Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice

This game is a work of art, simple as that.
This isn't just a video game. It's an interactive panic attack.
Play alone in the dark with headphones, and don't feel ashamed if you have to step away and take a break.
I would rather name it : Schizophrenia Simulator

Okay, so this is a game helps to understand how it feels like when suffering from a mental illness. The constant whispering and illusions are definitely damaging the sanity. The lacking of clues on sealed doors, unexplained portals and broken paths are not helping either. Maybe there are clues in the whispers, but I’ll rather keep them muted. In the end, I have to play a few adult games to lift my spirits before coming back to finish the game.
Achievements are not missable except for the Nordic mythology collections. You can select chapter to complete them so no worry. The whole game is less than 10 hours in terms of contents.
While the game can run smoothly on steam deck in default setting, the battery drain is significant and the deck can become very hot. It’s better to limit the deck to 30 fps for better overall performance.

So on of the first things you'll see when starting the game is a disclaimer about how they worked with psychologist to create a realistic depiction of psychosis and that people who suffer from psychosis may find it disturbing. Don't assume that's just a "We hope nobody is offended" type of statement, like I did. I have psychosis, and just the opening scene, the voices in her head (especially since I had surround sound headphones on) triggered my own psychosis. I had to take a break about 1-2 minutes in, but decided that I was so impressed with the depiction of it that I would calm myself down and keep playing. Her hallucinations are done so well, the live action rotoscoped people she hallucinates are so uncanny and uncomfortable (My own hallucinations don't look anything like that so I can't say how accurate that part is). Now typing it out it sounds like a very backhanded compliment, but I actually really appreciate how much effort was put into depicting her psychosis in a way that was so real to me that it instantly triggered my own. It's not often that we get good/"accurate" (it's different for everyone, so nothing is gonna be accurate to everyone) depictions of something like that and it deserves a lot of praise just for that aspect alone.

Such a beautiful, unique concept of a game that playing it has never given me so much anguish and frustration.
In terms of artistic vision, the game is great in its depiction of psychosis, really immerses you into the perspective of a character with schizophrenia. The audio, the music, the atmosphere and visuals are well crafted. The story is incredibly messy and confusing but I think it perfectly reflects the mental illness throughout Senua's journey.
The gameplay is utterly miserable to play through. Senua's inner voices are also used to provide tips and aid the player in combat in substitute for the lack of HUB and UIs. It's quite clever approach for immersion purposes, made me enjoy the combat a lot; Simple, yet satisfying. Unfortunately, the mechanic has not been utilized enough outside of combat and there's just not enough information to guide the player, for which majority of my playtime was trying to figure out where am I supposed to go - "Am I going the wrong way?", "Is this thing interactable?", "What now?". Some puzzles and level design were absolutely obnoxious and rage inducing to go through due to the lack of visual feedback for what has changed in the environment and clunky world interactions. Maybe I'm just impatient and cranky but the exploration and puzzles are just not for me.
Though the game will be on sale for $3 and the length is only under 10 hours. If you can tolerate the flaws in gameplay it has, I would say it's definitely worth it for the experience and storytelling. You absolutely need a headphone to get the most out of this game.

It really isn't combat focused - the fights are awesome though. The puzzles were a bit tedious at times. The psychosis aspect was wild and i truly feel for those that suffer from it in real life, that must be very difficult. Great game overall. Play with headphones for the best experience, the audio is epic.
---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is
☑ Beautiful
☐ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS
---{ Gameplay }---
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't
---{ Audio }---
☑ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☐ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf
---{ Audience }---
☐ Kids
☐ Teens
☑ Adults
☐ Grandma
---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☑ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer
---{ Game Size }---
☐ Floppy Disk
☐ Old Fashioned
☑ Workable
☐ Big
☐ Will eat 10% of your 1TB hard drive
☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it
☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data
---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☑ Easy
☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls
---{ Grind }---
☑ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding
---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☐ Good
☑ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life
---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☑ Short
☐ Average
☐ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond
---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☑ Worth the price
☐ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money
---{ Bugs }---
☑ Never heard of
☐ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs
---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☐ 8
☑ 9
☐ 10

This game is unique. It deals with serious, difficult and unfortunately all too often ignored topics about mental illnesses such as depression and schizophrenia. In doing so, hallucinations, traumas, fears, psychoses and delusions are portrayed well and realistically, for which the developers have also brought many experts on board. For this reason alone, you should definitely play it.

Good game - 8/10
Combat is very basic - soft and hard attacks, kick to breach the defense, dodge and parry. I heard a lot of bad stuff about combat, but its not that bad at all. Its like God of War combat without special attacks. The only annoying thing is changing the target. For me it was very easy - I died only once in combat. Other times I died were when you need to run.
Puzzles are fine, but it starts to be stereotypical after a while. I was stuck once for like 10 minutes, but otherwise its easy. Nothing to hurt your brain.
Storywise its very nice. As a melancholic I like this style very much. Voices in the head are phenomenal with headphones. Stones with northern mythology are nicely done and fun to listen to.
Its 8 hours long, so for somebody like me, who doesn't finish games anymore its very possible to finish this game. And its very untraditional experience.