Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice
2017
Audio: English · Subtitles: Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Polish, Finnish, Korean, English, Swedish, Danish, Japanese, Portuguese, Turkish, Norwegian Bokmål, French, German, Dutch, Italian, Arabic
- simulator
- hack and slash/beat 'em up
- adventure
- indie
- action
- fantasy
- historical
- single player
The story
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is a single-player action-adventure game set in a dark fantasy world inspired by Norse mythology and Celtic culture. Players control Senua, a Pict warrior who journeys into the Norse underworld to rescue the soul of her dead lover from the goddess Hela. The game blends melee combat, puzzle solving, and psychological horror, with Senua's psychosis shaping how the world is perceived, including voices that provide guidance or attempt to mislead the player. The game was developed by a team of around twenty people and features no heads-up display or tutorials. Instead, audio cues from voices in Senua's head guide the player through combat and environmental challenges. The portrayal of psychosis was developed in collaboration with neuroscientists and people who experience the condition.
What it’s like
Dark, mossy wilderness rendered in cold blue-grey and sickly greens, with fog that thickens into near-whiteout and fire flaring orange against black stone. Its camera hangs close over Senua's shoulder for long stretches, the frame often crowded by carved stone, bones, and drifting smoke, so the world feels like it is pressing in. Sound does much of the work: whispering voices cut in and out from every direction, a low drone swells under exploration, and combat lands with heavy, wet, deliberate impacts. The vibe is bleak, claustrophobic, and quietly intense, a mournful journey through grief and fractured perception. Pacing is slow and deliberate, with long walks through eerie ruins punctuated by sharp, close-quarters fights where timing and listening matter more than button mashing. Emotional register stays heavy and sombre, following a fragile woman who slowly steadies her grip on herself as she confronts her own mind. Violence is frequent and visceral, with bloody sword combat, decapitations and gore, plus frightening hallucinatory imagery and dread-driven horror rather than jump scares. Not suited to anyone wanting something gentle. Made for players who want atmospheric, sound-led dark fantasy and a serious, empathetic look at psychosis.
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