Hellblade is quite a singoular experience. The main concept is exploring Senua's mind while discovering her story and her mission for redemption. Definitely a unique storytelling, especially because of the Norse setting, which also which also acts as a subject for the screenshots you will take, thanks to the wonderful technical section (there is also an in-game photo mode).

However, the gameplay is quite bland: it mainly consists of following the predetermined path and solving simple puzzles. If you really want, you can collect all the recordings to get a special achievement, but this seems to be more like a little extra added to the top of the formula rather than a challengge that makes you want to complete it.
Other than that, there's the combat system, which is quite poor as well: light attack, heavy attack, parry, dodge and camera locked on a single enemy. Everything ok, but the animations are way too slow even for a slow paced game like this. It seems like the developers originally implanted in the game a soulslike combat system but then they changed their mind, directing everything in favor of scenography rather than gameplay, which is totally fine, but in some instances it's difficult to properly respond to what's happening on the screen.

Overall, Hellblade is like a 1:1 transposition of a movie into a game: it's visually amazing and completely immerses you in its story, but it leaves behind the advantages of the medium.
I recommend to try it.

Reviewed on Apr 17, 2024


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