A title that I have forgotten. As much as I hate to say this, I forgot that this game existed. I only remembered this game when the reveal trailer for Hellblade 2 was released. The game has been on my Steam wishlist since 2017. 2017!
Senua’s Sacrifice is the first entry in the Senua’s Saga, a dark fantasy that is greatly inspired by Norse mythology. It aims to accurately portray mental disorders such as psychosis, and hallucination. The game is about a female Pict warrior who suffers deep mental trauma since childhood that made worse by an attack of the northern tribesmen.
Graphics and Audio
Graphics are realistic enough for the protagonist while the environment is quite well. Some cutscenes have realism in it as other characters were filmed with a green screen background. If you watched the company’s development diary, you can see how they did the acting on some cutscenes for other characters.
They also showcased how they used a new technology that allows the Senua actress, Melina Juergens, to perform scenes live and in real-time directly within the game world. The game also boast the photorealistic rendering of the actress’ skin and facial expression. This has been done by partnering with a third-party company that scanned the actress’ face using a new technology.
The main selling point of the game would be the audio. To many people, the game is an audio nightmare as the game uses binaural audio to create a psychotic, and horrifying experience. At the start of the game, the developers showed that the game is best played with headphones on. As for someone like me, I kinda don’t like the idea as the binaural audio is similar, if not the same, to today’s ASMR “experience” that I never really liked. All I can say is Hellblade earns the right to request the players to use a headset. I would even suggest to use a 3D headphone. The visuals and audio works so well that it makes a well-made, immersive experience.
Gameplay
The game is pretty simple and minimalist. It doesn’t have a menu, weapon system is almost non-existent, and you don’t have to bother picking up items as there’s nothing to pick up. This might turn off some people and some even bothered so tell the developers to add more weapons/items to the new Hellblade game.
For me, it’s really not necessary. The game is not that difficult to necessitate more weapons or items. The combat system is also quite good. It’s a normal hack-and-slash with three different strikes: Light, Heavy, and Melee. Light strike is fast but weak, heavy is s low but strong, and melee is mostly used for making an opening such as guard-break for shielded enemies. The game also have its own fight scene mechanic that is similar to bullet time called Focus. This allows Senua to slow down time, or reveal enemies from the shadows.
The puzzles, however, can use some work. That’s one of the main points of the game to move forward. Some puzzles needed you to go to a specific place and look to a specific direction to be solved. Others need you to enter a portal-like door to be able to solve a puzzle.
Most prominent puzzle is the runic puzzle where you need to find a rune within the environment. You’ll get floating runes as a sign that you are near the area to be able to solve the puzzle.
This type of puzzles needs more time especially if the character runs pretty slow. It is quite enjoyable, albeit rather redundant.
Conclusion
The game is emotionally jarring to some, no doubt. The experience alone left by the voices in Senua’s head is a bit eerie, to say the least. That said, the game is very immersive and I enjoyed every minute of playing the game. Hellblade successfully combined real-world trauma and visualised fantasy of Nordic mythology. Rich story telling, minimalist fight scene, eye catching puzzles, I am definitely excited to play the second installment — Senua’s Saga.
The game offers realistic portrayal of psychosis, hallucination, and emotional trauma through pain and suffering of the main character Senua. As part of the mental disorder experience, the company partnered with a mental health professional and interviewed a group of people that is recovering from mental illness. This made the game a little bit more realistic, if not at all. The company, Ninja Theory, tried to depict mental disorders as accurate as possible.
As someone who doesn’t have a mental disorder, I am not sure how accurate the psychosis in-game is to the real world but good representation doesn’t have to be perfect.
You can watch my playthrough here: YouTube Video
