Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

Played the game a while ago and forgot to leave a review but, it was truly an amazing experience, I'm waiting for the sequel.

This game is certainly different from what I played in recent years, in more ways than one. Its graphics, models, level design, combat - everything is done in a somehow new way, with top quality and lots of thought put into it, yet it has not a gram of commercialism in it. No money-milking tricks and hooks whatsoever. No micro-transactions, DLCs, collectibles, deliberately addictive mini-games, no popup messages, no always-online servers, no DRM, no catwoman suit for extra $5, no populistic cliches in the story, and no HUDs too. No kitchen sinks. What it has instead (and a lot of) is creativity, intelligence, professionalism and respect to players. After bathing in purity and honesty of this game, any modern AAA title feels like a session with a used car salesman.

Graphics are nice, puzzles are a bit simplistic but fun. Story id good. Combat is utter garbish, worst I've seen in a game since... ever? Fight against first real boss (birdy) was way too long and even on "easy" required me to hit the right evade at the precise moment too often for my reflexes. As a result, I can't progress the story, game is stalled and worthless for me after 1/3 (at best) of the content. Without the combat, it would surely be a 4, maybe a 5. But this bit is required, bad and simply doesn't work well. I mean - read the tell, hit either CTRL or SPACE but not too soon, not too late - what is this? Combat or a quicktime event? Movement with the sword drawn is too slow and too restricted, attacks too simplistic. Garbage.

Knowing one of the maker personaly, i was knowing it will be awesome... But not so much, this game is one of the most dark and one of the most addictive i own, a pure hit.

Judging this game on its gameplay mechanis or comparing it to other action/adventure games doesn't make a whole lot of sense and you might notice that this approach makes up for most of its negative reviews. The game demands and rewards you for trying to understand it and its main character, and quickly had me engrossed in trying to make sense of how everything fits together. The game is extremely spoiler prone, so if any of this sounds at all intriguing it might be a good idea to avoid reading too much about the game and simply play it and see for yourself.