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Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice Review


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784274930_Hellbladelogo.jpg.97878abbd7708eda7a154b0d4c6258da.jpgOriginally released to widespread acclaim on the PS4 and PC back in 2017, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice seems like an awfully unlikely candidate for a Switch port. For one thing, its dark subject matter—including a realistic portrayal of psychosis—doesn't quite seem on-brand for Nintendo, though to be fair the big N has branched out on its genre focus quite a lot over the last few years. Perhaps more importantly though, Hellblade is a bit of a technical marvel, boasting detailed motion-captured animation and a unique audio style to truly make the experience immersive. The Switch may not be up to par with other systems on a hardware tech scale, but the good news is a few cut corners doesn't diminish the impact of Hellblade.
 
You play as Senua, a Pict warrior in the 8th century who has traveled to the gates of Helheim (Norse realm of the dead) to recover the soul of her dead lover Dillion. It is, not surprisingly, a creepy, eerie journey. The first moments of the game waste no time in establishing a horrific scene of impaled bodies in a desolate landscape as you slowly progress further and further into the foreboding area. Senua also suffers from psychosis, causing her to hear and see things that aren't there, though in her 8th century mindset she takes this to mean she's been cursed by the gods.
 
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Like most horror games you really have to give yourself over to the setting and allow yourself to be immersed in it, and once you do Hellblade is an incredibly tense and unsettling experience. The psychosis elements are handled fantastically. Throughout the game you're constantly hearing whispering voices (what Senua believes to be the Furies) who comment on your actions and nudge you on. They'll even provide hints as to what to do next, but just as often their mix of voices is contradictory and confusing, which is perfect for putting you in the mindset of someone who isn't able to trust her own thoughts. The game also features binaural audio, which makes the voices seem to come from 3D space around you. You can sort of get the feeling of being surrounded by voices just with your TV's speakers, but for the full effect the game recommends headphones, and it truly takes the eerie immersion of the game to another level. As seen in the game's making-of documentary, the developers took great care in how Senua's psychosis is presented, and not only is it highly accurate of real-world conditions, but it makes for incredible, unnerving gameplay, and truly unique to Hellblade.
 
The story is presented in a slow, methodical, and measured way, so it makes sense that the gameplay reflects this approach as well. Aside from light exploration (the game is fairly linear) the action of Hellblade mostly comes down to solving simple puzzles in order to progress, punctuated by occasional combat scenarios that have you fighting off wraith-like warriors. The puzzles in the game mainly involve just looking around the environment to find specific runes to unlock a door. These runes are hidden in the scenery—i.e. a pair of crossed branches might make a "t" rune—and all you're really doing is walking around to find the right spot to see these runes. Sometimes there are some variations thrown in, such as when you're being pursued by a nameless monster so you have to move quickly, but for the most part the puzzle solving in Hellblade can feel a little basic. On the other hand, slowly scouring the environment while the voices whisper in your ear does make for great ambiance.
 
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Combat is a little more engaging, though it has minor drawbacks as well. Combat only triggers in specific battle arenas—you'll start to recognize the open, circular area pretty quickly—and is based around smooth but intense sword fights. Senua is plenty agile so you aren't limited by slow, weighty attacks. Instead battles tend to be fierce and a little frantic with a small selection of simple but satisfying combos. These make the combat fast, fluid, and precise—smoothly dodging around massive enemies and executing a quick sword combo is wonderfully satisfying in Hellblade. Defense is also vital though as just a hit or two from an enemy can knock Senua off balance, which can be especially dangerous when there is more than one enemy on the field. Senua's attacks are really made for one-on-one fights, so getting surrounded adds a great sense of tension. Most importantly, there's a phantom sword hanging over your head as you play since, if you die too many times, Senua might succumb to the curse of Helheim and it'll be permanent game over. Hellblade hardly needed another reason to make the game feel tense and a little harrowing, but this adds just the right degree of stress to the adventure.
 
The only downside to the combat is that it can get a little repetitive. There are a handful of different enemy types and as satisfying as it is to cut down one deadly wraith after another, battles can feel pretty samey after a few hours. Something to keep the combat feeling fresh throughout the entire game would have been nice.
 
And speaking of the game's length, Hellblade clocks in at a respectable seven or eight hours. That may sound a little on the short side but the game doesn't feel too short or too long while you're playing—it does a great job of making the most of the time it has. There also aren't any real side quests to speak of (though there are optional rune stones that add to the game's Norse mythology lore) but then again wandering around on a side quest wouldn't suit the rich atmosphere that Hellblade establishes.
 
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And the game's presentation does a phenomenal job of creating a grim, vividly unsettling environment alongside an impressively animated Senua. Sure the Switch version of the game is less powerful—there are some noticeably fuzzy/muddy textures at times and unmistakable pop-in—but the game's aesthetic is still wonderfully atmospheric. Senua herself is impressively expressive thanks to the extensive motion capture animation the developers used. Her facial expressions and movements may be a bit exaggerated at times, but the emotions conveyed, both subtle and overt, are fantastic. And of course, as already mentioned, the voice work is the real icing on the cake for making Hellblade such an immersive and unsettling game.
 
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is a singular video game experience. Arguably its weakest parts are its core gameplay mechanics—combat that is satisfying but somewhat repetitive, and puzzle solving that is fairly basic and limited by the size of the game's environments—but the overall experience of getting into Senua's head and following her journey is brilliantly immersive and unique. Gaming, as a medium, rarely gets to take a chance on more unusual areas of design and theme, and even more rarely is that chance executed as well as Hellblade.
 
Rating: 9 out of 10 Sacrifices
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I played this in my cousin's PS4 before. It's a nice game, I have to admit. I also love its advocacy with regards to mental illness. However, it all seemed a bit too repetitive near the end, even going as far as to force its main advocacy in the game, thus, marring its creativity in the process. Still a good game though.

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