Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is an indie game. It looks like a AAA blockbuster, and I think that has thrown a few folks. Like most indie games, Hellblade does one thing extremely well, and everything else serves to support that one thing. For some indie titles that means you get great combat but no story, or great puzzles but no combat. For Hellblade, the story is everything, and it is excellent. The combat and puzzle mechanics function simply as service to that story. Keep that in mind going in. For myself, I thought the puzzles were entertaining enough, and the puzzle solving mechanics were unique. I enjoyed them. I also didn't have major problems with the combat, but there's no doubt it got pretty repetitive through the middle section of the game. Later on, as the combat becomes more intricately tied in with the story, it became more entertaining. But in the end the focus was on the main character Senua and her story, and that aspect of the game is nearly flawless. The visuals of the game are stunning, among the best I've seen in any game of any price. The audio design is also staggering, again far better than the audio design in many far more expensive games. Everything from the visuals and audio to the puzzle mechanics and character performances works together to try and get you into the head of Senua, and it works amazingly well. Forget your VR and massive open-world games, this is immersion. It's the best immersion I've ever seen in a game, and to anyone who loves a good story with great characters that make you really think, this is absolutely the game for you.
