At the beginning of this game there is a trigger warning for those that suffer from mental disorders like mental psychosis or schizophrenia and, I gotta say, I think those warnings are justified. This game was stressful to play. Gorgeous visuals, incredible acting performances, and flawlessly executed sound design lend to this games stress-inducing effectiveness.

The story is very powerful and was, obviously, carried by Senua's character. Her struggle with the darkness, her anger, her fear, her anxieties, and her loss were all so tragic and made for a compelling protagonist. Her performance by Melina Juergens might be the most impressive video game performance I've ever seen and that elevated the game to the next level.

As far as gameplay goes, Hellblade is 80% a walking sim with some puzzles and combat sprinkled in. If you're looking for fun gameplay, this is not a game I would recommend. They had some neat perspective altering puzzles, but other than that the puzzles didn't do anything particularly exciting. The combat was, however, much more appealing. I actually like the philosophy of having "simplistic" combat for a game like this; it didn't need to be anything more than it was. Walking sims work for me when they don't overstay their welcome, and at a tight 6 hours this game certainly did not.

Overall, this game is hard to recommend. It's very arthouse and niche. But to the right gamer this, this game is a masterclass in both storytelling and visual design philosophy.

aqui temos uma adaptação PERFEITA da mitologia nórdica, incrível como a Ninja Theory conseguiu produzir algo desse nível mesmo com uma equipe tão limitada.

sério, a qualidade desse jogo é impressionante principalmente na atmosfera e o aúdio, ESPECIALMENTE o aúdio, jogar isso aqui de fone é inacreditável, a aflição aumenta 10x mais e a experiência melhora em dobro, as vozes e sussuros parecem ecoar dentro da minha própria cabeça, ao mesmo tempo que é desconfortável sinto uma pitada de capricho IMENSA que os dev colocara aqui. Basicamente todos os aspectos de Hellblade são ÓTIMOS, desde historia (MARAVILHOSA, SÉRIO) até o combate simplista, meu único probleminha com foi uma pequena queda de ritmo em determinado ponto da trama mas nada que afete drasticamente minha opinião sobre esse JOGAÇO!!!!

"The hardest battles are fought in the mind, not with the sword."

𓏲 ๋࣭ ࣪ ˖🎐Discover a rich mosaic of Norse mythology intertwined with Senua's personal journey. Through hidden lorestones and symbolic puzzles, the game invites you to delve deeper into Senua's past, unraveling the mysteries of her troubled mind and the world around her. It's a narrative experience that rewards exploration and reflection, offering layers of depth beyond its intense combat and striking visuals. However things can get repetitive fast so theres that :'). But, if you ever feel overwhelmed, just take a break and remember: even Senua needs to step away from the chaos and listen to the whispers...lol. ִֶָ𓂃 ࣪˖ ִֶָ🐇་༘࿐

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.

It's kind of crazy how similar Alan Wake 2 is to this game. Similar themes of mental health and the loved ones we surround ourselves with to help us break the cycle. Obviously the story and gameplay are different, with the story in this being very good and the gameplay being a bit lackluster.

It's a powerful story of learning to let go of the pain of loss, crippling self doubt, and generation trauma brought down from our parents. It is a curse not from the gods, but from within. The gods aren't evil, it's a test. A test of self resolve to pull ourselves out to the other side. I'm actually pretty excited to play the sequel and see how she creates her own path after breaking the curse.

The gameplay on the other hand is kind of bad. I liked the puzzles, simple but effective. The combat though was way too easy and pretty slow. I had the difficulty setting set to automatic, so I thought it would get more challenging since I only died once toward the end of the game. Maybe it was, in the background, on hard and it is just too easy. The time I died was during the beast boss fight, which is the best fight in the game. It blends the impressive visuals with the combat which is something I wish they did more throughout the game. The fights are also so slow. Everything moves at a snails pace and the camera lock on still kind of sucks. If the enemies moved a bit faster and I could free look and lock on to enemies I would've enjoyed it more.

The cinematography in this game is pretty incredible. At the time of it's release I would've been even more impressed, but since I've played Alan Wake 2 before this it ruins it a bit. Surprisingly they have a fairly similar style but AW2 takes it to a level that transcends the medium. A thing I like in this that I think AW2 could've done is the binaural audio. The whispers in your ear the whole game is incredible and made me look around my room a few times with my HD600s on. They aren't joking about it being best played with headphones.

Pretty good game. This is the ritual to lead you on.

Reason for the medal: First of all, I am ashamed to give 4 stars to this masterpiece, but this is a game and I have to evaluate it as a game. Generally speaking, it deserves 5 stars very easily in terms of the subject it aims to cover and the game. The reason I deducted points is that I got bored of the game's puzzles and that the whispers Senua heard bothered my ears due to her psychosis. As for the game being a work of mastery, it has a unique plot and functioning. However, when they present such a thing as a game rather than a movie, it can remain an experience and have flaws. The strongest part of the game is the storytelling, it never tells you the keys, it doesn't tell you where to go, there are no nonsense indicators, you move with zero hud, full cinematic experience and sound. Instead of an indicator, you hear the enemy behind you whispering "there is an enemy behind you" as one of Senua's hallucinations. You fight alongside Senua and solve the puzzles consisting of her delusions by coordinating with the character as if it were your own problem. You are afraid together in the parts where Senua is afraid, you hear the disturbing sounds she hears together. You smile at the good things he sees and get disturbed by the bad things. But Senua doesn't get bored with puzzles like me :D Or she doesn't get disturbed by whispers. I wasn't as invested in the story as I was in Senua. I just moved forward wondering what would happen in the end. Parenthetically, I didn't care about his wife at all on the journey he set out to save his wife. It has a unique experience and excellent presentation compared to other games. Yes, it is a unique "experience". The things that make the game a game have been completely stripped away. If I showed someone watching it without showing me controlling Senua with the controller, it would be hard for them to understand that it was a game. That's why I have to deduct points from the subjects I'm bored with.

Gold Medal

Medal System:

0.5 stars - This game will make you its b*tch! (Coal medal)
1 star - Extremely boring (Broken medal)
1.5 stars - Boring (Empty medal)
2 stars - Not fun (Wooden medal)
2.5 stars - It could have been fun but... (Bronze medal)
3 stars - Normal fun (Silver medal)
3.5 stars - I had more fun than usual (Emerald medal)
4 stars - I had so much fun (Gold medal)
4.5 stars - I loved it but something is missing (Platinum medal)
5 stars - Special for me / my favorites (Diamond medal)

Captivating and horrifying, worth playing for the story and atmosphere alone given that it's not a massive time commitment. That being said, I found the actual gameplay segments to be the weakest part of the game beyond the first 90 minutes, as fighting waves of the same handful of enemies and repeating variations of the same awkward visual puzzles became super repetitive. It works in some cases, but I found the set pieces and narrative to be hands down the best aspects of the game.

More engaging and intuitive puzzles with more enemy and combat variety will guarantee the sequel to be a home run, assuming it can match this game's narrative strengths.

A abordagem da narrativa tendo uma protagonista que tem esquizofrenia e psicose é uma das coisas mais originais e geniais que vi em videogame, as vozes sendo uma narradora e falando com a Senua é uma experiência única, e a história é muito Intrigante.
Porém o jogo so pode ser definido em arrastaaado. O puzzle com runas se torna extremamente repetitivo logo nas primeiras duas horas, e o combate apesar de eu ter gostado se torna bem irritante pois tem vários momentos que você não aguenta mais tantos inimigos vindo, fora alguns puzles que são bem únicos mas a quantidade em alguns momentos é desgastante. So torço que a sequência conserte o jogo.

"The hardest battles are fought in the mind, not the sword."

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is a uniquely horrifying game in which you play as Senua, a Celtic warrior with Psychosis who goes on a journey to save the soul of her deceased lover Dillion from the Goddess Hela. Throughout this journey Senua must endure death and the challenges her condition places in front of her so she may be reunited with her lover.

Where Hellblade excels most is within its sound design and atmosphere. From the very beginning the game tells you to play with headphones, and for good reason, as throughout the games nearly 8 hour long story you are placed within Senua's head and get to hear the voices in her head as they surround your ears to either act as her guide or tormentor. The atmosphere is brilliantly designed as well, each surface is filled to the brim with detail, and does a phenomenal job at setting the tone, especially in areas like the labyrinths and villages.

While the combat in Hellblade does certainly take a backseat for most of the game, it is by far one of the most fun and satisfying combat systems I've had the pleasure of experiencing. While being very simple and only consisting of light attacks, heavy attacks, and a punch/kick attack used for breaking shields, achieving combos and hitting a perfect parry feels unbelievably good. The combat especially becomes even more fun and rewarding as you develop the "Focus" meter, in which time slows down for your enemies and you get to go nuts and beat the hell out of every enemy in your sight.

Hellblade's narrative is an exceptional one. As stated previously you play as Senua who must face the challenges her Psychosis throws at her as well as challenge the Gods as she aims to save the soul of her lover. From the very beginning you realize that YOU are now one of the voices in Senua's head, as the voice that acts as the narrator begins to speak to you, and even in some cases Senua herself will talk directly to you. The stakes are immediately raised for the player after the combat tutorial ends, in which we are told that if Senua is killed too many times, the curse of darkness she possesses will spread to her head and we will be forced to restart the entire game. This threat however is empty, or at least I believe it is, as in most cases in the game it's harder to die in a battle than it is to win it, which I won't complain about. As the story progresses however, I felt as if it began to lose itself as it tries to confuse the player more than explain itself. I especially began to feel more iffy on the plot as I reached the ending, which felt very anticlimactic and felt to be a huge and sudden 180 from the tone the rest of the story had.

A few other minor gripes I had were with the puzzles and the backtracking. In Hellblade, the puzzles typically consist of finding a locked door with runes on it, and to unlock the doors you must find the listed rune within your environment. I will give credit where credit is due, a good many of these puzzles have very unique solutions in which you have to line up two objects in the horizon perfectly to create the rune, which was very cool to me. However the awe I felt from these unique solutions faded quickly due to the repetitive nature of these puzzles, especially toward the end of the game I found myself asking "Why can't I just keep going through instead of having to solve these puzzles after every little bit of progression?". The backtracking this game throws at you can also at times be completely absurd, especially in the beginning of the game. After defeating bosses like Valravyn and Surtr, you have to then go ALL the way back to the beginning room, which can take several minutes, and when every path looks identical it can be very hard to tell if you are going the right way, ESPECIALLY due to the lack of a map.

Overall, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice provides a unique look at how Psychosis affects the minds of those who have it and the obstacles they face, while also providing fun combat, a banging OST, outstanding sound design and atmosphere, and intriguing characters. However these positives come at the cost of repetitive puzzles, unenjoyable backtracking, and sometimes a less than satisfying narrative, with incredibly high highs, and low lows. I'm eagerly awaiting Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 now, and with better puzzle design, less backtracking, and a more stable narrative, I could easily see the sequel becoming an all time great.

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.

HELLBLADE: SENUA'S SACRIFICE É SIMPLESMENTE APAIXONANTE!

Simplesmente uma experiência única para a vida toda e por isso não deve ser spoilada sem antes ser devidamente consumida, dito isso não vou spoilar muito sobre a obra nessa review sendo somente minhas palavras hoje a solidificação de meus sentimentos diante de tal obra prima do qual você DEVE consumir sem conhecer absolutamente nada do enredo porque é simplesmente surreal o que o time da Ninja Theory conseguiu conquistar com esse titulo.

Dito isso a seguir obviamente haverá pequenas citações da narrativa e gameplay do qual alguns podem considerar spoiler então se você deseja experienciar completamente esse jogo recomendo ler essa review somente após zerar o jogo que tem por volta no máximo suas 7 horas.

COMBATE

Para o combate posso assumir que ele é simples, porém divertido demais para brincar, focando-se apenas em golpes fracos, fortes em que somados a mecânica de parry e esquiva permitem o jogador a realmente experienciar o mais próximo que um duelo entre espadas pode proporcionar onde cada movimento pode custar sua vida logo cada ação deve ser devidamente considerada e ponderada antes de executada para que não seja você aquele a ser decapitado por um machado ou espada que podem assim acabar com sua jornada e possivelmente com todo seu [/b] SAVE! [/b] , logo também se adicionarmos a mecânica de foco que é magistralmente bem implementada ao jogo permitindo você se tornar a encarnação viva do próprio Dante de Devil May Cry enterrando assim vinking após vinking no campo de batalha tornaram essa mecânica de combate muito interessante em meu conceito possuindo sim muita janela para polimento e melhoria em que eu adoraria ver em sua sequência.

NARRATIVA

Para a narrativa também só há elogios tornando Senua uma das personagens mais complexas narrativamente que eu já vi em uma obra possuindo claramente problemas psicológicos claros de esquizofrenia do qual a permitem escutar vozes que são espetacularmente bem apresentadas através dos sons 3D que esse jogo trabalha acentuando e lhe colocando totalmente imerso na mente quebrada e distorcida de nossa protagonista que perdeu tudo em meio a uma era de dor e morte.
Isso somado a uma direção de arte, som e level design que permitem a quebra constante da quarta parede fazerem desse jogo uma das obras mais imersivas no mercado de jogos atuais sendo simplesmente épico como esse mundo nórdico consegue ser apresentado de forma tão crua misturando ainda sim elementos místicos que se entrelaçam com a realidade se distorcendo pela lente quebrada que são os olhos de nossa protagonista permitindo assim o elemento do medo e terror ser naturalmente estabelecido em nossas mentes gerando situações angustiantes me colocando na ponta da cadeira pela ansiedade gerada pelo medo ao desconhecido que me espera, logo o questionamento natural de todos aqueles que jogaram Hellblade se limitam a duas simples questões: Seria essa jornada de fato real? Ou somente estamos alucinando na mente dominada pela escuridão de Senua?

Por fim é claro que como obra espetacular seu enredo finaliza o 3 arco de fechamento de forma linda e maravilhosa permitindo Senua lutar contra seus demônios e principalmente contra sua própria escuridão tomando assim as rédeas de sua própria vida reescrevendo assim sua história a permitindo então seguir em frente e aceitar o luto gerado pela morte de seu amado.

Para Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice então uma nota 8/10 me deixando ansiosíssimo pela continuação que deve sair ainda esse ano em que eu espero realmente que o time da Ninja Theory consiga novamente despertar esse sentimento de desconforto e ansiedade que esse titulo me despertou considerando todo o desenvolvimento que nossa protagonista já teve até esse ponto da história respeitando assim seus princípios e motivações nessa continuação.

I don't fault anyone for coming into Hellblade saying that they found the gameplay lacking. Coming off of Hollow Knight, I was quite bored with the parry-spam inducing combat. However, Hellblade exceeds in other areas so hard that I found it to be a worthwhile experience.

Lets expand on the combat first. It is very one-note for the lack of a better word. Enemy variety is not great and you're mostly mixing in some different attacks for specific enemies and generally not very difficult (I think I died twice the whole game with combat difficulty set to Hard). However, I do find the bosses to be much better! Using a different set of movesets and designed with strong folk horror twinge, I really loved fighting these larger encounters.

The design and atmosphere goes well into the narrative and art/environment design as well. I really appreciated Hellblade as a very personal story about Senua coming to grips with her trauma during the course of this journey. Yes, the non-combat gameplay is largely dependent on puzzles involving finding runes in the environment but I thought it made sense thematically on Senua as a character. On top of the gritty and frankly horrifying environments is a thick coating of psychological horror that really plays into Senua's mental state.

Ultimately, I think the way that Hellblade talks through its narrative about mental health and stigma around it is the strongest part of it. Most of this is really expanded upon using the binaural audio that they captured to simulate auditory hallucination to be almost overwhelming at times (But thats the point right?). Watching the docs on how the game was made really gave me an additional appreciation of the care that Ninja Theory took to tackle this specific subject matter.

As I played through this game, I came to really appreciated folks like Ninja Theory and Remedy that takes video games as a medium to new interesting directions. While some of the gameplay (both combat and non-combat) can be found lacking, I found the story this game told to be worth the time I spent going on this journey. I hope they knock it out of the park again with the sequel.

Made time for a replay before the sequel arrives. Still great! Refreshing to play a game that isn't crammed to the brim with admin.

Love the weight of the combat, and how even though it's pretty simple it allows you to be as flashy as you want. One time I used focus as a big lad dived towards me, then sidestepped and chopped him a dozen times in mid-air, revengeance-style. Feels great when you get it right, and honestly what more could you want?

Had forgotten big chunks of it, including just how naff the end credits song is. Afterwards, I finally got around to watching the little behind-the-scenes feature, which was fascinating, but I lost it when yet another terrible song started playing halfway through. Truly a comprehensively multi-layered entertainment package.

"It is the will of the gods."
"Fuck the gods!"

Replaying this one was an odd experience. I first played this nearly 6 years ago, gave it much high praise, then slowly moved on to forget what exactly I loved about it. All I remember was that it was a great standalone story, until the unexpected announcement of a sequel had me itching to return.

To put it brief, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice holds up, for what it tries to do. I had played this before 2018's God of War and vividly remember enjoying this interpretation of Norse mythology even more... but it's a different interpretation. Hellblade simply nails its narrative; a brief hero's journey and love story, centered around a young warrior who suffers with severe psychosis. The 3D audio is, of course, incredible at immersing the player into Senua's mind while adding a bit more flair to the game's combat and puzzles. It's also often horrific, and with its hyper-realistic art direction and surreal designs (including actual live-action shots), the story ends up becoming fucking awesome and heartpounding. Some of the boss designs genuinely made me uncomfortable, which is a merit to the world crafted here. By the time the player rolls credits, this becomes one of those experiences where they will browse the internet for some video essays analyzing what just occurred. It's not a power fantasy, but a simple story about overcoming your flaws and dealing with loss.
And, most of all, the actor performances, both in voice and motion capture, are some of the best I've seen in the medium. Melina Juergens is absolutely insane, among the rest of the cast.

Where I think Hellblade falls a bit flat though is in its gameplay. As stated, the 3D audio cues of Senua's voices add a neat addition to combat and puzzles, often aiding the player with cryptic hints or warnings. However, the game focuses just a bit too much more on puzzles than combat, and the puzzles that are there mostly consist of the same loop of lining up in-world objects to create runes or pathways. Even the combat, while decent to control, lacks the depth you typically find in action games of this nature, focusing purely on parrying, evading, and attacking. Sequences later on also swarm you with enemies, which can encumber your strategies in combat. As the narrative builds, these moments of gameplay ultimately slow down the process.

Do I recommend Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice to anyone? With its short length and good accessibility, absolutely. Just be aware that this experience shines more in its cinematic narrative and immersion than its gameplay. Maybe drop the difficulty down, if you don't wish to be challenged by its shortcomings.