Universally acclaimed Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, originally released on PC & Playstation 4 in August of last year hits the Xbox One & Xbox One X today. In this psychological horror action game you play as the titular Senua, a woman looking to revive her fallen lover in a dark and dangerous journey. However, unbeknownst to Senua she suffers from mental psychosis and things are not at all as they appear to herself and the player.

Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is a 2017 action-adventure game, it is developed and published by Ninja Theory. It was originally released on PC & Playstation 4 and is now available on Xbox One.

Editor’s Note: An Xbox One review copy for Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice was provided by Ninja Theory in support of this review. This review will be a slightly edited Xbox One version of our original PS4 review which can be read here. 

Hellblade is an emotional punch to the heart.

Originally released for PC and Playstation 4 last Summer, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice was an instant hit. Thanks to it’s respectful fantasy take on mental disorders, story direction, lead character, and lead voice/mo-cap actress Melina Juergens’ stellar performance Hellblade will forever be regarded as one of the greatest indie games of our time. And now on Xbox One and Xbox One X the game’s already beautiful art and graphics can be realized in full 4K and 60FPS.

A dark look into the imaginings of someone who’s unknowingly in pain.

THE GOOD: While on the base console much of Hellblade performers the same as it does on Playstation 4. However, there are three performance modes to enhance your visually and gameplay experiences on the Xbox One X: Enriched Visuals, High Framerate, and High Resolution. Enriched gives a decent balance visually, High Framerate gives full 60FPS, and High Resolution gives full 4K resolution via HDR. Each mode has their own strengths, but picking which is best is completely up to the player as they’re based around each player’s personal performance desire.

Hellblade tries to take full advantage of the Xbox One X’s hardware.

For new players who missed out on the PC and Playstation 4 releases you are in for a treat. Hellblade’s story is a relate able, scary thrill ride. This is thanks in part to it’s believable and incredible performances from the cast and it;s fantastic script. Combat is it’s weakest element, but even with it’s noticeable flaws it can be incredibly fun if you’re into similar titles like Devil May Cry.

Much of the game’s setting and puzzles are based on Celtic culture.

THE BAD: While Ninja Theory does well to take as much advantage of the Xbox One X as they can, each of the three respective enhancement modes can only enhance one major thing at a time, for example if you want to play the game in 4K HDR, then you may have to sacrifice the full 60FPS. Playtime is rather short with most players experience between 7-9 hours total, though some players have also reported up to only 6 hours, so it really depends on how invested you’re in to getting the story driven stones placed throughout the world.

A journey more than worth a first and second go round.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: As if Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice wasn’t already a damn pretty game the graphical enhancements provided by the Xbox One X take things even further. Unfortunately. sacrifices have to be made with modes used to enhance the game, as no one mode is currently capable of providing all the enhancements provided. Even with the minor flaws, whether you’re playing on PC, Playstation 4, or Xbox One this will be a game you’ll likely never forget. Here’s hoping Ninja Theory will bring Senua’s journey to the Nintendo Switch in the near future.