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[James Sawyer Ford]

It also gets the xbox tax from all the sony shill reviewers and community that loves to shit on xbox so it evens it out, right?

If we are to believe these things exist....

What Xbox tax? It’s a clearly inflated score

Hellblade 2 - 81 metacritic

The Order - 63 metacritic

How are these games so far apart on metacritic? Arguably there’s a better story and gameplay in The Order, and longer length as well.

The Order was released 10 years ago as well, when standards weren’t as high as they are now

Truth is, Xbox sets the bar ridiculously low with their games, coupled with a fanatical community of zealots that are clearly dealing with Stockholm syndrome at this point, they have zero standards and don’t hold Microsoft studios to account for stuff like this.

The Order was reviewed poorly because it’s nowhere near as good as something like Uncharted.

But I guess hellblade 2 is an improvement over Redfall 2, so let’s hand it an 81 for 5 hours of nauseating padding, zero gameplay, and all visuals

 

[XXL]

Imagine playing what looks to be a high presentation, graphically impressive, narrative focused game as part of an existing subscription. I can't wait to try it tonight

No argument from me there.

When I play it, I either play it on a monthly sub or buy it on Steam in a few years when it's a couple bucks.

But, buying this for $50 is crazy, in my opinion.

 

[GymWolf]

I'll be in Senua tonight. As a 40-year-old dad with a gf, these smaller big-budget games are exactly for me. The game length is perfect for me and for the price of a month of gamepass it's a great value.

 

[FalconPunch]

5 hours for $50? Wtf do they think they're releasing, a movie? After watching Luke Stephens review, this is a 4/10 and all 4 are for graphics...

 

[rhodesianshepard]

It annoys me people praised Microsoft for releasing an 8hr experience for 50$. That is terrible value to the gamer. Obv you can just get HB2 on Gamepass, but I hope this game fails financially to dissuade other publishers from following this model. This is not how you fix the gaming industry woes

 

[captainnapalm]

The development time to gameplay time here is pretty crazy.

 

[Matsuchezz]

Cool, and when you see you do a lot more at the start than just “hold forward” or whatever that idiot said on YT, then come back and apologize

Actually is not the number of enemies that I found disappointing, is the way the action and gameplay looks, the gameplay in the first game was very simple and the enemies sucked. That was the bad part of the first game. And that's the reason why we did not have a gameplay trailer at all, I am pretty certain that the gameplay is kind of the same or as a few reviewers have said, it's worse. And most people are saying graphically the game delivers, but the gameplay of it is what is lacking depth. If you can share through you tube this amazing gameplay that you mentioned and prove us all wrong, I will stand corrected.

 

[XXL]

It annoys me people praised Microsoft for releasing an 8hr experience for 50$. That is terrible value to the gamer. Obv you can just get HB2 on Gamepass, but I hope this game fails financially to dissuade other publishers from following this model. This is not how you fix the gaming industry woes

It's not even 8hrs most people are saying 4-5hrs.

 

[Bumblebeetuna]

What Xbox tax? It’s a clearly inflated score

Hellblade 2 - 81 metacritic

The Order - 63 metacritic

How are these games so far apart on metacritic? Arguably there’s a better story and gameplay in The Order, and longer length as well.

The Order was released 10 years ago as well, when standards weren’t as high as they are now

Truth is, Xbox sets the bar ridiculously low with their games, coupled with a fanatical community of zealots that are clearly dealing with Stockholm syndrome at this point, they have zero standards and don’t hold Microsoft studios to account for stuff like this.

The Order was reviewed poorly because it’s nowhere near as good as something like Uncharted.

But I guess hellblade 2 is an improvement over Redfall 2, so let’s hand it an 81 for 5 hours of nauseating padding, zero gameplay, and all visuals

Order is longer? You can platinum it in four hours. Order reviewed worse because it was a terribly generic shooter with a lackluster story.

How much Hellblade II have you played?

 

[adamsapple]

How are these games so far apart on metacritic? Arguably there’s a better story and gameplay in The Order, and longer length as well.

How can you possibly say these things lol

 

[FalconPunch]

The development time to gameplay time here is pretty crazy.

These dudes were on paid vacation for the last 4.5 years lol. They could have made this in 6 months lol. 5 hours of gameplay? What a joke lol

 

[Banjo64]

Just to sort this shit out:

The Order is a turd.

Hellblade is a turd.

Stop fighting about who’s shit is sloppier.

 

[SEGAvangelist]

No argument from me there.

When I play it, I either play it on a monthly sub or buy it on Steam in a few years when it's a couple bucks.

But, buying this for $50 is crazy, in my opinion.

$50 is too high, yeah, but pricing it any lower or higher would hurt the game, IMO.

 

[Gamer_By_Proxy]

The development time to gameplay time here is pretty crazy.

This is the main problem imo. I'm fine with short games. I'm not fine with a studio taking the same amount of time as a long game to make a short game.

 

[nial]

Is it really 4 hours long?

 

[XXL]

Order is longer? You can platinum it in four hours. Order reviewed worse because it was a terribly generic shooter with a lackluster story.

How much Hellblade II have you played?

The Order was hated on for being short, when the game was getting started it was over.

However the gameplay in the Order was pretty great and has way more of it than Hellblade 2.

 

[Buggy Loop]

What Xbox tax? It’s a clearly inflated score

Hellblade 2 - 81 metacritic

The Order - 63 metacritic

What a warrior

It’s ok, let it out

 

[GymWolf]

In my 20 hours before uninstalling it, it did not.

It does have more mechanics but they are mostly under-cooked, boring or straight up trash.

I think the right comparison for hb2 are stuff like ryse or the order more than a freakin open world game

 

[HeWhoWalks]

Thoroughly enjoyed the original. I’m off work in about 3 hours and expect to enjoy this one too!

I predicted a slightly higher score (84-5ish), but low 80s is an acceptable range for the game!

 

[MasterDerico]

Honestly, already finished and was tortuous.
Graphics are good, but man...WHAT A FUCK*** BORING GAME.

And i will say more: The first is better in every aspect but the graphics.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

How can you possibly say these things lol

What the truth?

How blind can you be to not come to the same conclusion?

 

[CityHunter1981]

I have played now 2 hours, it’s worth to get if you have game pass, however anyone who gives this game more than 80 must also have kind of a mental disorder.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Order is longer? You can platinum it in four hours. Order reviewed worse because it was a terribly generic shooter with a lackluster story

Hellblade 2, according to reviewers I trust, is 2 hour long game with 3 extra hours of padding, a terrible generic action game with awful story and one of the worst endings in gaming

Why is this worthy of an 81?

 

[captainnapalm]

This is the main problem imo. I'm fine with short games. I'm not fine with a studio taking the same amount of time as a long game to make a short game.

To be honest, I'm not fine with short games as sequels, I do sort of want them to be bigger and better. Any good sequel knows to do this. But yeah, the long development time just increases that expectation.

 

[Tal Shiar Agent]

I think the most audacious thing about this game is charging $50 for a <6 hour experience.

That's like $20 at most.

 

[Banjo64]

The only review that matters.

 

[SEGAvangelist]

How can you possibly say these things lol

The recent nostalgia for the quality of The Order is baffling to me. Graphically, it's maybe the most impressive game of its time, and the music and story were actually really cool. But the gameplay, AI, forced stealth segments, variety of enemies, heavy nose breathing, stupid collectables you could look at (wow!), jumping as a QTE, etc... it was the pits. Hellblade knew what it was and did it well. The sequel seems to be doing the same. I just wish they hadn't pushed it as something that appeared to be bigger and bolder way back in 2019.

 

[Zathalus]

People get real mad (both ways) over a game that seems strikingly similar to the first one in both critical reception and length. Reading this thread and the differences to the review thread of the first game are quite apparent:

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice - Review Thread

Metacritic - 81 OpenCritic - 84 Eurogamer - Essential Ninja Theory crafts a highly competent action game and a nuanced, powerful exploration of mental health. GamesBeat - 95 It might have been madness for a small studio like Ninja Theory to take on such a herculean task, but I'm glad they made...

www.neogaf.com

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

for Starfield took a coupe of weeks for the truth to come out, for HB2 is going to take a couple of days.

 

[adamsapple]

What the truth?

How blind can you be to not come to the same conclusion?

No, the utter hyperbolic bullshit that you said lol.

How can you say Order has a better story, when you've not played a second of HB2 ? Or that Order takes longer to complete, when there's websites saying it can take 12~ hours for completionist runs of HB2.


Let's use Gamespot's review of Order as an example, since their HB2 review was posted earlier.

The Good​

• Fantastic voice acting
• Consistent, stylish visuals
• A couple of really cool weapons to play with

The Bad​

• Overlooks the best aspects of its premise in favor of boring storytelling
• Every gameplay element is drab and rote
• Too little of the cool stuff (guns, werewolves), lots of the dull stuff (looking at things, walking slowly)

Both game play *and* story are in the BAD section.

Christ sake James, you're turning into a worse warrior every passing thread.

 

[Gamer_By_Proxy]

To be honest, I'm not fine with short games as sequels, I do sort of want them to be bigger and better. Any good sequel knows to do this.

I don't think sequels need to necessarily be longer, but should be up to date with latest tech and refined.
The combat obviously needed some work, so I'll see what that's like tonight.

 

[Mortisfacio]

How can you possibly say these things lol

Because he's loyal to The Brand™

He'd be hyping this game if it were Sony exclusive.

 

[Bernardougf]

Considering that most modern gaming journalists hate gaming, having a game that has almost no gameplay is great for them.

Touché.

 

[Bumblebeetuna]

The Order was hated on for being short, when the game was getting started it was over.

However the gameplay in the Order was pretty great and has way more of it than Hellblade 2.

Order was hated for lots of reasons. Story could have saved the game but it was absolute trash. Gameplay being “pretty great” is entirely subjective.

What’s not subjective is that it’s a shorter game than HB2


Edit, idk why this posted twice

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

No, the utter hyperbolic bullshit that you said lol.

How can you say Order has a better story, when you've not played a second of HB2 ? Or that Order takes longer to complete, when there's websites saying it can take 12~ hours for completionist runs of HB2.


Let's use Gamespot's review of Order as an example, since their HB2 review was posted earlier.




Both game play *and* story are in the BAD section.

Christ sake James, you're turning into a worse warrior every passing thread.

I’m going by what reviewers I trust are saying about HB2

What are you trying to spin?

Is hellblade 2 a 12 hour game? No it’s not, it took Luke Stephens 5 hours and he says that’s with him just wasting time wandering around

He says the story is awful, and that’s coming from someone who enjoyed the original hellblade

Tell me exactly why one 5 hour game with all visuals deserves an 81 but the other gets a 63?

Precisely because fans like yourself that don’t take studios to task for this and are perfectly content cheerleading for mediocrity

 

[Setsuna Mudou]

The recent nostalgia for the quality of The Order is baffling to me. Graphically, it's maybe the most impressive game of its time, and the music and story were actually really cool. But the gameplay, AI, forced stealth segments, variety of enemies, heavy nose breathing, stupid collectables you could look at (wow!), jumping as a QTE, etc... it was the pits. Hellblade knew what it was and did it well. The sequel seems to be doing the same. I just wish they hadn't pushed it as something that appeared to be bigger and bolder way back in 2019.

I think that's his point. The order was bombarded with shit reviews and ended up in the 60's on metacritic. Having this turd in the 80's is thus quite the contrast.

But hey, carry on the discussion

 

[Ass of Can Whooping]

Just finished the torch puzzle. Think i've had enough now. I won't even be annoyed when they shut the studio down.

 

[Gudji]

The only review that matters.

Holy shit that looked like a starfield character for a moment.

 

[xrnzaaas]

I haven't played it yet, but some of the reviews and opinions are depressing. I was counting on the game to have a good story as one of its stronger points.

 

[Edmund]

What Xbox tax? It’s a clearly inflated score

Hellblade 2 - 81 metacritic

The sage has spoken!
Believe in Xbox tax, Pony.

 

[Negotiator101]

Can you not just leave your console bias to one side and realise that this game just isn't for everyone? There will be plenty of XBox fans not liking this game also.

I think the game is ok, but it's only next gen in the visual and audio department, the gameplay is positively archaic, but that's ok because I expected it to be that way.

So stop coming into the thread posting rubbish like, walking simulator, took 7yrs to make etc. It's pathetic and no need for it. Most haven't even played it either. They are just anti Xbox/Microsoft simple as that, same shit with Starfield.

 

[Portugeezer]

"the only thing that would be fair in my mind is to make this a tech demo akin to astrobot, and include it in consoles by default to showcase the power of Xbox"

 

[Shrap]

In my 20 hours before uninstalling it, it did not.

It did. You just didn't play it. Hellblade 1 had way more shallow combat than Death Stranding and "puzzles" which were just orienting the camera at the right angle. Hellblade 2 is even more shallow than 1 with QTE combat.

Death Stranding's traversal alone has far more depth than Hellblade. It's not even up for debate.

 

[H-I-M]

anyone who gives this game more than 80 must also have kind of a mental disorder.

 

[Topher]

Played 30 minutes during my lunch break. The most boring first 30 minutes of "gameplay" I've ever seen. Just so much fucking walking. This was supposed to be a joke, but it is largely accurate so far....

Solved one "puzzle" and fought one enemy at the end of that 30 minute session. Is this really all there is to the combat? Nah....gotta be more to it than this.

 

[Killjoy-NL]

Because he's loyal to The Brand™

He'd be hyping this game if it were Sony exclusive.

Coming from the guy that says Hellblade 1 had more gameplay than Death Stranding?

 

[adamsapple]

I’m going by what reviewers I trust are saying about HB2

Again, this is the least surprising thing you could have said, clearly you've latched onto Luke's video, or another one similar, that's critical of the game and taking it as the general consensus for the game, when clearly it isn't.

Is hellblade 2 a 12 hour game? No it’s not, it took Luke Stephens 5 hours and he says that’s with him just wasting time wandering around

See.

He says the story is awful, and that’s coming from someone who enjoyed the original hellblade

Oh, I bet you enjoyed the first hellblade a lot too, not this one though. Not that you've played it.

Tell me exactly why one 5 hour game with all visuals deserves an 81 but the other gets a 63?

Because the one '5 hour' game that got 63 aggregate review had a lot of issues? I already shared one example which cited both its story and game play (both point you, for some reason, claimed were better there) as NEGATIVES. Let alone the fact that it was also sold as a full priced game at launch.

There's a lot of clear differences, but I don't expect you to tackle them in good faith at all.

 

[SEGAvangelist]

I think that's his point. The order was bombarded with shit reviews and ended up in the 60's on metacritic. Having this turd in the 80's is thus quite the contrast.

But hey, carry on the discussion

I'm fine with a game that knows what is and does it well. The Order tried to be too much and sucked at most everything.

 

[Mortisfacio]

Death Stranding's traversal alone has far more depth than Hellblade. It's not even up for debate.

Yes, Death Stranding did have far more walking. I 100% agree.

 

[DenchDeckard]

Played 30 minutes during my lunch break. The most boring first 30 minutes of "gameplay" I've ever seen. Just so much fucking walking. This was supposed to be a joke, but it is largely accurate so far....

Solved one puzzle and fought one enemy at the end of that 30 minute session. Is this really all there is to the combat? Nah....gotta be more to it than this.

This sounds rough.

Sadge.