Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

Finally, after so many years of repetitive games with repetitive main character stories , there is a game with good story writing about the quest of a celtic woman. It is not the typical, dry sucked theme of an anonymous hero who is chosen to safe the world, as 90% of all computer games use it. No, this is a deeply emotional and personal story about Senua after a dramatic event. Almost everything (exception might be the combats for some people) in this game fit together to let the player immerse into Senua's character and experience the world through her mind. For me it was an exceptional audiovisual experience. Speaking of sound and visuals, the voices are brilliantly spoken and Melina Juergens, the actress who played Senua, did a wonderful job. I can only recommend to start with Senua's story.

English & Français EN : This game! Even if the gameplay & the puzzles aint crazy, the atmosphere is insane! People who made this game realy succed what they wanted to do with it. I personally have some mind truble, and realy felt some while playing (so it was sometimes difficult to advance ^^) but it represents them realy well. It is not cliche, you feel that it is made with empathy & honnesty. I recommend it A LOT! But, you must agree with the game. It is more a feeling experience, so just dive in & enjoy! One of my best video games experience for sure! FR : Jeu incroyable! Le gameplay et les énigmes sont pas spécialement incroyables, mais l'ambiance est dingue! Les gens qui ont bossé sur ce jeu ont réussi à en faire ce qu'ils voulaient. Personnellement, j'ai quelques troubles mentaux & ils y sont très bien représentés (du coup parfois c'était compliqué d'avancer ^^). Rien de cliché, on sent que les dévs ont fait ce jeu avec empathie et honnêteté. Donc je le recommande GRANDEMENT! Mais il faut accepter ce que le jeu veut nous faire ressentir et s'y plonger pleinement. Une de mes meilleures expérience en jeu vidéo pour sur!

Games like this prove the validity of Games as a serious medium for Art while simultaneously revealing the blandness of the average AAA-Title. The game looks beautiful, more beautiful than many pre-rendered cutscenes just a few years ago and I have not encountered any technical issues. On the gameplay: The fights just look stunning and build an incredibly dramatic athmosphere that gets your adrenaline up and the heart racing. I would say that the fights are easily the most engaging I can recall in any recent game. I did, however, need a few minutes to get used to the controls and the camera angle. The mechanics do a good job of transporting the theme of psychosis, such as the excessive pattern seeking represented by Senua having to find rune shapes in the game world - And these runes can be anywhere: The walls, the ground, in the Trees... The puzzles are not very challenging but often carry metaphoric meaning and are enjoyable as such, at least to me. Athmosphere/Theme: I will avoid spoilers, but as you can tell from the trailers, the game and its story are dark and dealing with psychosis. The voices in Senua's head are arguing, bickering, encouraging and disparaging. They will comment on your actions and what is going on around you, sometimes giving you advice, sometimes just putting Senua down. In other games, you experience the game world through the character that you play, but Senua's Sacrifice succeeds in putting you inside the head of Senua. You know what she is thinking and feeling, you witness her fear and her confusion, which helps suck you into the game and the character. Instead of making the character an in-game extension of you, you become the real world extension of Senua. At times the game is a cross between heartbreaking and uplifting. One of the strongest moments to me was when Senua screams at her demons: "I will not let you kill me." Dang girl! All in all it took me 15 hours to finish, so it is not a very long game by current standards.

+ Looks gorgeous + Senua and her story will stick in my mind - Puzzles and fights shallow and very repetitive - The narrative gets a bit excessive at times

This is by far one of the best games I have ever played at all. Even my favorite Wither 3 reaches this level of video-game-making only barely. In my eyes, everything comes together here and forms a perfect journey through the mind of our hero Senua. Not only the game itself manages to excite through a deep, grim and complex atmosphere. Also the developer-team made an incredible job of research when it comes to the backgrounds of the game, be it historical or psychological. Senuas travel to free her beloved boyfriends soul from the world of Hel will throw you in a difficult quest where the borders of reality and psychosis are starting to fade. Incredible battles (yes, some of them are challangeing and can end up frustrating) as well as an convincing voice acting in combination with advanced motion-capturing form a character that feels so real as if it was you personally who is making this quest. The music and ambient sounds deliver an intoxicating atmosphere which will not let you go until you finish the game. The mixture between puzzle solving, dangerous, sometimes even delusional events and a world put in such detail creates an adventure unprecedented. Even the end deliveres further insight in the character - a point many games nowadays fail in. Everything here makes perfect sense and thus deserves the best rating possible. It was a real excitement to play this gem of a game!