Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

I liked it, and I think it did some things really well, but overall I feel like more could have been done with the concept, and some of the elements didn’t really work that well. Let me explain. The crux of the story is that Senua suffers from what the characters in-universe refer to as „the Curse”, being pursued and hounded by „the Darkness”. Senua hears voices – and you hear them too. In fact, I think it’s kind of implied that you, the player, ARE one of the voices in her head. And the voices themselves were mostly done really well – they really played up the „directionality” of them – they really sounded like coming from numerous directions, always chattering in the background, whispering, bickering with each other. The game was rarely completely quiet, and the cacophony of the voices was pretty unsettling. There were a couple of moments I found to be really poignant, touching and really, really sad, though. When you really look at it, the combat comprised a surprisingly substantial portion of the game – and I myself wouldn’t really mind if the game skipped it altogether – it was really mediocre and kinda boring after a longer while. I really enjoyed the puzzles with the runes. They were really simple in their design and instinctively easy to understand, but were pretty creative in how they worked, requiring you to look at the enviroment a little bit differently, from diverse angles. I loved the graphicl. I think the game looked downright gorgeous at times, and I often stopped to admire the visuals. The character models and animation were something else as well – I loved how expressive Senua’s face was. If you want to see how I experienced Senua blind for the first time and formed my predictions about the plot/talked about my feelings regarding what was shown, you can do so on my youtube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhnVgwcN9C0&list=PLp4TpsJ7HUWUbV3J_6pDCmNyh-wMMAcik

I have just finished the game and there are no words to describe the amount of various emotions that I'm feeling after finishing. I can safely say that this was the most intimate experience I have ever experienced in over 20 years of video gaming. Simply outstanding. And the choice of song at the end during the credits ... Well fucking done. Thank you, Ninja Theory.

Such a solid game. Unique in its theme and so well executed. The gameplay is fun, with decent battles and some clever (albeit not very difficult) puzzles. The story is told in a very engaging way, with quality voice-acting and beautiful visuals. The voices in the main character's head are one of best game elements I've seen. The only issue I can have with the game is that there was some slow backtracking on few points, but that was just a minor detail and it was used for some story exposure anyways. Kudos to Ninja Theory for the spectacular work.

I got the game on sale, though it was short it was a memorable journey. I had to alter engine.ini files and tweak setting but once that was out of the way I found it to be an experience I will never forget

I have had the game since it first came out. Overall it is a great story in an unforgettable atmospheric setting. The warnings in the begging of the game are there for a reason, heed them. Recently, I saw that I received the VR version for free and decided to try it. I will say that I recommend that you first play the game in regular mode before playing it in VR so you can learn the game and mechanics. Once you put on the VR, it brings you into the world and completely changes the immersion of the game in the right way. Before, I played the game with headphones on and once in a while, got creeped out. Within the first few minutes of playing it in VR, I immediately got the feeling of dread. My hats of to the developer. There are some things of note. First, the game is still in third person while in VR, as if you are a passenger on the journey like before, so your perspective can seem a little off at times, but it does work. At first, I tried to use my VR controllers, (didn't see the nonsupport as the VR version appeared in my GoG launcher) then realized that I had to use a regular controller. It works as you are controlling Senua, but having the VR controllers would have been nice, especially if it was in first person perspective. Overall, I really enjoyed the game when it first launched, and I am looking forward to playing it again in VR mode. Overall, great game.