Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

This is a game to play if you want a razor sharp story driven gaming. It will take you on an adventure into the mind of trauma that is as deep and impactful as any other form of art. I say impactful because even after 4 year since I last time played it, I still see this game and have emotions fill me. It's games like this that remind me that, yes, gaming CAN be art. I'd say play this game if you are wanting a game that mainly focuses on immersive story telling. The mechanics of the game are not as ambitious. Combat can be mechanically repetitive and not complex, although still can be asthetically exciting. It is also quite linear, but I believe this helps to maintain the ambience and pacing of the experience. The main focus of this game is obviously it's narrative and immersing you into it. Also, play this game if you are comfortable with darker subject material such as depression, loss, abuse, inner demons and the struggles therein. It might even help you with those things. 9/10

This game messes with your head, remember its just a game. Combat is amazing one of the most fluid i ever saw.

From what i have played so far it is amazing. This game literally grabs you by the ears and drags you in to the norse realisation of hell (helheim). The game is so atmospheric and beautiful yet brutal and unforgiving, so much so i have ended up having to stop playing to write this review and ground myself in reality once again. Combat is fluid and the rot system is a nice touch instead of the standard health bar. Fans of Tomb Raider would be in their element playing this. If i had to rate out of 10 i would give it a 9. Certainly worth £25.

If this was a movie 4-5 stars. As a game due to controls, etc, 2-3. Unfortunate. I am torn. For every amazing dialog and graphic this game has it has an equivalent of the controls suck. If the controls made sense from a story style gaming experience it would be a 5 but since they make absolutely no sense nor are explained nor a tutorial at least a -2. Not to mention that the game requires a play-through to even figure WTF your keys do. Not good. The artists should do art. The programmers code. The engineers interfaces etc. Artists and coders suck at interfaces in general. Sorry. Or they stopped teaching the classes and everyone is too concerned with "looking cool" vs "being functional". Also if I am going to buy a "movie" I should have the ability to get to the end and not require my having to hack code to do so. Its equivalent to denying my access to the last 100 pages of a 300 page book cuz " I dont do what the author wants " and in which case go F yourself.

Game of the year for me!