am hoping this game's success could lead to more titles like it.  We don't always need long 80 hour full price games but sometimes just a great story that lasts around 7 hours for half the price.  I really enjoyed this game and can easily say its worth playing.

TL;DR:

  Hellblade Senua's Sacrifice is 3rd person action game where you play in the mind of a warrior stricken with psychosis.  The inventive puzzles mixed with a decent combat system adds on to a beautiful landscape occompanied by great voice acting.  It's definitely worth playing.