The funniest shit in the world is how this game’s “mental health consultant” is the first name listed in the opening credits. Paul Fletcher must be a pseudonym for Kanye West because this game’s representation of schizophrenia feels forced at best and exploitative at worst.

I also like how the game is basically slowly walking around and looking at shapes like you're a two-year-old with occasional breaks of dogshit over-the-shoulder combat.

B-b-but bro, it’s scary voices constantly beating your eardrums! Did you play it with headphones? Yeah, I did, and the gimmick gets old super quick.

FOLLOW YOUR MIND’S EYE TO THE NEXT COMBAT ARENA SENUA. Dogshit “psychosis is my superpower” ass game.

Apparently, the ending is hilarious, but I couldn’t bear to get any further than the first two levels.

During it’s inception, Ninja Theory thought of this game as an experiment - to see if it was possible to develop a “AAA-game” with a small headcount while also tackling a topic hardly discussed in games. What came out is a dogshit imitation and implementation of both.

There is a funny interpretation to be found in Ninja Theory’s understanding of a AAA-game, as Hellblade is just a collage of high-fidelity rocks and motion capture performances funneled into a repeating on-rails flowchart of walking/dialogue/looking-at-rocks → Obligatory Puzzle → Obligatory Combat (because its a “AAA-game” of course it has to have Combat!), repeating and recycling in on itself til the credits roll. Nothing like doing Combat-Encounter #8 and you have to fight Enemy Variation 1 AND 2 in three waves after the puzzle mechanics haunt the game’s narrative: FIND THE RUNES, ENTER THE PORTALS, all padded somehow into 7 hours of playtime!? Give me a break. The Binaural audio sure is swag and all and the very tiny few moments Hellblade's Budget gets used to create harrowing and captivating imagery show glimpses of a reality where Hellblade was a 3 hour epic of just fugged up & cool shit and that would have probably been a lot better with what we got it here. It’s in its pacing and structure that Hellblade frustrate me the most: The gaming equivalent of reading a Game Design Document: it’s too rigid, too constrained by it’s listing off of 3 puzzle designs and 5 enemy types while padding you out for another 3-4 hours more than necessary. For such a nuanced topic and possibility to experience it, why did they choose to create go about it in the safest and conventional way possible rather than try SOMETHING eccentric in anything?

You can have all the professional-consultation and interviews of anecdotal retelling you want if you don’t follow up and do much with it! It really feels like they interviewed a person who said "I felt like I started seeing pattern and connections to things that weren't" and them immediately following and implementing the first thing that popped up in their heads ("RUNES BAYBEE")

It just irks me even more that it was exactly this angle they focused on entirely in their marketing and subsequent postmortem appearances - of how they depicted the most accurate example of mental-illness in vibeo jams. Fuck off.

I hope Hellblade 2 is better, hopefully with Tameem Antoniades apparently leaving the company last year.

Senua's Sacrifice plunges you into a world as dark and oppressive as the depths of Senua's mind. However, what makes this game truly unique is its unflinching portrayal of psychosis, voices whisper doubts and fears, the world around you shimmers and warps and distant sounds become deafening. You experience the constant battle Senua wages just to perceive reality. The story is where Hellblade shines, it's a harrowing tale of loss, grief and the fight to hold onto sanity in those moments, culminating in a powerful ending that is nothing short of phenomenal.

I really don't understand what people see in this title. The psychosis representation is well done and the pattern identifying gameplay is interesting because it's indicative of paranoia - but that doesn't make the game any better.

I could rant about just about every section of the game, but in the interest of my own time I'm going to keep my critique brief:

- The graphics are technically nice, yet every area looks the same and the whole game is far too dark.
- I didn't care one bit for Senua, her journey or any of the other "characters" in the plot. The narrative was entirely ungripping to me.
- The puzzle design is loathsome. I know it's subjective but I never had any clue what the game wanted from me, and when I eventually fumbled my way to a solution it still made no more sense. It's all so obscure and poorly informed to you.
- The combat sucks. I have the feeling that's the point, but it didn't need to be so plentiful if it was meant to be bad. I did, however, like the final boss encounter (the music and the "let go" solution was cool).

I know this game is entirely unique (excluding the existence of the sequel) and that the developers should be praised for their creative vision, but I really didn't get on with this game at all. It is a very short game and yet I spent most of it just begging for it to end. I know it's a representation of Hel and that it isn't supposed to be fun, but I don't think that's an excuse for being just plain not very good.

While I'm not in love with this game, it damn well does what it does well.
The unique take on representing mental health in this game is very good, and I like a lot about what it does. I replayed it for the new game that released the day I write this review (the sequel) and while it's still very lackluster in the gameplay department and some of the puzzles are hit-or-miss, it really makes you feel valiant going through the title and finishing the game, was very impressed on released and while I've grown less partial to it over the years, still a very good game for those willing to take it on.

(hey, i wrote about this game for my blog. it wasn't really a review so i've written one of those here instead, but i think it's still a good read so check it out if you wanna!)

You know, I think this game has left a bigger impact on me than I'd realised. Going in, I had certain expectations; I knew it was going to depict psychosis, and I knew the story was about the protagonist looking to revive her dead lover, but that was about it. I had no idea the directions it would go, or how the game would develop its concepts.

It's a masterpiece, simply put. An exceptional melding of compelling narrative, arresting visuals, and gameplay that, while light, facilitates the core of the story through the emotions it evokes. Combat is oftentimes gruelling and frustrating and scary, like it realistically should be. It isn't fun in the traditional video-gamey sense, but it is effective.

Senua's Sacrifice is full of these strange but impactful stylistic choices which I adore. It makes for a very unique play experience. There are certain moments, like the first time Senua stares directly into the camera, or the moment I learned how to use the mechanic which slows time during fights because a voice in my head told me to "focus". The game uses live-action video of actors rather than in-game models, presumably due to budgetary issues, but it makes for a game whose look is entirely its own.

I don't think I'm going to play a game like Hellblade again. Even the sequel will likely never capture the specific vibes of its predecessor. That's okay though; this game is just one step in the journey that is the rest of our lives.

Es casi irónico que uno de los juegos más lúcidos de su generación sea uno que habla de la psicosis.
Lúcido es la palabra que utilizo por que pocas veces en un juego todo está al servicio de transmitir una sola idea, o experiencia, y todo rema hacia el mismo sitio de manera consciente, coherente y brillante como en este primer Senua.
El sonido, claro, es el gran protagonista (imprescindibles buenos auriculares), pero literalmente todo está al servicio de explicar al jugador, sin palabras, lo que es la psicosis: desde el escenario, uno de fantasía, para que no sepas bien lo que esta en la cabeza de la protagonista y lo que existe en ese mundo (seria mas facil de separar en una ambientación de corte realista), hasta los puzzles, centrados en encontrar patrones en el entorno, una obsesión recurrente de los que padecen la condición, el combate, simple pero visceral, y la decision del juego de avisarte nada más comenzar de que la muerte permanente existe, sin decirte cuántas te puedes permitir, viviendo con la tensión de no saber si Senua se levantará la proxima o si perderás todo el progreso. Si eso es cierto o no es irrelevante, por qué la semilla en ti cabeza ya está plantada, y ese era el objetivo.

Simplemente brillante. Un equipo con una idea clara de lo que quiere y la disciplina para no salirse del camino.

Muchos más Ninja Theorys, por favor.

I adore the audio design of this game. There are plenty of things to complain about here but there's so much more to love. Combat is simple but feels good when in a flow. Very easy and natual one play platinum. I can't recommend playing this if you don't have headphones. It was designed with headphones in mind (binaural audio) so you're really missing out on anything else. 2.0 and 2.1 systems are not a substitute and I will not back down on this for one main reason: It's a game where the main character has psychosis. The voices are convincingly in your head with headphones.

It's a fun experience with a dark story but isn't for everyone.

MrBtongue tem um video publicado 11 anos atras chamado “Slow Down the Violence”, onde basicamente, critica um vicio muito comum da industria de videogames; preencher espaços com encontros violentos que não seguem nenhum propósito real dentro do jogo. No video ele usa LA:Noire como exemplo, você é um detetive, e mata dezenas de bandidos pelo jogo, mas não porque isso faz algum sentido dentro daquele universo, mas porque esse é um jogo da rockstar, e ele precisa ter tiroteios.

Nessa formula que algumas pessoas carinhosamente chamam de “filminho da Sony”, os espaços nao preenchidos por puzzles ou caminhadas contemplativas DEVEM ser preenchidos com violência, mas qual exatamente é a necessidade disso?

Hellblade é incrivel, foge bastante das representações mais tipicas da esquizofrenia. Aqui, ao inves de um surto psicotico com risadas do coringa, a esquizofrenia serve para remover qualquer capacidade de critica que a protagonista possa ter, os puzzles sao objetos que se encaixam e formam uma runa especifica, mas é obvio que a intenção não era que aquilo fosse uma runa fragmentada como o jogo faz parecer, mas a incapacidade de Senua de criticar suas próprias visões e assumir o primeiro pensamento possivel faz com que tudo aquilo se torne real.

É a gameplay do jogo se alinhando diretamente com a proposta narrativa dele, trazendo a esquizofrenia nao só como um elemento solto da personagem, mas como parte fundamental de avançar no jogo. Não estou interessado em discutir a variedade de inimigos, velocidade do combate, combos disponíveis e etc porque acredito que isso é cair justamente no vício que mrbtongue apontou 11 anos atras; estamos assumindo que esses jogos precisam, necessariamente, disso.

Ao invés disso, prefiro pensar na NECESSIDADE do combate, que aqui serve muito mais para apoiar outra mecânica (morte) do que pra se justificar sozinho.

A morte permanente descrita no jogo nao existe. Voce pode morrer infinitamente e seu progresso nunca será apagado, então é só uma ferramenta pra gerar tensão no jogador, mas como eu poderia apoiar essa mecânica em algo diferente do combate?

Minha sugestão é que, ja que a mecânica é fake, entao que ela se integre a resolução de puzzles. Como ja comentei, os puzzles estao fortemente relacionados com a esquizofrenia de Senua, ela observa padroes que nao existem de fato, mas pra ela todos fazem sentido. E se a marca no braço aumentasse quanto mais você expoe Senua a sua própria mente delirante? Ela fica repetidamente encarando essas percepções falsas do mundo e avançando no jogo com base nelas, cada vez mais se afundando na própria mente, e com isso, o jogador fica encurralado. Ele avança no jogo porque quer salvar o marido de Senue, ao mesmo tempo que a mata lentamente.

Nao sou o diretor do jogo muito menos game designer, mas nao vejo realmente nenhum motivo para o combate ser tao desinteressante. Nao acho que os jogos devem excluir o combate, mas que essas sessões deveriam ser melhor planejadas ao inves de “um espaço entre um puzzle e outro”. A luta contra fenrir por exemplo tem um ótimo uso do combate.

De resto adorei o jogo, as vozes de senua que dao dicas, as quebras da quarta parede como se fossemos um intruso a observando, alguém com quem ela não é acostumada (uma voz nova, diferente, eu diria) e a historia fragmentada (como um relato qualquer contado por uma pessoa esquizofrênica) mostram que esse jogo tinha uma clara intençao. Nesse sentido é mais bem concatenado que Indika, com um grande ponto fraco que indika nao possui (combate).

I've been pushing this game back further into my backlog for years now. I thought it wouldn't be to my liking, and I had heard that combat wasn't very good. But with Hellblade 2 on the horizon, I decided to give it a shot, both because I was already due for it and as a test to see if I should play the sequel. And as I found out, Ninja Theory had actually made something way beyond my expectations.

Reading comments from people online and hearing from some friends, I was expecting to dislike the gameplay, and as a "gameplay first" kind of guy, I wasn't looking forward to it. But once again, just as with ME: Andromeda, I have learned that the only way to get an accurate opinion about something is experiencing it yourself. Outside of the combat, the gameplay itself is very simple: You just move, look at and interact with things. The loop is also predictable for most of the game, most puzzles involve looking at runes from a certain angle. These puzzles are cool and not very difficult, but it gets a little repetitive by the end. If this was the entirety of the experience, while understandable considering it's a narrative focused game, I probably would've gotten bored eventually. Thankfully, the combat is good, much better than I thought, which I guess makes sense considering Ninja Theory's heritage as an action game studio.

I can understand why people wouldn't like it: It's not flashy, there's no move variety besides the basic action game stuff, and enemy variety is also a little lacking (If it had 3 or 4 other enemies it would've been perfect)... But it feels great. You can feel each hit landing, the weight behind the movements, the impact of a successful block, and so on. This all adds up to brutal encounters, which fits the theme for the series, as it was said in a recent documentary about Hellblade 2, "Senua isn't winning, she's surviving", and it's very engaging. The first time the Furies yelled at me saying "behind you!", it didn't occur to me that enemies could flank me, and all I had time to do was do a short quickstep to the right and watch as a sword barely missed Senua's head; it was after this encounter that this game hooked me for good, and it was a great use of what is probably the main gimmick of Hellblade.

Senua is a troubled individual. She suffers with schizophrenia and psychosis, and has gone through deeply traumatic events throughout her life. She's not alone, but not in a good way; the Furies - voices in her head - are there in every step of the way, whispering into your ears. They often try to make Senua doubt herself, try to hurt her with their words, or make noise in general. Their presence are a highlight, not only are they useful for gameplay purposes, they add a lot to the immersion. With all of her troubles, Senua goes on a journey against her own darkness, and to save the soul of her lover. The story and especially the narrative are phenomenal, and it progresses steadily all the way to the end, it never drags. There's not much else to say besides giving it more praise.

Even as a 2018 game, and with some noticeable blurry textures here and there, Hellblade is still a looker. Both the graphics (I used ray tracing) and the art direction are great. It's a little "gray-ish" in most parts, but this ties into Senua's perception of the world, as colors get a lot more vibrant in flashback moments. Fantastic job for a relatively small studio before they were acquired by Microsoft. Visually, from promotional material, the sequel looks insanely good, let's see how that goes.

Given the nature of the gimmicks and combat, it's no surprise that this game has outstanding audio design. When it comes to music, it's fairly simple, it's there to serve as the background noise, but it's not bad. What really shines here are the sound effects and voice acting, the main example for both being the previously mentioned Furies. Ninja Theory used binaural audio to have them whispering and talking and screaming in your ears. Senua's performance is also scarily good, it's not every day that you see someone do such an impressive and probably realistic rendition of a character with issues such as Senua's.

It's unfortunate for such an experience to end soon, but its relative short size (9 hours to beat getting every Lorestone) worked to its favor, the story and puzzles probably would've felt dragged if it was longer. But what matters is that I loved this game. It's lacking in enemy and puzzle variety, but it makes up for it with everything else. If you enjoy narrative heavy games, this is perfect for you, and I cannot wait to put my hands on the sequel.

SCORE: 9/10

This game is like a playable art house film, and the playability adds a lot. Aside from one instance where the narrative bleeding into the gameplay kind of misses, the game from beginning to an is pretty focused with its design. It knows when to let the player take reigns and when you take it away to tell them the story. The pacing is great and succinct. The cinematography is stellar. Even the combat is good, even if it may be janky some times. It fits perfectly into what the game is going for, which is not some hack n slash Dynasty Warriors type shit.

And I love the story and setting. I actually didn't know and expect the game to be heavily based in Norse mythology, and also have one of the best, most realistic takes on it. It manages to turn something as ancient and disconnected from us as Norse mythology into a really relatable and personal story about suffering, fighting your demons, not fitting in, and the long history of women being treated like furniture throughout ages.

I really hope Hellblade 2 is firstly as good as this, and also achieves the success it deserves. These are the games that are important to gaming as an art form and we need more of. I'm gonna be super bummed if Ninja Theory suffers the same fate as Arkane and Tango games...

I have this great appreciation for pieces of media that contain stories or messages that can only be properly conveyed in that medium. There's a novel called House of Leaves that tells a story that can only be a novel. It can't be a movie or a tv show or anything other than a novel. In my Graphic Novel as Lit course we read a graduate thesis published into a graphic novel called "Unflattening" and in it, the author broke down the inner workings of a graphic novel all through pictures and minimal dialogue. He tells a story through the medium of a graphic novel that can only be a graphic novel.

My point being is this

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is the first game I've played that can only be a video game. A big claim, I know, yet I firmly believe it. A JRPG can be easily adapted into an anime series, The Last of Us and Uncharted have both been adapted to both great and less-than-stellar receptions, but they could be done.

If some producer or director tried to turn this into a movie it would lose so much of what makes this special. The uncomfortable feeling of playing this game. The 3D binaural audio that made me sick to my stomach, the uncomfortably close camera that puts the player into the heart and soul of Senua; that stellar ending sequence where the player has to keep fighting until they can no longer fight at all. Not to mention the other stellar sequences in this game like the blindness puzzle that scared the hell out of me. All of it can only be played. I'd reckon if you watched a playthrough you wouldn't be able to experience the struggle that the game makes the player feel.

The gameplay works in perfect parody with the narrative. each fight is a fight against Senua's inner demons. While not incredibly in depth or engaging the combat works to sell the insanely chaotic and frenetic state of Senua's psyche.

My ONLY gripe is that the game ends with the most cliché "See you in the next adventure" with the most unfitting needle drop. It left such a bad taste in my mouth that I couldn't give the game a 5/5

Also, I don't think I ever want to replay this. It was a worthwhile experience but it certainly was anything but fun. Like I said, this game made me sick to my stomach and stressed out. I do recommend it but probably a one and done experience.

Uma experiência única!
Acho que essa frase é a que mais resume hellblade, a forma como a história é contada é incrível. Como a protagonista sofre de problemas mentais, muitas coisas são contadas de maneiras surrealistas e diferentes, é até difícil de explicar.

A história em si não é inovadora, mas a narrativa é tão bem desenvolvida que te prende do inicio ao fim, pois só aos poucos que é contado o que aconteceu.

O sistema de puzzle também não é algo único, mas ele foi muito bem adaptado pra atmosfera do jogo, é muito bem utilizado também, o que faz os puzzles do jogo serem muito bons e divertidos.

O combate do jogo é muito bem feito, o que torna ele extremamente gostoso e divertido de se jogar, só fica ruim quando aparece muitos inimigos de uma vez, porque parece que o sistema não se adapta isso é acaba ficando mais difícil.

Em geral, hellblade é um jogo muito bem feito e construido, não tem uma história fácil de se entender, mas nada impossível. Se você gosta de mitologia, ou um jogo com uma baita história e narrativa, esse jogo é perfeito para você

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice destaca-se como uma obra-prima narrativa da Ninja Theory, onde a imersão na cultura nórdica e céltica é a chave para desvendar os segredos da protagonista. A profundidade da história e a riqueza dos detalhes transportam o jogador para um mundo místico e envolvente.

A narrativa é cativante, repleta de momentos memoráveis e ação na medida certa. É uma jornada épica que supera todas as expectativas. Apesar de ter demorado a jogar, fiquei completamente satisfeito com a experiência, desde o ambiente meticulosamente recriado, à personagem complexa e multifacetada, aos inimigos desafiadores, ao combate fluido e estratégico, à história intrigante e comovente, e ao estilo gráfico único e hipnotizante. Tive a oportunidade de jogar no Xbox Series X, o que me permitiu apreciar ao máximo o potencial visual e sonoro do jogo.

Recomendo vivamente Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice a todos os jogadores que apreciam histórias emocionantes, universos ricos e experiências únicas. É um jogo que te marcará profundamente e te fará refletir sobre a natureza da mente humana, a força da resiliência e o poder da esperança.