The beginning of Senua's journey.
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Hellblade begins with a metaphor of a life’s journey into madness

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 1 min

Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is a helluva game. It is about Senua’s journey into hell to recover her beloved Dillion. And yet the entire game is a metaphor for a person’s descent into madness.

Senua is a Celtic warrior who struggles with inner demons. Her story begins in the middle of things, after her beloved has been slain. She is haunted by voices in her head, and they are always second-guessing or scaring her.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.