Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

I bought Hellblade on GOG but played it on my Xbox. It's a game rather suited for playing with a controller but anyway: Hellblade is a third person adventure game where you play as Senua, a mentally ill woman on a quest to save her dead lovers soul by challenging Hella, a semi-deity from the old norse pagan faith (the Aesir faith to be precise). Senuas travels takes her through dark, cold and unhospital lands and Senua is also forced to use both her wits and her ability as a warrior to combat enemies which (I assume) are the souls of deceased nordic warriors as well as other godlike creatures. Hellblade is a very linear game, something that I find very positive as linear games almost feels like a dying breed these days. While the graphics aren't exactly AAA-material, the facial animations of Senua are absolutely top notch and the voice acting is great. The combat is simplistic and consists of light attacks, strong attacks, parrying and dodging and is generally more frustrating than fun once it becomes challenging. The game often spawns enemy behind you that attacks you instantly and the camera has a tendency to block your view at the most inconvenient times. Besides fighting there are some simple puzzles to solve but most of your time is dedicated to the story and the portrayal of Senua's psychosis and crippling self-doubt. The developers have bragged about their unique take on mental health issues and while the setting (and heroine) could indeed be regarded as unique, the actual mechanisms are a lot more familiar. Voices in your head? Check. Odd mirages and visual artifacts? Check. Unsettling flashbacks? Check. None of this is very interesting nor is it really scary either. The constant chatter in Senua's head gets tiresome after a while and prevented me from enjoying the more quiet and slow parts between combat that could otherwise have a melancholic charm to it (such as when wandering through shipwreck ridden beach or a misty forest). Not a bad game though!

Let me get the initial praise out of the way: the game is gorgeous, the soundtrack is pretty nifty, and the art direction is impecable. That's the end of the strict praise. The use of real-world psychology is very commendable, but it causes harm to the messaging when set in a fantastic universe such as this. It is often unclear whether the voices are in Senua's head, memories the audience is getting to see to apply context to the current situation, or magical visuals that are really taking place. This makes it unclear what the exact message the game is trying to get across, which might be the point, but clairity is much more important than the ambiguous "artistic merit." Here comes the criticism. The combat and responsiveness are pretty lacking. Many times throughout, the game will throw several enemies at you in a tight space with you, while the combat is designed for one on one encounters. The primary issue with this is that you can get easily stunlocked if you are either wedged into a corner by two enemies, or if the dodge button decides it doesn't want to register for some reason. This happened to me in about 40% of the combat encounters, which is a significant portion of the players time. Focus will also either snap wildly, spinning you in circles, or it will not snap, leading to you being hit from the side or dodging in the wrong direction, taking damage anyway. Overall, I despise this game. While the graphics are incredible, the gameplay, story, and moral messaging are all great in concept, but fall flat on their face. What makes me hate this game is its theme. Unless I misunderstood it, it is an incredbily simple concept told condescendingly to the player as if it were a profound discovery. A pretentious fart that wasted 6.5 hours of my time.

I wrote a full review explaining all my problems with this game, but alas GOG only allows for 2000 characters. Check the full text at pastebin.com/9T9rysDD, if you like. For now, let’s just say that the story is boring, the character’s unlikeable, the environments are confusing and lack variety, the combat’s shallow and the puzzles are repetitive. Overall, the game comes across as ambitious, but pretentious.

Overall I HIGHLY recommend this game!! I would rate this game 5 stars if the combat wasn't so challenging for a casual gamer like me. I agree with the majority of reviewers who focus on the unique subject matter, artistic beauty, immersive audio, and compelling story of this game. So I won't repeat those here. Instead I'll highlight the combat. The balance between exploration, puzzle solving, story progression and combat is about right. But for a casual gamer like me, I find the combat, even on easy, to be quite challenging. As a comparison, I've played Tomb Raider 2013, Dishonored, Bioshock, Deus Ex Human Revolution, Half Life 1 & 2, Clive Barker's Undying, Painkiller, Serious Sam 1 & 2, Quake 1, 2 and 4, DOOM 3, System Shock 1 & 2 and others. So I'm not an expert, but I can play most games on easy with no frustrations. But I find the combat in Senua's Sacrifice to be quite challenging and sometimes frustrating. I've tried both mouse/keyboard and Xbox gamepad. For exploration and puzzle solving, it's about equal. But for combat, hands-down the gamepad is preferred. I never could configure a keyboard combination that worked as fluidly as the buttons & triggers on the gamepad, but while using the gamepad I missed the precision of the mouse. I ultimately settled for the gamepad. Fortunately I have a simple solution for when the combat gets frustrating. I let my 17 year old son handle the combat, and then I resume the story. Fortunately I don't think Perma-death is really in the game. I've died a LOT of times (I mean A LOT!!), and the death rot has not moved up Senua's arm at all. In summary, GET THIS GAME!! It is truly unique!! If you're a casual gamer, just be prepared. But it's worth it!! Finally a note on performance. My PC has Intel i5-8400 (6 cores up to 4GHz/core), nVidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB, 8GB RAM, Windows 10. I run at 1900x1200 with max settings and consistently maintain 50-60 FPS with the lowest being 40-45 FPS occasionally.

For a non "AAA" game the graphics are amazing. Story somewhat compelling. however it is, in the end a game. For a game it is sub-par at best. The combat is repetitive and boring; same for the puzzles. However the the visuals are first rate. On this, wait for a sale. first play through is bland at best. however replay is less then zero.