Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

DB
11 hours ago
2 min read

Technically brilliant and... well...

Senua looking at an imposing wooden structure with the sun shining behind it - from Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

Here's what I've been playing and watching over the last seven days...

MOVIES

No, not either of the two sequels (no Netflix for me...), but the still-excellent original which was one of my favourite movies of 2019, along with Greta Gerwig's adaptation of Little Women and the monocultural global behemoth that was Avengers: Endgame - must be something about ensemble casts...

Anyway, Knives Out is still brilliant, Daniel Craig is brilliant as Benoit Blanc, Ana de Armas is brilliant as Marta, Chris Evans is brilliant as complete arsehole from a family of complete arseholes - basically, everything about this movie is brilliant and we can just leave it at that.

GAMES

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

Game summary: Set in the Viking age, a broken Celtic warrior embarks on a haunting vision quest into Viking Hell to fight for the soul of her dead lover. (Steam)

How should I start this?

How about the biggest word of warning for Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice as a whole: I stopped well before the game's end on what was my second attempt at getting through this game, but was already so bored by the gameplay that I couldn't force myself to continue.

I did want to see how the story ended though, as that part is interesting, but even watching a Let's Play on YouTube 'trained' me to only really look up from my work and pay attention when there was no fighting or puzzle-solving on-screen.

Frustratingly, Senua's Sacrifice is a technical marvel, looking great and having what may just be the best-in-medium sound design, which was really elevated by wearing headphones while playing, as the game itself correctly asserts as being the best way to experience the game.

Unfortunately, while this is a short game by modern standards (from looking it up, no idea personally as I didn't finish it myself), the gameplay is so lacking in engaging mechanics that you can experience pretty much all the gameplay on offer in no time at all.

Honestly, how you feel about it as a game after an hour will most likely be how you feel about it as a game when it's over - I specify 'as a game', because the emotional ending to the story, a genuinely good part of the game, may override and irritations or boredom with how it plays.

If that happens for you, then fair enough and I'm glad the story worked so well for you!

But after two attempts, neither of which made it even halfway through the game because it was so boring, I think my time with Senua's Sacrifice is done for good and I have no interest at all in even trying the sequel.

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is technically impressive (especially the incredible sound design) and the narrative is well-done, but the gameplay quickly become tedious and repetitive, making it a chore to play. [3/10]