Coming seemingly out of nowhere, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice delivered a PC gaming experience that nobody had experienced before. Slipping into the shoes of broken Celtic warrior Senua, gamers set off on a haunting vision quest into Viking Hell to fight for the soul of Senua's dead lover. As well as being an audio-visual tour de force, Hellblade also deftly explored themes of psychosis and mental health.
View Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice on Steam
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, made by British development studio Ninja Theory, was rewarded by critics, too, bagging no less than five BAFTA awards, as well as being honored at The Game Awards and other events such as The Golden Joysticks. That's why its sequel, Senua's Saga: Hellblade II, coming later this year in 2024, is so highly anticipated.
It's also why this 90% price cut on Hellblade caught my attention, as I am one of the PC gaming community who played and praised the original game and is now about to replay it in advance of the sequel being released. For those who don't own Hellblade, this is a great time to pick it up, as thanks to this discount it's now cheaper than a single cup of coffee. The full details are below.
This is one of those experience games that you just need to dive into and mainline. Think about the first time you played Journey, and you're on the right track. It's a singular experience. In Hellblade's case, though, the experience is dark, disturbing, and violent. All I'll say is that it is worth planning a nice walk in the sun after play sessions, as there's no doubt it is heavy in tone and atmosphere. A laugh-a-minute romp this is not. But it is gripping.
PC gamers get the best version of this dark fantasy action-adventure, too. This is because the game got a big update recently that upgraded its materials, particles and LOD graphics, as well as unlocking DirectX Raytracing and optimised performance with NVIDIA DLSS and AMD FSR GPUs.
PC Gamer's own Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice review provides even more detail if you should want it, while our reporting on its BAFTA success reveals the numerous categories in which it walked away with the top prize.
Hellblade 2: Senua's Saga, meanwhile, just had its release date confirmed during Microsoft's January 2024 Developer Direct, with Ninja Theory revealing the game will launch on May 21 this year. During that showcase, writer on Hellblade 2 Lara Derham confirmed some of the sequel's plot, noting that "Senua is on the trail of the Vikings who've been enslaving her people", a fact that sees her travel to Iceland where she will have to "fight giants who've plunged the lands into chaos, which in turns has seen the rise of the Draugr, which has swept through the settlements she'll discover."
According to the Developer Direct, Hellblade 2 will also take the already amazing visuals and audio in Hellblade to a whole new level, with Ninja Theory making use of a brand new motion capture studio and immersive binaural audio. I'm hyped for Senua's return, as I'm sure many other members of the PC gaming community will be after playing/replaying the original hit.
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