The visuals on this game are insane, and still hold up today. The story is gripping and intense. The combat, while sometimes getting a little repetitive, is still thrilling and sometimes a bit overwhelming when you're being swarmed by enemies all around you. The game is incredibly beautiful but dark and threatening and keeps you on your toes. The voices Senua hears creep me the fuck out constantly. My only issue is with how short the game is, only taking around 8 hours and I spent lots of time wandering around not doing a lot.

This is a unique game with a huge focus on atmosphere and mental health. I'd call it a walking simulator but there is a surprising amount of combat.

For the most part, this is a strong experience. The presentation is great with decent graphics and a cool Norse mythology setting, the story is really interesting. The voice acting is fantastic across the board. Sure, there were still the typical issues you get in this kind of game like invisible walls, slow movement and reliance on cutscenes but these are fairly minor.

There is a lot of combat in this game. Considering it's a narrative focused game, I'd say the combat is quite well designed. It's simple, but functionally sound and works well enough for the game. The problem is how much of it there is, there's so much of it that is becomes extremely repetitive and tedious. While there are cool boss fights, the mass majority of encounters have you fighting the same spongy guys you've been fighting the whole time. This problem never really goes away and in fact it only gets worse towards the end.

The combat was annoying but generally the other elements of the game were well enough designed such that it wasn't a deal-breaker. Sadly, for me the final section was extremely poorly handled. I won't go into details to avoid spoilers but I left the game feeling very frustrated. Throughout my playthrough, I felt like my understanding was increasing gradually as the meaning of the game became more clear but the final sequence confused me and made me wonder if I had totally missed the point.

I would still say the game is well constructed and worth playing but I think the ending was really terrible on a gameplay level and it pretty much totally flipped my opinion of this game.

There’s room in the 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”.

Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice delivers a masterfully told story with excellent graphics, and meaningful combat and puzzle sections interwoven into the narrative. Upon starting this game, two things will become abundantly clear; the created world for this game is extremely well realized, and much like the opening boat trip itself, it is a one-way journey, with a single destination in mind. It is clear that the developers spent a lot of time researching the historical time, place, people, and cultures that are represented, as well as mental illness as they also consulted with neuroscientists to learn and accurately replicate psychosis.
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice succeeds at becoming something of a character study within a video game, and Senua makes for a psychotically compelling protagonist. Central to Senua’s experience is her psychosis. Throughout the game, there are many voices constantly ruminating in her head, and the player’s. The game must be played with headphones to fully experience the chaotic binaural soundscape that is created. This cluster of voices is one of the many tools used by the developers to place the player in Senua’s headspace, and it is an anxiety-producing headspace to live in. Yet, it is never distracting from the external sounds needed for combat or any other aspect of the environment. In fact, I think it can be argued that most, if not all, of the game can be interpreted as happening within Senua’s mind. This doesn’t make the story any less riveting or thoughtful, as it is deeply personal to Senua; Nordic deities are used as metaphors and become interlinked with familial trauma among other things. Last but certainly not least, is the amazing motion capture performance by Melina Juergens. She is able to express emotion with her face and voice so intensely; it is not often such a remarkable performance is captured in a video game. Juergens’ incredible performance is what elevates Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice. For a game pushing its character-driven narrative to the utmost importance, it is reliant on the player to connect with Senua, and Juergen’s sorrowful eyes ensures such a character as Senua will be memorable.
Now, let’s talk: gameplay and pacing. The gameplay consists of three elements: 1. Walking through the world; 2. Combat; 3. Puzzle solving. In my experience, the pacing of the narrative was most negatively impacted by the latter; the puzzle solving, but I will discuss the former two first. Walking through the world as Senua is satisfying throughout, as it never felt to go on for too long or too little. The world is well realized with historical accuracy that it provides a groundedness to the game. To further ground the game, there is no tutorial given about combat, no minimap, no health meter, or other common ‘game’ elements that we must suspend in order to retain immersion. Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is all about immersing you in Senua’s mind, and so it foregoes those previously mentioned game elements. The combat of the game is fun and mostly features Senua’s slicing and dicing - it has a system of light attack, heavy attack, kick, dodge roll, parry, and a slow-down-time mechanic (the focus mechanic). It's a relatively simple system, but it doesn’t need to be anything more complex than this since combat encounters should be interpreted to be narratively symbolic rather than an expression of skill. There are about 5 different types of enemies, and when facing multiple enemies at once is when combat becomes especially tricky, but rewarding once overcome. The bosses are uniquely designed and require different approaches to defeat, however, in all combat situations, the focus mechanic is especially strong.
Lastly, let me address the puzzles. They require the player to find runic shapes hidden in the environment in order to unlock the next door. It is a good premise, as Senua is equipped with a ‘special sight’ and personal perspective could be considered a major theme of the game. I found a majority of these puzzles to be interestingly designed and was able to solve them in a reasonable amount of time. However, there were a few of them that I found to be more challenging, and they slowed the pacing of the game down too much. This is really my only criticism for an overall excellently made game.
At the beginning of Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice it is mentioned that there is a permadeath mechanic, however, I never experienced this. I did die a handful of times, and was thinking that my permadeath state was on its way, but it never came. After doing some research, I learned that there is no permadeath and that this was a method to put the player in an anxious and fearful mindset, which seems to have worked on a number of people who still believe that it exists. It is a decision of game design that is brilliant in its own way, and will probably not be replicated in other games for the foreseeable future. A common criticism I saw for this game was it’s shorter time to beat, usually clocking in around 7-9 hours. I don’t have any issues with this length as the game is cheaper than a AAA title, and it has a consistent level of quality throughout. The story didn’t feel rushed or that it was dragging. I appreciate the developers for not adding useless content to make their game feel worth the price.
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice makes a great case for video games to be established as the newest artform. Although it borrows heavily from cinema in this regard, its gameplay is narratively significant, and not just something to break up cutscenes. Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice offers an immersive experience, with a moving story, and made with a great level of attention to detail.

Nice and desperate game.

This game gives me a sensation that any horror game can't cause in me, the fear of going on without knowing if something is going to happen.

Also this game has a problem with the frequency of combat. The combat is okay, not great, but there are many more fights than necessary. It would be better if there were more sequences of Senua dealing with the environment instead of repetitive fights.

O Jogo é mt bom, graficos incrivels, uma boa mecanica de combate mas cansa um pouco as vezes, vozes excelentes e principalmente, uma ambientação impecável. É importante vocês prestarem atenção em cada detalhe do jogo, pra conseguirem entender perfeitamente a história. Por isso, explorem o máximo que conseguirem e não deixem passar nada.

para mim o principal ponto negativo, oq fez eu nao dar uma nota mais alta é
Apesar de eu gostar de puzzle, acho que exageraram MUITO nesse quesito. Claro, boa parte dos puzzle são simples e rápidos de se resolverem, mas tem alguns que são Extremamentes CHATOS e desnecessários, e acabam se repetindo por todo o tempo de gameplay do jogo, chegou no final eu nao estava mais aguentando esse sistema repetitivo de puzzle

Jogo bom com puzzles interessantes e uma historia OK, mas que dá para se agarrar facilmente e se levar por ela. Meio confuso a mitologia nórdica, mas creio que seja mais um problema meu (que não entendo muito) do que do próprio jogo, porém senti uma "desnecessidade" da mitologia, no sentido de que poderia ser qualquer outra que entraria bem no jogo e não faria uma diferença grande. Combate repetitivo, porém não é o foco do jogo, então dá pra relevar um pouco. E COM CERTEZA o jogo deve ser muito melhor de ser jogado em controle do que em teclado e mouse