I have a great deal to catch up on don’t I? I’m going to do my best to do just that. I’m going to start with Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice. This game made it to my “Favorite games I have every played” top 5. By no means does that insinuate that this was the perfect game. It looked amazing. It sounded amazing. The story was amazing. That is why i’m going to start with the things I did not like.
Warning: Light Spoilers. I have no intentions on being diplomatic in the games pro’s and cons. I loved this game, and that will show. However I will not shy from the short comings.
Subtitles:
In this instance I need subtitles a great deal of the time when watching or playing games in a different language. I usual turn on the subtitles when I start a game out of habit even though I didn’t need to. In this game it was a mistake. Not only is there a lot of clutter on the screen since there are voices in Senua’s head, but whoever was in charge of implementing this feature wasn’t at his or her best. Most of the dialog being spoken differed from what was displayed in text. Not a completely different conversation, just annoying when trying to sync the information in your head through sight and sound. Minor gripe.
Battle environment:
The battle system was very easy to understand and pull off. What I felt was a short coming is the very small fighting environment you had to battle in. It was usually an unmarked circle that you had to square off in. Some took place on bridges and other straightaways. Never the less the amount of enemies you had to go up against were frustrating to say the least. The only way to curb that frustration was to drop the difficultly level so you can just plow through them with two or three hits. That annoyed me because I love challenges. But with the combination of; battery life on my controller, monotony of wave after wave of enemies, and the perma-death system, I had to drop the difficulty towards the end of the game. I was aggravated. I just wasn’t going to let that brand the game for me.
Here are the things I liked. I will attempt to curb my enthusiasm, and just explain the major things.
Actors, Voice Actors, and live action actors:
First and foremost… Senua was pretty cute. However Melina Juergens, Senua’s human counterpart is incredibly cute!
Now with that out of my system lets get down to it. There was NO voice talent in this game that was bad. Not even Meh. They were all a huge credit to their profession. The various accents depicting where these characters hailed from was such a wonderful addition. The voices in Senua’s head not only gave hints, but help you immerse yourself further into senua’s fractured being. There was more than one narrator in this game. The distinction of them were clear as day. Never a confused moment understanding who was saying what. That coming from a game that was meant to cloud your senses with all the clutter in Senua’s mind.
Puzzles:
The puzzles in the game seem to be of the love/hate variety. Some found them mundane or just frustrating. While others (including myself) found them kind of interesting but otherwise filler content to allow some sort of story telling while you ran around solving them. It was a good idea considering there is a lot of story and background story in a short span of the game.
Lore:
The game wasn’t meant to be a history lesson on Nordic lore. However they used that lore to fuel the game. It did that very well. I know my share of Nordic lore, however the fact that I understood the stories they were telling, made it so much more immersive for me.
Conclusion:
This was the short version. The reasons this game was so great for me is not just from what I wrote above. There are some personal reasons. When you play this game, I have no doubt you will feel the same way. I wont deny it! Ninja Theory broke ground and raised the stage. Such a great game. Triple A quality at the Indy price. Made with an Indy budget. Yes i’m blow smoke up the ass of Ninja Theory. They deserve it with this game, and i’m not ashamed to admit it. Lastly when you are done playing the game. There is an option on the main menu that is like a “making of” Hellblade. Don’t watch it before you complete the game. But when done, its worth watching. The lengths they went to make this game was very impressive.
With that being said… I leave the rest to you. Must play title! I can’t recommend it enough.
-ja ne