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.

A unique single player experience, Beautiful visuals (and distortions) and haunting audio that does a great job of depicting a protagonist in what could be described as a psychotic state. Playing with a headset is recommended and really augments the experience. The pacing was done well for most chapters and the Nordic lore is sprinkled in with easy to find lorestones (collectibles). Senua's facial expressions run the gamut and truly show us her sadness, guilt, rage, and confusion as we progress through the story. The voices that surround us as we play do a good job of pointing out things in the environment, combat and a plethora of other things. Since there are no tutorials or a HUD, the voices will give important information along the way, and I found this to be a special departure in terms of the storytelling that I haven't really experienced in other games. The combat is fairly simple and does get repetitive but it does the job well enough to move the story along. Everyone should give this game a shot.

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

astonishing story,great visuals
ANNOYING puzzles.

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.