Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

After seeing the previews for this game I was somewhat impressed. The visuals looked very nice and the world seemed to be beautifully crafted. I thought for a game with stunning visuals for $29.99 why not. Let's give it a shot. I was thoroughly impressed with the gameplay. The use of mechanics derived from people with psychosis to implement into the game was a very unique idea. I thought a lot of the puzzles were well thought out and at times brilliant. The game also added elements of inter-dimensional traveling which makes it even more interesting. Although short I'm glad I bought this game. It was well worth it to support this new developer. They really delivered and I hope they continue to innovate new IP in the future.

I had probably made a few preconceived ideas about this game. I know I was under the impression it might give me a scare or two. I found it rather repetitive with the puzzle side, I love puzzles and was hoping for more, not more of the same each time. As for the fighting, that I found annoying, all much the same, only a few moves to make and almost no directional control once the fight started, button mashing and trying to dodge, but finding that movement is severely limited compared to most games I've played. I played it to the end, felt totally underwhelmed by the whole experience, walked away from it with little feeling of accomplishment, not a rewarding game to play.

While the story is interesting and the graphics are more than beautiful, the core game loop is so repetitive I just can't stand it. Small tasks require no thinking at all and keep repeating all the time. Also, there is just a handful of different enemies. Don't fall for the hype, one of the biggest letdowns of 2017 for me.

The graphics and the animation of the main character are amazingly well done. It tells a beautiful story in a original way. The game mechanics are somewhat simple but they are solid, most puzzles or fights aren't to easy or to hard. Level design is really good and the gameflow is brilliant in my opinion. There is no hud and no tutorial as such, all that is intelligently packed into more or less subtle hints the game gives you. The game creates a great atmosphere and does a good job in guiding you on your journey. It can sometimes be somewhat haunting, but never gets as intense as a horror game and it doesn't need jumpscares. The pressure put on the player is of other nature. All in all this game is pretty emotional and foremost transports a strong feeling of despair, sadness and helplessness, but is on the other hand filled with little moments of hope and small triumphs. This game is for people who like story heavy games with a meaning and character developement, who don't like to be bothered with a plethora of meaningless sidequests. The fights may be good in my opinion and are really well balances, but they are by no means enough to carry this game alone, that's why story skipping people should not touch this. Be aware that this game tries to mess with your mind on various occasions, wich is how games should be build more often. Hellblade: Senuas Sacrifice has the soul and beauty that the endless gameseries games of many AAA publishers miss nowadays wich makes it really stand out.

A poor console port where the main character can't jump (sic!). You are running through pretty corridors with minor branching accompanied by rather long cutscenes of a female version of Rick "Camera eye-f*ck" Grimes. Camera is one of your adversaries during fights. The story is rather dull. The graphics are cool though. Encountered my first "door won't open bug" during first 2 hours of play. Had to re-do 10 minutes of gameplay because of console style checkpoint save system. Wouldn't recommend unless you want an art-house style visual novel.