Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

This product would have been a great movie but unfortunately the developers decided to publish it as a game. It is one of the very rare games I've never finished although I was very interested in the story. The fight agains the first boss was already an instant kill for my motivation. If the developers will add a pure story mode where players can skip all "fights" I may resume the game to continue the story ... as it is right now it's more a "game controler mandatory" piece of crap.

Magnificent story, which is presented in magnificent way. Graphics, music, and gameplay are important, but they are only servants or greater purpose - to tell the story of madness and how to recover mind from it. Why only 4/5? I think some fighting episodes was too hard - not because of enemies, but because of some camera issues. Also one of bosses is very hard to beat because of flashes on screen. Nethertheless, definately must-buy game.

I'm a veteran gamer, I'm not shy of challenges, but my oh my do the "boss battles" in this game detract from an incredible experience. Wonderful graphics, superb sound and atmosphere let down by a hard fighting mechanic that needs a story mode.

Wow. The game is just an experience out of this world. Not "just some fantasy world", but the very real world inside someone's head. And made into a very good game, too. The story is interesting and well told. The graphics are excellent, beautiful and terrifying. The puzzle parts are just of the right type not to break the immersion. The fight system is rather simple, but meaningful and interesting, even though the enemies are maybe a little bit too repetitive. The acting, together with the face motion capture, was so realistic that it was sometimes easy to forget it's a game and not a movie, or reality... And after finishing the game, I recommend watching the movie about how much work was put into the game, I mean especially work with mental health specialists and patients - this makes many aspects of the game even more meaningful. It's very impressive how much effort was put in the project, especially given the difficult topic it talks about. Honestly, this game is one of the most impressive I've played in a long time.

The Bulk of the game is you running around (like a snail) completing mind nubing puzzles which consist mostly of running in a linear path and pressing a button and watching a dragged out cutscene. The main characters fighting animations are just bad, it looks like she's swinging a really heavy foam sword which after a couple hits that seem to do nothing send enemies flying even though it's the exact same hit as before. The bosses are pretty uninspired too. voice acting is not that great, music's not that great, landscapes are a mixed bag of beatiful and just a couple of rocks.