A masterpiece of atmosphere and storytelling, Hellblade is a must-play, especially if you're interested in Nordic mythology. And still, this game is not for everyone.
Atmosphere
I have to dedicate an entire section to this, because it's truly an experience. You're playing as Senua, a Celtic warrior on a quest to the Viking Hell to fight for the soul of her dead lover.
The interesting part is that Ninja Theory didn't like the audio system from Unreal Engine 4, so they rebuild it from the ground up. This is important because the main character is also schizophrenic, hearing voices.
Now, the game is a 3rd person, so, the voices are actually surrounding your head (recommended playing with a headset), and sometimes Senua talking to you like you're one of the voices, just staring into the camera like in the last screenshot.
These voices are an interesting concept, talking randomly with Senua or between them, sometimes giving hints about the path you're taking or telling stories, especially one of them, the first that appeared during the childhood, of a more mature woman, creating a backstory and just building character development for Senua while you're wondering around the island.
The levels also play their own part in the overall experience, and the voices have their own opinion whenever you're travelling to a sunnier area or a dark labirinth.
Gameplay
The gameplay has the advantage of being a bit diverse, while the overall game time is not too big; it took me about 12 hours to achieve 100% with achievements. The combat is pretty basic, but still fun, you get some help from the voices when an enemy is behind you.
The boss battles are more interesting, each boss having its particular move set that requires a certain strategy. I don't want to say too much about them because, they are only 4, like I said, the game is short.
Puzzles
I really loved this part because it doesn't use some conventional puzzle on a board or something, instead you have to find clues around the level, then match the rune you're looking for with something in the environment.
Some clues are there, but you still have to find your way around, until the symbol starts floating around, showing you that you are close.
Collectibles
In the entire game, there is a single type of collectible, lore stones. Spread across the levels, each rune tells a part of a Nordic legend.
Collecting them all unlocks a bonus cutscene at the end of the second to last level in the game, it doesn't affect the ending in any way, but it's a nice touch. If you missed something, don't worry, there is still a chapter replay and collectibles are saved on a separate save file.
Other interesting features
One that really stuck with me was the explanation regarding the death of Senua during combat. If you look at her right hand, her hand is black, like a cancer spreading towards her head each time she dies. The death is not actually real, it's actually a vision she had of that area, but each vision of her death is giving the darkness more space.
When the darkness reaches her brain, it's game over. Literally, they will delete your save file, and you need to start the entire game again.
Something that I appreciate as well, is that you don't have UI on your screen, making the transition from gameplay to cutscene more seamless. All the information you need about Senua's life or energy, you need to collect from the environment, from her body movement and fortunately, a little indicator on her right shoulder.
Ninja Theory deserve the appreciation, because the game was launched in 2017, but they still worked on it, not just for bug fixing, but the chapter select, ray tracing, Nvidia DLSS and other major features were introduced in the game in 2021, 4 years after launch for all players to enjoy.
Final impression
One of the best games I've played when it comes to atmosphere and storytelling. I'm saying that this game is not for everyone, because it presents psychiatric events, some scenes that some people may found disturbing, and also the voices that are arguing inside her head, sometimes you are wondering if the entire scene is happening in Senua's head.
A bit expensive for the gameplay length at its full price, but it's often reduced to about $7.5 on Steam, which is totally worth it.
Info
All the images were captured during my gameplay.
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