HellBlade Senua’s Sacrifice Review

HellBlade

Let the madness consume you

By Jessica Lau

      A Celtic warrior carries her keen sword as she walks into the temple determination shining through her eyes, the frigid cold air sliced through her like knives. As she walks deeper into the temple darkness slowly creeps into her skin diminishing the light that was bright at the entrance. She slowly and painfully blends into the darkness. Until all, she can see and hear is the darkness and her own mind trembling down. This is HellBlade: Senua’s Sacrifice.

     Ninja Theory’s HellBlade: Senua’s Sacrifice is one of a kind. It’s not your regular action fighting game, it’s hard to put it into one category. The game varies from all different kind of aspects, but one thing that is outstanding about this game is the audio quality. HellBlade centers around Senua, a broken Celtic warrior from the Orkney Islands who is arriving home to the horrifying burnt village of her clan. She finds her lover Dillian burnt and tortured by the Northmen, she embarks on a journey to release the soul of her lover. She whom believes to be held captive by the Norse goddess Hel in the depths of the underworld. The visuals are epic, players could clearly see every place in details and there is an eerie feeling around many places.

   

     Senua suffers from psychosis, which is a condition that alters the perception of reality. At the beginning of the game, when players put their headphones on they will have chills running down their spine I sure did, a mixture of voices surrounds you in every direction. There are voices that doubt you, some that fear you, some are understanding. All of those voices will confuse you and you won’t know who to trust. HellBlade’s amazing quality is they use the binaural 3D audio to capture the surround sound. Aside from the outstanding sound quality, they also consult psychologists to understand how psychosis is portrayed.

   HellBlade has amazing storytelling skills, while the players are on their mission they also learned a few things of the Norse mythology. They mentioned Ragnarok numerous times, which is Norse version of the end of the world where the gods will all come to fight the final battle. The puzzles are often tricky. Players will need to find the runes from very distinctive areas that often don’t make sense but that is where the puzzles are challenging. As for the battle aspects, it’s very troublesome. When the player is fighting one enemy, the camera angle will only be focused on that one enemy which will lead to surprise attacks. That is how the player will be attacked unnoticed, but luckily sometimes the voices in her head will warn you. Throughout the game, the combat system could be repetitive but that is not the most vital part. The interesting part about this game is death is not unlimited, there is a limited chance of dying until you need to start the game over again. The progress towards game over is the black tendrils that run up Senua’s right arm.

     Senua has lived a hard life. Her father told her she was cursed by a supernatural darkness. Her village blames her for a terrible plague. Her mother died and her lover was killed in the most brutal way ever by the Northmen. Senua’s actress Melina Juergens displays the raw pain and anguish in her voice perfectly, during the game Senua finds out the true history of her family and how her mother died. The overall journey wasn’t to find her lover it was to learn to let go. To let go of Dillian and her darkness, all of this journey was the creation by Senua. Senua created this hell for herself because of the guilt of Dillian, her village, her mother and the brainwashing by her father. Her father killed her mother because he doesn’t believe in mental illness.

   One quote that stood out to me the most is when Senua said she has nothing left to fight for now, she has no purpose, no quest. The quest part was what stood out to me, meaning this is all not real, Senua told herself she needs to find her lover and free him but that was not her quest. At the end, she said she will start a new story this story will be of her own choosing free of her own pain. I cried while playing this game but this game has left me astounded. If people suffering from mental illness, please seek help don’t be ashamed.

   HellBlade is available now on PC, PS4

Life Is Strange review

Life is strange is an 5 episode game based on your choices.

Life is strange….Life is really strange in Arcadia Bay, snow is falling in summer when it is eighty degrees and whales dying. Most importantly, people are missing. I am not much of a gamer and let me start off by saying I don’t know much about games. Many of my friends owns a PS3 or PS4 and then a Xbox and I only have my books. It was my last week of finals and I was stressed out until I saw the trailer for this game on IGN, I was instantly mesmerized. This game isn’t like all the others with action packed scenes, this game is slower and focuses on mystery and drama and friendship. I like action but I like games with a great storyline in them and Life is Strange is one of the best games I played this year, I rarely buy games but I bought this to play on my PC.

Life is Strange is based solely on all your decisions, once I saw the warning I was curious damn someone got seizures playing this game? Then when I actually played it and made those choices I understand why because the choices are damn hard, some are even gut wrenching. These choices are very very hard to make, if you choose a wrong one the consequences won’t be pretty. You play as the protagonist Max, who is a photography student (I love photography! Thumbs up for the camera work) she came back from Seattle to Blackwell Academy because they have the best photography program there. Then as you are sitting in class being picked on the disgusting mean girl Victoria, you went to the bathroom and witness someone got shot. Then you realize you are back into the same classroom with the teacher lecturing you, as you start to realize everything is repeating you realize you have the power to rewind time. I thought time travel was cool until I realize rewind time! You then realize you saved your childhood friend Chloe Price from being shot as you both discover the ugly truth behind the disappearance of a fellow studentRachel Amber. Life is Strange main theme I believe is telling us to make your choices wisely, you don’t always get a second chance. The camera work and the flashbacks are directly on point, often times I don’t know am I in a dream sequence or it’s something else.

Max is our protagonist and I got to agree I am beginning to like her, she has a backbone and one of my best facial expressions in some of the games I played. Max will do anything for her friend Chloe and I love that determination in her. She is such a strong and fun protagonist to play and I can’t wait for this company to make more based on your decisions games since I had a great pleasure playing this game. Chloe Price is Max childhood friend, you can also make Chloe your lover which absolutely I did and I need to save Chloe a lot of time from being killed. Chloe loves trouble, she is like the girl who mom warns people to stay away. She has beautiful tattoos in her left arm and blue hair. (I love that look on her! Bad boy or bad girls look) Chloe is the one who put up the missing posters of Rachel Amber. She was not directly mentioned but I believe Chloe was in love with her and she takes up Max’s place once she left Arcadia Bay. Other minor characters included Nathan, Kate, David, Victoria and Mr. Jefferson. Nathan is one of the bullies you need to deal with throughout the game but soon you understand why he is such a douchebag. Another one is Kate the poor victim and friend you would gain. David, at first, starts off bad but he is your allies and you need him for that last scene. While Victoria is different, you can’t tell if she is on your side or not but she is not that bad after all. Mr. Jefferson you would never see this one coming I don’t want to spill any spoilers.

Overall, this game is one of my favorites of 2015 and I am glad I bought it to play. The story is unique not like all the others and the characters are riched and fully developed but I do love to learn more about Chloe. The soundtrack of this game gives you a mysterious feeling and I love that it gives you calming effect and gives me a feeling that life is indeed strange, you couldn’t explain why. I can’t wait for season 2 of this game to come out but since my new arrival of my Playstation, I have other games to occupy me for now. Welcome 2016! And happy new year to all my readers!

Queen’s Gambit Voltage Entertainment

Emily Verma first LGBT love storyline in Queen’s Gambit.

As television now has more LGBT representation, video games also blended in also. Queen’s Gambit has our first lesbian character, you will get to play a lady spy and your dead girlfriend is your rival. Sounds nice right? Sounds like those movies that have the star-crossed lovers? When I heard the storyline for that I immediately bought the Emily Verma section.

Queen’s Gambit is an iOS game that works as you choose your own adventure, you can choose from four love interest. You have Joao Morris who is a sketchy CEO, Emmett Ferrer who is your team member and friend, Lindsay Thomas Walker V who is the senator for the state of Arizona, you will be forced to be his secret lover. Then lastly is the OMG Sexy lover of yours who I really love, she is Emily Verma who is a rogue agent and leader of WLF.

Once you clicked on the Emily storyline, it started off with a bang! You will find yourself face to face with your suppose dead girlfriend who you love since you two were trainees. Her storyline will be centered on how she went missing, her flashback with your character, how you two fell in love and what side is she on. Lastly, you will get three endings, it will be decided on what you choose. You will get a tragic one, a happy one or just a medium one. The graphics and visuals are stunning, beautiful even I can feel the love between these two radiant from my iPad screen. But there is also a downside, the facial expressions could be the same at times. Queen’s Gambit will take you in a wild rollercoaster, this is also the first LGBT story line for games I really love this. I hope they can make more and more with LGBT members in video games.