Dark and Disturbing--Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

I'm still not 100% sold on the subscription model in Microsoft's Gamepass, but it has given me the opportunity to play some indies that I wanted to experience, but not pay for.  One game that sat on my Steam wishlist for several years was Hellblade:  Senua's Sacrifice.  It looked interesting, but it felt a little bit like it was outside my normal gaming tastes.  I finally decided to check it out on Gamepass and it was actually a cool, but very dark game.

Senua is on a quest to restore the soul of her lost love.

Hellblade:  Senua's Sacrifice tells the story of Senua, a Pictish warrior who is on a quest to rescue the soul of her deceased love from the depths of hell.  The story itself isn't directly presented and instead you have to piece it together throughout the game.  The most interesting part of Hellblade is the fact that Senua suffers from mental illness and the experience is meant to reflect how psychosis and related mental issues can impact people.  The entire experience is very dark and disturbing, but it does tell an intriguing story and give a glimpse into the reality of people living with mental illness.

Pros:
+ Great graphics.  The game looks amazing--the environments can be both beautiful and hauntingly freaky.  I was impressed with the animation for Senua--she is extremely emotive and the game manages to capture her face and expressions in a way that feels very realistic.  Even though the game is 2+ years old, it looks fabulous.

+ Unique audio design that helps players experience the voices inside Senua's head.  The game uses binaural audio that gives the sound a 360 degree feeling.  The audio design is also used in combat and some fights completely blind the player and are reliant of locating the direction of sounds.

+ Voice acting is great.  The voices inside Senua's head can be helpful or hurtful.  They represent the internal struggle that Senua is constantly experiencing.  The other characters all have their own unique voices and they are all very well acted.

+ Norse mythology.  The game is set in a world that is very Norse inspired and there are runestones scattered throughout the game which provide short voice-acted stories.  The enemies you fight are characters from Norse mythology.

+ Visual puzzles.  Many of the challenges in the game are presented as visual puzzles.  You have to really analyze the surroundings to find the right patterns.  This can be quite easy or oddly frustrating.  I found it to be an interesting way to represent Senua's internal struggle.

+ Thought provoking depiction of mental illness.  The world is distorted and disorienting in a way that is meant to represent the actual experiences of people living with psychosis and other mental disorders.  Many games try to touch on issues like mental illness and don't quite hit the mark--this game really makes you think about what it is like for people living daily with these issues.

+ Features a "making of" video that explains how the game was designed.  I usually don't watch the "extra" stuff that's included with many games, but I found this one to be particularly interesting.  The designers did a ton of research and worked with groups and people who have experienced mental illness.  It was obvious from the behind-the-scenes stuff that they were very dedicated to making an experience that accurately represented mental illness.  It also went into more detail about the story and was useful in trying to figure out exactly what the story in the game is (you really have to work to piece it all together).

Cons:
- Controls, game mechanics aren't explained well.  I kept expecting some sort of tutorial messages to pop-up, but they never really did.  The voices in Senua's head will prompt you to do something, but then there's no message that says something like "press E to focus."  I had to stop and look at the control menu a couple of different times because I couldn't figure something out.  I also had to Google a few things because I couldn't figure out how to get them to work.

+- No HUD/not much info displayed.  The game is largely cinematic, but there was a part of me that would have liked to have more information displayed--there are no enemy health bars, no personal health bar, no map, no handy compass tool to guide you.  There are visual cues that are helpful--enemies will look more beat up the closer they are to death or your mirror will flash when you have charges of focus available--but, again, very little of this is actually explained.  In some ways it's kind of nice not to have this info constantly in your face.  In others, it's a bit annoying.  Depending on how you feel about this particular issue, it could be a pro or con.

+- The entire game is very dark and disturbing.  If you're looking for a happy story, this is not it.  The settings and experiences that are represented in the game are intentionally unsettling--they're meant to represent a journey into Norse hell.  If you're easily disturbed by dark content in games, this might be one that you want to skip.  I will admit that I had some weird dreams after playing this game.  The game is also very literally dark--many areas are intentionally unlit.  This can be annoying and I would recommend not setting your darkness to very dark.

- Combat is uncomplicated, but can be frustrating.  Many enemies confront Senua on her journey and most of the challenge lies in mastering the pattern of attacks that each type of enemy uses.  It can take a little while to figure out each enemy and boss.  There are also no explanations about the mechanics in combat--for example, if Senua takes too much damage she will get knocked down.  The voices will urge her to get up, but there is never an explanation about how to do that (you mash spacebar repeatedly--I had to look it up).

- Some puzzles/areas within the game can be quite frustrating.  There are portions of the game where Senua has to navigate blindly through dark areas.  There are cues to help you, but it is a mechanic that had me frustrated at times.

- Some boss battles are quite frustrating.  There is a battle with one enemy who will almost completely blind you and requires you to just mash the dodge button with correct timing.  I don't know if I would call that experience fun, but it is novel.

Verdict:
If you're willing to overlook parts of the game that can feel quite frustrating, Hellblade is actually a unique game trying to represent intense, real-life issues.  Its strength lies in representing those issues in a thought provoking way.  I would recommend Hellblade:  Senua's Sacrifice to anyone who is looking for a unique experience and who is willing to delve into the dark world of the game.