Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (PC) Review

The hardest of battles are fought in the mind.

 One of the biggest success stories of the year, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice proves that sometimes, indie games can rival the high production levels of many AAA games on the market. Headed by the renowned Ninja Theory (DmC: Devil May Cry, Heavenly Sword), Hellblade is the studio's first venture into the indie scene ever since they announced that they're going independent. Centering on a warrior's journey of madness and tackling dark themes, Hellblade certainly stands out as one of the most interesting games of the year.


STORY-  Heavily influenced by Norse mythology and mental health disorders such as psychosis, Hellblade follows the story of Senua, a Celtic warrior on a journey of exile and redemption. She must traverse through the underworld, Helheim, to rescue the soul of her lover. The plot also puts emphasis on the mental condition of psychosis and its effects as Senua herself suffers from the condition and throughout her journey, struggles to differentiate between what's real and what's not. A bulk of her journey revolves around her facing and ultimately overcoming the illness. Interestingly, a team of neuroscientists and actual psychosis patients supervised the game in order to achieve an authentic and better representation of the disorder. The story was overall engaging due to its compelling writing and performances from lead characters. Throughout the course of her journey, Senua deals with many dark aspects of her rough upbringing and at the end, overcomes them and grows to be a likeable lead.

Hellblade is a thrilling yet disturbing experience. 

GAMEPLAY- Hellblade is a third-person action game with puzzle elements. Throughout the game, Senua will primarily explore linear areas and solve many puzzles that block her progress. There are occasional "lorestones", which are ancient stores that serve as an exposition to the game's story. The puzzles are mostly simple as they have Senua locate and match various symbols scatted throughout the area to proceed. Senua has a "Focus" ability that allow her to sense objects in her environment, helpful in some story sections and plays a role in the gameplay. As for the gameplay, Hellblade is a hack-and-slash game, similar to many of Ninja Theory's titles. Senua has her basic light and heavy attacks, can guard against enemy attacks, and even parry oncoming attacks. Combat is fairly basic as the game's pursues a story-driven experience, however, it's overall solid. Enemy types range from agile scouts to tough brutes, all with their own strategies to beat. Though more enemy variety would have been welcome as Senua will be battling the same enemy in every fight. Interestingly, since there's no HUD layout, voices inside Senua's head provide audio warnings for incoming enemy attacks and directions when solving puzzles.

Combat is fast, frantic, and engaging.

 Should Senua receive continuous blows, she'll eventually fall down and have a brief window to get back on her feet. Failure to do so, will result in death. Hellblade features a perma- death mechanic. Senua is infected with darkness in her body, which starts growing in her right hand. Should the darkness spread (i.e. by dying), it will soon reach her head and ultimately consume her, resulting in a game over and the deletion of all progress. However, after a certain point in the narrative, the darkness cannot reach her head, negating the perma-death system. Hellblade falls short in some aspects such as replay-value and overall runtime. Aside from the optional lorestones, there's little reason to replay the adventure all over again. The overall length may turn-off some as one would have finished and seen everything the game has to offer in under 10 hours. However, considering its limited budget and low initial price, it's an understandable trade-off.

PRESENTATION- Hellblade is Ninja Theory's best looking game to date. For an "Independent AAA game" title, it makes great use of the Unreal 4 game engine. The environments and character models are finely detailed and well-crafted, neatly matching the Norse setting of the narrative. Additionally, the game performs well on PC, with few instances of frame-rate drops. Furthermore, the motion capture and cut-scene work of Hellblade is impressive given the constrained budget the team had to work with. The voice work is terrific with many commendable performances from Melina Juergens and Nicholas Boulton as Senua and Druth, respectively. Lastly, the soundtrack perfectly compliments the haunting and grim nature of the narrative and does the job of making the player immersed in the journey.

Hellblade is one of the most visually

impressive indies out there.

OVERALL- Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice boasts some of the best narratives of the year. Senua's story of fear and redemption was engaging, thanks to great performances and writing. While it may gradually feel repetitive, the gameplay is still well-crafted and features many tense moments. As for its production values, Hellblade is among the year's top games. The experience was enjoyable despite some shortcomings, and those looking for an interesting narrative with dark themes should look into it.