Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice Review

So... let's get dark.


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I don't suffer from mental illness. I don't any any preexisting medical or psychological condition that affects my life. I don't take medication unless I'm sick, I'm not a normally anxious person, and I'm rarely depressed about... anything really. Sure I'll get sad, but I'm usually fairly quick to get over negative situations.

I'm saying all of this right now because Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is a brutal game about living with a psychological condition. Senua is psychotic, plain and simple, and you're meant to play as her. You're playing as a woman that frequently experiences hallucinations, hears voices in her head, and has crippling anxiety and self doubt about herself. And keep in mind, none of this is played unrealistically. Team Ninja consulted several psychologists on creating Senua and making her as accurate as possible to a person with preexisting psychological conditions.

So I don't know if I'm the target demographic or not. I can't say I've ever experienced these elements sown into the game. But what I can say is that as an experience, Hellblade is something REALLY special. As a game... well... it's not bad?

Hellblade is a game steeped in Celtic and Norse mythology. You play as Senua, a woman that is traveling to Helheim, also know as Hel, which we call, well, Hell, in order to save the soul of her dead lover. Her lover died under mysterious circumstances, and Senua is traveling to confront Hela, the queen of Hel, in order to bring her lover back to life. So Senua carries around his severed head, talks to herself, hears voices in her head, and confronts monsters that bear some resemblance to her own life. As she journies further and further into Hel, more challenges present themselves that force her to remember her past and confront that psychotic wreck that she is. Long story short, it gets trippy and bleak.

I never thought this would be the first thing I would discuss in Hellblade, but the acting is superb. All of the characters are voiced phenomenally and give great performances, especially the characters that aren't Senua, since they're actual actors, as in humans, placed into Senua's mind as hallucinations. Hellblade is incredibly creative when it comes to integrating story into its world. The only time when story elements are placed in awkward spots are Lorestones, pillars that exist in the game world that will give you stories based on Norse mythology in relation to what's going on around you. Are you about to confront a representation of Surtr, the Fire Giant that ushers in Ragnarok? Well here's everything you need to know about him! None of it is integral to the game, unless you find all 44 Lorestones and then you'll get an extra cutscene near the end of the game, but you're free to find them or not. It's all up to you.

All of the levels in the game look stunning, showing off some great visuals and even more creative worlds. If you want to see what a Sea of Souls looks like, look no further. Everything about Helheim is gorgeously dark, to the point where it really starts to resemble a Silent Hill game. In fact, Hellblade shares a lot in common with Silent Hill. Frequent puzzle solving, stiff combat, symbolic enemies, a descent into our main character's psyche, ungodly monsters. Though to be fair, this is more of a later Silent Hill game rather than a Team Silent game, so check your expectation accordingly.

The game instructs you to play the game with headphones on, and it makes sense. There's very little horror on display here, so you don't have to worry about something going "BOO" at you, but the audio is key to really experience the game. You'll hear the voices in your head quite literally, and these voices are usually the only things that can help you solve puzzles, find clues, know when to dodge enemies, or even just relay story elements. There's even a puzzle or two that will require you to listen to solve it, whether it's following a voice or listening to creatures moving around in the dark. The audio design is brilliant in my opinion.

But we haven't actually discussed how it is to play Hellblade, and that's for a good reason. The actual game isn't all that impressive, and it's kind of a plodding experience. Combat is relatively fast, with the game having about 4-5 enemy types and 3 bosses. In it, you have heavy attacks, weak attacks, a block button, a melee button, and a dodge button. Most enemies won't be too much of a problem and dying is very unlikely since you'll have a chance to get back up and recover some health if you take a bad beating. Bosses can be a real challenge though having multiple phases, unique attacks, and even more unique abilities like turning the screen black or disappearing completely. Combat never feels like a chore, even when you get rushed with several enemies at once.

It's the puzzles that I take umbridge with and everything in between. There are two types of puzzles in the game. One puzzle has you changing the world around you by viewing objects in positions that fix them. For example, if a stair is broken, walking around to an angle where the stairs are fine will solve the problem. But the other kind of puzzle are rune gates. Good God the rune gates. You'll have several areas where a door blocks your path and the only way to open it is to find a rune. How do you find a rune? Well you need to look around in the environment and physically see the rune, or at least an approximation of the rune. Sometimes you'll have to find one rune, and other times you'll have to find three runes.

The problem is that sometimes runes are incredibly well hidden or involve a ton of back tracking just to get one damn rune. There's a section in the game where you'll have to backtrack between two different worlds in order to find multiple runes, and it takes an eternity. The sad part is that this is the main form of puzzle in the game, so you'll be looking for ruin puzzles plenty of times, which often means running around, focusing on locations to a tiny rune, and even more often adjusting your position just to make the rune identify itself.

And then you have the walking. You'll slowly walk from area to area in order to go between puzzles and combat. I normally don't have a problem with walking to a new area for a new puzzle, but there's absolutely nothing to do while walking around, and when you're walking to a bland environmental rune puzzle, it's extra noticeable.

So if the game, as a game, is really uninteresting puzzles with some cool combat, but the story and world are really fascinating, do I recommend it? Well, yes. Normally, if Hellblade was $60, then it would be a hard no, but Hellblade is unique because it's a high polished Indie game that retails for $30, half that price. For a modest price, I can easily recommend a game like Hellblade for someone that's curious about it. It's about 6-8 hours long, has a very compelling presentation and a great ending that will last with the player.

Games like Hellblade are really uncommon. It's a mature, psychological game that relishes in the player getting involved in its world and Senua's plight. I actively felt for her and the struggle that she went through, and perhaps a few people can even relate to it. To those people, definitely give this game a go. It may be dark and hopeless, but the ending does give some optimism for Senua in some way, and maybe it can help someone out too. The developers created a site for anyone that has gone through psychologically scarring events, and I'm going to put their link right here. It's hellbladehelp.info, so check it out if you need it or know someone else that would need it.

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice may not be a great game, it has too many uneven moments, but it's a great story overall. Play it if you want something different, and most importantly, compelling.