Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice was released on for PC and consoles in 2017/18 (with the Switch port being released later in 2019) by English developers Ninja Theory. Ninja Theory has had some high profile releases with games like Enslaved: Odyssey to the West and DmC Devil May Cry in the past years and I had quite enjoyed the modern sci-fi twist that Enslaved brought to an old Chinese fairytale (Monkey and Tripitaka). So, I was looking forward to Hellblade as it appeared to be an interesting foray into psychosis with a gripping and disturbing story to tell. Definitely one of the games that are attempting to push the boundaries of narrative in the gaming genre!

The Setting

Hellblade is set in a land inspired by Norse and Celtic mythology with the player playing the titular character of Senua. Senua's journey starts in quite a confusing way for the player, deliberately so, as to invoke the mental turmoil that she is suffering as she embarks on a quest to rescue her dead lover from the clutches of the goddess of the dead, Hela. In what turns out to be quite a disturbing turn of events, it is revealed that Senua carries around the head of her lover with her!

Arriving at the at the edge of the goddess's realm of Helheim, the player is cast in a third person point of view for the exploration and combat. Confusion reigns supreme, but the backstory and narrative is revealed via disembodied voices and hallucinations. Perhaps it is due to my lack of spine when it comes to horror, but it is really a game that I preferred to play in the full light of day!

The Game

The game places you in a familiar third person action-exploration gaming genre, with much that reminded me of the earlier Enslaved game by the same studio. The pace of character movement is always quite somber and weighted, with a real feeling of heaviness with each step. It is a touch that fits well with the theme and narrative of the game's subject, but it can be a bit tedious at times.

From the control point of view, it handles well enough with a Keyboard and Mouse, but there is a distinct impression that the control design was console controller first and the PC system second. Still, there isn't anything that is jarringly awkward about it.

Combat is suitably difficult with more emphasis on fewer enemies and timing rather than a rush to button mash. That said, there is the console type "lock-on" system (instead of my preferred free-look) that I have never really gotten used to... I guess it is a mechanic that does work better with fewer opponents and I did find myself using it despite my awkwardness with it.

The puzzling section comes about via the finding of different "runes" within the landscape to unlock doors and otherwise inaccessible parts of the game. Much of this depends on the perspective that you place the character in and so it can be a real mind-bender to find the right location that lines up the exact runes required. Thankfully, this can be done in the relative peacefulness outside of combat, however, you are still hearing voices and some of the landscapes are pretty graphically disturbing!

Visuals, Sound and Performance

The game places a great emphasis upon the mental anguish that the protagonist is suffering, with various voices speaking to her throughout the game... sometimes directing, sometimes terrified... more often, a cacophony of distraction and noise! The sound design is something to be equally marveled at and to be terrified of! It is something that really needs to be experienced on a good sound system, or on headphones. The voices come from all directions, moving around the sound space making it feel like you are constantly surrounded by disembodied characters whilst you are doing the familiar third person puzzling, exploration and fighting. It is incredibly un-nerving!

The game runs smoothly and looks great on my review hardware (see below) and my mid range GPU was able to push enough frames at 1080p to make use of the high refresh monitor which made the entire game just so smooth to play. The entire game looks beautiful (despite the sometimes disturbing imagery) with the slight exception of the protagonist. Nothing quite wrong about the character model most of the time, but I fear that it falls a bit into the uncanny valley for me at times... there is something a bit off about Senua's face at some moments and I couldn't quite place my finger on it. Most of the time it didn't bother me, but there were some shots that really looked off to me... perhaps it was more to do with the angle and the paint on the face, but I could never really figure out what it was that made it unsettling to me (perhaps it was just me!).

Conclusion

Generally, I am not a fan of this third-person genre of games. If I play exploration games, I generally prefer the First Person perspective and I have found that the third-person point of view (with the lock-on mechanics) to be a feature of console games. However, in recent times, I have had games such as The Witcher 3 to convert me to the benefits of the third-person perspective and I do find that it does grow on me.

That said, I did find that there is a certain "corridoring" that occurs with some of these games, where you don't have the freedom to explore.. but are instead corralled from one event to and another. Perhaps this is a necessary restriction to keep a tight narrative, as open-world games can get quite unfocused from the story-telling point of view.

... which does bring me to the strength of this game! The narrative and the treatment of the character's mental struggles is unbelievably compelling, from the visual hallucinations to the extraordinary soundscape... this game does such a great job of conveying the disturbed balance inside the head of Senua. It is a game that you take your time and savor the experience... even if that experience is more than a little bit unsettling!

Review Hardware

Played at 1080p (144Hz) on:

Intel BX80662I76700 Core i7-6700 Prozessor (3,4GHz)
6GB EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 SC GAMING
GIGABYTE Z170N-WIFI
Ballistix Sport LT 16GB DDR4
Samsung 960 EVO M.2 512GB
S4 Mini Case (NFC Systems)

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