Indie games with “AAA” production values is definitely
something I can get behind if they all turn out like Hellblade: Senua’s
Sacrifice from Ninja Theory. It has the look of a big budget production but is
still able to take risks with its storytelling to deliver an experience totally
unlike you’ll find from either typical “AAA” games or indie titles. With
gorgeous visuals and sound, a great story, and a stirring depiction of mental
illness, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice seems like a surefire winner save for one
little issue – the gameplay isn’t especially fun. Depending on what you’re
looking for in a game, however, that may or may not be a big deal. To see what
I mean, continue reading our full Xbox One Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice review.Game Details
- Publisher: Ninja Theory
- Developer: Ninja Theory
- ESRB Rating: “M” for Mature
- Genre: Adventure
- Pros: Gorgeous visuals; amazing sound; fascinating story; respectful depiction of mental illness
- Cons: It isn’t fun
- MSRP: $30
 |
| Buy Xbox Gift Card at Amazon.com |
Hellblade is the story of a Pict warrior woman fighting her
way to Hellheim to rescue the soul of her lover from the goddess Hela. The
woman, Senua, suffers from psychosis, which she and others believe to be a
curse, presented as voices in her head and delusions of what she sees around
her. Mental illness plays a central role in the story and has been very
respectfully depicted here. Through the gameplay (more on that below) you
really feel and understand the unease and fear the Senua is experiencing, which
is a pretty incredible accomplishment.
The gameplay takes place from an over the shoulder third
person perspective as you guide Senua through Hellheim. The gameplay is
essentially split into thirds – one part walking around, one part solving
puzzles, and one part combat. Unfortunately, I don’t find the puzzles or the
combat to be particularly fun or satisfying and they actually get in the way of
the enjoyable bit, which is walking around gawking at beautiful visuals and
learning about the story through narration and the voices in Senua’s head. I
feel like Hellblade could have just as easily been a true walking simulator but
Ninja Theory was like “Hey, we’re Ninja Theory, we need combat and stuff to do”
and, thus, there was combat. I’m not really sure that was the best direction
for the game, though.
My problem with the combat and puzzles is that they are both
really simple and repetitive. Puzzles consist of lining up symbols with objects
in the environment, similar to some of the puzzles in The Witness. From the
first puzzle to the last puzzle, that’s what you’re doing. You see a symbol on
a door and then try to find that symbol in the environment. It’s boring and,
worse, occasionally frustrating as finding what you need and getting in the
right position to make it work isn’t always easy. Honestly, I don’t like the
puzzles.
The combat is simple and straightforward and, again, mostly
boring. When you enter combat, always in larger open obvious “combat arena”
areas, the camera locks onto the nearest enemy and Senua draws her sword. You
have light and heavy attacks as well as a guard breaking kick, and you can
dodge. Different types of enemies require slightly different tactics and you
sort of just tap away until the unnervingly numerous waves of enemies are dead
and you move on to the next walking and puzzle bits.
My problem is that the combat encounters always drag on for
several beats too long. This was intentional, of course, because of a very
specific and very important story and gameplay point – if you die in combat too
often, your save is wiped and you have to start the game over from the start*.
Clearly, they made the combat encounters drag on for so long because they want
you to feel uncomfortable and share Senua’s fear and uncertainty and dread that
any lapse of concentration during combat could literally be your last. There
are consequences in Hellblade, which is absolutely brilliant, but I feel like
it comes at the cost of the game actually being enjoyable to play. The combat
simply isn’t good enough to be fun for very long, but you get hammered with
wave after wave after wave of enemies and boring puzzle after puzzle after
puzzle and it just becomes a drag pretty quickly.
I’m sure that there are people out there that don’t
typically like walking simulators who will appreciate that Hellbalde actually
gives you videogame-y stuff to do while telling a deeper story than most
videogames offer. There are plenty of folks who hate walking simulators because
they think they’re boring and “not real games’, so maybe Hellblade will be the
narrative driven game that finally breaks through for them. That’s great. For
me, though, I feel like the gameplay kind of gets in the way of the other
genuinely good bits.
The good news is that Hellblade’s good bits are really,
really well done. The story is extremely well executed, for example, and the
presentation is absolutely phenomenal. This game looks incredibly good with
gorgeous environments, amazing lighting and weather effects, and Senua’s
character model is one of the best looking you’ll ever see. This game looks
like a tentpole “AAA” release from a huge publisher, but it is a $30 indie
game, which is awesome. It sounds incredible, too, with outstanding voice
acting that easily tops pretty much every other game on the market. When you
start playing the game recommends using headphones for the best experience,
which I highly recommend as well. The voices in Senua’s head play a huge role
in the story and gameplay and wearing headphones make their whispers all the
more intimate and realistic when they feel like they’re not just in Senua’s
head, but bouncing around yours as well.
All in all, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is absolutely
brilliant in many ways, but to be honest I hate playing it. I totally
understand that games don’t have to be “fun” to be great, but Hellblade’s
puzzles and combat are so repetitive and boring and off-putting that I just
can’t enjoy it. I also get it that Hellblade is perhaps not really meant to be
an enjoyable experience considering the subject matter, but it is so heavy and
overbearing and exhausting to play that I struggled with it. As you can tell,
I’m really conflicted because I can see that Hellblade is good, but I just
don’t really want to play it, which makes recommending it to other people
tricky. If you want a graphical showcase and a unique story told in a radically
different way, give Hellblade a shot. If you want a fun game, or a relaxing
game, I’d skip it. With a $30 MSRP, though, it isn’t a huge investment to make
even if you end up disliking it.
*Spoilers: Not really
