Take a trip into the depths of a young woman’s grief stricken mind and stare into the face of death in “Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice”.
“Hellblade” follows the path of Senua as she attempts to revive her deceased lover, Dillion. Of Senua, driven by tales the Northman, brings he lovers head on a journey to the gates of Hellheim. There Senua will have to fight not only gods, but the darkness within her own mind. Senua is plagued with something that her people called the darkness. In actuality, she is fighting with psychosis. This leads to Senua being treated as an outcast and a bringer of misfortune. The game’s narrative can be confusing. It is never completely clear if what Senua is experiencing is a figment of her imagination, a shadow to be chased that gives her hope, or if she is actually taking on the gods in a “God of War”-esque story. It could be true that the answer is somewhere in the middle and that both are true at the same time. It could also be true that the developer intended to keep players guessing and asking these questions. These questions linger on well after the game is over. Overall, the story stands tall. Despite being confusing, this is a deep, enthralling and emotional story that will sink its hooks into players and won’t let them go. “Hellblade” takes a minimalist approach to gameplay, but has zero fat. There are two main aspects to gameplay, combat and solving puzzles. Combat is simple and bare bones. Light and heavy strikes, a melee attack (usually some kind of kick) that will open up an enemy to a sword strike, a dodge and an ability called Focus that slows down time to allow for rapid strikes. All of these are available to players at the get go, minus the focus ability that is added a short ways into the game. Puzzles are mostly just simple traversal puzzles. Puzzles that require players to see through illusions to find a path forward. Other puzzles are locked doors that can only be unlocked by finding glyphs in the environment. These puzzles are often simple, with an occasional tricky one thrown in, but they are all achievable for players who look carefully. With no Heads up Display (HUD) or tutorial, players are left to their own devices to figure the game. Even with no tutorials, all the controls are listed in the pause menu. The game finds its own ways to tell the player things that would usually be told to the player through a pop-up window. The game provides explanations of systems through the voices in Senua’s head. “Hellblade” mixes every system within the lore of the game. The voices will provide the player with advice in combat. They will whisper things like “look out behind you” to warn the player that they are about to be struck from behind and when they say “focus” activate the focus ability. There is also permadeath in this game. Early into the game, Senua is inflicted with the death rot. This starts as a mark on her hand and every time the player dies spreads up her arm. When it reaches her head Senua will die and the player will have to start the game over. These are fascinating ways to integrate a tutorial into a game. As opposed to the game just outright telling the player what to do, the player needs to find out for themselves the best way to play the game. “Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice” is not what most would call a fun game, but has been received as a good game. The game is bleak and eerie in tone, but has a tremendous amount of polish. With great writing and performances, this game can stand on equal footing with some other big budget projects. Rating: 9/10
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AuthorI am A.J. Goelz. I'm a gamer first and a writer second. I hope you enjoy the content on this page and check out the rest of my content on YouTube. Archives
April 2019
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