When comparing Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice vs Middle-earth: Shadow of War, the Slant community recommends Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice for most people. In the question“What are the best single player games on PS4?” Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is ranked 25th while Middle-earth: Shadow of War is ranked 55th. The most important reason people chose Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is:
Melina Juergens gives a riveting performance that showcases the full range of Senua's rage, vulnerability and introspection throughout her journey. Each tremble of fear in Senua's voice and her sharp cries of pain in battle further highlight her determination to reach her goal, pressing onward in the face of insurmountable obstacles.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Amazing voice acting
Melina Juergens gives a riveting performance that showcases the full range of Senua's rage, vulnerability and introspection throughout her journey. Each tremble of fear in Senua's voice and her sharp cries of pain in battle further highlight her determination to reach her goal, pressing onward in the face of insurmountable obstacles.
Pro Powerful environments and atmosphere
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice boasts a beautiful, yet haunted atmosphere that evokes powerful feelings of awe, with towering mountains that stretch on for miles, lakes that glitter in the sunset glow and reflect the intimidating architecture of the Norse halls throughout the environment.
Pro Intense boss fights
Though few in number, the boss battles in Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice are a testament to how brutal the game's combat can be, with menacing boss designs and distorted arenas that inspire true fear in their intensity. These fights put Senua's skills as a warrior to the test with telegraphed moves that she must react to swiftly, along with tight windows of opportunity for her to wound the enemy. With no UI elements for health bars, neither for Senua nor the enemies she faces, these boss fights are an exercise of patience and mettle, giving an adrenaline-filled sense of satisfaction after a hard-fought victory.
Pro Compelling main character
Bolstered by an award-winning performance from Melina Juergens, The story constantly pushes Senua to her limits, both through the innumerable enemies who challenge her and the voices in her head that mock her to give up her impossible journey. She is an incredibly vulnerable character who fights on with her many fears and doubts, showing a different type of protagonist in the gaming landscape.
Pro The infighting of voices in Senua's head is unnerving
The many voices in Senua's head, all with their own unique personalities, showcase her struggles with psychosis, with the voices either taunting Senua, picking at her weaknesses, or encouraging her to stand her ground and fight. They can also be useful in battle, with some voices warning Senua to look out behind her as a new enemy spawns and readies to attack her. Constant exposure to these voices is unsettling, because their constant back and forth with praise or insults can take a toll on you after a while. Playing with headphones on is a must in order to feel the full experience of the voices and how well they blend into the gameplay.
Pro Character connections make for a compelling experience
Shadow of War uses the Nemesis system to create a more immersive and alive-feeling world. Thanks to it, orc leaders have names, ranks, titles, tribes they belong to, and most importantly, connections to other orc leaders.
For example, an orc leader might be at war with another orc leader. This conflict won't end until one of them dies. There are also orcs that are considered blood brothers, having unwavering loyalty to each other. Because of this, don't be too surprised if you ever get betrayed by one of your followers that's trying to do right by his blood brother.
Additionally, the leaders you fight will also develop connections with you. Orcs that you've killed or spared, may come back with scars, recalling your previous encounter and vowing to exact vengeance. Orcs that you've escaped from will mock you for being a chicken, and so forth. The gradual creation of this web of connections is very enjoyable and sometimes even more compelling than the game's main story.
Pro Addictive gear collection fuels your thirst for orc blood
As you kill orc leaders, they'll drop random quality gear items, ranging from common rarity every-orc weapons/armor to legendary rarity artifacts with unique names. Each item serves to improve your character, providing various stat increases and damage bonuses. You can also upgrade gear with gems or via challenges that usually involve killing orcs, bolstering your strength even further. On top of that, there are set bonuses for legendary items, giving you special abilities such as your hits applying explosive poison on regular enemies. It's very exciting seeing what gear piece an orc leader will drop once you lob his head off, causing you to constantly seek out new victims.
Pro Satisfying combat
Shadow of War gives one of the better feeling combat systems in recent times, allowing you to be either stealthy or go for direct confrontations.
If you choose to be stealthy, you can skewer unsuspecting orcs from behind with your dagger, drop onto them from a building while impaling them with your sword, or just pierce them from afar with your bow.
If you choose a direct confrontation, it's a really quick-paced and brutal showdown against your enemies with your chosen melee weapon. You weave combos against enemies, dodging, parrying, and countering enemy attacks, which ends in a devastating finishing move, resulting in a mutilated or decapitated orc.
Whichever method you choose, the combat flows really well and you always feel like a force to be reckoned with.
Pro You can lead an orc army and expand your own dominion
As part of the Nemesis system, you can recruit orc leaders after you've bested them in combat. Each one has his own unique strengths and weaknesses, so making the best possible army for conquering enemy territories might take a while.
For example, an orc leader can be completely immune to ranged attacks, but can take increased damage from explosions. You should take such an orc leader on assaults against fortresses filled with archers but be wary of the slightest hints of any bombs.
Once you've finished building a sizeable force, you can assault a fortresses. If you succeed in the assault, you'll take over a territory, allowing you to install your own orc leader as the ruler. With enough effort you'll gradually take over Mordor and its surrounding lands.
Shadow of War makes you feel like a recruiter, general, and a ruler, which is very empowering and a lot of fun.
Cons
Con Too many puzzles
Because those with psychosis are adept at pattern recognition, Senua's strength with patterns translates into puzzles to solve throughout the linear world, but they're far too numerous and overstay their welcome quite early on. They often break the pace of exploration, with too many instances of Senua needing to loop around a small area several times in order to align shadows or illusory portals to open up the path to the next area.
Con Shallow combat
Although the enemy and boss designs are top-notch, the moment-to-moment swordplay with Senua isn't as deep as it could have been. Simple presses of light attacks and heavy attacks mixed in with blocks, strafes and rolls are most of what the combat has to offer. Occasionally an enemy will be blacked out and unable to take damage, and Senua can use her Focus ability to rectify this and continue attacking normally. On one hand, it's realistic that Senua's sword fights are to-the-point, but from a gameplay perspective, things can get dull rather quickly.
Con Can get repetitive
The overall gameplay formula doesn't change much over the course of the game. You fight orcs, take over strongholds, upgrade your character, and collect blips on the world map. After a while it can start feeling like a grind, especially during long play sessions. This is made worse in the final stretch of the game where you have to fight through 20 consecutive stronghold battles without any story segments or exposition.
Con Unskippable cutscenes disrupt the flow of the gameplay
Every time an orc leader enters the screen, there is an unskippable cutscene where he rambles a bit, focusing the camera on him and halting combat until the cutscene ends. This usually happens as you're fighting another enemy, potentially disrupting your rhythm, which can be really frustrating, especially if mess up your combo or take an unnecessary hit after the cutscene.