Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

 PC
User Score
8.1

Generally favorable reviews- based on 1377 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,049 out of 1377
  2. Mixed: 197 out of 1377
  3. Negative: 131 out of 1377

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  1. Quazder
    Aug 22, 2023
    0
    I had like 5 minute cutscene, got killed, had the cutscene again - I could not skip it. So i unistalled it. simple as that :)
  2. DarkArcanin3
    Feb 26, 2023
    0
    Chapter 10 fight **** dog **** Overall this game is the biggest hype train
  3. vova22379
    Aug 24, 2022
    3
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  4. CoreGamer1408
    Mar 9, 2022
    4
    As a game it fails, because it wants to be way to cinematic movie-esque type of experience. The puzzles and the exploration/climbing is all dull padded out filler. The combat sections while impressively animated was over pretty quick. This is the type of experience that could of been cut down into a animated movie and I know I would of loved this story in that format.
  5. LAdRe
    Oct 26, 2021
    0
    The game is really amazing both in terms of sound and character life.The game draws you in and you become a pill inside a mysterious world
  6. bigbossf84
    Aug 10, 2021
    0
    Esse se tornou meu jogo preferido, a historia é muito imersiva, você se importa com a Senua, ela é incrível,
  7. FuchikFuchara
    Jul 28, 2021
    3
    Считаю эту игру абсолютным недоразумением, главная составляющая это кинцо и оно просто ужасное, понравиться может лишь маленьким девочкам лет 14. Игра на самом деле пуста настолько, что для заполнения 11 часов прохождение, нужно постоянно повторяться, даже не в головоломках или боях, это само собой, а в СЦЕНАРИИ. Во время всей игры складывалось впечатление, что в диалогах слышу одно иСчитаю эту игру абсолютным недоразумением, главная составляющая это кинцо и оно просто ужасное, понравиться может лишь маленьким девочкам лет 14. Игра на самом деле пуста настолько, что для заполнения 11 часов прохождение, нужно постоянно повторяться, даже не в головоломках или боях, это само собой, а в СЦЕНАРИИ. Во время всей игры складывалось впечатление, что в диалогах слышу одно и тоже, но истинное удивление меня посетило, когда даже мифы закончились и они начали идти по кругу. Все враги на одно лицо и боевка посредственная, на самом деле, фантазии разработчиков хватило лишь на два часа игры, а все остальное уже искусственное растягивание, ибо идеи, локации, враги, все это рассчитано на демку в 2-3 часа. Если это было не так, тогда бы все было не настолько пресным как оно есть, ничто не смогло меня впечатлить, ни геймплей, ни история, ни атмосфера, все реализовано в высшей мере заурядно, даже нордический сеттинг не ощущается. Мне обидно за потраченное время.… Expand
  8. Metacritic376
    Jul 21, 2021
    1
    This "game" tries so hard to be different and nuanced. The art looks good and that is the only redeeming quality. However, you cannot explore to even enjoy the view since it is rat cage claustrophobic. The sandbox puzzle and the timed-block-and-attack combat are not original. The gameplay is very lacking. It is tediously slow, riddled with backtracking and repetitive. The camera distanceThis "game" tries so hard to be different and nuanced. The art looks good and that is the only redeeming quality. However, you cannot explore to even enjoy the view since it is rat cage claustrophobic. The sandbox puzzle and the timed-block-and-attack combat are not original. The gameplay is very lacking. It is tediously slow, riddled with backtracking and repetitive. The camera distance makes it feel so claustrophobic as your character fills up the entire half of the screen and there's no option to adjust to make it feel more view-able. The story is based on Norse mythology so there's nothing new or imaginative about it. They put some girls gossiping in the background and call it "nuanced". It's a poor excuse for a video game.… Expand
  9. Ted_Tris
    Jun 20, 2021
    0
    This is not a game but a mess.
    He wants to be something f()cking deep, but he doesn’t go for it.
    Apart from being immeasurably annoying it is not fun because the game content is 0.
    A typical example is when they want to sell anything with graphics and a lot of tech ****
    It can't be said to be so beautiful today.
    I think it's a boring crap.
  10. LoneAscendant
    Jan 15, 2021
    0
    This game is even worse than "Remember Me" or Deus Ex. It's filled with endless cutscenes full of nonsense dialogue and a bunch of nonsense lore. The character can't sprint, only jog slowly so getting around is a chore. There's no map and the puzzles are the worst I have seen in a game. You just walk around trying to line up runes at certain spots. Worse, the scenery isn't all stationary.This game is even worse than "Remember Me" or Deus Ex. It's filled with endless cutscenes full of nonsense dialogue and a bunch of nonsense lore. The character can't sprint, only jog slowly so getting around is a chore. There's no map and the puzzles are the worst I have seen in a game. You just walk around trying to line up runes at certain spots. Worse, the scenery isn't all stationary. Some of it is "illusionary", so walking to a certain spot or through a certain gate makes things appear or disappear. It's bleak, boring and doesn't make any sense. Plus, it's filled with "psychosis" and the character hears voices all the way through. You may as well have psychosis for real. That would be more enjoyable. The fighting isn't fair, and there is perma-death so you might have to start the game all over again if you die too many times. This one isn't worth it on sale. It's not even worth pirating for free. It's garbage on your drive. I got half way through and my frame rate dropped below 30 fps and that was the last straw. I uninstalled it. The game has bugs as well. A game of similar "stature" might well be "A Plague Tale: Innocence". I'd rate that one an 8/10. This one gets a zero. It just drags on and on and there's no way of skipping the morbid cut scenes. I guess it's filled with Norse mythology but it comes across as confusion. This one is a slog with zero fun. Find ANYTHING else to play. I did myself a favor and watched the ending on youtube and what I saw made me glad I didn't invest any more time into it. I switched to playing Ghost Recon Wildlands and am having a blast.… Expand
  11. dmedd6
    Jun 27, 2020
    0
    If you love games that are fun to play, exciting, engaging, and have a compelling story with an ending that even makes a tiny bit of sense, this game is not for you.
    There is no HUD and no tutorial. The game does not explain how to play itself, it literally turns you loose in Hell and says - here you are, have fun getting killed over and over and over and over again until you either    If you love games that are fun to play, exciting, engaging, and have a compelling story with an ending that even makes a tiny bit of sense, this game is not for you.
    There is no HUD and no tutorial. The game does not explain how to play itself, it literally turns you loose in Hell and says - here you are, have fun getting killed over and over and over and over again until you either figure out the basic gameplay mechanics which we could have explained to you but don't, because fun, or you rage pause and look up a walkthrough online.
    The combat is repetitive and frustrating. It makes no attempt to be anything other than a mindless button masher with an added step or two whenever you face a brute or a boss. There is no stealth, only one weapon, and a slow-motion bullet time effect that I didn't even know existed until I was 2/3 of the way through the game, because as I mentioned before, there is no tutorial or guide.
    The puzzles aren't so much puzzles. None of them require you to think in order to solve them, they simply require that you have patience, which was already wearing thin for me with this game very early on. You don't feel smart, like you just solved something. 90% of it is just you walking around until you've found the correct spot to stand in and press a button. Sometimes, they make the puzzles more layered by giving you two or three spots to stand in and press a button before you advance. Again, patience, not intelligence opens the door to the next area.
    Because there is no map, no guide points, no items in the world to indicate which direction to go, I frequently got lost and spent a lot of time just wandering around not knowing what I was looking for. I don't expect a game to hold my hand, but it's got to at LEAST give me an objective and a direction to walk in.
    The story started out 10/10. I was instantly engaged by the opening cutscene and playing as a Celtic warrioress on a path to save the soul of her beloved on a journey through Hell. This is really f***ing cool, I'm totally on board. Slowly though, I started to realize that there would be no engaging narrative, no satisfying conclusion, no real character development. It makes a heavy handed point of being an avant garde piece of abstract fiction in which the "message" they're trying to convey (mental illness is difficult - oh really?) comes at the expense of a cogent narrative in which a character has a want, but they are having trouble getting it, and we are tuned in to see whether they get it or not, watching them grow and change along the way. You know, the literal core of a good story.
    In short, not for a single moment after the first chapter was I looking forward to what was going to happen next, or having fun doing what I was doing at that time. I only finished the game because I paid for it and I'm cheap.
    Because I couldn't skip the end credits, I ctrl-alt-deleted to close the program and immediately uninstalled it because I'm never, ever going to even feel tempted to play it again. It was hands down one of the worst video games ever. I totally get why it has a high critic score, because critics are hacks, but the high user score blows my mind. I thought the general public was smarter than this.
    Pros: It looks AMAZING. But then again, show me a game made in the last decade that doesn't look amazing. Of course it looks amazing. Who cares?
    Save your money and just go back and replay Skyrim as a female Nord.    … Expand
  12. praXismaXimus
    Apr 26, 2020
    2
    Unplayable pile of miserable garbage. Nice graphics, TERRIBLE framerate issues - to the point where the game cannot be played. Unfinishable due to these technical issues not present during early game. For any developer, this is completely unacceptable. This game should never have been released in this state.
    The story is simple and unrelentingly miserable. If you get off on death,    Unplayable pile of miserable garbage. Nice graphics, TERRIBLE framerate issues - to the point where the game cannot be played. Unfinishable due to these technical issues not present during early game. For any developer, this is completely unacceptable. This game should never have been released in this state.
    The story is simple and unrelentingly miserable. If you get off on death, sickness, and depression, then this will be right up your alley. Lots of nordic mythology wank for the types that enjoy that sort of thing too. Haven't you always dreamed of playing a heartbroken warrior with schizophrenia that's on a suicide mission while being tortured by memories of their abusive parents. So much fun!
    Puzzles are straightforward perspective challenges without much imagination put into them. Combat is the high point as far as actual gameplay is concerned, but invisible walls constraining you and your dodges while fighting off hordes of enemies is ridiculously bad. One of those games where you'll be yelling "What did I do wrong!?" at the screen because your A button just stops functioning with no indication as to why.
    To sum up, it's a depressing slog of a broken pretty mess. I can't believe anyone who paid for this crap is actually satisfied. What's wrong with you people?    … Expand
  13. Hoegaardener70
    Apr 25, 2020
    3
    I read the overwhelmingly positive reviews, I appreciated the fact that VR was provided for free, and I found graphics and story fascinating. So, the game ticked off all boxes, and many people love it. Unfortunately, I could not since I found the puzzles unengaging and the combat part also unexciting. I forced myself three times for aroud 4h to get into it. May be it works as an emotionalI read the overwhelmingly positive reviews, I appreciated the fact that VR was provided for free, and I found graphics and story fascinating. So, the game ticked off all boxes, and many people love it. Unfortunately, I could not since I found the puzzles unengaging and the combat part also unexciting. I forced myself three times for aroud 4h to get into it. May be it works as an emotional experience for many, but as a game it fell flat on its nose for me.… Expand
  14. mateusbatatais
    Mar 1, 2020
    4
    Juro que insisti nesse jogo... Aparentemente uma boa história e bom gráficos. Puzzles repetidos e jogabilidade travada. Na minha opinião, so isso nao faz um bom jogo.

    História: 9
    Som: 10
    Jogabilidade: 2
    Gráficos:10
    Diversão: 2
  15. CaspianRoach
    Feb 5, 2020
    2
    Do you enjoy watching a pretentious theatrical performance while five people are sitting near you constantly commenting on everything and whispering into your ears? Then congratulations, this is for you. It might hide an okay game underneath, but dear god I couldn't bear the constant nagging and noise following you everywhere. Sure, this might be the point the developers wanted to convey,Do you enjoy watching a pretentious theatrical performance while five people are sitting near you constantly commenting on everything and whispering into your ears? Then congratulations, this is for you. It might hide an okay game underneath, but dear god I couldn't bear the constant nagging and noise following you everywhere. Sure, this might be the point the developers wanted to convey, but it's like sticking your hand in a meat grinder to 'experience new emotions'. It's not pleasant and I'm baffled as to why would anybody want to subject themselves to this, let alone pay for the experience. It should have been paying me for putting up with this nonsense.… Expand
  16. Jenne
    Dec 15, 2019
    3
    I'm all for immersion but this game doesn't just try to depict mental illness, it's actively trying to drive you crazy. The constant annoying voices, the cringey writing, the tedious puzzles....I couldn't get through the first hour. This is gaming for hipsters, emos and pseudointellectuals. Thanks but no thanks.
  17. Soloux
    Nov 28, 2019
    4
    Absolute bollocks of a game.
    This game is so pretentious that have all the things that 16 yo can dream of.
    - Serious subject that can be told by game. - Poetry/legends/myths/illness as narrative. - Walking sym and simple puzzles until next verse is told and part of the "serious" story... Above all, as a plus, voice logs! Developers, if your story is so complicated that you can't    Absolute bollocks of a game.
    This game is so pretentious that have all the things that 16 yo can dream of.
    - Serious subject that can be told by game.
    - Poetry/legends/myths/illness as narrative.
    - Walking sym and simple puzzles until next verse is told and part of the "serious" story...
    Above all, as a plus, voice logs!

    Developers, if your story is so complicated that you can't explain all the things trough game play, than, in a first place, do NOT put them in it.

    On a technical side, this game have all obnoxious effects possible:
    - Chromatic aberration
    - Motion blur
    - Depth of field
    - Ambient occlusion, (how this terrible effect even become so popular?!)...
    All this to "help" the narrative I guess... Without option to turn them off.

    Developers, do you know how much money film and camera industry spend to fix all this, so-called-effects, with a special lenses? I bet not. The 16 yo artist inside of you can't understand this "banal" thing.

    All that warnings before the game start and all the trailers and talk about this mediocre "game" was enough to trick me for a moment. But after 30 min of game play all felt apart. Just another walking pretentious crap.

    The only reason I give this "game" 4 is because of 2 very well atmospheric places with great lighting and some cute weather effects. That is it! That's why you got 4 from me. Be proud of yourself.

    And after all this my biggest wonder is how it is possible this game to have 200. (equally worthless and pretentious), awards.
    Ah, life is mystery.

    Seriously: do not buy this crap. Unless you enjoy "deep" "story telling" with "serious subjects" and want to brag how smart you are.
    Watch R&M or something.    … Expand
  18. eerpsd32
    Oct 4, 2019
    3
    this is the most boring game u can play, everything sucks, i come this game to find something interisting but its so boring only hear voices, find awful nonsens hints, and kill boring and awful enemys
  19. ningky
    Sep 3, 2019
    1
    เล่นไม่จบ
    เวียนหัวมาก

    This game is totally bad!!!! Graphics, Story, Cut scenes and Game play are bad.
  20. zNeverSleeping
    Jul 13, 2019
    2
    PuzzleBlade: Player's time sacrifice. Esse deveria ser o nome.

    Eu realmente não sei como um jogo desse recebe notas tão altas, mesmo falhando em aspectos tão bobos. Fiquei enjoado por toda gameplay, não pelas vozes, e sim pelo campo de visão extremamente fechado e um motion blur exagerado. Todo jopgo que se preze deveria ter as opçoes de personalização de ambas, mas aqui está essa    PuzzleBlade: Player's time sacrifice. Esse deveria ser o nome.

    Eu realmente não sei como um jogo desse recebe notas tão altas, mesmo falhando em aspectos tão bobos.

    Fiquei enjoado por toda gameplay, não pelas vozes, e sim pelo campo de visão extremamente fechado e um motion blur exagerado. Todo jopgo que se preze deveria ter as opçoes de personalização de ambas, mas aqui está essa maravilha.

    Os puzzles, que se mostram presentes na maior parte do jogo, são chatos, sem logica e são tão frequentes que da vontade de tacar o teclado na parede.

    A gameplay, alem dos puzzles, se resume a apertar um botão (andar) e escutar vozes, que não me incomodaram na maior parte do jogo - deveriam?!.

    Boa parte do mapa é linear, no sentido de que Senua trava em qualquer lugar onde os developers queriam que voce não fosse. Serio, o nivel de parede invisivel foi além nesse jogo. Já não bastasse a linearidade, Senua faz questão de passear por todo o game, o que faz perder a paciencia. Nem pra correr a mulher serve. Os combates são pobres, não há muito o que comentar.

    Sobre a OST, não me recordo dela. De duas, uma: Ou foi proposital, ou ela é completamente esquecivel.    … Expand
  21. Mizuiro
    Jul 13, 2019
    4
    Simulador de paseos (pasillero) con puzzles tocapelotas cada diez pasos adecerado con algun combate cada diez años super sencillo.

    A todo eso le sumamos la cantidad ingente de informacion y nombres de dioses nordicos y de la abuela de Odin que te dan de sopetón y que no te acuerdas ni de uno. Sonido guay, pero al final cansa tanta vocecita dando por saco a cada paso. Esperaba    Simulador de paseos (pasillero) con puzzles tocapelotas cada diez pasos adecerado con algun combate cada diez años super sencillo.

    A todo eso le sumamos la cantidad ingente de informacion y nombres de dioses nordicos y de la abuela de Odin que te dan de sopetón y que no te acuerdas ni de uno.

    Sonido guay, pero al final cansa tanta vocecita dando por saco a cada paso.

    Esperaba mucho más de este juego, en una palabra: Decepcionante.    … Expand
  22. Schinkmeister
    Jul 6, 2019
    4
    Sehr gute Story und Atmosphäre. Die Rätsel sind leider eher langweilige Such-die-Gegend-ab-Rätsel. Das Kampfsystem wirkt wie gewollt und nicht gekonnt. Eine schlechte Kopie von God of War. Musste das Spiel leider abbrechen, da die Story nicht über das langweilige bis nervige Gameplay hinweg trösten können.
  23. psylife
    Jun 2, 2019
    4
    Unfortunately, the puzzles, which mainly consists of revealing runes hidden throughout the environment and navigating your way through a maze-like sandbox, are boring, repetitive, and ultimately tedious. Because most of the game consists of solving these elementary puzzles, the game ends up feeling, well.. like tedium.

    The combat is surprisingly gratifying. Executing timed parries,    Unfortunately, the puzzles, which mainly consists of revealing runes hidden throughout the environment and navigating your way through a maze-like sandbox, are boring, repetitive, and ultimately tedious. Because most of the game consists of solving these elementary puzzles, the game ends up feeling, well.. like tedium.

    The combat is surprisingly gratifying. Executing timed parries, dodges, and combos charges a special ability that allows you to slow down time, which is vital when outnumbered. The animations and combos look good, and the combat has a nice up and personal feel to it. Enemy variety is poor, yet there is a descent eco-system of foes with strength and weaknesses to exploit and play with. The combat is by far Hellblade's strongest aspect, yet it will all come down to button mashing and mindlessly abusing the dodge button in order to overcome the ridiculous number of enemies the game will throw at you towards the end.

    The movement of the character outside of combat is sluggish, and the camera is too rigidly attached to the character on screen. In fact the whole game feels slow and sluggish. The walking sessions, establishing shots, and cut-scenes drag and yet tell very little story. If I wanted to be mean, I'd say the game is just full of itself.

    Half-way through the game I started having major frame rate issues, and no amount of low-settings could even remedy the problem. The environments don't look that great, though the game definitely has its moments. Towards the end, there was a strange after taste of instanced assets and botched job.

    Hellblade is an average to mediocre game, that is not without good ideas and potential, yet succumbs to its misguided priorities. I'd be willing to give it a pass if it was only capable of telling a compelling story - and no, the bitter-sweet ending and tear-jerking score in the end will not make me forget all the mediocrity I had to endure in order to get to that point.    … Expand
  24. MeJu
    Dec 27, 2018
    0
    This game made me feel sick - like really sick! It started as soon as the game started. The whispering made my skin cringe and the constant change from ear to ear made me feel really sick. It should be warned before buying that this could happen. I can't play the game at all.
  25. MillersWeeb
    Nov 16, 2018
    2
    Кароч, игра сделана из говна и палок в стиле головоломок для дебилов. Тянка страшная и поехавшая. Боевка тоже ничего, чувствуется на кончиках пальцев. Отдельное внимание стоит уделить дерьмовой визуализации лестниц, врагов мало, локации похожи на последнего Бога войны, не понятно кто у кого спер. В целом не зашло. А глубокий смысл, о том, что ты сам корень своих проблем - оставьтеКароч, игра сделана из говна и палок в стиле головоломок для дебилов. Тянка страшная и поехавшая. Боевка тоже ничего, чувствуется на кончиках пальцев. Отдельное внимание стоит уделить дерьмовой визуализации лестниц, врагов мало, локации похожи на последнего Бога войны, не понятно кто у кого спер. В целом не зашло. А глубокий смысл, о том, что ты сам корень своих проблем - оставьте романтичным хипстерам. В целом игра своих денег не стоила и надо было покупать торрент эдишн от Васяна.… Expand
  26. georgio
    Sep 9, 2018
    0
    I purchased this game in sale expecting Ryse:Son of Rome or something similar. It was much worse. First 45 minutes I literally just watched the game play itself pressing arrow or some other button here and there. And that is when I stopped. The inner voices of the main character were annoying and I'd rather spend another hour watching a TV show on netflix or reading a book if I wantedI purchased this game in sale expecting Ryse:Son of Rome or something similar. It was much worse. First 45 minutes I literally just watched the game play itself pressing arrow or some other button here and there. And that is when I stopped. The inner voices of the main character were annoying and I'd rather spend another hour watching a TV show on netflix or reading a book if I wanted non-interactive entertainment.

    This game was not for me at all.    … Expand
  27. darksize
    Sep 5, 2018
    0
    After 30mins of playing i knew what is awaiting me for the next couple of hours after realising, that i am opening already 3th "fire" door after finishing a quest, for every one of them were the same with the same animations and same voices. You just walk doing repetitive stupid quests, some fights that feels like they are there just about nobody could say that there isnt any action. OnlyAfter 30mins of playing i knew what is awaiting me for the next couple of hours after realising, that i am opening already 3th "fire" door after finishing a quest, for every one of them were the same with the same animations and same voices. You just walk doing repetitive stupid quests, some fights that feels like they are there just about nobody could say that there isnt any action. Only thing thats nice about the game are graphics, and i wont even give one point for that because it wont save the game for me.… Expand
  28. smithgoga
    Jul 19, 2018
    3
    The combat is ugliest as i ever seen in any games. Maybe it's possible to play it on console but on PC its just unplayable. It is very frustrating than you even switch to the easy combat mode but can't win the fight again and again because the control is piece of crap. The idea of the game is good but implementation is crap. I'll give it three points for the effort.
  29. TitaniumDragon
    Jan 22, 2018
    0
    Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is a strikingly high-fidelity game; the graphics, particularly of the main character and some of the enemies, are quite impressive. Unfortunately, the beauty is only skin deep; this game is a slow-paced slog with poor gameplay.

    You play as Senua, a mentally ill young warrior woman who is travelling to Helheim – the Norse hell – to battle Hel for the soul of    Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is a strikingly high-fidelity game; the graphics, particularly of the main character and some of the enemies, are quite impressive. Unfortunately, the beauty is only skin deep; this game is a slow-paced slog with poor gameplay.

    You play as Senua, a mentally ill young warrior woman who is travelling to Helheim – the Norse hell – to battle Hel for the soul of her dead lover. She has voices in her head, constantly talking to her – encouraging her, telling her what to do, whispering about how she is going to fail or how she should turn back, or even telling her that everything is all her fault.

    This game seems to be very impressed with itself in its depiction of mental illness, and indeed, it is pretty well-executed on the whole – the whispering voices both work to reinforce the protagonist’s psychosis, as well as to help direct the player towards what they should be doing.

    And the game is very graphically beautiful – there are a lot of nicely rendered enemies, and Senua herself has a very impressive character model. That being said, I feel like Senua might be entering in on the uncanny valley – she looks kind of wrong on some level, despite her highly realistic appearance, and there is just something a little bit off about her visually which is constantly unsettling.

    Unfortunately, this is about where the game’s pros end.

    The gameplay consists more or less of four things – walking through long corridors, solving environmental puzzles by lining up environmental features to make “runes” that unlock doors or piece together objects in the environment, walking through gates to reveal some change in the environment, and fighting a series of battles against pretty samey enemies with not-so-great controls.

    The environmental puzzles are vaguely clever – walking around to line stuff up in the environment is a vaguely interesting idea that I’ve seen a few times. Unfortunately, it is only vaguely interesting, and the game has a very large number of these puzzles. Most of them are not particularly interesting, either – oftentimes, you’ll simply do a series of simple tasks, following through to the end of the path to get the assembled piece. Only on rare occasion does this require much in the way of actual problem solving, and after a while it becomes very old hat.

    This is not assisted by the protagonist’s slow walking speed – the character, even when running, simply does not move very fast, and this is constantly wearing, as navigating the environment is something of a bore and it only further stretches out the already slow-paced game.

    The combat is quite bad as well. The protagonist and their enemies move pretty slowly on the whole, with only a few moving at any real speed – while Senua herself is pretty slow. She has a weak slash, a powerful slash, a kick that can stun enemies (useful against the enemy with a shield), and has a “slow down time” ability that also serves to make some enemies tangible and thus possible to attack.

    Unfortunately, the combat is very, very bland. Most of the combat time is spent fighting pretty samey enemies – there’s only five types of base enemy, and you end up fighting them quite a bit. Unfortunately, there’s not much to mix things up there – two of them are pretty similar to each other, and none of them are particularly interesting to fight, as most of them are just defeated either by dodging an attack then counterattacking, or simply kicking them to stun them and then attacking. Due to the general clunkiness of the system, the various fights against the normal enemies feel extremely similar to each other. The slogginess of the combat is particularly evident towards the end, as there are two long combat sequences towards the end of the game which involve killing large numbers of these enemies back-to-back, and it is quite dull.

    The combat simultaneously also feels difficult and easy. Difficult because the enemies will often attack you at the same time, and the rather clunky controls makes it hard to position yourself in the way that you’d really want. But it also was easy, both because of the power of the slow time ability and simply because it seems extremely difficult to actually die. In theory, a few hits will kill Senua, but in practice, I could always stand back up after getting knocked down – in fact, I only died once in combat outside of the two battles in which you *must* die in order to progress, and I’m not really sure why I even died there.

    There are three real boss fights in the game, but of them, one felt rather similar on the whole to fights against the normal enemies, leaving only two which were really distinct in any meaningful fashion. They were okay, but neither felt great, and the general slow movement of Senua made them feel kind of slow and tedious.

    In short, this was a neat idea whose execution bored me.    … Expand
  30. smith
    Nov 30, 2017
    0
    Year 2017... mouse speed no change, motion blur can't off. Mouse speed has negative acceleration... What's wrong with you developers? Worst camera position I ever seen. Too many cut scene. Just tray to play 30 minutes and delete this trash.
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Awards & Rankings

37
#37 Best PC Game of 2017
14
#14 Most Discussed PC Game of 2017

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
83

Generally favorable reviews - based on 24 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 21 out of 24
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 24
  3. Negative: 0 out of 24
  1. Jeuxvideo.com
    Jun 3, 2018
    85
    Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice takes us on a long road to hell paved with contemplative yet stressful scenes, and an impressive respect for Norse myths and legends.
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  2. CD-Action
    Oct 30, 2017
    90
    Hellblade can disappoint you with repetitive puzzles, linear structure and the fact that it was stripped down to most basic, indispensable mechanics. But Hellblade is not about gameplay. It’s about darkness and fear and despair. The emotional weight of this game is unbearable. Forget about The Last of Us, To the Moon or Telltale’s The Walking Dead. Hellblade is soul-crushing in a way I never thought a game could be. Remember Requiem for a Dream? That’s what Hellblade does to you. I will NEVER forget Ninja Theory’s masterpiece. [10/2017, p.38]
  3. PLAY! Zine
    Oct 12, 2017
    75
    If Heavenly Sword had an opposite, it would without a doubt be Hellblade. A dark, gritty, psychotic, atmospheric hell-ride through the forest of insanity. It looks great but plays like a gloomy record. Not everyone will enjoy this dark adventure. But what it does, it does great. Maybe even too great, if I may say so.
    Read full review
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