Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice Reviews
Check out Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice Review Scores from trusted Critics below. With 21 reviews on CriticDB, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice has a score of:
Hellblade is simply a great experience, and after finishing it for the very first time recently, I am even more excited for Hellblade II. The game is available on Game Pass, so if you haven’t taken the journey to Hellheim yet or want a quick refresher before the sequel releases on May 21st, it’s a game I fully recommend.
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Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is beautiful, discomforting, and compelling. It might challenge what you like about games, but challenge is good. You're doing yourself a disservice if you don't try it.
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One of last year's biggest surprises from veteran game developer Ninja Theory is finally available for Xbox One. If you still haven't played it yet then unsheathe your blade and let's see if it puts up a fight.
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Hellblade is not an Orphean quest to retrieve a dead lover from the underworld. It’s not some epic tale of revenge. It’s an education and contextualization of being psychologically different in the time of Vikings and Celts. Nearly every facet of the game — whether it’s combat, puzzles or exploration — is deliberate, pointing back to the overarching theme of what people called “cursed” during that time. Hellblade successfully weaves metaphors of grief and loss into fundamental game mechanics and rich folklore, and through these I felt like I truly was able to understand how someone else sees the world.
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Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice manages to tell a thoughtful story about mental illnesses while also providing exciting gameplay and some absolutely fantastic visuals and audio. For anyone looking for a tight, well-paced, linear action game, this is it.
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Hellblade’s mundane mechanics help underscore a powerful story of overcoming your demons, if you’re willing to subject yourself to the honest portrayal of mental illness it presents.
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Despite a bug that forced my first playthrough to end prematurely, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is an incredible game that will continue to linger with me as a singular and emotionally affecting experience. For its audio and visual design alone, it is stunning, but for its ability to use the video game medium to bridge our understanding of mental illness while also telling a personal and powerful story, it is a masterpiece. If you feel capable of withstanding the emotional strain it requires, a dark and fulfilling tale awaits.
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When that patch does come out though – and for everyone else who doesn’t have AMD cards – then Hellblade is well worth buying. Some segments are a slog, and mechanically it's nothing special, but it’s worth battling on to experience the multi-layered story that explores themes that other games daren’t.
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Some puzzle areas are a bit more open and allow Senua to explore off the trail. Although the punishing combat received a lot of attention during the early gameplay reveals, the bulk of gameplay in Hellblade is actually focused around solving a variety of puzzles that open doors to gated sections of the map.
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It could be a whisper or a shout but Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice will stay with you. Deftly crafted with stunning detail and an expert depiction of psychosis, it's a journey that's as torturous as it is heart-breaking.
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Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice combines mind games and intuitive gameplay for a unique experience, but how does it stand up overall?
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I'm not the biggest fan of indie games, though I appreciate what they bring to the game industry in terms of creativity, experimentation and overall variety of the market.
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A wonder of sight and sound, Hellblade explores psychosis while dissecting demons.
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Games can transport us to imaginary worlds, but even within fantastical settings, we rely on certain information to help us play and process the experience. Games tell us who our enemies are, which doors are locked, and when we’re going in the wrong direction. Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice also gives you these details, but whether you believe them is a different matter. Developer Ninja Theory surrounds players with uncertainty by making them see the world through the eyes of Senua, an ancient warrior afflicted with psychosis. Senua’s perceived reality is ever-changing, and her perspective casts objectivity aside to create a narrative-focused...
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Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is a masterclass of atmosphere, storytelling, and the marriage of mechanical and conceptual design. While there are moments that feel shoehorned in to remind us we’re playing a video game, the care and attention Ninja Theory has clearly poured into Senua and her story has created something amazing. This is a game everyone should play, and I’m thankful for the opportunity to have lived inside the mind of Senua, however briefly.
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Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice opens with a warning screen, which tells you all you need to know about Ninja Theory’s challenging new character action game. Developed in conjunction with physicians and mental health patients, the title tackles the taboo subject of psychosis – a disorder which causes hallucinations and delusions. As you may suspect, this makes for difficult viewing at times – but the Cambridge-based company must be praised for its dedication to depicting the disease in the right way.
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Slowly but surely Ninja Theory has moved into film territory, but they can’t let go of their need to shove action mechanics into everything they do. With the increased focus and acceptance of so-called “walking simulators” there’s a huge market they can tap into, and I hope they end up doing that in the future. I enjoyed pretty much every facet of Hellblade that didn’t involve combat, which unfortunately pops up a little too often on top of the aforementioned technical problems — just enough to grate.
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Senua’s journey is fairly linear, with a few areas opening up mainly to support the puzzles that must be solved. There are points to discover that will unveil the history of Senua’s world and the pursuit of them all could add an hour or two to what will be a 7-9 hour experience. Hellblade is epic in its presentation but is truly a deeply personal journey for Senua to overcome grief and her personal demons. Hellblade overcomes very minor hiccups with incredible presence, immersive design, and an overall package that truly leaves an impression, not to mention the fact that...
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Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is a profound sensual experience that’s unmissable. The way it highlights psychosis and incorporates it isn’t just a part of the aesthetic, but it also makes for fascinating gameplay. This is a phenomenal achievement for the discussion of mental health that we’ll be talking about for years to come.
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