Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice (Xbox One X)

There are two main components of a game that can almost always guarantee its success, narrative design, and appearance. Narrative design, in my opinion, is the most important of the duo, as having a good story that a gamer can stick with and engage in helps to maintain the memory and longevity of the gaming experience. Games like Chrono Trigger, Phantasy Star, and Metal Gear Solid (name one that doesn’t have Survive in the title) are just a few examples of good narratives that stick with gamers. These games make us think of characters, moments and strike emotional chords that tend to ring through our gaming lives when they’re brought up in discussion.

On the graphics side of the tracks, visuals help to emerge the player into the moment. Games like The Last of Us, God of War and Breath of the Wild put gamers into the environments and keep them there to support the narrative being told. Narrative and graphics are the peanut butter and jelly combination of gaming. It’s a perfect fit when done right.

How this all relates to the review at hand is that Hellblade Senua’s Sacrifice is a perfect combination of visuals and narrative design. Let’s get into those pieces right now.

Starting with the latter, the game’s story surrounds a warrior named Senua, who has lost the love of her life, Dillon. She is making a trip to hell/underworld in order to retrieve him from the Goddess of Death, Hela. Her guide through hell are voices inside her head, an effect from some underlying mental condition (sorta), which have varying opinions of her efforts and her sanity during the length of her adventure. As she falls further and further through hell, the voices get stronger and the obstacles that she faces, including various gods, puzzles and mind-bending moments that distort the overall narrative at times (not going to tell you those, but trust me, it’s worth the journey), get more brutal with every step taken in the game.

The story itself is just one piece of this game’s pie. It’s a good reason to journey through the nasty depths of hell and provides good characterization development along the way. There are points in the game, where you will genuinely feel bad for Senua and relate to her suffering because you’ll be going through it with her. For example, there is a portion of the game when she is taken back to a moment where she met Dillon (her love). You can see the innocence and happiness in her face. As things begin to go south in this flashback, the game takes you back to a brutal environment, where a bloodied and brutalized Senua is trying to find reasons to continue. The transition from good to bad is effective through the narrative. It drives home her plight and also shows her strength and will to save Dillon. It’s fascinating how much you want to get her to Dillon and how you want to help her find some peace with her suffering. The voices in her head, the devilish obstacles she encounters and all that happens to her from beginning to end help to shape her character into someone with substance and not just another gaming figure. The acting, the story and all that comes with it are amazingly well done. Ninja Theory really captured it all perfectly and seemed to accomplish what they set out to do with this character.

When a game is designed it usually comes with a set structure. Sometimes it’s a linear shot, sometimes it’s a branched narrative and other times it’s open. Ninja Theory, and this is only my speculation, seemed to take the story they designed and structure the game design by that story. I know what you’re thinking, “No, shit. Everyone does this.” No, that’s not true. Sometimes there are game designs that force different types of structures that are not compatible with the story set up and make a game uncomfortable to play. For example, as brilliant as Zelda was for the Switch, and I know I’m in the minority here, so bash away, the story was not conducive the structure that was given. The story worked within a more confined Zelda world, maybe that of Wind Waker, but absolutely didn’t fit the bill in an open world, which Nintendo built for Breath of Wild. The world has quite a few empty pockets in it that are deemed explorable but tend to drag if you’re playing longer for 3-4 weeks. Don’t get me wrong, I love exploring, but not when the story has no connectivity to the exploration. Then you’re playing a single-player MMO game, and no one wants that to happen. Anyway, Ninja Theory built the structure of Hellbalde to fit perfectly with the story designed, meaning that no part is wasted with the structure you explore. You get some linear elements, but also you have chances to go off the linear path a tad to do a few things out of order. I don’t want to give specific examples because I don’t want to ruin the story, but it happens. It’s more of a branching narrative, rather than a linear one, but it fits the bill.

In short, the narrative is a great reason to enjoy this game. Before you even get to the visuals, as the characters, the environments and voices were beautifully woven together to create an inviting atmosphere that will hook you and engage you to take a tragic journey with Senua. Ninja Theory really nailed this story down beautifully, if not hauntingly.

Of course, the developers didn’t stop there.

Ninja Theory uses every bit of power from the Xbox One X in their Unreal Engine 4-based game. This version of their game gives you different visual options to choose from, much like Rise of the Tomb Raider did at the system’s launch. You can have enriched graphics, which puts subtle, yet stunning details in the lands that Senua crosses. For example, in the enriched mode, you get small patches of fog in creepy areas, floating debris during windy scenes, or fiery scenes, and detailed textures and lighting/shadows. You can go this route or you can up the frame rate for the game, which is another option. Ninja Theory doesn’t waste a detail, regardless of which route you go.

Options aside, the models inside the game, the movement and the facial expressions captured in Hellblade are engrossing. They capture the essence of the moment from scene to scene, emulate the nature of the environments that Senua has to traverse and bring the gamer to the depths of hell and all the visual uncomfortableness that comes with it. For example, there is a God’s land that is built on illusion. The game has several portals that you can move Senua around, which show you, instantly, landscape changes. If you walk through the portals, those landscape changes occur. It’s a visually stunning part of the game and is a perfect example of how much graphical power this system pushes and what efforts Ninja Theory gave to push their ideas through. Anyway, visually, you’ll be hooked just as much as the story.

Now, visuals and story aside, if there were any flaws in the game, then it would be the above average mechanics of Senua. When she is alerted there are enemies in the area, she’ll whip out her sword and prepare for battle. The mechanics in the game for fighting are basic at best, as you have weak hits, strong hits, blocks and two special moves. One special move is a brutal sword swing. The other special move is a blinding light that allows you to quickly chop down enemies. I realize that the fighting portion of the game is not a major part of this experience, and I agree with that decision because it fits the story, but the mechanics to fight are just a bit bland and repetitive at times. I think the mixture of puzzles in the game help to break that up a bit, but ultimately the fighting just isn’t as entertaining as Senua’s journey. It doesn’t take away from the game’s beauty or what truly drives the game, but it does seem lackluster in the overall scheme of things.

On the puzzle side of the mechanic’s equation, that’s a whole other experience. The puzzles, which vary depending on where you are in the game, range from symbol finding to environment/time warps to progress through levels. In other words, the puzzles are a mixed bag of nuts, but nonetheless refreshing in variety. Ninja Theory was solid on evening out fighting and puzzles, which helps to break up the monotony just a bit when it comes to action mechanics. I give them props for knowing that they didn’t want to be too heavy one way or another.

All of this combined, story, visuals, puzzle, fighting, there is a wrapper of fear that surrounds the entire experience — permadeath. The game doesn’t hide it, nor flaunt it, it simply tells you that if you let Senua die too many times in the game, then you’re going to have all progress wiped out and you will be forced to start over. That sounds fun, doesn’t it? This isn’t Dark Souls bad, it’s worse, but in a more polite way. Essentially, every time Senua dies she has a rot growing up her arm. If it reaches her neck/face, then the game is over. All progress is lost and you have to start over. Thankfully, and unlike Dark Souls, Ninja Theory still keeps a proper difficulty arc intact during gameplay experience. This means that you can die several times before this becomes a thought. Having said that, you will know the moment this becomes a fearful possible reality. I am certainly not going to tell you, but just note that you will be motivated and engaged to help out Senua, whatever the cost, but you’ll run into a difficult wall 65% into the game. Ninja Theory doesn’t throw you to the wolves immediately, rather just gradually, and I’m fine with that threat overhead. It works properly with the story and it’s manageable, but it is still the wrapper around the whole game that won’t leave you during your experience.