'Hellblade Senua's Sacrifice' follows Senua, a Viking warrior on her journey through hell, her mission being to free her dead lover's soul from the darkness and evil depths of this nightmarish world that she finds herself in.
The first thing you notice when starting the game is the cinematic immersion this title offers, there is no HUD and the visuals are beautifully rendered, Senua's character design is very detailed and lifelike, which makes her more believable. Audio is one of the highlights of this gem, you are obliged to play the game with some great headphones, this way is the best experience you'll have of the game. During the game, you'll constantly hear voices in Senua's head, they contradict each other, for example one voice encourages you to proceed through a dark hole, while the other is scared of what's in the dark, and begs you to stop. These voices are truly brilliant, they enrich the experience and help deliver the already excellent story to a new level. The sound work here I must say is brilliant, and is the highlight of the game.
Gameplay in Hellblade is very solid overall, there are mainly three gameplay sections so to say, there are the interesting puzzles bit, the walking part; during which Senua speaks about her story and about her darkness and her misfortunes and then there's the combat which in my opinion is great and is actually very fluid and somewhat cool. Then there are some boss fights too which include some horrific badass bosses.
The length of the game is about 8 to 10 hours and I can honestly say that it's enough and that's good, enough for the story to unfold, enough to allow you to enjoy the game without stepping over the line of repetitiveness and overdo its ideas, it doesn't need another couple of hours, its' great just the way it is. There aren't any filler side quests or something of the sorts. The only minor downside which isn't a game design flaw or anything of the likes, is that the game is a digital only game, so not everyone has the privilege to play the game if they don't have an online account.
Considering this is a game launched with half the price of normal games, I'm really satisfied with what I've experienced, and that's a hell of a brilliant nightmarish tale that I won't forget so easily! Must play exclusive!
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice gets a free PS5 upgrade with a 12.4 GB download size, launching alongside Hellblade II.
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Senua's Sacrifice was a cathartic mental journey. Can the sequel do the same?
Same, but I think it will be very hard to capture the magic of the first one. It hit so hard and I don't know if the same feeling can go across to a new game.
I like to keep my expectations low for pretty much everything. if you put too much hope on an upcoming release, you will almost surely always be disappointed. It's not different than overhyping a game publicly, just internally.
That being said, I am looking forward to this title and seeing more. What I've seen so far surely looks extremely impressive, and intriguing, but that's all the more reason I don't wanna put too much energy into it til its closer to launch.
It's certainly an interesting idea and has high production values.. But not really a game to enjoy. I don't know, hard to rate this one. But to me the fun factor is like a 6.