Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

About Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is made by Ninja Theory, the British studio behind Heavenly Sword and Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. It came out on PC and PlayStation 4 in August 2017, on Xbox One in 2018 and on Nintendo Switch in 2019, and an enhanced update in 2021 added ray tracing and new accessibility options. A sequel, Senua's Saga: Hellblade II, followed.

In the Viking age, Senua, a broken Celtic warrior, travels north by boat toward the land of the Northmen. She means to go into Helheim and bargain with its goddess for his soul. The journey is shown through her eyes, and Senua lives with psychosis. The studio made the game with neuroscientists and people who experience psychosis, to show what that can be like from the inside.

The sound is the centre of it. Recorded for headphones, a crowd of voices follows Senua everywhere, close to each ear: they mock her, doubt her, warn her of attacks and sometimes help. The world is just as unsure. Puzzles ask you to find rune shapes hidden in the scenery or to see a place in another way so that a path appears. Between them come close sword fights against hulking Norse warriors and monsters, with a combat difficulty you can set or leave to adjust itself.

What frightens is less the enemies than the place and the mind: burned villages, bodies hung from trees, darkness where you can only hear what follows you, and a voice that never lets you rest. It suits players who like psychological horror with a strong story, and anyone curious about a game that treats mental illness with care. Play with headphones.

How to play Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

1. Play with headphones; the binaural audio puts the voices on all sides and warns you of attacks behind you.
2. Explore each area and look for rune shapes hidden in the scenery, lining up your view to unlock gates.
3. Fight with light and heavy sword attacks, dodge and block, and use Senua's focus to slow time when it is ready.
4. Listen to the voices: they often warn you that an enemy is behind you.
5. Look for the lorestones along the way to hear the Norse myths behind the journey.

Tips

• Choose a fixed combat difficulty in the options if the automatic one feels too hard or too easy.
• When a rune gate will not open, step back and look at the scene from another angle.
• Keep moving in fights and dodge rather than standing your ground against several enemies.
• Take breaks if the voices and imagery become too intense; you can pause during play and cutscenes.

Questions