Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

From a production value point of view, this game is as close to an AAA game to be better than many of them, but that's not its strong point. I'm not much in walking simulators or heavily scripted games, but damn if this game is a complete exception! If you are looking for an action game, look elsewhere, same if you are looking for an RPG or an adventure game with proper puzzles. If you are looking for something unique, developed by a small studio, a game with mental illness at the core... welcome to the world of Senua.

So I just completed the game, took me 8 hours to complete, and about 10 deaths. I got to say, "WOW" and in a good way. Fantastic journey, very immersive and atmospheric game with challenging battles and fun puzzles. This game is now in my top list of best games ever, Freespace 1 and 2 share the top spot, with Hellblade being second spot. Hopefully we see more of this kind of game from Ninja Theory.

Senuas Sacrifice is perhaps the best, but certainly the most courageos game of 2017. It does hardly follow any game conventions and cannot be ascibed to a genre. Calling it a Roleplaygame is probably the closest you can get, although it comes without any of the features you would expect from such a game: no character customasation, no inventory, no leveling, no interface, no perks or stats,.. What it has is a role for you to play and its not an easy one. It is a carfully crafted, sometimes beatyful but mostly terrifying journey into the mind of a pictish woman suffering from psychosis. The game explores this theme with its sounddesign, mechanics, graphics and narrative. Everything in this game supports the portrait of Senua and the developers have come up with some truely inovative ways to use the medium of games not only to present Senuas story to the player but to make the player experiance what Senua is going through. Because it does this very well it might be too desturbing for some people. Gameplaywise the main features are environmental puzzles and action based fights but they are really not at the heart of the game. I can wholeheartedly advice everyone who is interested in this game to by it. But dont by it for its gameplay features, by it for the experiance it offers.

It's hard not to rate this game 4 stars. The first thing to note is the $30 value more than makes up for the game's hours of play. There are several moments where you think its ending then it keeps going, particularly entering act 3. As for graphics, it's at the highest level. Amazing textures and lighting and the facial expression control is unmatched, The animations and mocap are solid and the combat feels smooth and precise. Particularly the parry system. The voice acting is solid and the soundscape is of the best ever made. Story is great as well, really delving into the mind of Senua and creating layer after layer of engaging content. So why the opening comment? There isn't enough diversity within two primary elements: Combat and Puzzles, despite having gone to such stellar lengths to create them. Combat is great but is limited to the same small batch of animations with no growth as the game moves into the later chapters. The puzzles are clever, at first, then they become repetitive. However, Ninja Theory is such a solid studio I am certain there must be a reason for these shortcomings and I would expect a full length release from them will be very, very hard to beat. Overall I think this game should see countless accolades for its sheer beauty and immersiveness. It is worth every penny.

Basically it's a delierous dream simulator. You might say that it is meant to be this way, but I don't think people sufferring from psychosis are opening gates by finding similar patterns in trees (this part of the game is really boring and annoying). Actually most game mechanics make no sense. This game should make up it's mind if it's fantasy or sudo realistic representation of a medical illness. I hope I am wrong and as I progress through the game it will make more sense, for now it doesn't...