Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

It's not often in this age that a developer releases a truly original game and even less common that the game is both aesthetically and conceptually a masterpiece. The game draws you into Senua's mind and by extension, the volunteers who informed the developers on her condition. The developers achieve this through stark landscapes, magnificient sound design, exemplary pacing and one of the best acting performances in any modern media. This creates a profoundly disturbing and disorienting experience, yet stirs such a deep sense of empathy for the character which is practically unheard of, let alone for a character whose mind works so differently from the norm. Forget the comments on mechanics, the simplicity of the mechanics allows you to focus on the unique aspects this game brings. If this game intrigues you, let it draw you in and you'll be rewarded with an enlightening and intense experience without comparison.

Für jeden der Spiel mit "Tiefgang" bevorzugt absolut bedingungslos zu empfehlen. Hab noch ein Spiel in den Händen gehabt, dass ein so ernstes und schwierig zu fassendes Thema so erfolgreich umsetzt. So sollen meiner Meinung nach Spiele sei. Und es zeigt auch welches potential Spiele im Vergleich zu klassischen Medien haben können, denn ich kann mir nicht vorstellen, dass Schizophrenie über Film oder Buch so packend und immersiv dargestellt werden kann.

I give it 3 stars just for the majority of the game is great. They seemed to have completly forgotten the most important thing in a game and that's the gameplay. I went in expecting this awesome psychological warrior game, all it ends up being is a boring, annoying puzzle game. The puzzles are so lame, it breaks the immersion. The whole intro gets you sucked right in and then bam! The puzzles just have you asking "Why? WTF! I was left with bewilderment and complete disappointment. Who ever decided on these puzzles needs to be sacked. After the first 3 or 4 puzzles, I just couldn't play it anymore. Clearly the gameplay was an afterthought, and what we get is really a tech demo. The story telling by some random is done well, the sound effects and voice whispering in surround sound is awesome. If only they had good gameplay to accompany the rest of the game. The graphics, animation, player character, textures, world design, atmosphere, sound, all top notch. I think you guys need to work better with your teams, because someone left the poor gameplay team outside of the design meetings. It's a shame.

The story is extraordinarily good and the graphics are very nice. Unfortunately there are some technical flaws. The game ran good most of the time but stuttered at some places. Changing settings didn’t help a lot. When I died, the game sometimes crashed or freezed. I also encountered a bug, where the game turned completely black. This could be resolved, with the help of support. Gameplay is okay but nothing super creative. When your in a small space and have to fight, the camera is very annoying, because it gets into walls, beams, or other objects. So you often die needlessly. But when there’s enough space to move around, the combat actually feels good and is fun. I recommend waiting half a year or so, until they patched the major flaws. But after that, it’s all worth the money. The story is something really special.

Now that I've literally been to Hel(heim) and back, I have to admit: it has been a very long time since a game has taught me anything (probably as long back as the point-and-click era). Hellblade gives deep insights into psychosis and schizophrenia and it takes a lot of gut from a game developer to treat this subject in a non-trivial way, not to mention the risk of scaring away customers and hence sales by offering more than your hack&slash feel-good experience. The guys at Ninja Theory are professionals. I urge you to check the making of documentary that comes with the game to have some faith in humanity restored.