this game's only real weakness is that the gameplay is mostly alright and i think the song that leads into the credits sounds like shit, but even so i dig the game's combat in spite of its jank

in every other category the game is firing on all cylinders
this game looks amazing, so damn good that low quality animations, assets clipping in some cutscenes and a l o t of low quality textures don't really dent any of it
the achievement that is senua's face has only been topped by cutscenes in the last of us part 2 for me and this came out six years ago
the game sounds even better
i complained about the credits song but that is quite literally the only sound element i can think of that isn't a total ten
when it says "play with headphones" you really do need to play the game that way - a lot of work was done to make this game's soundscape be the way it is and i'd argue it's mandatory
speaking of

i think it's difficult to make a game where your primary character is straight suffering from something like psychosis and it not feel at least somewhat exploitative, but i have a very
very hard time believing anybody on staff had a bad bone in their body about it
i am not someone who has to deal with psychosis so my voice here doesn't matter, but since i'm giving this game a star rating
so by the nature of this textual exchange, you are asking my opinion on it
this feels incredibly tasteful and at least indicative enough of the symptoms of the condition that i've seen well more than a couple people who do deal with it and say "i really relate to this shit"
while the game's disturbing elements specifically relate to psychosis and how that can fuck with the brain
the game never says that psychosis itself is a nightmare
it's more just that the world senua lives in, how traumatized she is has made her condition as severe as it is
and the game's never 100% clear that the things happening on screen are completely non-literal, which is a very good thing since it gives the devs a little wiggle room in how they gamified this
intent would not have saved ninja theory if they botched the execution but i don't think they did at all
the game's commitment to single takes and never breaking from senua's perspective, how mixed media elements are incorporated, the fucking s o u n d s c a p e dude, it all just works
it'd really, really suck if this was a shitty showcase of the condition because what's on screen is so consistently creative and impressive
something so confident and cohesive with its tone while being so technically exemplary is the kind of shit only studios like ninja theory could make
all thirteen devs that made this should definitely be proud, and so should melina jeurgens even if i'm sure she didn't have the best time playing this role
considering she was a fucking video editor and not an actress (nor did she want to be one, things kinda fell into place that way and you should look up some behind the scenes for this it's neat) before doing this, one of the more intense performances in video games

this is definitely a must play, something that's carried less by the game you're playing and more by the crafted experience you're in for
but at the same time there are some stellar game bits in this (the blindness challenge, fuck)