Hellblade: Senua's Oppressive Darkness

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Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice:

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice begins by informing the player that it contains representations of psychosis, and ends by crediting a mental health adviser. It's a claim to authenticity which the developer defends successfully in their exceptional creation. The strength of the setting and the protagonist are the heart of Ninja Theory's adventure.
The player learns of the life of Senua secret by secret as she struggles in her quest. A Pict, whose village was ravaged by the Northmen, Senua blames herself for the death of her love, Dillion, and seeks to recover his life from Hela (goddess of the underworld) regardless of the cost.

Hellblade leans into its interpretation of psychosis. Senua's voices are her constant companion. The player first meets the heroine as she paddles a makeshift canoe along a shallow river toward the gate of Helheim. The voices speak quickly, with many tongues, that one may find it difficult to discern Senua's among them. Wandering alone, Senua has no ally, speaks internally instead of outwardly, and her voice mixes with her tormentors.

The voices, the furies, are only part of Senua's Darkness, the in-game term for her affliction. Her father abused her, excusing his dominating behavior by blaming her curse. When her Darkness manifested he locked her away from the rest of the village. In spite of his maltreatment, Senua learned to fight, training as a warrior. Over the objections of her father, a young man named Dillion loved her, telling her she could overcome the Darkness.
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The Darkness runs in the family. Her mother had it too. Senua adored her mother, and sees her face in the water and rocks of her travels. Her story did not end well, regardless of who tells it. Did she take the only possible escape, or was she pushed? The village blamed the curse of Senua for its tragedies. When a plague struck Senua's village and she did not sicken, the townsfolk assumed she was the cause. Senua believed them and carries the guilt as another weight upon her mind.

At her lowest moments Senua is visited by The Shadow. A manifestation of Darkness, he taunts her weakness more viciously than the furies. Appearing in darkness, he is barely seen, and abuses Senua cruelly. The source of The Shadow, according to Hellblade isn't some mystical being. Senua carries three items on her journey; a sword, the severed head of Dillion, and a mirror. In one scene, as the Shadow oppresses Senua with a torrent of taunts, Senua's mirror reflects her face, her lips twisting to shape the Shadow's words. Later, as Senua masters her fear, she threatens the her former demons. The Shadow, now at her mercy, whines that it was always trying to help her.

Her battle to contain the furies is a back and forth affair. When she struggles they taunt her, screeching, “All her fault, so weak.” She banishes them for a period of time, but they return to mock her. “We're back,” they shriek. “Let us help you,” they giggle. “Trust us,” they shrill. When Senua's life is at its lowest, the ask in dawning terror, “What will happen to us? Where do we go if Senua dies?” In the end, they too submit to Senua's will, offering mild encouragement, along with fawning obedience.
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Aside from the combat discussed last week, the main mechanic is puzzle solving. The most common type of puzzle involves opening doors. The doors of Hellblade are inscribed with one, two, or three runic shapes. The player locates them in the environment to unlock the door. Seeing the runes requires standing in the perfect position, as the shapes are often composed of strange objects arranged just so: like light streaming through the broken wall of a wooden house, or the timbers of a decomposing viking longship. Hellblade aids the player when they are near the correct location with a magical effect. The puzzles are not unique, but they are satisfying, and are neither too easy nor too difficult. Hellblade doesn't impose a time limit, or threaten the player with combat, but allows one to search at their leisure. Senua's Sacrifice includes other types of puzzles as well. They vary enough to not become tedious, and maintain a moderate level of difficulty.

But even though combat and puzzles are its two core mechanics, Hellblade isn't a hack and slash game, or a puzzler. Hellblade is a atmospheric story game. This is accomplished with generous visual effects: dazzling scenery of distant mountains, towering castles, and stretching seas - horrors of flayed men, diseased towns, and defiled caves - but also the depictions of Senua herself. Her face expresses her emotions with powerful evocation, while her struggle engages the reader with her loyalty, love, and persistence in the face of unendurable odds.
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The overbearing power of the world (and good writing) maintains the immersion of the player, which generates tension regardless of the situation. For example, Hellblade contains many sequences where Senua must cross a narrow beam across a deep fall. Inevitably during these crossings, Senua begins to lose her balance, leaning precariously toward the chasm. Though the game included no instructions, I instinctively moved the joystick to keep her from falling. The oppressive depiction was so convincing I never dared let her fall. Rationally, I doubt the game even allows her to fall if the player fails to act. More likely, she rights herself, but Hellblade sold the threat.

The same is true of the four trials of Odin Senua must undergo to claim the sword Gram. After an initial defeat against Hel, Senua asks herself, “How can one fight a god?” Senua seeks a proper weapon for her quest, a sword devised by the king of the gods. To retrieve the sword she must prove herself. Each of the four areas feels distinct from each other, and offer different perspectives on her difficulties. She must face her father, the darkness, the conflict between light and dark, and her fears of fire and plague. All use a different puzzle mechanic, and include no combat.

Aside from a single serious complaint (the game doesn't allow the player to save when they want, and sometimes the automatic saves are far apart), Hellblade deserves to be taken seriously. It works in themes about suffering, especially Senua's unwillingness to face her Darkness. Her mentor asks, “ You can not overcome suffering if you refuse to look at it.” But I also began to wonder if Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice romanticizes depression. The developers are trying to sell a game, but they may truly believed they were educating the gaming public about psychosis. Other reviewers may disagree.
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One lingering question remained throughout my play-through until the conclusion. Does Hellblade support a message of hope for humanity, or of utter nihilism? One may find this question odd considering how far apart those two positions are, yet Senua's Sacrifice offers conflicting evidence. Senua's quest is hopeful, but her chance of success is infinitesimal. The story implies that the chance of anyone living a satisfactory life immersed in the suffering and pain of Earth is next to none. Yet Senua persists and loves, longing for even a tiny speck of happiness. Her family, friends, mentor, and lover die miserable deaths, but she refuses to give up. The ending doesn't offer any conclusive answer at the end, which leaves the question up for debate.

In conclusion, Hellblade mixes combat, puzzles, and plot in a visually awe-inspiring adventure. Early on I questioned whether the plot and puzzles were too predicable. I can say they are not. While the repetitive nature of combat is mildly irritating because it never changes, the variety of puzzles remain intriguing. The story and the atmosphere oppress and inspire the player in equal measure. Meanwhile Hellblade uses its spare time to consider different aspects of fear, suffering, bravery, hope, depression, and nihilism, reflections, longing, death, and more. It doesn't try to pin down any of these too much, but offers adequate time for each. An excellent mix of Norse mythology binds the whole plot together, and results in a thrilling quest.

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