3.5/5 ★ – Yeij's review of Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice.

a solid game that does a fantastic job to properly showcase the world those with psychosis perceive. its an amazing world where trauma & mental illness meet with Norse mythology. the story is also very well presented in its cinematics and writing, it immersed me into Senua's reality and every character from Druth to Senua to Zynebal felt tangible in the sense that I felt like I knew them very well. however, those cinematics are where i start to not appreciate this game as much. some of the cinematics are decently long and they happen more often than gameplay (more true at the beginning of the game). there were also some instances where i felt like i was given sooooo much exposition that it felt like i was being read a book. though to compensate for that, the combat is actually pretty decent. with the sound effects and animations, every slash, hit, and parry was incredibly satisfying. although it is a bit simple, it was still fun to fight Norsemen and the bosses. those boss fights, especially the first two, are some of the best moments of the game! but then again, something prevents me from completely loving the combat. the combat is not really suited for a large group of enemies. it's a bit annoying to try and juggle 5 different Norsemen and this is because of the camera. you cannot adjust the camera whatsoever when in combat, meaning that it can work against you in some cases but also make it harder to keep track of enemies around you (kudos to Ninja Theory for making the voices warn of enemies behind though). the camera FOV also makes it difficult to fight a group of enemies as it's very claustrophobic and can tunnel vision you leading to a strike from an offscreen enemy. even with the camera troubles though the combat is fun with the combos, stringing together light and heavy attacks but also the shield-break melee or using the sprint button to charge an enemy to get the first hit. the other bit of gameplay is the puzzle-solving and walking-sim bits. you go into an area, look around to initiate the puzzle, and then solve the puzzle to proceed. the beginning of the game got decently repetitive with the rune puzzles but towards the end of the game in the second half it changed up enough for it to be more engaging along with better pacing. my issue with these walking-sim/puzzle sections is the default walk and sprint speed. its so slow. like thats all i wanted to say. the movement speed in these sections can sometimes be a chore because i would understand how to solve a puzzle but would then be like "Senua get over there already come on, please stop jogging." though, i will say that i loved the environments Senua explores. visually the game is striking in its art style. its gruesome and dark but also has its moments of beauty with the lighting. on a technical level the game looks stunning, they really pulled off the lighting and detail of the environments (though some textures havent aged the best). soundtrack is mostly great, very ominous throat singing and chants paired with emotional strings but also sometimes followed with an electric guitar on an occasion or two. overall a good game but some of its design choices pull me back from completely loving the game. while the story intrigues me and gets me to empathize, it sometimes goes on too long to the point where i dont have a moment to think about it. while the simple combat can be fun, the camera prevents it from being pretty good. still recommended though, its a game that almost everybody can get in to and it offers great insight to psychosis, trauma, and general mental health conditions. im excited for the second game as killing a giant looks fucking awesome as hell.