Better than I thought it would be considering the person who gifted it to me said "average gameplay, phenomenal premise". While his statement may ring true, I do think Hellblade achieves its own goals rather nicely. It's a game that relies heavily on its presentation and not simply graphically. The protagonist, Senua, suffers from what appears to a modern player as some sort of psychosis. The interesting part lies in the fact that the game takes place in the eighth century, and as far as Senua is concerned, this is her reality, and everyone else shuns her as cursed. This lends the game a very unique perspective not often seen, and this is portrayed visually and aurally with artifacts and minor light hallucinations occasionally peppering the screen, and numerous voices which constantly fill the surround channels at varying distances. It's very artistically interesting to step into the shoes of a character like this and one that feels not only highly immersive but also highly respectful to those suffering from it in real life. While I wasn't fully on board with the game's writing at the beginning, and unsure how to feel throughout, by the time the game ended I felt that Ninja Theory had done a great job telling a story that felt very intimately personal yet grand in scale despite the relatively small scope. Senua comes out of her shell as the narrative progresses and it's satisfying to see her become more confident in her abilities and quest, before finally coming to terms with the fact that not all of her problems were her fault. Uncovering the game's story through creatively told flashbacks at key points in the game feels like unraveling the bandaged head tied to Senua's hip, and by the conclusion, it all felt satisfying. While I'm not sure how the lore tomes tie into the game's narrative or themes, it is fun to hear Druth tell his stories.
The main make-or-break here is going to be the game design for most people, though I found it to be competent enough to be unproblematic. The combat isn't anything special, in fact, it's probably been seen in tons of other games in the same generation alone. Even in hard mode, it's not particularly challenging after a couple of hours and you really can just spam the dodge to escape all enemy attacks. Despite this, there's enough enemy variety to keep things varied enough, and you can't use the same strategy with all of them. The game probably could have benefitted from more of that, but what's here is fine. There is a visceral feeling nature to the combat and I think the visual feedback as well as seeing your enemies visibly represent the damage they've taken through different animations does make it satisfying at the very least, even if it's relatively simple and not particularly creative. The puzzles are generally fine as well. They require you to locate patterns within the environment, forcing you to view the game world from a variety of unusual perspectives to progress. While nothing mindblowing, these puzzles can often be clever and do require you to think outside of the box. Sometimes I felt they overstayed their welcome and had wished for a return of combat, but Hellblade generally gives you enough new puzzle mechanics to not be boring. The only outright bad part of the gameplay I'd say is a fire maze near the end of the game, which requires you to locate these patterns while on the run from a burning wall of flame. It requires a lot of random running around and trial and error before you get it right, but not in a way that feels like you've overcome it, rather feeling as if you got lucky. Despite this, I think Hellblade's gameplay is largely serviceable, nothing too special but with memorable moments here and there. Not bad at all, but you'll be playing this for the story.
Hellblade was made with a team of around twenty people, which makes the game's visual presentation all the more impressive. It genuinely matches the quality you'd see in a lot of AAA games from the mid-2010s, featuring well-defined environments, decent texture quality, and phenomenal character models. Seriously, Senua's model looks damn near lifelike, with an impressive amount of fidelity and great facial animation enhancing the emotion of the story. With a lesser art team, the game's story wouldn't be as effective as you wouldn't connect to Senua's emotions on a sensory level. Ninja Theory also updated the game to take advantage of ray-traced shadows and reflections, both of which look fantastic and add heavily to the realism of the game world. Occasionally there'd be a low-resolution texture in plain view, but this wasn't a frequent issue. I also loved the incredibly creative blending of live-action footage with the in-engine graphics during cutscenes, which was not only neat from a visual standpoint but also pulled off well. If there's anything about the presentation I wasn't a huge fan of, it's that the monster designs aren't all that unique. They're largely fine, but they don't strike me as particularly creative, simply representing distorted people. Valravn was the exception, whose mangled raven-like design reminded me of something from a more creative version of Silent Hill Downpour. The game also runs pretty well at max settings with ray-tracing and balanced DLSS at 1440p, usually averaging around 80-100 FPS depending on the sequence. However, like a lot of Unreal Engine 4 games, Hellblade does occasionally suffer from annoying shader compilation stutter. While much less egregious than a lot of games, it's still distracting when it happens. While I suppose that's the consequence of having a loading-screen-less game world, it doesn't make it pleasant either. The game's soundtrack is also very good, featuring very Nordic-inspired composition and instrumentation. It feels appropriately epic when it needs to, with Hela and River of Knives being good examples. It can also be appropriately atmospheric when need be, though the ambient tracks I found less interesting when divorced from the context of the game.
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice isn't going to be a game that appeals to everyone, but I feel that it's a good game that achieves the specific goals that Ninja Theory set out. With its respectful portrayal of psychosis, its rare and fascinating perspective, and strong visual and aural presentation, it does make for a unique game experience in terms of immersing yourself into the shoes of someone different from yourself. However, the gameplay isn't anything all that special, and if you require every game you play to be mechanically innovative, Hellblade will not appeal to you. Despite this, it still comes recommended from me.
The main make-or-break here is going to be the game design for most people, though I found it to be competent enough to be unproblematic. The combat isn't anything special, in fact, it's probably been seen in tons of other games in the same generation alone. Even in hard mode, it's not particularly challenging after a couple of hours and you really can just spam the dodge to escape all enemy attacks. Despite this, there's enough enemy variety to keep things varied enough, and you can't use the same strategy with all of them. The game probably could have benefitted from more of that, but what's here is fine. There is a visceral feeling nature to the combat and I think the visual feedback as well as seeing your enemies visibly represent the damage they've taken through different animations does make it satisfying at the very least, even if it's relatively simple and not particularly creative. The puzzles are generally fine as well. They require you to locate patterns within the environment, forcing you to view the game world from a variety of unusual perspectives to progress. While nothing mindblowing, these puzzles can often be clever and do require you to think outside of the box. Sometimes I felt they overstayed their welcome and had wished for a return of combat, but Hellblade generally gives you enough new puzzle mechanics to not be boring. The only outright bad part of the gameplay I'd say is a fire maze near the end of the game, which requires you to locate these patterns while on the run from a burning wall of flame. It requires a lot of random running around and trial and error before you get it right, but not in a way that feels like you've overcome it, rather feeling as if you got lucky. Despite this, I think Hellblade's gameplay is largely serviceable, nothing too special but with memorable moments here and there. Not bad at all, but you'll be playing this for the story.
Hellblade was made with a team of around twenty people, which makes the game's visual presentation all the more impressive. It genuinely matches the quality you'd see in a lot of AAA games from the mid-2010s, featuring well-defined environments, decent texture quality, and phenomenal character models. Seriously, Senua's model looks damn near lifelike, with an impressive amount of fidelity and great facial animation enhancing the emotion of the story. With a lesser art team, the game's story wouldn't be as effective as you wouldn't connect to Senua's emotions on a sensory level. Ninja Theory also updated the game to take advantage of ray-traced shadows and reflections, both of which look fantastic and add heavily to the realism of the game world. Occasionally there'd be a low-resolution texture in plain view, but this wasn't a frequent issue. I also loved the incredibly creative blending of live-action footage with the in-engine graphics during cutscenes, which was not only neat from a visual standpoint but also pulled off well. If there's anything about the presentation I wasn't a huge fan of, it's that the monster designs aren't all that unique. They're largely fine, but they don't strike me as particularly creative, simply representing distorted people. Valravn was the exception, whose mangled raven-like design reminded me of something from a more creative version of Silent Hill Downpour. The game also runs pretty well at max settings with ray-tracing and balanced DLSS at 1440p, usually averaging around 80-100 FPS depending on the sequence. However, like a lot of Unreal Engine 4 games, Hellblade does occasionally suffer from annoying shader compilation stutter. While much less egregious than a lot of games, it's still distracting when it happens. While I suppose that's the consequence of having a loading-screen-less game world, it doesn't make it pleasant either. The game's soundtrack is also very good, featuring very Nordic-inspired composition and instrumentation. It feels appropriately epic when it needs to, with Hela and River of Knives being good examples. It can also be appropriately atmospheric when need be, though the ambient tracks I found less interesting when divorced from the context of the game.
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice isn't going to be a game that appeals to everyone, but I feel that it's a good game that achieves the specific goals that Ninja Theory set out. With its respectful portrayal of psychosis, its rare and fascinating perspective, and strong visual and aural presentation, it does make for a unique game experience in terms of immersing yourself into the shoes of someone different from yourself. However, the gameplay isn't anything all that special, and if you require every game you play to be mechanically innovative, Hellblade will not appeal to you. Despite this, it still comes recommended from me.