This review will contain minor spoilers involving a gameplay mechanic

I think if I was to describe this game in one word it would be "Uncomfortable".

I saw the press the second game was getting and since its free on game pass I was gonna just jump straight into that but I realised the first game was free as well so I thought I might as well play through it first.

The story of this game is what everyone is going to be there for. You play as Senua who has travelled to Helheim to retrieve the soul of her partner Dillion. I had no idea this game was set within Norse mythology so that was a big win for me out the gate as I love that stuff. Senua is plagued by constant voices in her head second guessing absolutely everything she does, constantly beating her down with whatever she is trying to do, so much so it can be hard to listen to at times. The main point of the game is Senua trying to overcome her grief which is shown in a lot of ways. I wont get to much into spoilers but I think the story is fantastic and kept me interested throughout the lacklustre gameplay sections

I absolutely love the character designs in this game. The Northmen all look disgusting, like hybrids of humans and animals. There are 5 enemy variants being the one with a sword, one with a hammer, one with a hammer and a shield, one massive guy with an executioner axe and one fast jumping guy with two small axe's. For the limited combat sections this game has there is enough variety to keep it interesting. I love the designs for the bosses in this game, each one towers over Senua. Valravn, Surtr Garm and Hela all look terrifying and look nothing like any designs I have seen for them previously. The game really excels off of the performances from the actors. Melina Juergens gives a fantastic performance as Senua, which I was surprised to see is her only credited acting role.

Now unfortunately the gameplay is where I would imagine the game looses a lot of people. The gameplay is very repetitive mostly revolving around perspective puzzles and small combat sections. They are cool to start with but when each area contains the exact same puzzle format it gets old fast. The game is only around 6 hours in length but took me several days to get through just to avoid burnout. The combat system is fun and I enjoyed all the segments with it but I wasn't really a fan of the "Permadeath" feature the game has. Each time Senua dies a bit more of her is covered by this black rash looking thing called "Rot" the game tells you that if you fail too many time then your quest will be over, insinuating that you have to start again. This actually isnt true as it was just a fluke which I guess was put in to further hammer in that nothing the voices tell you can be trusted. I'm not a huge fan of permadeath stuff so I was a little turned away by this but the combat is easy enough to master that it proved not a problem.

Visually this game is stunning, for being 7 years old it holds up extremely well with beautiful landscapes and extremely well designed characters as previously mentioned. Soundtrack is a banger as well. I think the place that this game excels the most is its sound design, playing this game with good headphones is a must as you can hear the voices moving around your head, it really adds to the atmosphere.

I was taken by surprise that this game is kind of a horror game at times. The whole game has a creepy atmosphere with weird voices talking to you all the time but certain segments, particularly the Garm one were genuinely scary. Add the weird 4th wall breaks when Senua just straight up talks to the unseen voices while looking straight at you and you have yourself one genuinely creepy game.

Overall I think this is a great game but is unfortunately let down by its repetitive gameplay mechanics. I would however not recommend this if you suffer from any kind of mental disorder like schizophrenia as I feel like it could be quite triggering. Good to see the developers acknowledge that with plentiful trigger warnings each time the game is loaded up. Great creepy and stressful story with amazing visuals.

Per regia e montaggio sonoro è sicuramente un'opera che impressiona, non mi aspettavo di trovarmi un gioco del genere. Il comparto narrativo è anch'esso molto interessante, la storia di Senua è struggente ed emozionante, niente da dire sotto questo aspetto. L'unica nota stonata è un combat system che rimane troppo intrappolato nelle sue meccaniche di base, troppo ripetitivo e troppo poco profondo, variabile e capace di essere sfidante. Anche sui puzzle si poteva fare qualcosina di più, nonostante questi quantomeno siano visivamente carini. Complessivamente un buon gioco.

Não botei fé que era tão bom assim, mas me surpreendeu, o jogo tem bastante qualidade narrativa, acho que a gameplay peca um pouco em algumas questões, principalmente na câmera que tive varios problemas durante a jogatina, mas gostei do combate, é bem fácil mas é divertido até

Senua é maravilhosa, excelente personagem, gostei de acompanhar a jornada dela e sua transformação, te amo melina juergens, a trilha sonora desse jogo é um espetáculo, principalmente na reta final, maravilhosa e vai pra playlist.

No geral, gostei, baita universo bem feito, visualmente é lindo e é muito bem escrito, um mundo nórdico bem respeitoso com a mitologia, bora pro II agora

For better and worse, this game is exhausting. The narrative forces you to meet it on its terms, and refuses to ever try and explain anything. You have to interpret and understand everything yourself. There is a lot of meaning and it's obvious that a lot of focus is put on making things feel visceral.

Unfortunately, that exhausting also extends to the gameplay. The combat is... unfortunate. The boss fights range from okay to a lot of fun (a certain late-game boss is very fun and doesn't wear out its welcome all that much), but the regular enemy fights are just exhausting. There's no difficulty to the combat, everything is very straight forward, they just decided that the best way to up the difficulty is by throwing more enemies into the fight.

Early game? Yeah, one or two. Mid game? A basic enemy and an interesting enemy. By the end? Enjoy a cluster of time-wasting combat where making mistakes means spending a lot of extra time re-doing the fights.

I wish I had more to say about the story, though. It's meaningful, and obviously has a lot of heart-wrenching moments as you explore Senua's... everything. She might be the most tormented-feeling character in all of gaming. But the gameplay is at its most interesting with puzzles that feel like they'd be at home in an escape room, and combat that just... shouldn't really be there.

Maybe the developers wanted the players to feel that same level of exhaustion and frustration as Senua, but for me it's just... not fun. This is one game that I feel would 100% work better as a movie.

Cara eu achei esse jogo muito único. Literalmente logo nos primeiros minutos jogando em que você ouve as vozes na cabeça da Senua como se você próprio estivesse experienciando aquilo já foi algo que despertou minha curiosidade logo de cara. A gameplay é super simples e consiste basicamente em um loop de gameplay envolvendo um combate básico e resolver puzzles (geralmente relacionado a explorar o cenário para encontrar as runas necessárias para progredir). Se a narrativa não fosse tão intrigante, com certeza a gameplay prejudicaria, porque ela é bem simples mesmo, parece que só tá lá pra falar que é jogo kkkkk, pq honestamente, podia fácil ser um filme. Achei a história bem legal, a ambientação na mitologia nórdica funciona super bem, e no final, achei uma puta história foda de aceitação e luto. Me lembrou bastante o “Returnal” de 2020 nesse ponto, onde a gameplay e ambientação servem de base para um significado muito mais profundo por trás (Acho que o Returnal consegue equilibrar melhor a narrativa e a gameplay porque a gameplay daquele jogo é sensacional, apesar de que a história do Hellblade é muito mais fácil de entender). No fim, é um jogo muito bom e único que aborda temas sobre doenças mentais de uma forma nunca antes vista nos video games.

Hellblade… I really wanted to love this one after having so many recommendations; but upon rolling credits I just had to come to terms and accept, it just wasn’t for me. I found it very much a game of two opposing sides, I didn’t hate it by any means but neither did I love it.

The biggest praise I can give Hellblade is its absolute devotion to its atmosphere and its unique way of story telling. It’s really proving that games are indeed art. The sound design is incredible, and while the voices in your head can get annoying, it’s very much intentional and I loved what it added. The art and design department really nailed the brief.

The opposing side to this though is its neglect of gameplay. I think my biggest gripe is just how slow it all is, I don’t know if I’d go as far as saying it’s a walking sim but damn does Senua move slow. My finger got genuinely sore holding the run button (well more like briskly walk button). Speaking of gameplay, the combat is passable but there’s really not a lot to it, it’s extremely sluggish and repetitive. Some of the puzzles have really cool concepts but the ‘main’ puzzles (the rune puzzles) just have you looking for symbols in the world, it’s just boring and becomes rather tedious. It all just felt like a slog to play through.

To conclude, I really didn’t want to bash this game, it has a fantastic atmosphere and that’s really want drives the game and that made it worth finishing for me. It really has some great ideas baked in too but, to me personally, the bad side of the game got in the way of that enjoyment. Some who loves a story and the art of gamin you’ll really enjoy this but if you’re someone who loves gameplay I don’t think you’ll have a good time. I am glad I finally played this but, as I stated at the start, I think it just wasn’t for me as a whole, but that’s ok.

Initially, I didn't think much of the game, but Hellblade managed to surprise me greatly. It's a complete narrative experience set in the vast Norse mythology, where we control a tormented Celtic warrior who embarks on a journey to Helheim to bring back her beloved.

The game relies on a completely introspective approach, where we are led to explore all the madness within Senua's mind through visually implemented allegories in brilliant ways to discern what is reality or illusion, as the entire atmosphere of the story is skillfully crafted to generate imminent tension in the player.

Regarding the gameplay, I can say, above all, that it has its flaws and successes. The combat system is one of the points I think deserved more refinement, not that it's bad, it works very well, being extremely satisfying, and precisely for that reason, I think it could be further explored, since the enemies have little variety, becoming somewhat standardized, I think it would be better if there were more fights in the game with greater diversity of opponents. The puzzles, despite repeating themselves a lot, manage to carry creative solutions, never making it monotonous. The exploration part is really cool (especially the scenarios that impress with the amount of detail on the Viking theme), there is a wide range of challenges to be completed, always with new mechanics to be discovered. The Boss Fights are another of its best qualities, as the design of the gods is extremely original and the battles are quite dynamic as a whole.

Hellblade manages to showcase technical and visual quality, providing a true narrative lesson through its expressive plot. Although it's a relatively short game (7-8 hours), it's an interesting journey that is very worthwhile due to its excellent voice acting, soundtrack, and atmosphere, easily making it an excellent recommendation for lovers of Norse mythology / culture.

Hellblade was quite a unique experience
the game looks gorgeous, but you can definitely see some rough edges here and there
raytracing served to conceal those quite well tho
The themes of handling loss and how to deal with mental illness were by far my favourite
while I don't think the story particularly needed a sequel, I will check it out nonetheless, can't wait what this studio is cooking next

The visuals and story telling for this are really amazing, but it takes a while to pick up. Especially early on in the game, I felt myself losing motivation very fast. (So much so that I took a 2 month break.) I'm glad I picked it back up. The combat did feel somewhat repetitive, but it was a good way to wake me up every once in a while. I mostly stuck around for the storytelling and insane visuals that come out of nowhere in the final third of the game.

I was also a little scared later on. I don't like scary stuff.

I can almost put this into a small category of games I deem interesting but portrayed with the wrong media. I feel like the story portrayed in a film would possibly be more enjoyable. I'm not sure being a game did it much justice, as it was really a story first and a game second.

5/10 I'm glad I played it, but I'm just as glad that it's over.

Vamos lá, este é um daqueles jogos que muitas pessoas vão odiar e algumas vão
gostar, por ser aquele tipo de jogo totalmente fora da casinha; o mais interessante é
o vasto mar de interpretações diferentes que podem ser vistas.

Eu vou falar o que eu vi e senti ao jogá-lo. Claramente, o jogo é baseado em uma
doença. Senua tem esquizofrenia, e é bizarro como incomoda pra caralho essas
vozes insuportáveis na cabeça.

Um ponto interessante nesse jogo é que você não sabe se as coisas que aparecem
realmente aconteceram ou se ela apenas imagina tudo isso. Creio que seja um
pouco dos dois, mas, para falar a verdade, fica bem complicado discernir o que está
acontecendo de maneira geral. É tanta informação jogada que você começa a
ficar maluco. Eu vi esse aspecto de forma negativa, mas ao mesmo tempo, penso
que os desenvolvedores queriam demonstrar como funciona a cabeça de uma
pessoa com essa doença. Só um adendo: informação totalmente tirada da minha
cabeça. Então, querendo ou não, se a ideia era essa, funcionou. Você termina o
jogo e não entende caralho nenhum.

Dito isso, esse incômodo, seja ele proposital ou não, é muito bem feito, mas acredito
que afasta a grande maioria das pessoas. Um ponto incrível é o combate majestoso
dessa belezinha, com uma fluidez estilo os jogos Assassin's Creed nas épocas de ouro.
Devo citar também as mecânicas que vou chamar de "mini-puzzles", altamente
interessantes, que agregam muito à obra final.

Enfim, não tem muita coisa a mais para comentar; os sistemas do jogo são muito
bons, extremamente fluidos, mas aqui o transtorno que a história causa ao jogador é
bizarro, e esse ponto que deveria ser de destaque se torna algo chato.

Particularmente, odeio narrativas que deixam praticamente tudo em aberto. Pode
ser um erro meu, não enxergar a maravilha que esse jogo talvez seja, mas
infelizmente não vejo. Se pudesse, pediria para todos os desenvolvedores basearem
o seu sistema de combate nesse jogo. Fora isso, eu sinto que não é apenas um jogo,
mas sim, uma experiência chata pra caralho.