During the first hour of playing Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice I wasn't really impressed - it felt like a simple indie viking adventure with limited interactivity and average combat and puzzles. But later, after playing some more and watching the commentary movie, I've changed my mind - I think it's pretty good even with short playtime (~8+ hrs) and zero replayabitily, and it's also important.

Senua is a girl from a Picts tribe, who is travelling to hell to save her beloved one's soul. At the same time, from the beginning we're learning that she's suffering from a mental condition, a form of psychosis, which manifests itself as visions and voices in Senua's head, hear fears and obsessions. So, her journey is not a straight path to her destination, but also a wandering through the deepest parts of her mind. The story is immersive, it is full of pain and suffering, and it's not recommended for everyone.

What devs were trying to do is to grasp everything they knew about psychosis and put it inside a video game media to draw attention to this serious theme. They actively consulted a Cambridge professor while working on Hellblade, and they also invited a group of people, who suffered from that condition before, to tell about their experiences. Melina Juergens, who played Senua with godlike acting skills, had also experienced a mental disorder when she was a kid. Even in-game puzzles were designed based of a condition when people subconsciously trying to "solve" what they see, hear and feel around them.

Hellblade is an experiment in more than one way. It is an attempt to see if indie games like this has a right to live, and it's also an attempt to see the audience's reaction when it's set before a serious and an important theme. I think it succeeds in both attempts.

Among other innovative things the game offers, there is a "Photo mode" - a great tool for making screenshots. By using it you can pause a game at any time (even during cutscenes), then position, zoom and rotate camera, add depth of field, apply filters or add special effects. I wish more games had a tool like this.

Playtime: 12 hours Achievements: 14/14 Screenshots