This is one of those utterly brilliant games that I absolutely hate playing. They had a goal, and achieved it with flying colours. It’s just too bad that goal was to create a thoroughly unpleasant, tense, frightening, harrowing experience. I had to put it down and never, ever come back to it.

Hellblade 2 is coming.

Edit: The atmosphere in the first 10-30 minutes of Hellblade is absolutely stunning. I haven’t played through it yet though. I think I’m afraid that it will be a disappointment and that the initial experience, which really is amazing, will be ruined.

I love Hellblade. That said, it probably isn’t for everyone. It’s very much about the story and the atmosphere. The puzzle solving is kind of unique and the combat gets the job done. It’s a beautiful game game with great storytelling and atmosphere.

I’m enjoying it a lot, I’m maybe two hours in or so. The game is beautiful in HDR and with ray tracing on and the art direction and sound design has been immense, as has the voice acting. I’m interested in the narrative also, though I’m only at the beginning.

Combat-wise I’ve beaten the first big boss and although I’m enjoying it a lot, I don’t think it would suffice as the lone selling point. The combo system is cool (though the lack of tutorials makes it a little opaque) but there isn’t much need for subtlety or mastery (at least so far). It’s all been pretty easy. If you’re hoping for a souls-like challenge that requires you to really master the combat system you’ll be disappointed, at least that’s what I’ve seen thus far.

I recommend it if you’re interested after watching the trailer, especially at this price. The presentation is really unique and I love games that do their own thing and put more of an emphasis on art. As others have said, wear headphones!

I loved this game.

Wear headphones, the sound design is legendary, really made me feel like I had some shit going on in my head.