Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice - Review

Last year Hellblade Senua's Sacrifice was released.  I remember liking the look and overall feel of the game, but when it was released I was distracted by other games and I promptly forgot about it.  I remembered it again recently and thought this time I just have to play it - so I did!


I like Turkish coffee, it's rich, thick and black, but it's also bitter.  Adding a little sugar to it helps, but really what you want is some Turkish Delight (not that Fry's rubbish, the real stuff).  The combination of Turkish Coffee and Turkish Delight help create an interesting and tasty experience.  Playing Hellblade Senua's Sacrifice I found myself asking was this interesting combination or was it something I would regret trying later?

Story


The story is about Senua, a woman who has lost the man she loves Dillion.  The Goddess of Death Hela has taken his soul, and Senua has made it her mission to get it back.  Apart from the mental health warning at the start of the game, it's clear early on that Senua is suffering a psychosis.  She is hearing voices, some positive and some not so much.  The game has Senua battle for Dillion's soul along with battling her own demons.


The game uses Norse Mythology for its backdrop which works really, and the lorestones you find scattered throughout the game help build upon this.  Playing Hellblade Senua's Sacrifice I often felt more like I was reading someone's diary then simply taking control of a character.  The story of Senua is sad and troubling, I really felt connected with the character and what she was experiencing.


Overall a really interesting story that is very different from anything I have experienced before. 

Visuals


The game is visually beautiful, with some really great and also grim scenery.  Playing the game I got to see snow-capped mountains, forests and the ruins of a forgotten world.  There were two areas in the games that really stood out for me visually, the ship graveyard (well that's what I called it), and the sea of corpses.  The ship graveyard was littered with husks of old Viking style ships, some of which you could navigate through. Then there was the grim sea of corpses, it was exactly as it sounds, there are hands of the dead reaching for you and general suffering going on all around you - happy times.


Overall the game looks beautiful and is really good at creating an atmospheric world.



Music


The soundtrack is...interesting.  It combines a Viking style sound of music with an atmospheric, bordering on the trippy soundscape.  I didn't play the game wearing headphones but I think if I had it would have really enhanced my experience.  The soundtrack is created by David Garcia and Andy LaPlegue.  Garcia is an American composer, musician and so much more who helped create the sound for Rime, Deadlight and Day of the Viking. LaPlegua is a Norwegian singer and musician who plays an electronic style of music and has created and been part of the bands, Icon of Coil, Panzer AG, and Combichrist.


The soundtrack runs a little over ninety minutes and includes some great tracks, my favorites being
'Beast', 'Bridge Combat', 'Valravn', and 'Surtr Fight'.  While the soundtrack may not be my favorite it does a great job at creating a tense atmosphere.

Gameplay


The game has you play from a third-person perspective,  the gameplay itself moves between storytelling and dealing with Senua's voices to some aggressive combat.  The first two-thirds of the game is light on combat but the final third is pretty full on.  What made the combat feel so aggressive for me was the angered and pain noises Senua made, it didn't feel overused and felt like even when you were not in combat you were still fighting.  The combat is pretty smooth and works well, with only one looming issue which was evasion.  Occasionally blocking wasn't enough especially when surrounded by enemies, in those times I would try to evade but Senua was quite bad at it.  Normally I wouldn't be so critical but it really affected the flow of battle and considering how good her swordplay it didn't seem unreasonable to think she could evade a little better.  Overall though the combat was pretty solid and I had a lot of fun with the boss battles.

When you're not battling mentally or physically you will have little puzzles to solve.  Most of the puzzles take the form of finding runes in the surrounding area, for example, if you were standing at a particular angle two random bits of wood might look like a rune.  Initially, I liked them but as I progressed I found them a little tiresome.  Additionally on occasion when I was looking at the runes the game would not recognise them which could be a little flustering.  Later in the game, you will get to take on Odin's Trails, one of them focuses on your sensory perception and you spend most it blind.  I found it very interesting, especially as they managed to incorporate this element into the game later during combat.


Overall a lot of enjoyable gameplay and was only let down by some relatively minor things.




Final Thoughts

So, after ten plus hours how did I feel?  Really good.  The story was interesting, the visuals were beautiful, the music was odd at times but helped create a certain something.  The gameplay was fairly solid and had they worked out a few issues would have been perfect.  Overall this one nearly got top marks but  in the end got a respectable 4 out of 5

Mother Russia Bleeds - Review

I have nearly reached the end of the PC games I wanted to play this year - while I have had fun I hear my consoles calling out to me and am looking forward to playing a number of games on them including a few titles being released this month.  The second last game that I wanted to play on PC this year was Mother Russia Bleeds.  It has an intriguing name and I loved the idea of playing an old school beat 'em up game again.


I love chocolate and I love Turkish delight - they are both very different but both equally as tasty.  Naturally you are thinking 'he must really like Fry's Turkish Delight', but you would be wrong, very wrong.  Cheap thinly layer chocolate cover a jelly like material that is barely fit for human consumption.   Poor ingredients are part of the problem but maybe it's something else as well.  It's like a combined washing machine and dryer - sure it seems like a good idea but it is never as good as a separate washer and dryer, maybe some things should not be combined.  Playing Mother Russia Bleeds I found myself asking should two things be combined or are they better left separate?

Story

The game is set in an alternate 1980's USSR. You start off in a gypsy camp doing a little street fighting. You are minding your own business when a bunch of guys come in and take you away by force.  You wake up to find you have been imprisoned & injected with a drug called Nekro, which makes you super strong, but side effects may include: vomiting, headaches, nightmare visions and addiction.  Your mission: find out who did this to you and why. Oh and if you have time help start a revolution.  There are four characters to choose from; Sergei, Boris, Ivan, Natasha.  Their stories and backgrounds are all fairly interchangeable but what sets them aside is their fighting ability.  Sergei is balanced, Boris is, well insane, Ivan is tough as nails & Natasha is really fast. 

Most beat 'em games have a simple story, which is fine because it would only detract from the gameplay itself.   The issue with Mother Russia Bleeds is that it makes more of a deal out of the story than it should, and dialogue interrupts gameplay on more than a few occasions & stops the flow of things. Now this would be fine if the story was interesting, which it isn't, and it just comes off feeling clunky and unnecessary. 

Visuals

The game goes for a pixelated 2D look - think Hotline Miami but instead of a top down look it is a side scroller.   The game is full of trippy drug fueled images, blood, gore and junkies - it is grim throughout and the pixelated look gives it a harsh edge that would unlikely be achieved by a more polished art style.  There are some really stand out visual aspects including: 

• The train mission where you start the journey during the day inside and finishes with you fighting on the roof under the moonlight which looks really cool
• The rain effect on the final mission looks great as it hits off and runs down the windows and is perfect for an endgame area
• The DJ in the Underground Concert area looks like he is having fun, the music is beating so loudly the bottles of vodka around him are shaking which made me smile

Music

The music used in the game borrows from a few different styles including; industrial, Soviet classical & electronic.  The score is composed by French synthwave project Fixions who has produced multiple albums including; Migration 2019, Euphorion, Genocity, Invisible & Black Chrome Riot.

The score runs at little over 90 minutes and contains a number of good pieces of music but as a whole I found it to be a little underwhelming.  My favorite tracks included; 'Mother Russia Bleeds', 'Maniac', 'Black Racers', 'Summoning The Mire' and 'Killing Pool'.

Gameplay

Onto the borscht.  What to tackle first?  The combat has your classic punch, kick and throw mechanics which for the most part work well, though disappointingly there is no option to block.  What really sets Mother Russia Bleeds apart from other beat 'em ups are the drugs you can take, each offering different abilities.  If you want a chance to try them all you will have to  reach at least wave 10 in arena mode before unlocking them.  There are some fun weapons including swords, pipes and bottles which can be broken and shoved into enemies throats.  The biggest negative combat-wise is the guns - while they are very sparse in early levels, the later levels are filled with them & I feel it really takes away from the beat 'em element. 

There are definitely some unusual enemies in the game, most notably gimps, a bear in a spiked mask, a busker and syringe spiders.  The game borrows from games like Street of Rage, Double Dragon and Fatal Fury, though one thing they did not borrow was the health bars for enemies which I feel would have been really good.

The difficulty level starts balanced and then goes out of control about 70% of the way through the game. The number of enemies becomes crazy and many of them have guns which ends up making it feel poorly balanced and unfair.  I had originally hoped there may be elements used in the game from more modern beat 'em up style games, for example Dead to Rights Retribution.  While I had some fun early, on by the end of it I was bored and wished I had just played one of the old classics.

Final Thoughts

So after 5 hours how did I feel?  Like maybe downloading and the playing the game was not my best idea.  While there were some interesting elements it just didn't pull together well at all and I am glad my time with it is over.  I try not to be too harsh when rating games but there was just so little to enjoy I am going to give this one 2 out of 5.