This was a nice adventure game, with a very beautiful art and engaging voice acting. The story was well-written and the protagonist was one you would care for. Puzzles are mostly decent, though sometimes they were somewhat unnecessarily cryptic. Voice acting is excellent, particularly Cissy Jones. I didn’t have any performance issues on PC, and I don’t have a lot of complaints about UI or design. There were some times when the diary didn’t show up (only during underwater scenes), which should be a bug. The only bigger complaint I have is that the game is on the short side - you can complete it in a single afternoon. I understand this was done by a very small team, and to be fair, the story doesn’t appear to be lacking. Still, I feel many will find it short for games that are published nowadays. Anyway, I recommend the game, as it is a breath of fresh air. If you want to support a small independent developer, you shouldn’t hesitate and get this.
This is a tough one. Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice goes beyond where games usually dwell. It dares to explore the darkest corners of the human mind - mental illness. It is an extraordinary journey that features a lot of dark places we usually avoid admitting they even exist. Yet, they are there and this game makes a very considered and measured study of what it is to have your reality torn to pieces and then recreated in a bewildering, even mystic fashion. It would be very easy to fall into tackiness when dealing with issues like hearing voices or seeing bizarre and mysterious patterns, but Hellblade: Senua's sacrifice handles this in a very respectful way. It helps that the developers took their time studying what mental illness is and actually speaking to people who have suffered from and recover from psychosis. It is by no means less frightening to see such personal experiences given flesh. I will admit, this game is haunting, yet magical in its own way. The game does have a number of features that could have been done better. For instance, there is a lack of variety in opponents and combat is not really inventive, though it is fluid. Yet, the rest of the game's components more than make up for problems in gameplay. While some might point to the story's linearity as a downside, I believe it wouldn't work otherwise and giving players more freedom to explore would lessen the impact of Senua's journey. Graphics are amazing and motion-capture technology has evolved enough to recreate an immense array of human emotions. Voice acting is superb, with sound being where the game shines the most. I'd strongly recommend playing this with a surround sound system, it creates a very atmospheric feel that contributes incredibly to the overall impression. In conclusion, I strongly recommend its game. While relatively short (less than 10 hours), it is time and money well spent.
