PopHorror Let's Get Scared
Last year, Ninja Theory’s Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice took the gaming world by storm. The PS4 and Windows game earned high praise from critics and gamers alike, eventually winning awards such as Best Narrative and Best Performance for Melina Juergens at The Game Awards. Now, the highly praised game has come to Xbox One, and I finally got to check it out.
Originally released on PS4 and Microsoft Windows on August 8th, 2017, the Xbox One version was released on April 11th, 2018. Hellblade follows the story of Senua, a Pict warrior who is on a journey to Helheim in order to rescue the soul of her dead lover from the goddess Hela. The game also serves as a metaphor for Senua’s struggle with psychosis. She believes it to be a curse, but in actuality, it is her mental illness that she is struggling with. The game blends a few different styles together, mainly hack and slash combat with puzzle solving and psychological horror elements.
First off, I want to praise Ninja Theory on their portrayal of mental illness. Their research team worked with neuroscientists, mental health specialists and people that are actually suffering from mental illness to create a realistic character in Senua. Above all, I feel that Hellblade does an absolutely incredible job at giving us a look into the life of someone struggling with some kind of psychosis. It’s even more impressive that the developers went out of their way to accurately portray the condition, when so many various entertainment outlets do not.
The combat in the game is simple, but it feels good and flows well. It’s a pretty simple mechanic, block-strike-strike-kill. Sure, there are some other elements to it, but for the most part, it’s a fairly uncomplicated system. That’s okay, though. I didn’t go into Hellblade expecting some groundbreaking Horizon Zero Dawn-esque combat system that had multiple layers. The combat is serviceable and never felt like a chore when playing.
The audio in the game is incredible as well, and it’s no surprise that Hellblade has won various awards for its sound, including Best Audio Design at The Game Awards. When you begin the game, you’re told that it is best enjoyed while wearing a headset, so I took the game’s advice and played the entire thing with a headset on. Throughout the game, you’ll hear Senua’s inner voices talking to her. I found this really well done, and it even rattled me a bit. There were more than a few times that I had found myself getting overwhelmed and having to take a break from the game. I think that’s a pretty good sign that Ninja Theory was successful in what they were trying to accomplish.
Hellblade is also a gorgeous game. It is Xbox One X Enhanced, so if you play on an Xbox One X like I did, you will see graphical improvements, as well as other performance enhancements. I’ve been telling people that if they really want to see what the One X can do, they need to be playing Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice. From the water effects to the shadows to Senua’s appearance, the enhancements make the game an absolutely beauty to play.
My only gripe with the game is the addition of what I call a “gimmick threat.” At the beginning of the gameplay, you’re informed that if you die more than a certain amount of times, all of your progress will be lost, and your saved game would immediately be deleted. I don’t know if the developers were trying to add a layer of stress to the player or what, but overall, I just found it to be a cheap addition that was unnecessary. I already felt the seriousness and heavy weight of the game, so adding the threat that my saved data would be deleted just felt like a gimmick. It’s a minor complaint however, and it didn’t affect my overall feelings towards the game itself.
Overall, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is more than just a game. It’s an experience. It’s a difficult, uncomfortable look at mental illness and the struggle that those dealing with it go through. I found that the gameplay was smooth, and it was very well designed. My only complaint is the addition of that cheap threat that feels completely unnecessary. I can’t praise the game enough, and with that, I’ll give Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice an A.
