Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

Seriously... Don't play this game if you won't be using headphones ("On ear" are better). An important part of the experience is to isolate yourself from the real world and entering this game and it's ambience.

This won't be your game if you are looking for an open world, npc's or grinding. This is a personal story, a struggling one, you become part of Senua in her journey, never knowing if what ou see is real or a construction of her mind.

Excelent work by the developers. Can't wait to live the next experience.

This game blew me away. Everyone told me it would but wow, what a story!

Here are my positives right off the bat.

• The narrative is amazing.

• Senua is an amazing character with an amazing arc in this game.

• The exploration of psychosis in gaming is very interesting, the game feels hypnotic at times. You feel her confusion and frantic feelings throughout the story.

• The sound design is amazing. Play with headphones!

• The puzzles are so cool and clever, very different from many other games.

• The setting and lore is fun and deep.

• The style and artistic expression of the story telling is crazy good.

Here are my negatives

• The combat's camera and arena. People like to dunk on this games combat, and I agree that it is rough to a degree but not for the reasons people give. Let me explain. The combat itself is fine, it is simple, feels weighty, and has a good rhythm to it. It makes sense in a narrative game about mental health and grief. The problem is the camera, the arena sizes, the poor lock on system, and the amount of enemies in these small arenas. Those issues combined makes a decent combat system feel clunky and bad. I like the combat, there are just other factors that bog it down. I am hopeful the combat in the sequel will be better.

I only have one negative, and it was frustrating enough to bring it down a point. If the issues with combat sequences were fixed this game would be an easy 10. Play it on gamepass now!

Combat mechanics can at times feel a step behind what the player is intending but other than that, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is a beautifully crafted story-driven title. The mature subject matter requires an open mind and allowing ones self to become immersed in the world that Sunua is experiencing.

Upon completion of the game I encourage players to watch the mini-documentary (can be accessed from the main menu) as it details the developers inspiration and motivations for tackling a subject that to this day is still not totally understood.

This wasn't just a game. This was an experience. Those looking for typical hack and slash games can feel free to stay away from this title. Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is about story and experiencing that story from Senua's perspective. Always. You'll never get a moment to step outside of her skin and see if what she just went through was real or just another battle in her unhealthy mind. The game is absolutely stunning but its gorgeous graphics are secondary to the AMAZING sound that is pinnacle to the experience and so very well done. When its award season rolls around Ninja Theory will undoubtedly sweep this category. The puzzles are well done, especially in the latter stages. If there is one thing keeping the game from being perfect, its that the same combat that starts the game is the same combat you'll experience at the end of the game. That said, I can't recommend this game enough. I hope many creators follow Ninja Theory's blueprint for "AA" games.

A very short game, and yet I feel like it was maybe a tiny bit too long. Additionally, I struggled to care about the puzzles, and I found some of them relatively annoying. I liked the combat.

The plot and character of Senua are the standout parts of the game. The game is kind of a movie that you sometimes play, to be honest. The beginning was good, the ending was good. I just found the middle to be a little dull.

I don't really have anything else to say, but I have quite a few mandatory characters left, so I'll write something. The lorestones were interesting to me at first, but I ended up ditching them.

Anyway, bye.