Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

Hellblade leans heavily into delivering an unforgettable audiovisual experience, the actual gameplay and mechanics are servicable but clearly take a back seat to the storyline, music, and graphics. This doesn't necessarily detract, but those who are looking for more of an actual 'game' may find this disappointing. The graphics are obviously outstanding, as is clear just from the screenshots. Drawing heavily from Norse and Celt mythology and themes the atmosphere is fantastic without overwhelming

A harrowing masterpiece of psychological horror and raw emotion. Senua's journey through Norse hell is elevated by groundbreaking binaural audio (the voices feel real), mo-cap acting that redefines immersion, and combat that mirrors her fractured psyche. The puzzles are meditative, the story is devastating, and the ending lingers like a scar.

There's a lot I like about this. The audio in particular is really well designed, the binaural headphone audio was great, although I would have liked better surround sound support. There were a few issues with performance and stuttering even on much better specs than the game demands. I think the story could have been better. I like the character here, but it seems very barebones in storytelling. Visuals are incredible even 7 years later.

A genuinely disturbing portrayal of mental illness is dampened by the vanilla combat and ho-hum puzzles. A sense of dread and a phenomenal performance from the lead actress may be enough for you to see the end.

Playing this with a 5.1 sound system was a privilege.

Interesting experience. Gameplay, especially combat, isn't particularly interesting, but the production value is really high, with great visual and audio presentation.

Points for originality, but the execution could be better. I played on PC, where the performance is so-so; the framerate is kind of jerky, and in a game that's asking you to do parries that's just not a good experience. Also the puzzle design can be obtuse. Needs more signposting and some better playtesting.

as boring as beautiful

Excellent soundscape, unconventional story. Unfortunately marred by uninspired puzzle design.

Excellent from an artistic perspective, decent from a gameplay perspective. The combat is extremely repetitive and the puzzles are boring, too easy, and take too long with Senua's slow walk/jog speed. The threat to erase all your progress if the infection reaches her head is a good motivator to stay alive, but it made it feel extra cheap when Senua keeled over and died once while literally walking down an empty path, no enemies around or anything, just a random glitch death.