Because it won ALL of the BAFTAs this year and because it's just fresh out on XB1 I figured I should play through Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice to see what all the fuss was about. Turns out it's very deserving of the praise, it's a really unique and intense experience. It looks great (especially in high resolution mode), the central performance is incredible (was shocked to hear she isn't a full-time actor - apparantly is an animator at the studio who was initially just getting to grips with the mocap setup and wound up playing the lead role) and the audio design is a real standout. It's unusual these days with everyone mixing their games for home cinema systems and trying to make everything sound as wide and expansive as possible that Hellblade is mixed for headphones and designed to envelope you very closely, it makes for a really claustrophobic and sometimes overwhelmingly oppressive atmosphere.
Only small gripe is that it unfortunately falls into the trap of throwing waves and waves of enemies at you late in the game, and while the combat is decent it's not one of the game's strengths and with checkpoints being pretty far apart the frustration can creep in. Those fight scenes can feel a lot like padding, which wouldn't be a problem in a lot of games but here everything else is so interesting and original that it jars a bit in the later stages.
Still, a small complaint about what is otherwise a real masterpiece. It's not 'fun', rather it's very disturbing and harrowing, but it's definitely an experience in the real 'lights down, headphones cranked up' sense. Loved it.
