There aren’t many enemy types, and the game never finds anything more interesting to do with them than have them walk slowly towards you in enclosed spaces, but our main complaint is that encounters always seem to go on just that bit too long. Fighting has the perfect level of speed and responsiveness, with the feedback from blocking an attack being a particularly fantastic mix of visuals and gameplay. The combat in Hellblade is a lot simpler than DmC, but there’s a real weight to every swing of your sword. If the name Ninja Theory rings a bell, they’re the studio behind Heavenly Sword (which this bears a surface resemblance to), Enslaved: Odyssey To The West, and the unfairly maligned DmC Devil May Cry. Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice (NS) – brought to you by Microsoft, indirectly at least Especially as half the time the voices in your head are just spouting in-game advice, such as telling you to watch out behind you. But while we have no reason to doubt the authenticity the voices and blurry visions all seem a little cliché, and exactly how a game would portray her condition even if the developer hadn’t done any research.

This is not some random plot point, as British developer Ninja Theory has taken a lot of time and care to make sure the symptoms are portrayed realistically and sympathetically. Things are more complicated than that, but either way her troubled life has left her with a severe psychosis, that manifests as voices in her head and impromptu flashbacks to her earlier life.

The exact nature of her backstory is the central mystery of the game, but it soon becomes obvious that she has witnessed a particularly bloody raid which has left her mentor and love interest dead. In strict gameplay terms Hellblade is a third person combat game set in the early Medieval period, revolving around Viking raids in Orkney and a surviving Pict named Senua.

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