Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice review

Exceptional

by Graham Kaletsky

Painfully slow at times, but nicely crafted with solid setpieces

9

PC 28.02.2018

Such a boring gameplay.

10/10

Incredible experience!

combat is decent, puzzles are repetitive but level design changes it up enough to stay fresh for the couple hours it takes to finish this game. I honestly don't have much to say about the psychosis part because I have no experience with psychosis whatsoever. My only real gripe here is the absolute abysmal walking speed

The story, atmosphere and visuals are amazing! The game takes place in some very interesting places. But the actual gameplay... While the puzzles and combat feel OK in the beginning, towards the end I just felt annoyed when I saw a door with runes on it or Senua drew her sword. And the length of the combat phases as well as their frequency just went up in the last chapters. 

Definitly a must play if you like story based games.

As far as post-millennial awareness games go, this could've been far worse, especially considering it comes from Ninja Theory. Slow and whispery with ham and cheese acting accompanied by a stale hack and slash system doesn't make up for how pretty it looks but that's ok because it's about psychosis. I'm thankful I don't suffer from similar issues myself but I can't imagine this makes people more appreciative of how able they are when they have to deal with pretentious narrative trumping the "message." It checks off a bunch of boxes you have to expect from AAA-Indie at this point - if you love tearing up when female protags find their strength like the lyrics to Fight Song, you'll probably also enjoy this. The very definition of meh. Imagine Dear Esther but you can mash X.

One of the best games I've played. The story, the music and the art are flawless, the combat is a bit underwhelming but it is not the main focus of the game so it barely matters. I cannot recommend it enough.