Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice - Part 1
0Not a game I'd normally go out of the way to play, as I hadn't heard much about it prior to the New Year Free For All vote that was extended to my small community. On the run up there were things that intrigued me such as just how it treated mental health, specifically psychosis which I'd had training in in my role at work as a Mental Health First Aider - Voice hearing and the like was explained, but how do you experience that or consider an impact? Just knowing that the developers worked closely to ensure that this came across as well as it could, embracing it as a characteristic of your player rather than an affliction experienced by an under-developed NPC. You really feel for this character and what she has had to endure as a result of not just Psychosis, but the stigmata attached and the horrific behaviour of her religious zealot father.
You play Senua, a Pict woman who was struggling so much with the voices that she left her life behind, only to return one day to her village to find her lover brutally killed and the general populace slaughtered. She takes his head into Helheim, with the intention of bringing him back from the dead and confronting Hela. The setting, if you hadn't guessed, is based in Nordic mythology (as is OH so popular with recent games) - and the game is set in the third person, looking graphically nice and handling like a lot of games out there but despite the tiresome theme there are some excellent puzzles and segments that really involve her disorder - like the area being literally on fire, voices stalking her, relying on sound to navigate blackout stages.
The sound is really something to sing about, unless you're singing the horrendous VNV Nation track that plays over the credits. You absolutely must play this on headphones because I struggle to think of a game that has better utilised 3D audio - and the voices range from supportive to insulting the character which will either drive you or make you doubt yourself... you're right there in the thick of it with Senua feeling dread or setermination. Combat is a let down, considering how plain it feels in this age, and there is little variety in the enemies - but with everything said, everybody should experience the intense and thought provoking experience that Hellblade is.
#ps4 #ninjatheory #hellbladesenuasacrifice #nukeboxharris #twitch #hellblade #fullplaythrough
Broadcasted live on Twitch -- Watch live at https://www.twitch.tv/nukeboxharris