This may never appear on my "favorite games" top 5.

However, this is one of those games that I will never not recommend to someone. Especially with headphones.

It's unreal.

I don't fault anyone for coming into Hellblade saying that they found the gameplay lacking. Coming off of Hollow Knight, I was quite bored with the parry-spam inducing combat. However, Hellblade exceeds in other areas so hard that I found it to be a worthwhile experience.

Lets expand on the combat first. It is very one-note for the lack of a better word. Enemy variety is not great and you're mostly mixing in some different attacks for specific enemies and generally not very difficult (I think I died twice the whole game with combat difficulty set to Hard). However, I do find the bosses to be much better! Using a different set of movesets and designed with strong folk horror twinge, I really loved fighting these larger encounters.

The design and atmosphere goes well into the narrative and art/environment design as well. I really appreciated Hellblade as a very personal story about Senua coming to grips with her trauma during the course of this journey. Yes, the non-combat gameplay is largely dependent on puzzles involving finding runes in the environment but I thought it made sense thematically on Senua as a character. On top of the gritty and frankly horrifying environments is a thick coating of psychological horror that really plays into Senua's mental state.

Ultimately, I think the way that Hellblade talks through its narrative about mental health and stigma around it is the strongest part of it. Most of this is really expanded upon using the binaural audio that they captured to simulate auditory hallucination to be almost overwhelming at times (But thats the point right?). Watching the docs on how the game was made really gave me an additional appreciation of the care that Ninja Theory took to tackle this specific subject matter.

As I played through this game, I came to really appreciated folks like Ninja Theory and Remedy that takes video games as a medium to new interesting directions. While some of the gameplay (both combat and non-combat) can be found lacking, I found the story this game told to be worth the time I spent going on this journey. I hope they knock it out of the park again with the sequel.

Really good game. Great visuals, pretty easy fights, great story, and... the music was also good but I wasn't wearing headphones so I couldn't really experience the games full musical glory. Sometimes the puzzles were a bit bothersome as I spent too much time trying to figure them out. Eventually used Google to solve a few of them lol.
It's a pretty short game. I finished it in 3 or 4 days. The game said that it would restart if I died too many times but idk if that's true coz it didn't happen to me. Or maybe I just didn't die too much...idk. Well you don't die that easily in this game. Fights are pretty easy

Overall it's a really great game. Definitely recommended. It will be worth your time

A abordagem da narrativa tendo uma protagonista que tem esquizofrenia e psicose é uma das coisas mais originais e geniais que vi em videogame, as vozes sendo uma narradora e falando com a Senua é uma experiência única, e a história é muito Intrigante.
Porém o jogo so pode ser definido em arrastaaado. O puzzle com runas se torna extremamente repetitivo logo nas primeiras duas horas, e o combate apesar de eu ter gostado se torna bem irritante pois tem vários momentos que você não aguenta mais tantos inimigos vindo, fora alguns puzles que são bem únicos mas a quantidade em alguns momentos é desgastante. So torço que a sequência conserte o jogo.

It's kind of crazy how similar Alan Wake 2 is to this game. Similar themes of mental health and the loved ones we surround ourselves with to help us break the cycle. Obviously the story and gameplay are different, with the story in this being very good and the gameplay being a bit lackluster.

It's a powerful story of learning to let go of the pain of loss, crippling self doubt, and generation trauma brought down from our parents. It is a curse not from the gods, but from within. The gods aren't evil, it's a test. A test of self resolve to pull ourselves out to the other side. I'm actually pretty excited to play the sequel and see how she creates her own path after breaking the curse.

The gameplay on the other hand is kind of bad. I liked the puzzles, simple but effective. The combat though was way too easy and pretty slow. I had the difficulty setting set to automatic, so I thought it would get more challenging since I only died once toward the end of the game. Maybe it was, in the background, on hard and it is just too easy. The time I died was during the beast boss fight, which is the best fight in the game. It blends the impressive visuals with the combat which is something I wish they did more throughout the game. The fights are also so slow. Everything moves at a snails pace and the camera lock on still kind of sucks. If the enemies moved a bit faster and I could free look and lock on to enemies I would've enjoyed it more.

The cinematography in this game is pretty incredible. At the time of it's release I would've been even more impressed, but since I've played Alan Wake 2 before this it ruins it a bit. Surprisingly they have a fairly similar style but AW2 takes it to a level that transcends the medium. A thing I like in this that I think AW2 could've done is the binaural audio. The whispers in your ear the whole game is incredible and made me look around my room a few times with my HD600s on. They aren't joking about it being best played with headphones.

Pretty good game. This is the ritual to lead you on.

I think enough has been said about this game's well-meaning but mostly misguided attempt to "gamify" mental illness and psychosis. But the experience of playing through this is deeply moving and unnerving (in the best way). While the puzzle and combat gameplay can be relatively simple, it's better to look at this as a walking-simulator-style game with a deep emphasis on its intense audiovisual presentation of a journey into hell. It's definitely flawed in many ways, but is so admirable in what its doing I can't help but love it in the end.

HELLBLADE: SENUA'S SACRIFICE É SIMPLESMENTE APAIXONANTE!

Simplesmente uma experiência única para a vida toda e por isso não deve ser spoilada sem antes ser devidamente consumida, dito isso não vou spoilar muito sobre a obra nessa review sendo somente minhas palavras hoje a solidificação de meus sentimentos diante de tal obra prima do qual você DEVE consumir sem conhecer absolutamente nada do enredo porque é simplesmente surreal o que o time da Ninja Theory conseguiu conquistar com esse titulo.

Dito isso a seguir obviamente haverá pequenas citações da narrativa e gameplay do qual alguns podem considerar spoiler então se você deseja experienciar completamente esse jogo recomendo ler essa review somente após zerar o jogo que tem por volta no máximo suas 7 horas.

COMBATE

Para o combate posso assumir que ele é simples, porém divertido demais para brincar, focando-se apenas em golpes fracos, fortes em que somados a mecânica de parry e esquiva permitem o jogador a realmente experienciar o mais próximo que um duelo entre espadas pode proporcionar onde cada movimento pode custar sua vida logo cada ação deve ser devidamente considerada e ponderada antes de executada para que não seja você aquele a ser decapitado por um machado ou espada que podem assim acabar com sua jornada e possivelmente com todo seu [/b] SAVE! [/b] , logo também se adicionarmos a mecânica de foco que é magistralmente bem implementada ao jogo permitindo você se tornar a encarnação viva do próprio Dante de Devil May Cry enterrando assim vinking após vinking no campo de batalha tornaram essa mecânica de combate muito interessante em meu conceito possuindo sim muita janela para polimento e melhoria em que eu adoraria ver em sua sequência.

NARRATIVA

Para a narrativa também só há elogios tornando Senua uma das personagens mais complexas narrativamente que eu já vi em uma obra possuindo claramente problemas psicológicos claros de esquizofrenia do qual a permitem escutar vozes que são espetacularmente bem apresentadas através dos sons 3D que esse jogo trabalha acentuando e lhe colocando totalmente imerso na mente quebrada e distorcida de nossa protagonista que perdeu tudo em meio a uma era de dor e morte.
Isso somado a uma direção de arte, som e level design que permitem a quebra constante da quarta parede fazerem desse jogo uma das obras mais imersivas no mercado de jogos atuais sendo simplesmente épico como esse mundo nórdico consegue ser apresentado de forma tão crua misturando ainda sim elementos místicos que se entrelaçam com a realidade se distorcendo pela lente quebrada que são os olhos de nossa protagonista permitindo assim o elemento do medo e terror ser naturalmente estabelecido em nossas mentes gerando situações angustiantes me colocando na ponta da cadeira pela ansiedade gerada pelo medo ao desconhecido que me espera, logo o questionamento natural de todos aqueles que jogaram Hellblade se limitam a duas simples questões: Seria essa jornada de fato real? Ou somente estamos alucinando na mente dominada pela escuridão de Senua?

Por fim é claro que como obra espetacular seu enredo finaliza o 3 arco de fechamento de forma linda e maravilhosa permitindo Senua lutar contra seus demônios e principalmente contra sua própria escuridão tomando assim as rédeas de sua própria vida reescrevendo assim sua história a permitindo então seguir em frente e aceitar o luto gerado pela morte de seu amado.

Para Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice então uma nota 8/10 me deixando ansiosíssimo pela continuação que deve sair ainda esse ano em que eu espero realmente que o time da Ninja Theory consiga novamente despertar esse sentimento de desconforto e ansiedade que esse titulo me despertou considerando todo o desenvolvimento que nossa protagonista já teve até esse ponto da história respeitando assim seus princípios e motivações nessa continuação.

"The hardest battles are fought in the mind, not the sword."

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is a uniquely horrifying game in which you play as Senua, a Celtic warrior with Psychosis who goes on a journey to save the soul of her deceased lover Dillion from the Goddess Hela. Throughout this journey Senua must endure death and the challenges her condition places in front of her so she may be reunited with her lover.

Where Hellblade excels most is within its sound design and atmosphere. From the very beginning the game tells you to play with headphones, and for good reason, as throughout the games nearly 8 hour long story you are placed within Senua's head and get to hear the voices in her head as they surround your ears to either act as her guide or tormentor. The atmosphere is brilliantly designed as well, each surface is filled to the brim with detail, and does a phenomenal job at setting the tone, especially in areas like the labyrinths and villages.

While the combat in Hellblade does certainly take a backseat for most of the game, it is by far one of the most fun and satisfying combat systems I've had the pleasure of experiencing. While being very simple and only consisting of light attacks, heavy attacks, and a punch/kick attack used for breaking shields, achieving combos and hitting a perfect parry feels unbelievably good. The combat especially becomes even more fun and rewarding as you develop the "Focus" meter, in which time slows down for your enemies and you get to go nuts and beat the hell out of every enemy in your sight.

Hellblade's narrative is an exceptional one. As stated previously you play as Senua who must face the challenges her Psychosis throws at her as well as challenge the Gods as she aims to save the soul of her lover. From the very beginning you realize that YOU are now one of the voices in Senua's head, as the voice that acts as the narrator begins to speak to you, and even in some cases Senua herself will talk directly to you. The stakes are immediately raised for the player after the combat tutorial ends, in which we are told that if Senua is killed too many times, the curse of darkness she possesses will spread to her head and we will be forced to restart the entire game. This threat however is empty, or at least I believe it is, as in most cases in the game it's harder to die in a battle than it is to win it, which I won't complain about. As the story progresses however, I felt as if it began to lose itself as it tries to confuse the player more than explain itself. I especially began to feel more iffy on the plot as I reached the ending, which felt very anticlimactic and felt to be a huge and sudden 180 from the tone the rest of the story had.

A few other minor gripes I had were with the puzzles and the backtracking. In Hellblade, the puzzles typically consist of finding a locked door with runes on it, and to unlock the doors you must find the listed rune within your environment. I will give credit where credit is due, a good many of these puzzles have very unique solutions in which you have to line up two objects in the horizon perfectly to create the rune, which was very cool to me. However the awe I felt from these unique solutions faded quickly due to the repetitive nature of these puzzles, especially toward the end of the game I found myself asking "Why can't I just keep going through instead of having to solve these puzzles after every little bit of progression?". The backtracking this game throws at you can also at times be completely absurd, especially in the beginning of the game. After defeating bosses like Valravyn and Surtr, you have to then go ALL the way back to the beginning room, which can take several minutes, and when every path looks identical it can be very hard to tell if you are going the right way, ESPECIALLY due to the lack of a map.

Overall, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice provides a unique look at how Psychosis affects the minds of those who have it and the obstacles they face, while also providing fun combat, a banging OST, outstanding sound design and atmosphere, and intriguing characters. However these positives come at the cost of repetitive puzzles, unenjoyable backtracking, and sometimes a less than satisfying narrative, with incredibly high highs, and low lows. I'm eagerly awaiting Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 now, and with better puzzle design, less backtracking, and a more stable narrative, I could easily see the sequel becoming an all time great.

Captivating and horrifying, worth playing for the story and atmosphere alone given that it's not a massive time commitment. That being said, I found the actual gameplay segments to be the weakest part of the game beyond the first 90 minutes, as fighting waves of the same handful of enemies and repeating variations of the same awkward visual puzzles became super repetitive. It works in some cases, but I found the set pieces and narrative to be hands down the best aspects of the game.

More engaging and intuitive puzzles with more enemy and combat variety will guarantee the sequel to be a home run, assuming it can match this game's narrative strengths.

Me cago en todos los dioses benditos, como puede tal joya ser indie. No lo digo a malas, es que es impresionante el trabajo del equipo de Ninja Theory.

Lo que han hecho con este juego esta a otro nivel. La historia, buf, increible, y si le sumas que te van contando la historia de la mitologia vikinga por el camino, bua, sublime. Visualmente, un desproposito para los ojos. El combate, mare meua, nunca antes habia deseado enfrentarme a los enemigos del infierno de Hela. Y la musica, si es que no me quedan cosas increibles por decir, no tiene parangon, sobretodo si usas cascos.

O sea, cuando me los puse, fue una inmersion increible, porque oia las voces como si yo fuera el que tenia psicosis. Y cuando me meten en la batalla del boss de fuego y me ponen la musica de los dioses, ostia puta, me quede un segundo sin poder reaccionar del puro arte que estaba viviendo.

GOTY si me lo preguntan. 100% recomendable.

"Preparate para el ragnarok Senua, porque ya viene" - Narrador con la mejor voz de la historia, este tio vive cuando narra las cosas.

aqui temos uma adaptação PERFEITA da mitologia nórdica, incrível como a Ninja Theory conseguiu produzir algo desse nível mesmo com uma equipe tão limitada.

sério, a qualidade desse jogo é impressionante principalmente na atmosfera e o aúdio, ESPECIALMENTE o aúdio, jogar isso aqui de fone é inacreditável, a aflição aumenta 10x mais e a experiência melhora em dobro, as vozes e sussuros parecem ecoar dentro da minha própria cabeça, ao mesmo tempo que é desconfortável sinto uma pitada de capricho IMENSA que os dev colocara aqui. Basicamente todos os aspectos de Hellblade são ÓTIMOS, desde historia (MARAVILHOSA, SÉRIO) até o combate simplista, meu único probleminha com foi uma pequena queda de ritmo em determinado ponto da trama mas nada que afete drasticamente minha opinião sobre esse JOGAÇO!!!!