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Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice - Review Thread

Holy crap. Playing on PC, and this is a seriously impressive game, the visual and audio presentation is about the best I've ever seen/heard, this is like ND quality and then some. I'm super super impressed!
Not 100% sure about the none-fighting sections yet, too slow for my taste but the action is fantastic and with the audio it just plays like no other game. This is easily an 8 or 9/10 just from the first 2 hours I've seen.
Can't play it with headphones though... I noped out of that at the intro. Those voices goes under my skin!
 
Calling people morons for having a different opinion than you is the truly moronic thing, I'd say.
It's quite moronic to support Jim's original stance when he is trying to distance himself from it. Fact is, the game contains probably the best ever depiction of mental illness and psychosis we've seen in a game. The visuals, story and sound design are all top notch. The game is as far from a 1/10 as possible. Jim's judgment was appalling and even he recognises the error of his ways.
 
i don't follow this Jim guy, so i don't give a shit about him, but from what i understand is that he gave Hellbalde a 1\10 because he encountered a glitch

that happened to me, with The witcher 3, i had a glitch that removes the waypoint for a main mission, so i don't know where to go and i though the quest if bugged and i cannot continue the story without completing it, i got so pissed that day, i hated the game, i was about 50 hours in the game, i was about to delete my save and try to transfer a save from my friend, but then i saw the quest on youtube and went exactly to where the guy went and the glitch is fixed and the waypoint appeared after i found the location i was supposed to go

that really ruined the experience a bit, i encountered many glitches with The witcher 3

i also encountered a game breaking glitch in Murdered: soul suspect, i liked this game but then i had a glitch where when you go to a crime scene, the cutscene doesn't trigger, no matter how much i reload the save file and try again, it doesn't trigger the cutscene which means i'm stuck forever, that ruined the whole game for me

so don't blame this Jim guy if he overreacted and gave the game a 1\10, because when you play something for long and then a game breaking glitch appears, it can completely ruin the experience
 
It's quite moronic to support Jim's original stance when he is trying to distance himself from it. Fact is, the game contains probably the best ever depiction of mental illness and psychosis we've seen in a game. The visuals, story and sound design are all top notch. The game is as far from a 1/10 as possible. Jim's judgment was appalling and even he recognises the error of his ways.

It would only be moronic if you only thought that way because Jim said so and not because that's your actual opinion, it doesn't matter how good a game is, if it breaks half way through and prevents me from finishing it I'm not going to give it a high rating, you're free to do so if restarting games doesn't bother you, but it bothers me. Either way insulting people for not agreeing with you is bullshit and I really don't have time for people who do that.
 
Jim Sterling's reviews are an absolute joke and I genuinely have no idea why people even listen to him. Sounds like he forgot his pacifier when he reviewed it and couldn't handle his anger issues. It's kinda like when your pregnant wife is trying to get ready and her dress doesn't fit so instead of being reasonable and trying something else they flip out and say "forget it I don't want to go, I'm staying home"

With that being said I've flipped out over games before such as horizon when I did something wrong.. but then again I'm not a "respected" reviewer who potentially bankrupts a indie studio for a glitch while giving games from huge studios a pass for the bugs they have in their game. (My point is ignorant reviews out of anger can seriously damage sales unfairly)

Stop reviewing games Jim if you can't control your personal issues. It's no good for the industry and with such a small studio they genuinely could have never had the glitch happen to them.. it's not like all studios go "eh, let's fuck the game up for no reason", I'd be willing to bet they would have fixed it had they know it existed.

Games used to release without issues... That's just not how things work anymore. Hell companies sell CARS with serious safety issues without knowing it. Games are so complex now it's given that they will have bugs... It's just the world we live in.

Review games with that in mind. There is a difference between accidental bugs and obvious lack of caring.
 
so don't blame this Jim guy if he overreacted and gave the game a 110, because when you play something for long and then a game breaking glitch appears, it can completely ruin the experiment
I think when you review games for a living and probably receive review copies for free then it's your responsibility to just cool down a bit if you get angry at a bug that you don't even know if anyone else will notice. Not even fanboys here rate a game on a competing platform 1/10. It's just laughable, especially now that many of us has played the game and can see for ourself how incredibly far off he was.
 
It would only be moronic if you only thought that way because Jim said so and not because that's your actual opinion, it doesn't matter how good a game is, if it breaks half way through and prevents me from finishing it I'm not going to give it a high rating, you're free to do so if restarting games doesn't bother you, but it bothers me. Either way insulting people for not agreeing with you is bullshit and I really don't have time for people who do that.
Restarting a game would bother me less if it was my occupation and I was being paid to do it by my Patreon subs. The last thing I'd do is post a 'hate review' of a game I'd enjoyed up until the occurrence of an alleged glitch (alleged because he is seemingly the only person on Earth who has experienced it, I haven't seen it replicated, and it's more plausible to me that he fucked up and only realised what he'd fucked up and how to right it after the review was posted). The worst thing about this whole episode is that TotalBiscuit's idiocy and Jim's non-review are the headlines when we should be acknowledging how good the game is and what it has achieved. I sympathise with Ninja Theory because yesterday should have been a celebration and no doubt they were putting out fires all day.
 
Calling people morons for having a different opinion than you is the truly moronic thing, I'd say.

What opinion? That Jim score was ok? Is that really an opinion? Is just fanboyismn defense of a moroniic decission made in a fit of anger.

He made a mistake, he acknowl!dge it. He didnt double down on it. His defenders made a mistake, Time for them to acknowledge it.
 
I think when you review games for a living and probably receive review copies for free then it's your responsibility to just cool down a bit if you get angry at a bug that you don't even know if anyone else will notice. Not even fanboys here rate a game on a competing platform 1/10. It's just laughable, especially now that many of us has played the game and can see for ourself how incredibly far off he was.

the only youtube reviewer i ever trusted is Angry joe, he is the only one that actually scores games very close to what they deserve, and he tells you exactly what's good and bad about the game, he doesn't hide things about a game he liked, if it has problems he will say it, he is very reliable when it comes to gaming reviews

i'm not saying that he is always right, sometimes i highly disagree with his scores for certain games, like giving Overwatch a 7 and giving that walking simulator a 9

but overall, Angry joe is trustworthy
 
What opinion?

That a game breaking bug preventing you to finish the game is a valid reason to give it a low rating should you encounter it. I think it's a perfectly valid opinion to hold, if you don't that's fine, I won't insult you over it.
 
Sure it can. Eve Online had an update that screwed up your OS if I remember correctly, preventing booting up, that would've been a 1/10 for me, no matter how much I liked the game.

His 1/10 was the result of frustration, most likely because of how much he was enjoying the game and having that enjoyment "taken away". You might not think that merits the 1/10, same as he did after cooling off, but there's no law that says it must be so...
I guess you've never graded anything before...
 
Just starting out and the atmosphere is fucking phenomenal, the constant voices in your head plus the binaural effect having contradicting voices in each ear is incredible, really makes playing the game with head phones totally different.

One question though, what does photo mode even do? I thought turning it on would put in in a free cam screenshot taking mode but it doesn't seem to do anything.
 
What opinion? That Jim score was ok? Is that really an opinion? Is just fanboyismn defense of a moroniic decission made in a fit of anger.

He made a mistake, he acknowl!dge it. He didnt double down on it. His defenders made a mistake, Time for them to acknowledge it.

Or maybe the people that defended his reasoning just believe that it was valid? They are allowed to have that opinion. If anyone owes anyone an apology it should be you apologizing for ignoring their opinions because you dismissed them as being "just [a] fanboyismn defense". Clearly they are not.

When dealing with other people's opinions, Jim retracting his initial review is not the smoking gun you think it is.
 
Just starting out and the atmosphere is fucking phenomenal, the constant voices in your head plus the binaural effect having contradicting voices in each ear is incredible, really makes playing the game with head phones totally different.

One question though, what does photo mode even do? I thought turning it on would put in in a free cam screenshot taking mode but it doesn't seem to do anything.
At least on PC you can get into a free cam photo mode with filters and all kinds of stuff.
 
the only youtube reviewer i ever trusted is Angry joe, he is the only one that actually scores games very close to what they deserve, and he tells you exactly what's good and bad about the game, he doesn't hide things about a game he liked, if it has problems he will say it, he is very reliable when it comes to gaming reviews

i'm not saying that he is always right, sometimes i highly disagree with his scores for certain games, like giving Overwatch a 7 and giving that walking simulator a 9

but overall, Angry joe is trustworthy

Could you try to contradict yourself a little less?
 
the only youtube reviewer i ever trusted is Angry joe, he is the only one that actually scores games very close to what they deserve, and he tells you exactly what's good and bad about the game, he doesn't hide things about a game he liked, if it has problems he will say it, he is very reliable when it comes to gaming reviews

i'm not saying that he is always right, sometimes i highly disagree with his scores for certain games, like giving Overwatch a 7 and giving that walking simulator a 9

but overall, Angry joe is trustworthy

What is "that walking simulator"?
 
is this game a souls like?
The fighting reminds about it a little, can't slash away very long before you die but with well planned dodging and finding openings to go for stronger attacks etc and you'll do fine. The fighting is honestly great. But there is no RPG elements of any kind. It's a "walking simulator" with some The Witness environmental puzzles and Souls-fighting, if that makes any sense. And it's really really unique and great.
 
I do think a game breaking bug is a valid reason to give the game a low score, the real problem is exposed when you consider that he very quickly took it back and regretted that decision. It indicates a lack of thought put into a proper evaluation of his experience, it shows that it was nothing more than an angry reaction to something that just happened.

If you want reaction videos, you go watch a Let's Play. Reviews should offer more thoughtful in-depth views of a product. It's the whole reason why reviewers get the game early and there's an embargo in the first place, so they can have a "pure" experience and enough time to digest and analyze what they've been through.

Flaming hot takes are annoying enough on GAF, we really don't need them to become the norm in professional reviews as well. I definitely appreciate that he changed his mind and made that very clear, though.
 
does these review aggregate sites still not provide the ability to amend review scores? seems odd you cant at least for a short period.
 
Haven't updated the OP properly yet but after 27 reviews on Metacritic it's sat at 81 (with 8 90+) and a 'mighty' 83 on Opencritic from 32 scored reviews.

I've played a whole bunch and it comes with a recommended from Savantcore. I've been really excited about it for ages and, despite the whole permadeath reveal/shenanigans on launch day from various publications, it's lived up to all expectations. Bravo Ninja Theory.
 
Sure it can. Eve Online had an update that screwed up your OS if I remember correctly, preventing booting up, that would've been a 1/10 for me, no matter how much I liked the game.

His 1/10 was the result of frustration, most likely because of how much he was enjoying the game and having that enjoyment "taken away". You might not think that merits the 1/10, same as he did after cooling off, but there's no law that says it must be so...

Sure it can. If I'm near the end of a game and it prevents me from finishing it due to a bug it instantly goes from a game I was enjoying to a broken one, so 1/10 would be fair.

That's a BIG gap between an 8 and a 1 review rating. Why have a 10 point scale if he isn't going to use numbers 2 through 7?
 
Congrats to Jim Sterling for the absolutely stellar clickbait effort and the merchandise advert!

But its true Jim that you went a tiny bit too far bro, I mean 1/10? Nobody will believe that! You can still do your clickbait shit with 3/10! Come on, you are a pro, you know this!

Cant wait for your next corporate video and the back pedaling review of Hellblade!

Its brilliant now that I think of it... 2 clickbait reviews for 1 game! Jim you hit the goldmine! I was naive to say that you went too far! My bad! You are indeed the epitome of Pro!
 
I absolutely love the concept behind this and bought it. Will try it over the weekend and hope it does really well for the team.
 
Yeah, it should be noted that Jim enjoyed the game enough that he would have scored it a 7.5-8/10 — if not for a late-game bug that tarnished the entire experience. I think the 1/10 is reasonable given his experience.

Bugs can be fixed though reviews are forever and impact sales. It's equivalent to blaming a faulty batch of prints or scratched DVDs and giving a film like Casablanca a one star review.
 
Guys come on we are talking about a guy making a video with a title: “Every videogame producer is a fucking idiot” (i shit you not thats real) ...!

But hey its “satire” so anything goes, same as this post...
 
I tend to ignore outliers. That 1/10 was a huge outlier. Hellblade is probably fine. I liked HS and Enslaved as well, and DmC definitive.
 
is this game a souls like?

No, not really in the way I think you mean. I'll tell you what it is though, and I did borrow this from Wagner/MrBtongue, it's Gesamtkunstwerk, like Dark Souls. It's a singular theme in which all the elements of the game work in unison to create a game that is even greater than the sum of its parts.
 
Jim Sterling's score is a bit brutal but he did run into a game breaker of a bug that killed the game for him with no recourse.

but the 1/10 is a bit too far. possibly. His new video doesn't help his case either.

really damaged Jim's reputation imo.
 
Jim Sterling's score is a bit brutal but he did run into a game breaker of a bug that killed the game for him with no recourse.

but the 1/10 is a bit too far. possibly. His new video doesn't help his case either.

really damaged Jim's reputation imo.

That's not longer his score, though, he changed it to 7/10.
 
I can't believe that this thread is still mostly discussing a score that was deleted and apologized for. Game is being received quite well.
 
I can't believe that this thread is still mostly discussing a score that was deleted and apologized for. Game is being received quite well.

Because people are total idiots and tend to overblow everything out of proportion like Jim did and realized and apologized.

They end up becoming what they're hating.
 
Because people are total idiots and tend to overblow everything out of proportion like Jim did and realized and apologized.

They end up becoming what they're hating.

Idiots? This is a gaming forum, this is the review thread... And it's happened more than once with Jim. Yep, were the idiots in this thread :)
 
Idiots? This is a gaming forum, this is the review thread.

So overreacting about everything is your job?

Because Jim did and apologized, screw it, he found a bug, he overreacted instead of doing a no-review and call out NT and then after realizing the screwed up he fixed everything and apologized and even NT took the apology in a good manner. And it's over.

The problem is, you can't let it go because if people do, you can't post a lot anymore to put a bashing on someone. Also, you got into defensive mode the moment I said "idiots" and called you people out.
 
So overreacting about everything is your job?

Because Jim did and apologized, screw it, he found a bug, he overreacted instead of doing a no-review and call out NT and then after realizing the screwed up he fixed everything and apologized and even NT took the apology in a good manner. And it's over.

The problem is, you can't let it go because if people do, you can't post a lot anymore to put a bashing on someone. Also, you got into defensive mode the moment I said "idiots" and called you people out.

You called people arguing about a game on a gaming forum idiots.. lol you should look up what an idiot is..
 

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Thankfully I've learned to utterly ignore Jim since his BotW review. What a stupid reviewer.

Yea I really don't understand the following. Then again... Some reviews are based solely on opinion and their attitude for the day. I wish there was a better way to give scores to keep personal issues out of game reviews.


Its obvious Jim's reviews should no longer count towards the total. He should seriously be removed from metacritic and such. What an irrational unprofessional person.
 
There's this cool feeling when a game you didn't care about until like 2 weeks before release gets a very positive reception.
I'm not a NT fan because the only game i've played from them is DmC,which was ok in my book,but i'm happy for them.
Let's hope it meets their sales expections and this semi-AAA model works for them,i know it's 30 bucks but i can't buy it right now.
 
The combat in this game is perhaps a bit "basic", as reviewers have noted, but I think that it's a nice implementation, nevertheless.

The timing on blocks and parries feels right. The running stabby face move is sweet, when you can find an opening to pull it off. Button mashing is appropriately punished. About my only nitpick is that you can spam roll, which makes it fairly easy to skip some of the finer aspects and just roll, roll, stab, stab. The game does reward you if you put in the concentration to get the parries right, mind, it's just not insistent that you do so just yet. (I'm not super far in -- beat one boss, and am working my way toward the next.)
 
It's quite moronic to support Jim's original stance when he is trying to distance himself from it. Fact is, the game contains probably the best ever depiction of mental illness and psychosis we've seen in a game. The visuals, story and sound design are all top notch. The game is as far from a 1/10 as possible. Jim's judgment was appalling and even he recognises the error of his ways.

And Jim's 1 score might be the best ever depiction of mental illness among game journalist ever in a review. (love you jim!!!)

The game is amazing, and easily on my short list of games of the year. A game breaking bug does not change that, and saying this game is an example of developers rushing their product is a little strange since otherwise the game seems polished as hell.

At least Jim changed his score...but obviously a guy who has made a name going after asset flippers and shady developers is going to get shit when he messes up...
 
Why is everyone recommending to play with headphones on? decent sound design or?

it is almost a different game with headphones...and there are parts of it that use spatial sounds to help you with puzzles, combat and environmental hazards...and while it is just fine without a headset, it moves up to a different level with one..
 
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