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.
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.