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.
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.
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.
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.
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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