Bringing to life the experience of psychosis with an almost too realistic version of what it is like to have that impairment to reality is Ninja Theory with Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice. They spent time working with professionals and truly brought a wonderfully accurate experience!

Story

Following through the quest to get vengeance for a lost loved one, Senua journeys into the mountains to face those responsible! While there, Senua must battle through enemies, solve puzzles, and push through her own psychosis in order to complete her quest.

I thought the story was very intriguing and well done. The clues given to follow are always mysterious and are open to so many questions until the end when a conclusion is given. Was a great aspect of the game.

Gameplay

A lot of the gameplay is in the puzzles, mostly visual based. This means that you will have to find the shape within your surroundings in order to continue. When you get to a door that has red symbols on it, this becomes your current objective and you must find the different shapes within the area you are located in.

They provide hints, like having the symbol show up everywhere around you to let you know that you are in the right area for that symbol, but it is not always perfectly clear on where to look. Majority, if not all, of the time the shapes are made out of two or three different objects looked at just the right angle.

The most exciting part is the combat, which is very well done! Giving the option to quickly switch between who is the targeted foe makes changing between them swift and even able to be combo'd. It isn't the easiest at first, but once you get the mechanics of it down the combat becomes invigorating.

You do have to be careful during combat though as there is a perma-death system! Every time you lose a battle, Senua's body will take on more "dark rot" which slowly consumes her until there is nothing left for it to consume! So stay vigil and don't forget to evade!

While you are traveling through the various areas you can find different forms of lorestones which provide the story of the Huntsman in pieces, told a little more with each one you find. The story of the Huntsman, from as far as I can tell, seems to be a back story to Senua; the story of how she got to the situation she is in.

Check out the beginning of my playthrough:

Graphics

Easily one of the most visually stunning games lately! It is simply surprising that a game valued at $30 on launch has the quality of some of the best AAA titles! Even from my regular PS4 level graphics it is amazing, but the fact that it can reach 8k resolution shows how truly remarkably beautiful the graphics turned out!

Sound

This played a huge role to the game as the psychosis caused voices to constantly talk around you. Having headphones on gives the full experience as the voices literally will sound like they are all around you, aside from the narrative voices that have one location. This aspect plus the sounds of the world around you, the grunts of the demons, and the occasional music brought a crazy realistic feeling to the game.

Replayability

It is just one story line, but I can see myself making another play through of this game. There aren't special aspects that would make you want to return other than beating the game again on a harder difficulty.

What Could Be Better

More styles of puzzles would be cool. I enjoyed the difficult visual puzzles that were provided, but would of liked to have seen some other mind benders and thought provokers over the constant "i spy" style.

There also could of been more combat overall, but not by a lot. I enjoyed spending a lot of time on puzzles, but would of liked the same amount of combat moments.

Final Verdict

Truly amazing game that is worth adding to any gamers library! Enthralling story, beautiful graphic level, and a well balanced game that provides a few different aspects that could keep a variety of players entertained!

"It's like playing a AAA game that was made with passion and purpose"