Videojuego narrativo desarrollado por Ninja Theory, nos ponemos en la piel de Senua, una joven padeciente de psicosis que se embarca en la búsqueda del alma de su pareja. Puzzles entretenidos que usan las voces y delirios del personaje a su favor, ambientación espectacular, gráficos hiperrealistas y un combate simple (sobran la mitad) todo esto hace de Senua's Sacriface una experiencia agradable para cualquiera.
There’s room in video game landscape for every kind of game.
Personally, the two kinds that I most enjoy and have left the most indelible marks upon me are the following…
1) Games with high player agency, a breadtth of choices with actual consequences, gameplay mechanics with depth and enough variables to allow for experimentation, personal expression via play style, multiple approaches to solving problems, the ability (if desired) to roleplay, interconnected systems that, when toyed with, reveal emergent outcomes specific to your playthrough. Good writing is also paramount, as is immersion.
2) More arcadey games where gameplay is still the focus, but things are more blatantly “game-y”. While you can’t roleplay much or get lost in their worlds in the same manner, these still have mechanics with depth that allow for the same level of experimentation and improvisation. Frenetic, insane pacing, flashy colors, stylish combat, and gonzo, heightened, over-the-top zaniness is the draw with these. Retro charm, and with more replayability than most modern games. Shmups, Character Action, Beat-em ups, all completely removed from reality but, in their entrancing flow, are all still immersive in their own, different way.
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is none of the things I enjoy in either of my two favorite kinds of games…save for immersion.
On paper, Hellblade is everything I hate in much of modern gaming…yet despite its similarities to “Sony AAA Walk n’ Talk, Cinematic, Over-the-Shoulder, Brutal Dad-and-Special-Child Simulators”, it still got me to see thriugh to its end.
It’s a “AAA Indie Game” according to its devs at Ninja Theory, and it’s this indie element that saves it. There is room in the world of games for all kinds, even the ones that I just negatively over-generalized in the last paragraph. However, that genre now has a monopoly on AAA studios’ output, making me miss the days when games didn’t cost SO much to make (because they all have to be interactive movies), when a lot of big games still took risks and still felt special.
Hellblade still takes risks and feels special.
Do I love its mostly on-rails, story over gameplay (I prefer games that prioritize both equally), or its shallow combat and clever but eventually tedious puzzles? No.
Do I love its story, its presentation, its themes, and its atmosphere? Yes.
I don’t love most country music, but there’s exceptions if you look. I don’t love romantic comedies, but there ARE great ones! Well, I really don’t love the kind of games AAA studios are focusing on and have been for a while, but Senua and her story of overcoming (by ultimately embracing and coping with) loss, mental illness, etc, all while embarking upon a spiritual odyssey of both wisdom and hallucination…is an exception.
Artistically masterful. Emotionally impactful. I respect everything about this game. Its gameplay doesn’t appeal to my tastes, but I was still able to see and be affected by its parts that are true digital magic.
I found games like Snatcher to be really cool, and that’s practicalky a visual novel. I’ve opened my mind regarding the limitations I put upon what a “game” MUST be. Doing so really allowed me to appreciate Senua’s Sacrifice more. Senua may now be my favorite game heroine since Jade from Beyond Good & Evil. Some of its imagery I’ll never forget and it can really emotionally wreck you, only to, almost therapeutically, provide a cathartic release and message of hope to anyone who’s suffered from loss or mental anguish.
It’s not remotely replayable and still isn’y my kind of game, but when something’s good, it’s good, and I find myself happy to say that out of these kinds of games, Hellblade is the best I’ve played. What it lacks in gameplay depth it makes up for in existential and emotional depth. I still want the monopoly these kind of games have in the AAA world to end, but until then I will happily defend Hellblade as “one of the (mostly) really good ones”.
Personally, the two kinds that I most enjoy and have left the most indelible marks upon me are the following…
1) Games with high player agency, a breadtth of choices with actual consequences, gameplay mechanics with depth and enough variables to allow for experimentation, personal expression via play style, multiple approaches to solving problems, the ability (if desired) to roleplay, interconnected systems that, when toyed with, reveal emergent outcomes specific to your playthrough. Good writing is also paramount, as is immersion.
2) More arcadey games where gameplay is still the focus, but things are more blatantly “game-y”. While you can’t roleplay much or get lost in their worlds in the same manner, these still have mechanics with depth that allow for the same level of experimentation and improvisation. Frenetic, insane pacing, flashy colors, stylish combat, and gonzo, heightened, over-the-top zaniness is the draw with these. Retro charm, and with more replayability than most modern games. Shmups, Character Action, Beat-em ups, all completely removed from reality but, in their entrancing flow, are all still immersive in their own, different way.
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is none of the things I enjoy in either of my two favorite kinds of games…save for immersion.
On paper, Hellblade is everything I hate in much of modern gaming…yet despite its similarities to “Sony AAA Walk n’ Talk, Cinematic, Over-the-Shoulder, Brutal Dad-and-Special-Child Simulators”, it still got me to see thriugh to its end.
It’s a “AAA Indie Game” according to its devs at Ninja Theory, and it’s this indie element that saves it. There is room in the world of games for all kinds, even the ones that I just negatively over-generalized in the last paragraph. However, that genre now has a monopoly on AAA studios’ output, making me miss the days when games didn’t cost SO much to make (because they all have to be interactive movies), when a lot of big games still took risks and still felt special.
Hellblade still takes risks and feels special.
Do I love its mostly on-rails, story over gameplay (I prefer games that prioritize both equally), or its shallow combat and clever but eventually tedious puzzles? No.
Do I love its story, its presentation, its themes, and its atmosphere? Yes.
I don’t love most country music, but there’s exceptions if you look. I don’t love romantic comedies, but there ARE great ones! Well, I really don’t love the kind of games AAA studios are focusing on and have been for a while, but Senua and her story of overcoming (by ultimately embracing and coping with) loss, mental illness, etc, all while embarking upon a spiritual odyssey of both wisdom and hallucination…is an exception.
Artistically masterful. Emotionally impactful. I respect everything about this game. Its gameplay doesn’t appeal to my tastes, but I was still able to see and be affected by its parts that are true digital magic.
I found games like Snatcher to be really cool, and that’s practicalky a visual novel. I’ve opened my mind regarding the limitations I put upon what a “game” MUST be. Doing so really allowed me to appreciate Senua’s Sacrifice more. Senua may now be my favorite game heroine since Jade from Beyond Good & Evil. Some of its imagery I’ll never forget and it can really emotionally wreck you, only to, almost therapeutically, provide a cathartic release and message of hope to anyone who’s suffered from loss or mental anguish.
It’s not remotely replayable and still isn’y my kind of game, but when something’s good, it’s good, and I find myself happy to say that out of these kinds of games, Hellblade is the best I’ve played. What it lacks in gameplay depth it makes up for in existential and emotional depth. I still want the monopoly these kind of games have in the AAA world to end, but until then I will happily defend Hellblade as “one of the (mostly) really good ones”.