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
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