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Holy poo poo you guys, this game is so drat good. I ended up trying it more or less on an impulse and went in completely blind, and suddenly I've gone through it all in just two sittings and it's probably my favourite game of the year. I can't remember the last game that committed so thoroughly to telling its story and landed it so well. It is in some ways kind of an interactive movie, but it weaves its gameplay elements in well enough that I'd certainly say that it elevated the experience beyond what just passively watching it might have offered. As for the combat, most of the time it worked for me. In the blood lake in particular it really sold me on the sheer gruelling attrition of Senua's journey. Getting knocked down again and again only to get back up every single time no matter what really emphasized her unshakeable determination. But after that one, it started to wear a bit. The final long fight on the bridge before meeting Hela in particular felt fairly superfluous, since you get another gauntlet immediately afterwards. Also, the Fenrir fight was pretty terrible all around, that drat thing took about twice as long to kill as it should have. I kind of wish getting Gramr had made more of a difference, because carving through everything in just a couple of hits towards the end made things flow much more smoothly. Assorted thoughts: The bit about "if the darkness reaches Senua's head it's game over" is almost definitely a bluff. I had it reach her shoulder during the Fenrir fight, die again, and then it just reset down to mid-forearm. Also, somehow I really liked how in the final area, instead of the usual cacophony of voices warning you about attacks from behind, there was just one single, calm voice left.
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Aug 10, 2017 22:54
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Mindblast posted:Yeah this is one of those games that shows off what you can do with the engine when a developer is utilizing the tech rather than leaning on it. Yeah, even on my old as gently caress machine the game looked amazing with a really manageable performance impact. The art direction in this is stellar. Anyway, it's a bit of an odd comparison, but somehow this game reminded me of Spec Ops: The Line quite a bit. Both games essentially feature a journey into hell, one of them figuratively and the other quite literally. Both of them show a protagonist who is obsessed with their quest to save somebody or something, to the point of utter exhaustion and desperation. But they go at the same concept from different perspectives, to the point of essentially being mirrors of each other. In Hellblade, Senua's journey is transformative and healing. She begins as a deeply troubled and damaged person with only one single thing left to keep her going, but by facing her fears and confronting her memories she is able to claw her way back towards a semblance of peace. Her journey towards her obsession brings her very near to her breaking point, but in the end she is able to finally let go and move on, finally finding peace. Meanwhile in Spec Ops, Walker begins as a reasonably healthy individual, but his journey is wholly destructive. At first he doesn't even care all that much about his goal, but as he goes in deeper and deeper he becomes ever more obsessed with finding some kind of resolution. And in doing so he becomes unhinged and damaged, and when he finally reaches his goal it turns out to be utterly hollow. The key difference, I would say, is that while both Walker and Senua start out with altruistic goals in mind, only Senua manages to hold on to her selflessness. Walker, on the other hand, becomes gradually more dismissive of the outside world and focused on himself, searching for a way to find a resolution for himself, revenge for the people he lost, searching for a way so that he could be the hero that saves Dubai. Apart from that, there are also a handful of other more incidental similarities. Both games play a bit with the concept of the fourth wall, Spec Ops through its loading screen hints and Hellblade by literally looking the player in the eye. Both have a certain surreality with how the protagonists perceive their environments, though it's a bit more subtle in Spec Ops (e.g. the way your are always somehow moving downwards through the levels, deeper than what normal architecture should allow for). They also put a heavy emphasis on conveying a sense of attrition and fatigue suffered by their protagonists. Finally there's also a certain element of mental illness in Spec Ops, in the sense of shell shock and PTSD, though it doesn't really explore that part in nearly as much detail as Hellblade does. I dunno where I'm going with this, I just found it neat that two so completely different games end up looking at quite similar themes, just from different angles. And they're kind of connected by default just by virtue of being fairly major titles that put a huge emphasis on their story, themes, and presentation.
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Aug 12, 2017 15:43
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Mechanical Ape posted:So I'm at about the halfway point (as measured in runestones), and I'm loving it all, but I did have to check a walkthrough at one point where I'd bumbled around on my own long enough. I think that mechanic is used one time in the Vagraven section, but it's easy to do it more or less on accident without realising it's an actual thing. I also had to run in circles for a good while until I noticed it.
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Aug 13, 2017 20:55
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SirSamVimes posted:Also the final gauntlet where Senua refuses to let her psychosis define who she is and suddenly becomes a death blender capable of one shotting basic enemies and fighting three bosses at once without breaking a sweat while beautiful music plays is one of my favourite video game experiences ever. Which was made even better by the way how the usual cacophony of mocking and sneering voices had finally fallen quiet. Instead there was just one single voice left, encouraging and helpful.
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Aug 29, 2017 11:19
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