Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice Reviews
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice can drive you mad. These voices in your head — you can't stop them, they're everywhere, always talking, always alongside you. Ninja Theory did an astonishing job representing psychosis in a game and bringing sound design to new heights.
Review in Russian | Read full review
Hellblade is brave for tackling psychosis so directly, and braver still for pouring so much of its efforts into its narrative. It's unlike anything else I've played this year, and for that reason it deserves a slice of your time.
A unique experience in the way it presents its world and story. The gameplay itself might be simple, but it succeeds in making you empathize with the game's heroine.
Review in Arabic | Read full review
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is a masterpiece that I'd recommend to horror adventure/action lovers. With fantastic visuals and sound effects, this game offers a long lasting experience with many satisfying combat and adventure features. Be warned though, this game might be disturbing for some audiences as it has a story about psychosis and violent combat animations. But otherwise, this game is a masterpiece.
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is every bit as vicious, epic and dramatic as its predecessors in the Ninja Theory library, but interweaving a delicate storyline through simple, yet ruthless mechanics makes it one of the most visceral portrayals of psychological turmoil in recent video gaming.
Despite a bug that forced my first playthrough to end prematurely, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is an incredible game that will continue to linger with me as a singular and emotionally affecting experience. For its audio and visual design alone, it is stunning, but for its ability to use the video game medium to bridge our understanding of mental illness while also telling a personal and powerful story, it is a masterpiece. If you feel capable of withstanding the emotional strain it requires, a dark and fulfilling tale awaits.
One of Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice strong points lie in the games ability to entertain and immerse you in the experience, and on that point alone it is worth the price of entry. The game is definitely not going to appeal to all tastes, and nor does it try to. But if you are willing and open to new experiences and gameplay mechanics, then you will be rewarded with a thoroughly entertaining and somewhat disturbing video game. And one of the best new franchises of 2017.
I know Hellblade won't be the catalyst to us understanding mental illness overnight, but, again, it needs to be stressed that Ninja Theory took a bold risk here and their art is going to change perceptions somewhere down the line. It's a game where the difficulty of its subject matter trumps its combat, which is unfortunate. How a group of twenty people can make one of the most affecting games of the year, when teams of hundreds routinely fail to do so, is beyond me.
Focusing his game on the psychosis of his heroine and his gameplay mechanics on it was a risky bet but won hands down. Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is a masterstroke for its storytelling, atmosphere, artistic direction and the care taken on the subject of mental illness and on Senua.
Review in French | Read full review
An achievement in horror storytelling.
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is an extremely well written game with a great story lore and challenging combat system. The only thing that it lacks is a good puzzle design otherwise Hellblade offers an experience that should easily rival a big blockbuster game.
As part of their “independent AAA game proposition”, Ninja Theory delivers a visually impressive game with a short but interesting story that touches on a delicate subject and couples it with some interesting mechanics that nevertheless don't fully condense properly together.
Mental illness is a seldom discussed and often misunderstood topic. While Hellblade is far from a direct and immediate exploration of psychosis and how it affects people, it uses a powerful narrative mixed with symbolic gameplay elements to weave a tale of horrific trauma and unsettling experiences. Hellblade is easily one of 2017's very best games, and the best game I've played all year that isn't Zelda.
Hellblade's mundane mechanics help underscore a powerful story of overcoming your demons, if you're willing to subject yourself to the honest portrayal of mental illness it presents.
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice has an interesting plot, a good fighting mechanic and excellent graphics. The quality of the audio is out of this world. The problem is the combat variety (in the end, you'll be bored) and due to the focus on the narrative, many people may find the game monotonous. However, those who give a chance will find a good story.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
I've been playing video games for years now and until now I hadn't experienced an adventure like the Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice. From the moment I saw the trailers of Hellblade and read about it, i liked the game and I was waiting to try it out but I couldn't even imagine falling in love so deep with this game. You can see that ninja theory has done all he can to make Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice. You can feel the effort they've made for making a masterpiece like Hellblade. And it's not just this game; Although they're not one of those big fancy studios they have always made great games because they make them with their hearts and Hellblade is their ace. This game shows that you don't need a lot of money to make great games. Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is a must-have! This game won't be like any other games you have played. The price is only 30 dollars but the experience is much better than most of those games you bought for 60.
Review in Persian | Read full review
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice has shown that video games are mature enough as a medium to capably deliver an entertaining experience while respectfully tackling difficult topics. It's beautiful and emotionally engaging, worth every moment spent in the warrior's mind.
If you are looking for a new experience and you are interested in psychology, don't miss Hellblade. Amazing atmosphere, breathtaking combats and challenges, stunning visuals, and marvelous sound and music will entertain you for around 8 hours.
Review in Persian | Read full review
In the end, Hellblade is a game that wants to have its cake and eat but forgets that it’s a game first and foremost. At times I found myself extremely bored with the repetitive nature of the game’s design. Open or vaguely circular arenas always painfully signposted another combat section and the visual puzzles, no matter how interesting at first, felt overplayed.
