Hellblade Senua’s Sacrifice (Gaming)

by Ragashingo , Official DBO Cryptarch, Sunday, October 29, 2017, 11:09 (2583 days ago) @ Cody Miller

This article at Redbull.com (of all people!) has what I think is the money quote:

Key to this model is that we’ve kept our budget low and, as such, we don’t need to sell millions to break even. We need to sell in the hundreds of thousands of copies to make our money back, which gives us the confidence to make a game that isn’t aimed at everyone. Our lower budget means we can take more creative risks without fear of not being able to achieve the multi-million unit sales that the big blockbusters now need to be deemed a success.

What risks were taken with this game? This is a genuine question, as I have not played it yet, and nothing in your post describing the game seemed like a huge departure from conventional mechanics or design.

Personally, I've never played a game so focused on despair, suffering, doubting one's self, insanity, and violence as this one.

Spoilers:

There are levels where the bordering geometry is made up of giant manifestations of the dead and the liquid you are walking and wading through is almost certainly their blood. Early on, Senua is depicted as dying in up close detail until her eyes go fixed and cold. Later, she burns to death on camera. There's not exactly any gore beyond somewhat nude humans beheaded and impaled on pikes, but every time she gets knocked down in combat the gasps and expressions of pain and fear on Senua's face are somewhat gut wrenching.

Though not entirely shown, Senua's father isolated her, performed rituals on her, and was probably violent towards her. It is certainly made clear that he beat her mother when she talked about hearing the same kind of voices Senua hears and he eventually went on to burn Senua's mother at the stake (partially shown, face half burned away) to try and drive the darkness out of her.

Personally, I can play such games without too much trouble... I draw the line at something like the bone breaking scene in The Watchmen movie... but Hellblade is not a Rated T for Teen game and its levels of on-scree and off-screen suffering and violence should be a limiting factor in who buys and plays the game.

I believe that's what he was talking about, the creative risk of aiming the game at a story where shown and implied violence and insanity are key components.