This is way less of an ethically focus tested mental illness empathy simulator GAME 4 CHANGE than the (offputtingly self righteous) marketing might lead you to believe. I think this is both a good and bad thing. The way Senua experiences mental illness / hallucinations is hyperstylized and painted with both ridiculous elements of gameification (FOLLOW THE PUZZLE RUNES IN UR MINDZ EYE 4 NEXT OBJECTIVE) and nu-metal woad raider mythological window dressing. It's all just a tad TOO self-seriously morose and hellish and obsessed with exaggerated primeval suffering, and this God of Trauma vibe makes Senua's experiences of mental illness like, totally unrelatable and unaligned with the primary needs and struggles of people dealing with psychosis today. These real-life concerns are usually way more mundane and demoralizing; low decibel but high impact social and material struggles concerning healthcare availability, getting hired/making rent, and functioning in a a hostile individualist world of bootstrap productivity designed for neurotypical people but empathetic to nobody! I really dont understand how, aside from "ending stigma/spreading awareness" this game offers any real calls to action for the lifting up of mentally ill people. Ninja Theory framing their games marketing so high-mindedly but not engaging with any ideas of real material advocacy is laughable, and imo people are completely justified in their disgust and divestment from the entire project based on that alone.

BUT BUT BUT

As a survival horror / walking sim tonal experiment with a unique setting and bold audiovisual design? There are some very interesting choices here. The 3d sound design and fully narrated internal greek chorus is moody, genuinely disturbing, and almost totally unique in popular gaming. The FMV/CGI composite memory sequences have a singular, scuzzy visual texture I just love. IMO Melina Juergens delivers a really absurd performance of almost universally one-note agonized wailing, but her naive (and probably badly directed) commitment to the "heightened intensity equals good acting" bit is equal parts camp and actually kind of cool and transporting if you can meet it where it's at??? The game lags and fails in many ways (redundant, tepid puzzles, kind of awful combat that truly feels there for no reason) but there are a lot of laudable aesthetic choices that give it a much more entrancing and horrific atmosphere than it would have without them. I think this is FAR less of a "mental illness empathy sim" than it is an unrelentingly bleak tone poem about celtic death mythology/ripoff chris cunningham music video using stylized trappings about mental illness to reinforce its oppressive atmosphere, without being 100% hostile and stigmatizing to people with mental health conditions in real life. Personally? I think it's okay for media to explore stylized (even grandiose, mythologized, lurid, "unhelpful") renditions of neuroatypical characters in all kinds of settings, especially when it does make an effort to not make you hate or fear schizophrenic people by its end. I DONT think its okay for work like this to advertise itself as groundbreaking or progressive, especially with so little material centering the lives of neurodivergent people out there.

That's maybe a weird line to draw, and I completely understand (but dont fully agree with) anyone feeling like it's 100% not okay to use such a sensitive topic as window dressing for your grimdark survival horror game under any circumstances. I COMPLETELY agree that the marketing of this game is maybe the most ableist and grotesque thing about it and that just calling it an exploitation horror game would be way more honest. It's like if fromsoftware came out saying that bloodborne is ACTUALLY about ENDING MENTAL ILLNESS STIGMA with FULLY RESEARCHED DEPICTIONS OF BREAKS FROM REALITY. like i dont care if you parade footage from some sensitivity focus group in your making of featurette who the fuck are you guys kidding

fyi I am not someone who deals with hallucinations or any of the symptoms Senua (and millions of irl people) experience, so I am by no means any authority on this--plz dont listen to me i have no power or sway 0:). I'm a big dumb idiot writing about a middling videogame with aesthetics i only sometimes really clicked with!

also the credits song is one of the most embarrassing and maudlin things of all time

also its SO stupid they're making a sequel to this and it totally reveals the insincerity behind all their high-minded promotion of the first game :)

Ninja Theory le puso mucho esfuerzo incluso consultando con especialistas del campo de la salud mental.

Una lastima, porque fuera de que el sistema de combate es limitado para un juego de acción como tal, falla en representar de forma verosímil la mentalidad de la protagonista, haciendo que esta solo vea símbolos y pelee contra humanos que no parecieran que fueran producto de su mente trastornada.

Mucho potencial desperdiciado.

Wow. I’m at a loss of words.

This has been such a powerful experience that I can’t help but recommend it to all mature gamers (and definitely not for anyone under the age of 16). Its main focus is a very heavy subject that many people, including myself, are quite ill-informed about, portrayed in such a respectful and, at the same time, entertaining manner, the likes of which I have never seen in a video game before.

This is a genuine drama, a dark experience, and often more like a work of art to marvel at than a game. Astonishing graphics, mostly clever (but yeah, sometimes a bit frustrating) puzzles, a dynamic combat system (although I can’t help but wonder whether the battles were really necessary or not) and an extremely complex main character I immediately felt a very deep connection with.

I’m really not sure what to call 'Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice' – action-adventure, puzzle, interactive walking simulator? – but whatever it is, we need more games like this.

La historia es increible. Gráficamente espectacular. El sonido maravilloso.
El tema del gameplay está bien pero a mi el tema puzles no me llama la atención.
El combate está bien planteado pero no llega a sentirse fluido cuando hay mas de 20 enemigos.
Senua es un personaje increible.

Todos deberían de jugar a este juego.

The effort and articulation put into crafting an experience that dealt with such a taboo subject was masterfully done. As you've probably heard from others, this game is best played while wearing headphones. Playing the game this way is not just for the audio, but for the actual experience. It gives you a sense of having voices in your head telling you what to do what you're worth, as Senua deals throughout the game. The gameplay is a mixture between puzzle solving and combat that are divided in segments, both equally challenging. The game also plays with you on a pretty meta level when it comes to mechanics they "seemingly introduce" early on. While some backtracking parts can get a little tedious, and the enemies can be a little repetitive, the game is still one of the most unique experiences offered in this generation. A wonderful yet dark game, Hellblade is a one of a kind experience that only it can offer.

More a movie that had to be a game than a true game, this is still one of the most impactful experiences I've ever had. It's been a long time since I felt such care for a protagonist and was so connected to her struggle.
Playing with headphones is an absolute must to experience the voices properly. As I trained myself to recognize which ones to ignore and which to listen to, I realized I was as close as I hopefully will ever get to knowing what its like.
As the player you struggle with her. The game's masterful environmental design is so oppressive that you feel her fear, her dread, and her pain just by existing within the game's world, and when you fight to overcome it you are aligned with her desires like few games have ever achieved. This is possible the most emotional final boss fight I've ever had the pleasure to experience, and while the game has little replay value, I will not forget it.

7

Em Hellblade, você incorpora o papel de Senua, uma mulher celta que foi até o submundo de Hel (o “purgatório” da mitologia nórdica) para recuperar a alma de seu marido. Senua é esquizofrênica e sofre de psicose, e por isso delira constantemente durante o jogo - vozes falam em sua cabeça te encorajando e desencorajando, vezes mentindo, vezes te ajudando. Conforme Senua se aprofunda no submundo, também se aprofunda em sua condição e em sua memória, e vários detalhes importantes da narrativa vão formando uma imagem completa de forma que a história passa a tomar rumos bem interessantes. A sua interação com o jogo é feita através de sistemas bem simples de resolver puzzles e combate, e acho que fizeram bem tanto em encaixar na narrativa e na personagem - as vozes de Senua atrapalham e contribuem durante o jogo - e contribuir para manter o ritmo da narrativa engajante. No fim, o que mais me vendeu foi Senua em si; sua doença foi tratada de forma bem respeitosa e interessante, com os desenvolvedores envolvendo vários consultores para criar uma personagem não caricata, e a personagem também foi dada vida por um ótimo sistema de captura de movimentos e uma boa atriz. O estúdio do jogo só tem doze funcionários, me admira ver que souberam muito bem jogar para todas suas forças e construir disso uma experiência emocionante, intrigante, significativa e coesa.

English/German Below

Fantastic. Exciting, interesting, dramatically sad and incredibly intense. A puzzle action adventure that I've never played before.

The game is so captivating that I played it in one go. The representation of mental illness around Senua is incredibly successful.

The game also looks damn good, even if it rarely weakens a bit in its graphic design.

The gameplay mainly consists of running and soaking up the atmosphere. The action parts were okay but not that interesting apart from two boss fights, and the final fight was a bit disappointing.
The puzzles were pleasant, although I already had the place one time or another but had to find the right angle.

Really recommendable trip, put the whole thing on the to-do list when I saw the trailer for part 2.

4/5 Nordic mythologies.

"Do not mourn the leaves, waves or clouds. Even in the dark, the beauty of the world is still with us - it is just waiting to be seen again."

The developer video is really good.

---------------------------german---------------------------------

Fantastisch. Spannend, interessant, dramatisch traurig und unglaublich intensiv. Ein Puzzle Action Adventure was ich bisher noch nie so gespielt habe.

Das Spiel fesselt einen so sehr, dass Ich es in einem Rutsch gespielt habe. Die Darstellung von psychischen Problemen rund um den Charakter Senua ist unfassbar gut gelungen.

Das Spiel sieht stellenweise atemberaubend aus, kann das vereinzelt hohe Grafikniveau aber nicht immer halten.

Das Gameplay besteht hauptsächlich aus einem Walking Simulator, was aber durch die dichte Atmosphäre spannend genug inszeniert wurde. Die Actionstellen waren okay, aber bis auf ein zwei Bosskämpfe nicht so interessant, auch war der Schlusskampf etwas enttäuschend.

Die Rätsel waren angenehm zu lösen, hatten aber vereinzelt das Problem, dass die Kamerausrichtung nicht sonderlich präzise umgesetzt wurde. Es konnte vorkommen, dass man den Winkel für die Lösung des Rätsels gefunden hat, das Spiel aber das ganze von einer anderen Richtung haben möchte und man deswegen nicht weiterkommt.

Wirklich empfehlenswerte Reise, habe das ganze auf die ToDo Liste gesetzt als Ich den Trailer zu Teil 2 gesehen habe.

4/5 Nordische Mythologien.

"Trauere nicht um die Blätter, Wellen oder Wolken. Selbst in der Dunkelheit ist die Schönheit der Welt noch bei uns - sie wartet nur darauf wieder gesehen zu werden."

Das Entwicklervideo ist richtig gut.

Qué decir de este juego, ha sido una experiencia increíble. Ya solo meterte el la piel de Senua y vivir su trastorno mental en su mundo es algo que merece la pena vivir. Las voces en la cabeza y las visiones, no sabes que es verdad y que no y eso hace que la atmósfera sea de opresión continua sin apenas un momento de relax puesto que ella no tiene tampoco descanso. La historia es trágica y bonita, Senua tiene que adentrarse en el Helheim en busca del alma de su amado Dillion y reclamarla de las garras de Hela. Su viaje la lleva a enfrentarse contra dioses y bestias de pesadilla por un mundo perfectamente retratado en su decadencia y ruina (por algo es el infierno). La jugabilidad está muy bien cuidada en cuanto te acostumbras a los combates y los tipos de enemigos, y en cuanto a los puzzles, sin tener una gran dificultad, le aportan variedad al gameplay y tiene momentos muy disfrutables. Sin duda es un juego único, ya que estaba atrapado en él a la vez que quería huir por el terror que sentía en ciertos segmentos (me va a costar olvidar a la bestia de la oscuridad), así que me alegro de haber vivido la maldición y el viaje de Senua.