Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

After reading many glowing reviews for the game, I thought this would be 100% my cup of tea. Alas, this games has flaws that hindered my enjoyment. For starters, the intro is vague and loooong, very loong with very little tangible information. You just press forward listening to the ever present voices that in the end did get on my nerves because I had no thread of story to attach to to understand what was happening. I almost quit because I did not enjoy the first 1-2 hours at all. After that, you're given a bit more context and story to chew on but not enough in my opinion, i did not like the way it was delivered. My enjoyment did increase though, but not to "exciting" levels. Then gameplay, it is simple, which I don't mind but gets very repetitive. The big stand out is one boss fight that I did really enjoy (you'll know which one if you play the game). Also the puzzles get old very quickly, and do not add anything to the game. So to summarise, don't expect flawlessness, soldier on through the boring beginning because the game really gets better and is worth experiencing. As a side note, I got really tired of the way the Norse mythology was delivered, I think that linking story to hidden objects is weak because you might miss them and as such, miss some story details. At the same time, I was not a big fan of the mythology at all so, I don't feel like going back and find the bits I missed. I know this might all sound very negative, but in the end I had a positive experience, this game did make me "feel" the events and story, which in my book, is the greatest achievement a game can have.

I had such high hopes going in to this game. I'd heard it would be an emotional game that dealt with mental health issues, which sounded really interesting and unique. I was excited to play it. If only the game had focused on that, instead of trying to shove in action and puzzle elements as well, I'm sure I would've loved it. Instead, I uninstalled it after 3 hours of play. I will say that they nailed the atmosphere for this game. The graphics are gorgeous and moody, the sound design is also appropriately unsettling. Unfortunately, the combat controls are clunky and slow, making fights a chore to get through - even on easy mode. Even more annoying, each boss fight is accompanied by a long unskippable cutscene beforehand, and with the way the autosave system works, you're forced to rewatch them if you decide to exit out of the game and come back to the fight later. Eventually I realized that I wasn't even that invested in the main story either; I was far more interested in the Lore collectibles telling the mythology of the Norse gods, than I was of the actual game's story itself. Senua's story is your typical fantasy quest of a warrior who has to fight/get revenge on the gods in order to rescue her lover. The mental-illness selling point of the game involves Senua hearing voices in her head...wow, how original [/sarcasm]. Honestly, by the end of my playtime, I was more annoyed at the gimmick than emotionally invested in Senua. The developers might've have some interesting ideas, but IMHO the game was marred by clumsy execution. If they'd focused on fine-tuning the story rather than trying to wedge in the action elements, it might've been a good game, but as is, this game isn't worth my time to finish.

Also ich kann nur 3/5 Sternen geben, weil's echt Null ein Spielprinzip ist, das mir Spaß macht. Man muss schon Bock so auf bis ins Details vorgebenen Abläufe haben, Konsolen-Abenteuer eben. Ob relativ dazu die Grafik schön ist, will ich mal nicht beurteilen. Ich kanns eigentlich nicht so gut ab, wenn belanglose Dinge wie Sträucher oder Schotterhaufen unüberwindliche Hindernisse darstellen. Und das ja wohl umso weniger, wenn das gesamte Spielgeschehen immer quasi in vorgefertigten Arenen stattfindet. Nach ca. 6h Spielzeit habe ich noch immer nicht rausgefunden, wann genau im Kampf welche moves möglich sind, aber ich nehme an, für Kontrollerfreunde ist das alles sofort klar. Die englische Sprachausgabe ist so einfach gehalten, daß mir das nix ausgemacht hat (obwohl ich da bei anderen Spielen regelmässig unzufieden mit bin).

Well, the nordic theme with runes and gods and the graphics are the only thing I like in this game. The game is a kind of Playstation type - you just go, interact/open doors, fight, go, interact/open doors, fight and again and again. Similar Ps game is a God of war, which has a great story and nordic theme as well, but there still you just go, interact and fight. Such games should stay on consoles, not on PC. And you fight the same type of enemies most of the time, which are overpowered and the game becomes nervous. After you die, you can start the sequence from the beginning. So if you want to enjoy the nordic athmosphere and concentrate to the story, it is not so.

Gameplay wise it´s mostly a puzzle game with a fair share of combat. The puzzles weren´t difficult but have a lot of backtracking. The combat is functional, very limited, but fitting given the context. Technically, this game does some interesting things laying real life video to portray characters. The writing, the supposed big selling point, is somewhat disappointing given the praise it got. The concept is interesting, but I don't think it's well executed. I couldn´t connect to Senua; a dull character until she shows some growth at the end. I find the optional stories you can listen to at times more interesting. The developer makes a big deal about this game showing psychosis, but if they didn´t frontload this information it wouldn´t be hard to think, as I did, that all Senua´s episodes are just part of Hel´s trials and torments. The horror wasn´t really there, save one section in the mid game where I actually tensed up a bit. The use of the voices in her head to convey information to the player is interesting, though. All in all, it's fine. If it's on sale you'll get your money's worth if you're into slow moving psycho thriller puzzle games.