The firestorm over this decision — and whether Ninja Theory was being coy — did little to distract from my own playthrough,
whose palpable tension was directly informed by wondering if one wrong step would ruin everything.
Constantly sniffing snuff and surreptitiously boozing, her Masha is as fiercely defiant as she is miserable, lending a
palpable tension to her scenes with Medvedenko (Michael Zegen), the schoolteacher
whose love she scorns as she pines for Konstantin.