Senua is canoeing along a river. She is heading to the Sea of Knives and the bridge crossing it. Across the bridge is Helheim, the land of the mist and fog – the realm of the dead, ruled by Hela. Senua is heading to Helheim to save the soul of her dead beloved Dillion, who is being tortured there.
It’s quite peaceful as Senua is moving along the river. And then you hear the voices. The most prominent one of these notes on you joining in, like you’re just one of them. It tells you where we are heading and why, while the other voices whisper chaotically in the background. After landing, Senua hesitates a bit before kicking the canoe and the choice of leaving away. There is no going back.
The gameplay is environmental puzzle-solving and combat. To open doors and progress, you must find runes from the environment. They can be found in many things fairly easily if you keep your eyes open. The combat is very simple. You can do a light and heavy attack, dodge, and bash. At first, the enemies, the Northmen, can feel a bit intimidating as you feel threatened all the time. However, you will soon learn to notice the obvious spots where they emerge in a new area, so their threat feels less suffocating after that. The combat serves its purpose but is nothing special.
The big themes in the game are all about mental health. Senua can see behind the veil. This was pleasant when she was younger, but once the darkness came everything changed. The darkness seems to represent depression and it’s caused by a curse, or is it. What happened to her that she does not remember or even know yet? The voices are also a big part of Senua’s mental struggles. Much of the game you question what is true and what’s not due to the voices in Senua’s head making you doubt everything.
When we arrive at the gate to Helheim, Senua gets a vision of the dark rot spreading from her hand further every time she fails. At the end, she sees herself dying from it. The game tells you that all progress will be wiped if the dark rot reaches her head. This shows us how Senua’s time is running out, but it’s also putting pressure on the player. This can be intimidating, but at the same time I’m questioning is it true. Maybe its only purpose is to make us doubt should we go through with all this struggling and pain.
The game world is horrifying and beautiful at the same time. Corpses are everywhere surrounded by nature’s raw beauty creating a great contrast. The game also uses light and shadow to build on the atmosphere. Seeing the sunshine in the forest after defeating Valravn, one of the bosses, felt like a small ray of hope. This was soon swept away with everything turning grey and distorted.
The sound design is amazing, and it needs to be, when the voices talking and whispering to Senua are such an integral part of the game. The overall sounds were also great, with sounds of fire, wind and water, and some well-placed Norse inspired music. There were some small issues though with the sound. In certain places, some sounds of the water or wind started to loop fast, and it created these weirdly mechanical sounds. If you walked away and came back, they had fixed themselves. A small gripe, but they stuck out from the otherwise excellent soundscape.
I would highly recommend Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice with a warning of the heavy subject matter it handles. It tells the story of struggles with mental health and loss, and it tells it well. Senua’s journey is rough, but the narrative makes the experience worthwhile for the player. This story stayed with me after finishing it and I think it will also stay with you.
Basic Information:
Developer: Ninja Theory
Publisher: Ninja Theory
Release date: 8.8.2017
Platforms: Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PlayStation 4/5, Windows
Genres: action, adventure
PEGI: 18
Photos: screenshots from Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice (Ninja Theory), taken by Janette Mäkinen
Achievement hunter, player of games, and collector of all things gaming.
On a battle of my time, gaming has definetely won. On most evenings, you can find me enjoing a good single player game, or playing some fps multiplayer with friends.
Marathon runner & pop culture connoisseur, tries and sometimes succeeds in finding time for gaming. Plays anything but veers towards RPGs, adventures, and indies. If a game has jumping monkeys, he'll love it. Will also humiliate himself in any board game, including chess.
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