Reviews Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice Review

I started playing this last night and wow; it's hand down one of the most atmospheric game I've ever played. The visuals and sound design are top notch and it ran flawlessly. Playing in 5.1 and having voices whispering and shouting at you from all directions was both mesmerising and anxiety inducing. I cannot wait to play again tonight!

 

I want this game so, so badly. I think when I finally get the full internet back (and not this 512k nonsense) I am going to buy this, lock all of the curtains and doors and play the crap out of it.

 

Aw man, you're in for a treat when you get it, it's so, so good!! Best game I've played in a long, long time

 

been watching and reading trailer and reviews for this game. damn it, i may not have a lot of gaming hours, and I got a Steam library full of unfinished game, but it's really hard to resist my buy-now impulse.......

 

If you do pull the trigger you won't regret it.

 

Played this after seeing this review, what a cracking little game.

Sure, the fighting gets a bit boring and there isn't much in terms of actual different things to do, but the way the game is done is incredible. The final fight(s) were awesome and the story just....wow.

 

I finished it last night, what a journey. Easily one of the best games I've ever played. It came out of nowhere too, before the reviews I'd never heard of it, so glad I pulled the trigger.

This may be of interest to those that have played it:

 

24 hrs to go.. Just 24 hours...

 

Actually I might be a devil and stay up until 1 o'clock in the morning (Rik, 15 Cwedability stweet) and get it then. That means it will be ready for me when I get up with my coffee..

 

Do it!

 

OK so I got it downloaded late last night and had a 20 minute go. One thing that put me off right from the start was the GPU fan noise. Because this jumps straight into the beautiful the GPU goes ballistic. And my, it is beautiful. Amazingly so, it almost feels like you are taking part in a movie. But all of that time my GPU was going absolutely nuts. So bad was it that I had to turn on the subtitles which I feel distract from the game. I could wear headphones, but had already had them on for thirteen hours straight and my ears needed a rest. I like the combat, and so far it's like "Well I am playing Tomb Raider only it looks ten times better and runs better".

What was weird was that Senua is a dead ringer for a girl I used to work with called Melissa. So much so it sorta put me off haha. You really do need to pinch yourself to convince yourself it isn't real.

Then the phone rang, and today I have to go out. But I will be back tomorrow afternoon to settle down and play

 

Sake. Spent all that money and time water cooling.. First of all the game runs my PC hotter than any benchmark I have lol. Even an hour of Valley wasn't enough to top this game. With my GPU OC I hit 85c, under water. At stock clocks it caps out at 75c. However the noise is gone, so that's good.

The game however? just confuses the **** out of me. I can't make out what the whispering voices are saying (even though I have headphones on) and thus I just keep going around in circles and getting annoyed. I am at this part where there are guys up on crucifixes. I found one shape (the wood thing) but I cannot find a match for the Y shaped part. Maybe I just don't get it? Not unusual for me.

 

Just explore the immediate area, you'll know when you're near it when lots of that symbol appear floating in the air around you.

Not sure on the voices as they were relatively clear. I say relatively as, by design, some are clearer than others.

 

It sounds like she's saying the rope in the stream. Then it sounds like something something hear them scream. I've had Ys jumping out all over the place yet still couldn't find it. I zoomed in on every crucifix (line on the left, one cross each).

 

Not sure then, if you hold whatever button/key you use to lock onto the symbol then it should find it when scanning the area. Some are a little obtuse but none were super hard to find. Maybe have a look at the guide over on IGN (or similar) just to get you past that bit.

 

Finished the game in two sittings on the weekend.

Probably the best game I'll never play again.

Was it fun? Actually no, not really. The puzzles were not challenging and quite irritating at times and the combat was quite simple. But Ninja Theory's dedication to letting the player experience Senua's psychosis and delusions really shows. The way the camera works in combination with the binaural audio is quite clever. In the beginning I really enjoyed the new "gimmicks" but the game is incredibly relentless. The pressure of the voices and patterns just never eases off. In the end I found the experience quite harrowing in a way even a youtube let's play just cannot convey, nevermind a written review. Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice has to be experienced first hand.

 

OK installed the two updates. GPU does not go over 56c any more which is nice. Not had time to play it again though sadly.