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Senua Saga: Hellblade 2 is a modern marvel!

BigLee74

Member
Folk calling it a tech demo, or semi-interactive movie are dead wrong and do the game a massive disservice.

It’s very much a game, with exploration, puzzles and combat.

Unfortunately, it’s just not very exciting.

I do remember some outstanding set pieces though, in particular one level with red lighting and fog that pulsed to the background music - it felt amazing!

I’m glad I played it, and it’s relative shortness meant I didn’t mind completing it either.
 

sainraja

Member
Thing is, a new IP wouldn't change much, these guys just don't "get it"/don't have the technical know-how as to make a "proper" video game :

- Heavenly sword : "muh facial expressions!"/Look at the cinematic-ness !1!1!", a sub-par GOW clone that ran terribly on the PS3.

- Enslaved : "muh facial expressions!"/Look at the cinematic-ness !1!1!", zero challenge, auto-pilot gameplay with "platforming " sections worse than Uncharted in how easy, no-stakes, zero difficulty everything was.

- DmC : absolute travesty of a DMC game, color coded enemies (lol), terribad, edge-lordy story (at least Capcom's entries are goofy on purpose) and while it does have some actual gameplay compared to their other games, it was because it was already based on an existing, gameplay-heavy franchise.

- Bleeding Edge : a MP "video game" alright, one that died a swift death for obvious reasons (i.e , it just wasn't good).

Hellblade : "muh facial expressions!"/Look at the cinematic-ness !11!"/"muh mental illness, so brave !1!".
Zero gameplay.

Hellblade 2 : "muh facial expressions!"/Look at the cinematic-ness !11!"/"muh mental illness, so brave !1! Pt.2".
Zero gameplay.

In fact, I always wondered how the hell this company managed to stay afloat all these years since their games never did light the world on fire nor did they sell that well.

Absolute travesty of a company, the pretentiousness always seeped through their projects with their illusions of grandeur always shadowing the (non-existent) gameplay.

We may shit on Ubisoft or heck, even Kojima (which is apparently all the rage the past few years) but fuck man, at least there's some meat on those bones in the form of...actual gameplay...in a videogame.

Team Ninja, besides the tech-side of things, always have and will always be hacks, when you make video games that don't have actual gameplay in them...yeah, I think we have a problem
Ninja Theory you mean...
 

FoxMcChief

Gold Member
I couldn’t last longer than 45 minutes. And I enjoyed the first game. I think Ryse is 100x better than both games though.
 

Soapbox Killer

Grand Nagus
I don't have a super whizbang setup, just a Pixio 277 gaming monitor and a Series X but it was by far the most impressive looking game I have ever seen. Maybe more artsy than I wanted it to be but still so impressive.
 

fallingdove

Member
The post was entirely about the graphics in the game, and it's generally agreed on that the game is stunning in that department. What's funny or wrong about the OP's opinion?
It’s not at all a modern marvel. There are so many qualifiers that have to be applied to the OP, it quickly unravels the argument that they are trying to make.

- The game has very limited gameplay/interactivity.
- Lots of dark areas that hide assets or lack of assets
- Lots of budget around the 3D character models using the latest rendering techniques but everything else? Meh, there are other games that are just as impressive.

It’s the God of War 3 (from a visual perspective) of the generation. Lots of smoke and mirrors, cool for a video game but a remarkable feat? No, and it’s laughable to suggest it.

There are more amazing things happening in computer generated graphics. In cinema you have higher fidelity, more lifelike visuals and in video games there are better examples of gameplay.
 
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Yes it looks stunning but more than that its animation blending is completely next level, I tried very hard to force any kind weird transitions or hitches or sliding but I couldn't find any, not even in combat, it's completely seamless from start to finish.
The first game has more interesting combat though.
 
The fights on this game with headphones are completely slept on for how intense they are.

I actually really enjoyed my time with it. I waited until all the hype and hate had died down and played it with 0 influence.

That's a lie I played it while on my medical cannabis and I was blown away.

I swear I don't feel like I saw the same animation twice in the fights, when she rolls on the floor or something. I even re did fights if I died learning tge mechanics and the fights didn't go 100% the same.

On a 4090 pc it's jaw dropping.

Play with headphones
Thanks for changing your avatar. Seeing that idiot Todd Howard's face always made me hate your comments before.
 

Saber

Member
It's good for dumb people who likes to just staring at visuals and never play games. DF sure must be drowing this game, as they usually don't need to play them just pixel counting(nothing against them though).
Would be better to connect your controller to your PC, watch youtube and pretend you're playing.
 

TheSHEEEP

Gold Member
Hellblade has always been a "style over substance" kind of experience.

Sure, it theoretically has exploration, puzzles and combat.
But the exploration is absolutely minimal.
The puzzles I would've called insultingly stupid and the worst possible - but then Failguard came out, so I guess the bar did get lower. Anyway, they are rather laughable.
The combat is mediocre at best. It would be the only thing with potential here, but then the game is so short there's really nothing to master about it.
The graphics and atmosphere are very good - too bad that doesn't make a good game.

The protagonist is also downright annoying - yeah, I get she's supposed to be a certain way and I get the theme and topic of the game is mental illness.
But I guess there's a reason people don't generally want to identify with/play as mentally ill characters. Self-indulgent suffering isn't really my thing, either.
Also the metaphors are really on the nose.

I really think this is a case of game where people want to like it, as mental illness is indeed an important topic, and can fool themselves into viewing it as great.
But when you take a step back and look at it with some objectivity, this isn't much of a flag bearer.
 
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Best lighting I have ever seen in a game. They should release it on the PS5. Would look amazing on the PRO. They should reduce the price and sell it as a glorified tech demo.
 

GymWolf

Member
It's good for dumb people who likes to just staring at visuals and never play games. DF sure must be drowing this game, as they usually don't need to play them just pixel counting(nothing against them though).
Would be better to connect your controller to your PC, watch youtube and pretend you're playing.
Nah, the idiots had the best graphic ever in front of their eyes and went with fucking indy as 2024 best looking game, utter uselessness even when it comes to judge graphic.
 
So basically you haven't noticed any gameplay moment and were just focused on graphics in its tiny linear world? Yup sounds like Hellblade trash.
 
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