Hellblade is a game about loss, defeat and recovery. I think Ninja Theory made one that people are going to remember for a very long time. Or at least I will.

Senua is a pretty fantastic protagonist whose history is really well shaded in throughout the game, and we get a pretty extraordinary portrayal of her schizophrenia that not only uses incredible visuals (sometimes gorgeous and sometimes terrifying and discomforting) and great sound design to carry this along, but also portrays it well in a culture and time in history where you couldn't diagnose these things as purely mental, as the game overtakes the player along with Senua in this pit of confusion, darkness and fog.

I've seen a lot of people criticize the combat and, yes, it is simple, it doesn't need to be much else. It is a game that doesn't focus on its gameplay nor its style, but balances the two. And for the time with it, I found the combat fun, and almost all of the bosses I thought were fantastic.

Does this game have its problems? Absolutely. I think the FMV elements, while they sound good on paper, didn't really carry the vibe of hallucinations as they should have. And even though I'm not excusing it, I think it's okay. It's gonna be impossible for a video game in this medium to exactly and precisely simulate any kind of psychosis. It's a video game, above all else, not a schizophrenia simulator, but it's a game that is going for a deafeningly bleak and unsettling atmosphere, and the FMV stuff just really distracted from that. Besides, I think FMV stuff is really hard to pull off in the first place. On the other side of the game's balance, some of the puzzles can just be dumb.

I just hope the sequel can step up to this game's level, because it's one of the best efforts of the 2010s.