Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is a chilling tale of madness and faith.
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Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice review — an insane quest in a nightmare world

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 6 min

Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is both great and terrifying, taking the player on a journey into madness.

In the game from British game studio Ninja Theory, the Celtic warrior Senua struggled with inner demons locked in a battle over her mind, and she carries a sword that makes her a lethal danger. She is on a quest to save her beloved Dillion, who has been slain by Northmen. Senua must go to the Norse version of hell to not just retrieve Dillion from the dead but also deal with the legacy of her ill-fated parents. It is an insane quest in a nightmare world, undertaken by a hero who is so emotionally disturbed that you wonder if all of it takes place in her head.

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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.