Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice

[MonkeyFinger]

Picked this up last night for the PS4 and after it unlocked, only had time for a minimal spin before I crapped out after a long day. I'm not sure how much "game" there is here per se and how much is more story and experience, right now it's making me think of things like Until Dawn in that regard. They also recommend headphones for the best experience and boy, they're not kidding. We'll see how much this persists (I assume it will) but there are many voices in her head, constantly whispering, one more dominant than the others but all commenting on what she's doing. Or not doing. Or should be doing. Then there's the 'ghost' / memory that's popped up which is probably connected to the skull she has on her belt. Which she talks to and is looking for... "I will find you".

Anyone else pick this up?

[Carpet_pissr]

Wishlisted on Steam

[Chaz]

I'm playing through it on steam. The sound design is astounding, and I like that they're directly trying to address mental illness. It's very not the strict character action game that the studio's previous work or the title would have you believe.

Also nice that they're playing with both celtic and Norse mythology. Well worth the thirty bucks so far.

[Skinypupy]

(crossposted from GT)

I thought this was a full priced $60 game. Found out it wasn't (it's only $30), so I grabbed it this afternoon and played the first couple hours. The animations, mocap, voice work, and graphics are all incredible, and the setting and story are intriguing. However, there are two rather significant issues:

1. I'm sure the whole "multiple voices in my head" thing is really cool when you have a good surround sound system or headphones. Unfortunately, I've got neither. When you only have basic TV speakers like I've got, the simultaneous voices all talking at once just end up sounding...jumbled. I can usually only make out about half of what they're saying, have no idea which direction they're coming from, and they have drowned out what appears to be more important story-related dialog on more than one occasion.

2. I died in the second battle because I somehow got stuck behind a beam, the camera completely freaked out, and I couldn't move. In a normal game, I'd chalk that up to an annoying minor bug and just replay from the last checkpoint. But in a game where I have a finite amount of lives and one of them just got used up on a bug? That's unacceptable.

I died a second time because the game wasn't particularly clear about an objective. It vaguely hinted that I was supposed to run a certain way, but there was nothing that indicated that there was a time limit that I had to escape within. I apparently ran out of time and died. Again, just something I'd chalk up to trial and error in any other game, but that stupid death limit thing makes it feel like a far bigger deal than it should.

I'm enjoying it, but those two issues are looming rather large in the early game. Keeping my fingers crossed that they're not deal breakers.

[Reemul]

(crossposted from GT)

I thought this was a full priced $60 game. Found out it wasn't (it's only $30), so I grabbed it this afternoon and played the first couple hours. The animations, mocap, voice work, and graphics are all incredible, and the setting and story are intriguing. However, there are two rather significant issues:

1. I'm sure the whole "multiple voices in my head" thing is really cool when you have a good surround sound system or headphones. Unfortunately, I've got neither. When you only have basic TV speakers like I've got, the simultaneous voices all talking at once just end up sounding...jumbled. I can usually only make out about half of what they're saying, have no idea which direction they're coming from, and they have drowned out what appears to be more important story-related dialog on more than one occasion.

2. I died in the second battle because I somehow got stuck behind a beam, the camera completely freaked out, and I couldn't move. In a normal game, I'd chalk that up to an annoying minor bug and just replay from the last checkpoint. But in a game where I have a finite amount of lives and one of them just got used up on a bug? That's unacceptable.

I died a second time because the game wasn't particularly clear about an objective. It vaguely hinted that I was supposed to run a certain way, but there was nothing that indicated that there was a time limit that I had to escape within. I apparently ran out of time and died. Again, just something I'd chalk up to trial and error in any other game, but that stupid death limit thing makes it feel like a far bigger deal than it should.

I'm enjoying it, but those two issues are looming rather large in the early game. Keeping my fingers crossed that they're not deal breakers.

The limited death thing is not that big a thing. It's more like you get say 5 deaths per section not whole game and after completing a section lives lost reset to zero for the next section. I think you may need to die like 50 times before it really kicks in. Dying twice so far sounds like you should just ignore it.

[Alefroth]

Ninja Theory made a short documentary highlighting the process they used of including mental health professionals and patients to ensure they were not misrepresenting the issue of psychosis.

Senua's Psychosis

[Chaz]

I took a break from this when I got to about the halfway mark, and discovered that there was a widespread issue with AMD cards getting mild to severe framerate loss from the halfway point through the end of the game. Fortunately, a patch released earlier this week fixed that problem, so I'm working through to the end.

It stays really good. They do stuff with non-combat portions that I really like, and the environment and atmosphere stays off the chart great.

Skinnypuppy, sorry to hear the audio isn't good through just the TV. I've been playing with headphones the whole way, and if you can somehow get that to happen, I strongly recommend it. The game's notice during startup that headphones really enhance the experience is spot on. With those, the voices get a lot of spatial separation, and I haven't had any trouble hearing what they're saying. I can easily see that being completely lost if you're just listening through the TV speakers.

[RuperT]

Well, assuming Skiny is on PS4, you can just plug headphones right into the controller.

[Skinypupy]

Well, assuming Skiny is on PS4, you can just plug headphones right into the controller.

I actually forgot you could do that. Thanks for the reminder.

[Combustible Lemur]

Just started this yesterday. With headphones alone in a dark room at night. Ermagherd it's intense. I'm a very casual gamer who enjoys moderate challenge and I'm a little intimidated by this game, I think from investing in the story. Every word, every hint of sound or movement is something to be prepared for. I love the use of broken movement at the edges of of you're vision. I may even be looking too much into it but it's immersive.

Moresore than alien isolation which was flawd but I loved.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

[Scraper]

I just started playing this over the weekend on the Series X. I have a dark gaming room with Dolby Atmos surround sound, so the audio is really a treat.

So far I would echo what others have said about it. It's intense and the game does not hold your hand at all. In fact there is no tutorial, instead you really just have to figure everything out on your own. At times that can be frustrating, but the devs do a good job of having the voices and visuals give you clues.

I have no idea why I'm so late to play this one since I've had Gamepass for the past 4 years. Anyway, it's good enough that I will no doubt play part 2 once I finish up part 1. I'm also curious to see how good part 2 looks, since it's allegedly a big upgrade over part 1s already great visuals.

[Scraper]

And done. I honestly don't know what to think of this game. I'm glad I played it, but I'm also glad it was short and don't have a huge desire to rush into playing part 2. The story is pretty obtuse and leaves a lot to your interpretation. It's definitely a game that is dark and puts you into that mood, so if you're looking for something light and fun I would not recommend this game. I did enjoy the combat once I got the hang of it.

As for the story and it's end here's the best I can come up with for what it all meant:

Spoiler:

Senua's father was an evil man who potentially murdered both Senua's mom and her boyfriend. Even if he didn't murder them he completely mistreated her and as a result of all the death and mistreatment she developed psychosis. The ending is about her letting go of her boyfriend and moving past the trauma her father inflicted. All of the god/Norse stuff is really just her way of trying to explain and deal with her torment.

[disarm]

I think that's pretty much it from what I can remember. I thought it was a very interesting experience, if not a particularly good "game." The visuals and sound design are definitely worth experiencing (I played on a 5.1 surround system), but the gameplay is lacking in a lot of ways. I'm glad that I played it, but also thankful that I did so through Gamepass rather than buying it.

I do plan to play the sequel at some point, but it's not a high priority.

[disarm]

Finished Hellblade 2 this afternoon...another cool storytelling experience and graphical powerhouse, but still not a great 'game.' The gameplay is still very basic with limited instances of simple combat that never evolves as you progress, a few puzzle areas (seemed like less than the first game), and only two major 'boss' encounters that push the gameplay in a slightly different (but still simplistic) direction.

I won't say that I didn't enjoy it because there are a lot of cool things that happen, but that's part of the problem...things just happen to tell the story without a lot of enjoyable gameplay. It's a worthwhile experience if you have Xbox GamePass, but I wouldn't spend much money on it.