Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice Review

It is the nuanced depiction of psychosis that makes Hellblade so special. Games often go wrong with these kinds of things, but Ninja Theory has done its homework with a documentary called Beyond the Screen, in which the studios chat with a Cambridge professor and psychosis patients in the hope that players will understand psychosis through the interactivity the game offers. The Myth of the Norse Meets the Celtic transforms a heroic story into a psychological character study that follows the quest of young warrior Senua to go to hell and regain a beloved soul.

In one of the game's finest moments, the shadows themselves are a real danger as Senua rushes to safety from one source of light in the dark caves, while memories of her torture and tormented past creep in, obscuring the view. The Quest, taken from legend, sees her cross swords with gods and monsters, and although she is a typical heroine, Senua's whiff of darkness bears the crude but effective label of psychosis.

These moments evoke the atmosphere of a horror game, sparse and shocking, but wandering through them is effective, and concern for Senua's safety is omnipresent, agonizing and permanent, but most Hellblade revolves around Senua and the perception of her environment, drawing a connection between her faith and the geometry of the world. Many of the game puzzles revolve around the idea that their perspective is their literal view of the game world, causing broken bridges to rebuild, doors to block, and hallways that appear out of the blue. The camera in the style of Revenant Hellblade is haunting, with a close-up from the perspective of a third person and sounds Senua can only hear as the game switches focus buttons to offer us a world closer to Senua than a direct vantage point.

For example, when the game camera is near Senua, it can see enemies sneaking up on it as it creeps up, and the voice in its head screams at it, giving it just enough time to defend itself. Focusing is Senua's way of imposing her will on her world and is not only used in battle sequences where she needs to listen to the precise direction of chanting, evasive bosses and grope her way through the pitch-black cave where fearsome enemies lurk. Another example is the puzzling component of Hellblade, where the player has to piece together broken parts of the world around Senua by locating rune patterns in each area.

Although it is not the primary focus of the games, Hellblade has a decent level of combat. The battle in Hellblade interrupts the story with wave-based enemies who block progress and must be defeated by Senua's light attacks, heavy attacks, parades, evasive maneuvers and attacks. Hellblade's biggest problem is that his struggle can frustrate and block the advance of players who want to engage for thematic meatiness in the battle but are not used to his take it or leave-it style of play.

Hellblade is a great looking game with excellent sound design, smooth combat and interesting puzzles, and all of its positive attributes are not enough to call it a competent action game.

It is a fantastic sword fighting game that tries to capture what it is like to be haunted by a world where you see things that no one else can see.

Hellblade is a triumph of action games, mythical quests, and psychological character studies brought together by amazing graphics, great performances, and ingenious design. Where Hellblade occasionally twitches is in its bold attempt to combine narrative and mechanics to tell an affective story in a way that no game has done before or since. Nevertheless, the players will understand why Hellblade is in a league of its own, if you look at the games before and after.

The game casts you in the role of the eponymous Celtic warrior Senua and takes place in the late 8th century. Hellblade begins with Senua, a Celtic warrior with a severe psychotic mental illness, who returns to her village after a Viking raid. The game comes from the British game studio Ninja Theory, and while Senua struggles with inner demons trapped in battle with her spirit, she also carries a sword, which makes her a deadly danger.

Drawing heavily on Nordic and Celtic traditions and fiction, Hellblade evokes a gloomy atmosphere that gives the impression that the world is going to end, leaving a traumatised Celtic warrior named Senua in the company of his memories. It weaves metaphors of grief and loss into a basic game mechanics that is rich in folklore, and I feel able to understand and see the world differently.

Druth, her late friend and former mentor, tells stories of Scandinavian myths and legends that parallel Senua's own quest, and collecting becomes one of the game's narrative pleasures. Fight one, two or three creepy animals and skull-masked warriors with a simple block-dodging counting system, while basic puzzles involve trying to find shapes and runes in Senua's environment to open doors. By using one mechanic after another, puzzles remain elegant and appealing, but it is a pity that they are also the source of some of Hellblades biggest mistakes.

The use of headphones in the game is recommended in advance, as it sounds as if a disembodied voice in Senua's head is speaking to you. Wearing headphones, the voices of a woman and a gruff guy who sounds like Sauron's mouth whirl around you in binaural 3D audio, warning you to watch out for enemy attacks and telling you where to focus.

Defeated by severe psychosis, a traumatized Celtic warrior named Senua manifests in dueling inner voices and visual hallucinations that impair her emotional and mental state the trauma of which they are formed.