Game Review Spooky Edition - Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

I picked up Senua's Sacrifice shortly after its release not really knowing what to expect. I had seen trailers from E3 or something, and sort of assumed it would be a story-driven hack and slash type action game. The first part of that ended up being true, but I did not expect the sort of psychological horror the game centers around. The game doesn't feel like a true horror, but does an excellent job across various segments using sound and visuals to increase tension. Over and over I felt uncomfortable and uneasy experiencing Senua's journey into Hel, desperate to escape the current trial she was facing, all while Senua's tenuous grasp on her own sanity continuously loosened to the point of unraveling completely.

Cite Your Sources

One of Senua's Sacrifices greatest strengths is how much inspiration it drew from its sources, and how authentic it made its own version of them feel. There are two main areas that the game invested heavy research into that really show during gameplay.

The first is Norse Mythology. Senua's quest itself involves delving into the Norse version of the afterlife: Hel / Helheim. The developer's really did their dues and filled the game with Norse lore and imagery. Sections of the game are filled Longboats and Longhouses, enemies carry traditional round Norse shields, and environments of sparse woodlands and chilly coastlines.

The game is also dotted with "Lore Stones", which after activating will cause the shaman (druid?) Druth to recount a traditional Norse tale, such as the coming of Ragnarok or the forging of Gram. Druth is a storyteller by trade, and you can tell the developers put in the effort to both research these tales, and have them be told in a way that it feels like the peoples of that time may tell them around a fire, mead in hand.

These are nice and often give context to some section of the game you are in, but other times seem to not tie in at all and are a bit long winded, only serving as lore for the sake of it.

Druth also chimes in from time to time outside of these lore triggers to give exposition, but also to tell of his own experience as a slave captured by the Northmen. This is where the mythology branches off into a more historical portrayal. For all our romanticism of the Vikings, the truth is they were a brutal and cruel people, and this is the side that truly seeps into the game. We are given visions and images of the pillaging and killing conducted by the Northmen, and the horror of their deeds ties back into the overall theme of the game incredibly well, showing the ugly side of what humans can do to one another.

The second inspiration the game draws upon is mental illness. The developer's have stated they based Senua's character on an individual suffering from psychosis, a type of mental illness characterized by experiencing a disconnection with reality, often through hallucinations. Setting aside the theory that this might mean that much of what Senua experiences isn't real, it sets the stage for the larger narrative and theme of the game. Senua's mental condition is mostly characterized by a constant dialogue of voices in her head, commenting on her every move, mixing between supportive, cautionary, and derisive. This both fills the game that has hardly any voiced characters with dialogue, and contributes to the psychological terror of the atmosphere, all while helping to portray Senua as a character.

These voices, and the voice of another, darker entity, combined with flashbacks of Senua's past show the true beauty of the game: the internal struggle of Senua against her own mind, and the psychological stress that comes with it. The game executes a fantastic job on portraying the Senua's hopelessness, resignation, self-loathing, and feeling that its her own fault that she is the way she is. Things I don't doubt real people with mental illness sometimes struggle with. This is all amplified by the trauma of her past that the player discovers through flashbacks and voice overs of other characters. The game never directly calls out the affliction for what it is, and much of Senua's suffering revealed through her memories are due to superstitions about her. Much of the overarching theme and even game mechanics are a metaphor for the sickness itself. Of course its not all doom and gloom, as the other major theme that shines through Senua's actions is perseverance; fighting against all she has been through to reach her goal.

Turn Up the Atmosphere

What really makes this game special is the way it uses your senses to build up the atmosphere of the environment and situations you are put in.

We are already talked about the Norse setting, but the game takes a lot of artistic liberties in presenting their version of that setting in a dark and twisted way. Their is a lot of gruesome imagery, some of which I'm intentionally not posting images of because it honestly took my breath away at times, and feel it is best experienced on your own.There is some light and some color, but make no mistake, this game is dark and it knows it.

The atmosphere is also built up using the voices you constantly hear. They are your companions throughout the journey, always whispering inside your head. For the most part they serve as a reminder of Senua's mental state, casting assurance or doubt in equal measures. They also provide clues for things as a player we normally couldn't understand, such as smells and Senua's personal emotions. On top of that, Senua herself physically gets bloodier, dirtier, and overall more physically broken down as the game goes on, allowing the game to show not only the wear on her mind, but on her physical being as well.

Of course, when the tensions rise, it gets cranked up to the max. There are segments where one moment you are calmly exploring a puzzle section, and the next the world around you catches on fire. The music picks up as you sprint through the hellish inferno, pressuring you to get out, and all the while the voices are screaming RUN, GET OUT, YOU'RE GOING TO BURN ALIVE! I was damn near sweating as I frantically tried to escape these scenarios, and the combination of the visuals and the sounds really work together to put you on edge in all the right ways. The game knows when to be loud, and when to be quiet. There is one section in particular that had me absolutely terrified, the whole time thinking, "shit, get me out of here, I don't want to be here."

But is it Fun?

Kind of? The combat gameplay is standard action stuff: light/heavy attack, dodge, riposte, and shield break. It only changes up a little during the game. The game is very forgiving in terms of actual death, I did not die once in combat, but it still managed to feel tense. It's fun enough and pretty engaging, but nothing to write home about. Where the combat shines however, is presentation. Not only are the enemies totally bad-ass, but the way the camera shakes and closely follows your actions, and how the moves flow into each other is incredibly cinematic. Not only that, there is absolutely no HUD to speak of. The boss fights in particular are total eye candy, and super sweet, each with their own mechanics that spice up the standard gameplay. Despite not being out of this world, there were many fights I got super into just because of how they were presented.

There are also periodic "puzzle" segments which involve illusions whose corporeal existence depends on the angle you view them from. It's actually very neat, and compounds even more on the strange and fragmented world Senua sees. Not a lot to talk about here, but it was very unique.

Final Say

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice was an incredible experience. It is a tale of suffering and internal struggle, bust also of self-discovery, perseverance, forgiveness, and redemption. We are taken on a spiritual journey where we constantly learn more about Senua, as she also attempts to discover more about herself. I don't think it will go down among my best of all time, but it will be a game I always remember for its invigorating and unique take on presentation, atmosphere, and storytelling. This is one of a few games, or maybe the only game I've played that made me physically uncomfortable and still had completely hooked. It also has one of the most gratifying ending sequences I've ever experienced in a game. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a tense and emotional experience or a non-traditional horror game; well worth the $40 price tag at launch.

4/5