Weird genre mashup, this game. Like a story heavy walking simulator mixed with a hack and slash game. I had it described to me as "indie God of War" and got a chuckle out of that. It's not far off honestly.

So Hellblade has you play as a deeply troubled girl named Senua. We're talking heavy psychosis and hearing voices while dealing with immense trauma. The devs of the game even consulted psych experts to try and convey the mental trauma in an impactful way. The most effective of which comes in the form of the voices Senua, and by extension you, hear as you go through the journey. The game encourages you to play with headphones and I think this is the primary reason why. With headphones, you can hear the voices she hears but also distinct directions they come from making for a more scattered feel. It's chaotic and immersive.

Senua is on a quest to save her beloved's soul from Hel. She journeys the lands with his head in tow hoping to find someway to get Hela to bring him back to her. You quickly find the gate to Hel but you first have to unlock it by facing two different trials. It's also at this time you're informed that if you die too many times you'll just lose all your progress in the game. I dunno if this is true or not and never heard it actually happen to anyone but it's a ballsy thing to present people with and an effective way to instill anxiety. Bit detrimental as a player adjusts to a learning curve but whatever.

So most of the game consists of two types of gameplay loops. First is solving puzzles involving runes. Senua will come up to literal road blocks in the form of big closed doors with runes on them. She focuses on them and then as she finds the same shapes in like debris or parts of the world, the symbols of the rune on the door glows white and as she finds them all she can go through the door. It's this that I find to be the most well thought out and engaging gameplay mechanic as it ties into her psychosis and finding meaning in things despite what they aren't. It all plays very well with the theme of the game. You also get some puzzle solving with perspective puzzles bringing things into view and working with illusions at one point but the real meat of it is these rune puzzles.

On the other hand, you have the combat. This for me is the weakest part of the game. It honestly feels like they tacked on the combat last minute to make it feel like more of a traditional game and I think it really suffers for it. The combat here is box standard light attack, heavy attack, parry, dodge combat salsa. You fight against viking looking spectres that just come out of nowhere to impede progress and every one of them is just so spongey that you can just swim in the tedium. Mash heavy attack button, parry parry-able moves, dodge otherwise, repeat.

It sucks and it just takes me out of the game so hard for what is otherwise an immersive story experience. You could argue the combat in this game is because they point out her being a warrior and being strong but honestly I think it plays against what they're going for when you just mash the same attack and makes her look like more of a savage than any sort of skilled warrior. I legit think they could have just done without having the warrior aspect at all and still portrayed her as strong enough to face her inner demons. Oh well.

Ultimately you're able to experience Senua's troubles and backstory through this journey. The voices nipping at her the whole time along with some flashback sequences do a good job conveying how tortured she is. There are also lorestones where Senua recalls stories told to her by a man in her life that seems to take on a sort of mentor role and they characterize him well. His stories I think also give players insight into how Senuas perceptions of the world and herself are shaped. I think the lover she's out to save comes off a bit flat but it serves as a good enough motivator to go on and her struggles handling that make for a decent core to move things along.

Hellblade is a solid story heavy walking sim marred by tedious boring combat. It all looks very pretty in its foul way and does a good job sucking you in. Even the combat doesn't come off as too detrimental as the whole game isn't too long and you aren't in it for too long. Overall I recommend the game for people who like interactive storytelling even though it's a bit on the nose. Solid ending too. So much so that I can't imagine what the sequel could be about? but yeah good experience mostly. Just wish it was a little tighter.

4 years ago when I played this game I was a vastly different gamer. I had no patience and I went into this game thinking it was going to be a completely different experience. I did not like it.

I decided to give it another go in preparation for the sequel release next week, and let me tell ya, I could not have been more wrong about this game.

The atmosphere and world design are fantastic. The sound design is so haunting and immersive. Senua is a fantastic character and learning her backstory as her psychotic episode unfolds is so gripping and unique.

The most surprising thing for me is how much I enjoyed the puzzle solving and the combat. I remember hating it when I first played it, but man I loved it. The combat is so simple but every parry feels so damn good. Your blade feels so strong and as you hold run and press an action button and have senua charge into battle, you cannot help but feel the adrenaline of each encounter, as you wonder just how much you can die before game over, as the game informs you at the start (if you don’t look up how this actually works during your play through lol).

I cannot wait for Saga to release next week, just hope Xbox did not kill this game or do something wrong as the marketing for it has been non existent.

I generally don't care about the appearance of characters but this game is so distractingly ugly that I don't even want to continue. There's no style here. It's just ugly realism. It has cool concepts but everything is so ugly. Senua herself occupies this really weird state of uncanny valley where she doesn't look human but you don't know why. She also has her jaw agape all the time and it's really awkward and takes me out of it.

I would genuinely go as far to say the cover art is false advertising because her mouth is open all the time. Like seriously, why did they make her do that? She looks like a Fallout 4 character, it's terrible!

CLOSE YOUR DAMN MOUTH.

The experience Hellblade gives you is very introspective, its anxiety ridden and powerful but above all its a beautiful one. Knowing only that the game delves into mental health struggles and shining a light onto someone suffering from psychosis, I wanted to finish this before the sequel released and im so glad I did.

Hellblade strengths lie in its storytelling, vague dialogue allowing the player to sort of insert their own experiences into what the game is describing, feelings of loss, trauma, the fear of death and uncertainty its all very strong stuff that the game is able to bundle into its 5~ hour runtime and it never feels rushed or unneeded.

The environments are dreary and bleak, lots of muted colours and dark areas that really hammer in those feelings the game wants you to feel, but as the game describes in its own way, that in those depressing landscapes hold a sort of beauty that once you overcome hurdles you begin to appreciate more and more.

The one thing Hellblade falters in is its use of combat. For bosses I felt like the combat worked, it was weighty and cinematic and failure to parry or dodge, you felt the impact of messing up. The issue then comes in the minor enemy encounters generously sprinkled throughout the game, they suck and got annoying fast. Just having wave after wave of enemies varying in what combination they spawned in was frustrating and slightly took away from some moments proceeding those fights.

Overall the immersive experience Hellblade gives you is immaculate, its messages and portrayals are potent and it leaves you with a sense of melancholy, where you arent sure if things will get better but the experience you were put through has given you insight onto how you could be better.

Eu por sofrer com psicoses,sendo diagnosticada com esquizofrenia sempre fiquei com pé atras do medo da obra ser preconceituosa como a maioria das obras que personagens são esquizofrenicos

Erro meu,é uma obra que sua representatividade me fez ser tocada tanto,tudo que a obra fala em relação a sua patologia faz e é super respeitosa com ela, eu nunca me senti como se uma obra tivesse falando diretamente comigo sobre certos assuntos, todo o audio do jogo e toda a maneira que é muito fiel como uma pessoa com psicose se sente em diversos assuntos

fico feliz que a historia tem um final feliz pra personage mmesmo com tanta coisas ruins que acontecem e aceitam que ela é do jeito que ela é mesmo tendo suas complicações da vida

eu não consigo expressar em palavras o quanto esse jogo me tocou,a gameplay não é la dessas coisas, vc só anda faz um puzzle bem meia boca e tem batalhas bem meia bocas, porem a historia e como ela foi tratada com respeito me fazia chorar a cada momento que eu percebia que oque a personagem estava sentindo é igual o que eu mesma sinto e toda a historia e todo o sistema de audio ultrapassa o loop de gameplay pra mim. isso me faz mais animada pra jogar sua continuação

Holy shit what a stellar piece of art. The concept was crazily innovative. The amount of experimental shit done in here in order to convey the main character's thought process is extremely impressive. The combat is fun but the camera is so damn clunky, sometimes it completely blinds you if you go near a wall and you get whooped by the enemies as a result. But yeah like I said it's fun but it lacks any sort of depth to it, it's your usual parry, evade and attack kind of thing but the parrys feel so good when you time it properly and there are moments when the voices in your head help you if there's an enemy attacking you from behind so you can parry in time to save your ass. The idea of Auditory hallucinations during combat is so damn good, sometimes you get demotivated by those voices when in a fight and sometimes they guide you and kinda motivate you to push through, the implementation of that is just chefs kiss. They're annoying and pestering you all the time giving you a slight glimpse of how it feels to be in such mentally unstable and anxious state of mind. The Valravn puzzle was a pain in the ass to finish other than that all the puzzle/walking simulator segments were fun albeit time consuming; the alphabet/symbol matching one grew too old too quickly and that is what they stuck with until the end. Again goated atmosphere and goated sound design. The story is kinda messy and it's probably intentionally done that way since the protagonist is kind of insano. The graphics seemed too good for a 2017 game, the second game will definitely push some boundaries in that aspect. The ending dragged on a bit but what an amazing game nonetheless. Also congrats Microsoft on killing the 2nd game even before it's arrival with absolutely no marketing whatsoever, gotta be the most dumbass corpo to ever exist.

O começo é muito fraco, mas quando passa dos 2 primeiros bosses, o jogo vai melhorando exponecialmente e acaba por te entregar uma excelente história, que vai sendo contada naquela forma de juntar peças de um mistério até ele ser revelado no final, além de uma gameplay de combate extremamente satisfatória e até viciante, pena que fica meio repetitiva, mas não deixa de ser divertido mesmo assim.

Na primeira vez que eu joguei, lá em 2020, eu dropei, por conta que meu PC da época não conseguia rodar direito, ficava cheio de stutter, e também por conta do jogo não ter me prendido no começo, como aconteceu dessa vez, mas dessa vez fui até o final e valeu a pena. Aliás, se você for jogar no PC, não ative o Ray Tracing no máximo, pois ele não muda praticamente nada (só notei o reflexo na água) e joga a perfomance lá pra baixo. Você pode pensar que por ser um jogo de 7 anos atrás, deve rodar tranquilamente com o Ray Tracing no máximo, mas a verdade é que fica cheio de stutter e com um fps baixo, então apenas desligue o Ray Tracing e seja feliz, ou deixe ele no médio, caso goste dos reflexos, que no foi o que eu fiz, já que ele no médio não deu tanto problema, com exceção de uma batalha de boss.

Joguei por conta do lançamento iminente do segundo, mas não pensei que o primeiro me deixaria mais animado pro segundo. Subestimava muito ele, mas no final é um bom jogo.

As a story about mental health I don't know that it quite ends up working.

As a game, it's beautiful. Gorgeous. The length is just right for the story.

As a game it's also... kinda simple. The combat isn't super engaging. The puzzles are boring, but also often very finnicky.

Curious how the sequel turns out as this is a strong base to start, but yeah... perfectly fine game.

ما وراء تضحية سينوا | Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

لم يتبقى الكثير على الجزء الثاني من هيل بليد، لهذا أقدم هذا الفيديو عن الأستديو الصانع للعبة هيل بليد، وسبب تميّزها وقوّتها.. استمتعوا

https://youtu.be/66TvGl513PI

Esse jogo é uma experiência única, MUITO lindo, difícil achar algo tão bem feito, o combate é muito gostosinho e os puzzles funcionam muito bem, mas claramente o foco é a narrativa e sinceramente, É MUITO BOM.

Toda a jornada da Senua é intensa e retrata temas sensíveis e doenças mentais da maneira mais criativa e madura que já vi em uma obra, fazendo a personagem crescer MUITO pra mim, amo muito a Senua, uma das melhores personagens femininas nos jogos pra mim. O jogo conta com toda uma ambientação da mitologia nórdica muito boa, cheio de historias e um universo próprio que faz você se sentir na pele da Senua mesmo, me senti imerso no game e na mente da Senua a cada segundo que passava jogando.