Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice (Xbox One)

Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice includes some rather difficult subject matter to portray accurately, its central character of Senua experiencing visual and auditory hallucinations thanks to her psychosis. Despite mental illness often being a shortcut for creators to create whatever unusual visuals and worlds they wish, the developers of Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice attempted an accurate portrayal of what an individual with such a mental illness would experience, the game world allowing others to see it through Senua’s eyes to better understand it and sympathize with with real people’s struggles. It’s not like the game had to sacrifice interesting and unusual visuals for the sake of authenticity either, as the game draws on Norse mythology for its narrative and world and thus has plenty to work with.

 

Senua’s psychosis is certainly the most interesting factor in the game, the visual hallucinations often limited to subtle things like rooms covered in moving darkness, but the auditory hallucinations are an almost constant companion as you play through the journey. The voices in Senua’s head can be heard by the player, the sensation deepened by having them come at different volumes, from different directions, or speaking with different tones. As Senua sets off on her journey, the voices will often comment on it, many of them harsh and negative with her, criticizing her for even trying or telling her to quit, only to reverse their tone moments later to encourage her. They are fickle and unreasonable deliberately, quick to turn on Senua but still urging her forward, sometimes even helping her. The voices will point out what should be done next, sometimes by telling you NOT to do it, but in a battle they can prove surprisingly useful, alerting you to enemies sneaking up on you. Their chatter is not constant either, coming and going as new things provoke them to begin often frantically discussing what’s going on. You might start to tune them out when they’re going on and on for a while, only for them to suddenly demand your attention with a chilling laugh or sudden shout, and at other times, the silence left behind when they’re quiet can put you on edge. We see Senua struggle and speak with them as the game goes on, and it’s not hard to understand how much they impact a person’s life when you are experiencing it as well.

There is plenty of visual trickery in the game as well, but it seems like much of it plays more into the connection to Norse myth than Senua’s psychosis. Senua herself is a young Celtic woman who has been struggling with her mental illness at a time that such things were attributed to curses and demons, but when attempting to fight what she calls “the darkness” within her, her village is attacked by viking raiders, the vikings offering up the only person who really tried to understand and support her, her lover Dillion, as a sacrifice to their gods. In order to try and bring him back, Senua heads off to confront Hela in the mythical Norse underworld. Despite their mythology containing monsters, magic, and gods, the underworld in Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is actually primarily an oddly realistic location, consisting of forests, caves, abandoned villages, and ruins, but this does not mean the game forgoes the more fantastical elements in its depiction of a Hel that feels like it could be found out in the wilds of the real world. Senua’s path to see Hela has her fantastical characters like the fire giant Surtr and the god of illusion Valravn. Despite both leaning into what you would expect of such titles, they still remain somewhat grounded and gritty, able to capture the supernatural without straining the established visual tone. Things do dip more and more into the magical as things go on, but despite having impressive graphics, the game doesn’t really design things to marvel at so much as contribute to the oppressive and dangerous feeling of Hel.

 

Senua’s journey definitely focuses on her personal growth as she fights both her own mind and the world around her in her quest, but the gameplay side of things is definitely just as solid as the effort put into the narrative. To progress through Hel often requires the player to solve puzzles based on perspective, something that is understandably already distorted a bit for Senua and only worsened in areas like Valravn’s section. There are actual many clever ways the game uses something as simple as sight as a means for problem solving, the game gating progress often with some need to find something in the environment. One of the most common forms is trying to find specific runes in the environment, but rather than them being written on something, the player will need to find the right area to stand and look at the natural surroundings, the rune formed out of things like the spaces between tree branches or missing planks on an old building. The game does give some clues so you’re not wandering around completely blind during these segments, but you can still feel clever for spotting the right shape to open the way onward. Other visual puzzles might involve needing to look at shattered objects from the right angle to recombine the pieces or pass through gates that contain a changed version of the world on the other side. While these are the most common types, you can expect plenty of unique puzzles in certain segments of the game as well, the focus on them strong during trials segment where each one has a different theme like moving around blindly in the dark finding your way through a maze. Even when it reuses ideas, the game shifts things around enough that they feel new and fresh.

Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice isn’t just puzzles though. In addition to lorestones hidden in the environment you can find to learn some Norse myths, the game will periodically throw you into combat, and the design for it is enjoyable and values both patience and skill. When Senua draws her sword, enemies will appear around her, a few different types of dark beings gradually introduced to the basic enemy pool for these encounters as the game goes on. Senua has a few regular methods to attack such as quick strikes, heavy strikes, and a punch meant to break guards and knock away the shields of defensive enemies, but to put up a proper fight, you’ll need to balance your parries and dodges well. Dodging is easy and quick and can be done to get around the enemy, but parrying is an incredibly helpful mechanic, the player needing to time it right to deflect an enemy’s attack and leave them vulnerable to follow up strikes. The game does give clues on when to do it through flashes of light, but if you need an extra edge still, you can focus Senua’s mind, allowing her to alter the state of certain enemies and speeding up her attacks so long as she has the energy to use it. Combat can still be difficult and fast despite the tools you’re given to handle it, especially when the game starts throwing foes at you who require certain approaches or tosses you into an arena with multiple foes at once. While you can’t actually see your health, relying instead on visual clues and the voices to know how hurt you are, if you do take deadly damage, you can quickly press buttons to get back up, fighting in an injured state briefly but able to restore to fighting shape so long as you can avoid being hit again in that short window of time. The bosses are sturdy challenges for your fighting skill, but in general, the combat isn’t as much of a presence as it could have been, feeling a bit underexplored and having only a few enemy types despite it being a solid and enjoyable skill-based fighting system that could have easily carried more of the load.

THE VERDICT: Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is an incredibly interesting depiction of a mental health issue, the player experiencing the psychosis that Senua is suffering through by feeling the unease and fear caused by having voices that aren’t real speak to you and your perception of reality warped. This plays into every moment of the game as well, as the journey deeper into Hel tests you with interesting perception based puzzles and engaging combat that could have enjoyed a greater presence but still holds it part of the game up well. The tasks asked of you in Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice are already solidly designed moments of action and problem solving, the personal tale of Senua only making the game a far more unique package with more than just strong gameplay to back it up.

 

And so, I give Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice for Xbox One…

A GREAT rating. Uniquely immersive in its portrayal of Senua’s mental illness and managing to mix that into the game in a way that is both authentic and has an impact on the gameplay already makes the game impressive and an excellent example of the way video games can help you understand the experiences of others better, but even without that, there is just excellent video game design to serve as a reason to play it. Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is certainly close to getting my highest rating, but it feels like it’s just missing that last push it needed, something I feel it could have had with either just more of its amazing ability to keep changing up its puzzle structure or having its combat be a more present side of the game with the variety and support needed for such an increased presence.

 

It’s an interesting journey through and through though, partly for its heroine, partly for its mechanics, and partly for the depiction of Norse Myth. The work Ninja Theory put into the game definitely paid off and certainly made it worthy of the accolades it has earned, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice continuing to push what video games can be forward while making sure to carry over what we love about them with it while delivering its message.