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The story of Hellblade is based on Senua, a young Pict warrior who suffers from severe psychotic mental illness, on a journey to save the soul of her lover, Dillion, from the Norse underworld of Helheim.Īccording to Ninja Theory, over the course of the last 14 years, they have developed three key strengths that define their games: ninja-class combat, strong character stories, and a unique art vision. The game warns that once the rot reaches her head, the 'seat of her soul', then Senua's quest will end and all of the player's progress will be lost. The more times that she is killed, the further up her arm the rot will travel. Near the beginning of the story, Senua is infected with the ' dark rot', a corruption of her flesh on her right arm that acts as a symbol of her psychosis. Hellblade uses an automatic saving system and only holds one save file at a time for the duration of the game. Senua can also build up her Focus in combat by successfully blocking and striking enemies, When she has gained enough, she can temporarily slow down time to allow her foes to be dispatched with ease. She can even parry those strikes when timing her guard correctly and temporarily stun them, though some attacks that are blocked with incorrect timing with temporarily stun her instead. She has the ability to dodge incoming attacks and can also guard against enemy strikes. When in combat, Senua has access to both light and heavy attacks with her sword that she can use in a combo system to strike her foes down. In addition, there are numerous Lorestones that can be collected in order to learn more information about the legends of the Northmen.Ĭertain areas of Hellblade force Senua into combat with hellish manifestations of the Northmen. The environments can contain visual based puzzles of locating Norse runes in the world in order to unlock gates and seals, which Senua can find by Focusing on them. Players explore detailed environments based on the mythology of Norse gods and realms in order to guide Senua to her eventual goal of the underworld of Helheim. The gameplay of Hellblade is primarily focused on exploration and combat. The story of Hellblade is based on Celtic and Norse mythology and follows the story of a Pict warrior named Senua as she embarks on a very personal journey through a hellish underworld. The game was initially announced at Sony's Gamescom 2014 media briefing and is described as "independent AAA" game, a title designed to be developed and published independently but with all the quality and production values of any AAA game on the market. Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is an action adventure video game developed and published by Ninja Theory for the PlayStation 4 and PC.
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