Hellblade

I find myself unable to play this game for long stretches at a time... and I mean that in a good way. The way the various elements combine to create this relentlessly oppressive atmosphere makes me feel genuinely uneasy playing the thing. The stretches between bosses thankfully seem to reflect this, and make for easily digestible 45 minute long stretches of play.

I'm impressed how everything comes together here. When people praise the sound or the visuals, it's not purely in a cold technical sense - they're part of a game with an uncommonly coherent, thematically motivated vision holding the various elements together. At first I wasn't entirely sold on the rather straightforward puzzling, especially the 'find the shape in the environment' ones. But they've taken on further depths as I've gone along. Not always mechanically - although there's a few clever 'a-ha' moments here and there as the game encourages you to toy around with perspective - but how certain puzzle-types double down on the game's portrayal of a character experiencing psychosis. This is one of gaming's most 'all-in' efforts to portray an unreliable protagonist - at it's best, captured through sound, visuals and gameplay working in harmony.

The combat is probably the least interesting part of the package, but still perfectly serviceable. It's nice and weighty, and includes a particularly satisfying dodge move that feels like a mix of Dark Souls and Gears of War. The enemy variety is limited so far, but a few - particularly a shield-wielding one and the bosses - do require some understanding of how everything works (and the game 100% lets you figure even the basics out for yourself). Even in the fighting, it should be stressed, the game's stunning sound design plays an important role - listening to the voices in your head are essential to avoid some unpleasant surprises, and indeed that adds an extra mechanical flourish to the brawls. It could do with a being more difficult for sure, though - 2+ hours in and only one boss has felt anything like a workout (and a light one at that).

The plot is straightforward mythical stuff, although the acting is excellent as it was in Enslaved. Ultimately, it's the games atmosphere and complex formal efforts at realising a character's state of mind that make this a significant and expressive attempt at interactive storytelling - it achieves the sort of things most other games couldn't be bothered even trying to attempt. It is a flawed but also engrossing and assured example of how to tell a story in a fresh way.

And once again: for the love of god play this with headphones!