Hellblade Catch-All

Aww, that's too bad.

After reading the Eurogamer review, I'm 100% in on this, and just need to decide between PC and PS4. This passage in particular sold me on it:

Senua's story is one of constant struggle against self doubt, against enemies both untouchable and unbearable, and against harmful attitudes toward the mentally ill. It's a story that touches on loss and how difficult it can be to persevere, but it also finds room for comfort. Hellblade shows how relationships can provide solace and comfort for those suffering from mental disorders, but also shows that a relationship can be a double-edged sword; Senua's reflections on love are tinged with an awareness of how different she feels from other people. While basking in the love of a man whose outlook is so overwhelmingly positive, she can't help but notice the contrast to her own mental state. She feels relief at being loved, but almost a sense of guilt - it's clear she feels she doesn't deserve this man, and she fears what harm will be done to him by her 'darkness', as she terms it.
ccesarano wrote:

Permadeath is a bluff

Awesome news!

ccesarano wrote:

Permadeath is a bluff

Damn, the cake is a lie.

I've had my eye on this for a LONG time and I'm super glad it's getting pretty good reviews. Will grab it just as soon as I can justify spending the money.

This is a good example of how the sub-$60 price point encourages sales. At $60, I'd be holding off, and would probably wait until it was $20 or less, because why not. At $30, I'm buying on launch day. Anecdata!

pyxistyx wrote:

I've had my eye on this for a LONG time and I'm super glad it's getting pretty good reviews. Will grab it just as soon as I can justify spending the money.

I just justified it to myself. Downloading it...

Saw this pointed out on twitter.

It's a game where your character is supposed to be experiencing constant anxiety about what's real and what isn't.

And they gave players reason to have a bit of anxiety about their save getting deleted if they fail a whole bunch of times... but that threat wasn't real.

Seems to me like a very cleverly designed way to give you some tiny shred of shared experience with the character.

Except that everybody got all outraged by the very insinuation that it could happen and now that's all spoiled. The internet: Why we can't have nice/cool/fun things sometimes.

Yeah, I'm actually pretty damn annoyed that the cat got let out of the bag on that one.

I've spent an hour with this so far and it's gorgeous and atmospheric. It's Lara Croft's ancient viking ancestor...

Fight mechanics seem to be an afterthought but I don't think that's really the point of the game.

Definitely play with headphones. The voices and audio positioning are great. I tried it without headphones and even on a 7.1 system you lose the impact.

I'm hoping to get started tonight, but I might need to wait until tomorrow. I was thinking this is the first game I've bought at launch since Alice: Madness Returns back in 2011. Weird how both games star a woman with mental issues who carries a blade around...

Played the first two "sections" or "levels" or whatnot tonight (effectively the tutorial and one of the first "missions" leading up to a boss). Firstly? When they say "You should use headphones" they ain't bullsh*tting. I'm not normally a headphones guy when gaming as headphones start to sort of ache or feel uncomfortable or something. But here? I think it's a necessity. It's not just the 3D audio environment, it's having the voices pumped directly into your ear.

This is important not just for narrative, but I believe communicating game info without having tutorial messages. Most of the controls I figured out by just pressing buttons until something happened, so I cannot say this for certain. However, in my first boss fight, something happened against Soot (or however the Norse spelled his name):

Spoiler:

I started to note an item on Senua's belt would glow with blue symbols, shining very brightly every so often. When Soot surrounded himself in fire, becoming invulnerable, one of the voices shouted above the others "FOCUS!" Didn't really think about it, just immediately held the trigger which revealed a new ability to slow time and basically wail on the guy, extinguishing his flames. If it weren't for the headphones her shout may not have come off so clearly, and the instruction was done without having to tell me a specific button to push.

In other words, if this is how the game's instructions are largely given, then I like it. The player is never removed the experience of Senua, and the title is very, very heavily trying to make sure there's as thin of a barrier as possible between player and player character.

As for the combat itself, I was worried at first that it would be shallow and simple. However, having to deal with multiple foes at once is a test of careful play, and dodging is imperative. A new foe was just introduced with a shield, however, suggesting that things will get more interesting than just "more enemies". I just hope how they piece encounters together becomes interesting rather than frustratingly difficult. A challenge as opposed to stupid hard.

The only complaint I have is that finding runes can be a pain in the ass. However, they definitely try to give in-game hints to steer you in the correct direction.

At the very least the guys at Ninja Theory are right. This game requires enough trust in the player to figure sh*t out that it'd never be published as-is from a larger company. It'd have button prompts and more obvious focus-tested segments to make things too easy.

Speaking of, I am slightly disappointed that the whole "death being permanent" thing is also a slight of hand. The game isn't challenging enough for me to worry about that yet, it seems like it'll be short enough it won't be a problem, and honestly, it's basically having extra lives or continues instead of unlimited respawns. It's a decision I think can actually add tension and encourage the player to think once they start making mistakes in combat.

I'd much rather be worried about losing my save file. It would really help the experience they're trying to sell.

I only managed to get about 40 minutes to play this tonight, so these are super early.

First off, echo what cces said, consider this game headphones mandatory. I'm going to spoiler the explanation, just in case you want to go in completely cold, but what I'm going to say is evident within about thirty seconds of starting, so it's barely a spoiler.

Spoiler:

The real party piece, so far, is the voices in your head. Imagine the narrator from Bastion, except the narrator is made up of a few of your friends and a bunch of your high school bullies. These voices are constantly whispering in your ears. With headphones, they're literally in your ears. The sound designers did a fantastic job of making the voices sound like they're three inches behind your head, which is unsettling in a great way. But they're also all around you. With headphones on, it feels like you're surrounded by a crowd of these haranguing voices, by turns telling you what to do, that you can do it, and (frequently) that you can't possibly do this and you're going to die because you're a failure.

Without headphones, I suspect the personal feel of the voices is muted a bit. With them, it feels like they're in your head. Which they are.

Even at this early stage, and I can tell I personally will be loving the hell out of this. They've managed to really effectively capture what it feels like to be in the middle of a brain weasel episode, which is quite something.

Aside from that, the graphics are really nice. Much too early for me to judge the combat, but I like what I've seen so far. I've done two of the rune lock things, and if you've played The Witness, these will feel familiar, though not nearly as obtuse so far, and there are some hints the game provides to help out. Facial animations on the main character are especially good.

I'm playing on PC, and even streamed to the Steam Link and with everything bashed up to very high, frame rate probably averaged aroudn 50fps at 1080p with the recommended specs. I bet if I wasn't streaming it, I'd have a solid 60, but I'll try that tomorrow.

Unless they really screw up later, I think this'll be well worth full price.

Played through the first part of the game so far--not with headphones, because I was on a TV with Freyja and her boifriend watching. Even without the headphones...

Daaaamn, this game is intense. I am super into it.

ccesarano wrote:

Permadeath is a bluff

This seems like a pretty big spoiler no?

Warriorpoet897 wrote:
ccesarano wrote:

Permadeath is a bluff

This seems like a pretty big spoiler no?

Yes and no. It's unfortunate that it was outed pretty heavily because of all the backlash. Which... at this point, there's no avoiding it. Any podcast that will be discussing the game will bring it up, any YouTuber, etc.

There's other details regarding it that I am waiting until I've played further before discussing.

Finally got a chance to check out the game. I could only play for about a half hour, enough to find my first rune. So far, the game is incredibly atmospheric and beautiful. I'm playing with some crappy earbuds I got with my ancient iPod over ten years ago, and still the sound is fantastic. I'm very glad I bought the game, and I'm looking forward to playing some more!

I'm surprised more people haven't commented on this one. Made it past the first 2 trials last night and onto the next section before I stopped for the night. Just a beautiful game. The audio is really outstanding. I can't say enough about the mechanic of it.

I'm halfway through the Valravn trial, and the audio there is freaking terrifying. Talking about the audio, I love how the voices help you in combat --it's come in handy on a number of occasions already.

And yes, the game is beautiful --I love everything about the visuals. I'm definitely enjoying spending time in this world!

I got past the two trials, and a chunk of the way into the next area before starting to zonk out. It continues to be really good. The combat feels like a more deliberate version of their usual brand of button mash combat, which is a really bad way to put it, but there it is. There's a rhythm to it that took me a bit of getting used to, but now I dig it.

Atmosphere is incredibly good, and I really like how they play with mood just by varying the weather and lighting.

As a nice side benefit, the Steam trading cards are currently selling from between $.25-$.50 each.

Well, bad news if you have an AMD card. Apparently after you get past the first two bosses, the frame rate starts to tank. I hit that point last night and noticed it, but I assumed it was something on my end, since I was running through the Link, but then the RPS review mentioned it as a thing. I didn't find it unplayable, but after some reading around this morning, it sounds like it gets progressively worse through the rest of the game.

The developers have a sticky on the Steam forums saying they're working on a patch, so hopefully they get that out and it gets resolved. I might shelve it until then, unfortunately. While it seemed playable, I'd rather not have frame rate issues muddying the experience for me.

Nvidia cards seem fine, and I still recommend the hell out of the game itself. Just something to be aware of if you're on AMD.

I saw this game in a featured slot on the Playstation Store and the visuals blew me away. Unfortunately I've got a pile of quarter-played new games, so I can't justify it right now, but I will definitely pick this one up in a few weeks.

I found the first thing that's going to frustrate me in this game: Lorestones. If you advance too far in the game you cannot go back and get ones you miss. Thus far I haven't been worried, but there's one in Valravyn's lair that I just cannot find. So I guess I'm going to have to occasionally break out the FAQ for this one.

On another note, I discovered the pause menu this morning when I needed to blow my nose. It has all the controls right there. Still getting the hang of it, but holding R1 for Block turned out to be useful against Valravyn. He's got two separate one-two-slice attacks that you can't really dodge. You may avoid the first strike, but not the second.

However, what was most interesting to see was the Combat Difficulty set to "Auto Detect". The game has been consistently keeping me on my toes but I've not died in combat once so far. I've gotten close, but it seems mashing-X will allow you to narrowly escape a death blow (I imagine this won't always work if you're consistently getting beat down). Part of me wants to set the combat to a static difficulty and see what happens. Think I'll test that out after I beat the game, because so far it seems to be working. I'd like to see what variables are changed. How many enemies show up? What kind? Currently there are three types of warrior I face. The regular swordsman, the hammer wielder who seems stronger and more aggressive, and the shielded warrior who is less aggressive and is vulnerable for less time (unless you remember to kick him and knock him off balance). I've gone up against three of the non-shielded guys at once and I've gone up against one non-shield and one shielded at the same time, but no other combinations. I imagine the shield guy was introduced at a specific story-point, but after that is it dynamically determined? "The player seems to have trouble with shield-guys, so we'll spawn them less"? "They seem to be having difficulty this fight, so we'll ease on the A.I. aggression or number of guys that show up"?

Either way, good times so far.

ccesarano wrote:

On another note, I discovered the pause menu this morning when I needed to blow my nose. It has all the controls right there. Still getting the hang of it, but holding R1 for Block turned out to be useful against Valravyn. He's got two separate one-two-slice attacks that you can't really dodge. You may avoid the first strike, but not the second.

However, what was most interesting to see was the Combat Difficulty set to "Auto Detect". The game has been consistently keeping me on my toes but I've not died in combat once so far. I've gotten close, but it seems mashing-X will allow you to narrowly escape a death blow (I imagine this won't always work if you're consistently getting beat down). Part of me wants to set the combat to a static difficulty and see what happens. Think I'll test that out after I beat the game, because so far it seems to be working. I'd like to see what variables are changed. How many enemies show up? What kind? Currently there are three types of warrior I face. The regular swordsman, the hammer wielder who seems stronger and more aggressive, and the shielded warrior who is less aggressive and is vulnerable for less time (unless you remember to kick him and knock him off balance). I've gone up against three of the non-shielded guys at once and I've gone up against one non-shield and one shielded at the same time, but no other combinations. I imagine the shield guy was introduced at a specific story-point, but after that is it dynamically determined? "The player seems to have trouble with shield-guys, so we'll spawn them less"? "They seem to be having difficulty this fight, so we'll ease on the A.I. aggression or number of guys that show up"?

Either way, good times so far.

The pause button is a life saver, haha. I discovered it right before my first enemy encounter, so that came in pretty handy.

As far as the difficulty level, I'm playing on easy (as always), but the types and combinations of enemies appear to be the same you are describing. I'm past through the two trials, the bridge, and a few encounters right after it, and the enemies are the same and coming in the same proportions and combinations: sometimes it's two sword guys and one hammer guy, sometimes it's one of each plus a shield guy, etc.

Since I'm woefully unskilled, playing on easy is providing me with the right amount of challenge. I've died several times, but it's almost always been against the bosses, and it hasn't been frustrating, which is great. I'm enjoying the combat so far, and I'm curious to see what happens next.

Just made it through the third-to-last area (name hidden just in case):

Spoiler:

The Sea of Corpses

Crazy, awesome visuals. Really loved it .

New patch out today. Sadly, it doesn't contain a fix for the AMD frame rate issues. Makes me very sad, because I really want to get back into this and go through the end, but not yet.

Another new patch is out today, this one sounds like it's targeting the AMD slowdown. Hooray! Unfortunately, I'll be out of town all weekend, so I can't try it out.

I can now confirm that the most recent patch does indeed fix the frame rate problems with AMD cards in the second half of the game.

I'm almost at the end, and it's done some new things that are really interesting, focusing on non-combat gameplay. This game's really good, and I'm sad that it seems to be getting overlooked by most people, and with the holiday season bearing down on us, will probably continue to be. Seriously, this game's real good, and you should buy it.

It is a great game. I finished it last weekend, and enjoyed it from beginning to end. I hope it finds a place in people's favorite games lists this year, even though it has many serious contenders. I think it's a great achievement of a game, especially for a small team.

I'm not sure it's a great game, but it's a game I am glad exists because it doesn't feel like other games. There were some sections that I felt were very effective and others that I was not so fond of.

Actually, there's only one I was not so fond of:

Spoiler:

In the one vision world where you had to hide from the vague monsters (that became a bit more clear when you zoomed in on them and holy sh*t they were still freaky). The one in the house? Perfectly executed. Having to go along a lit path because trying to avoid them in the darkness just leads you deeper into darkness and therefore being worried that at any moment you'll f*ck up and get killed because that f*cking path works nothing like the house that teaches you about avoiding these f*cking monsters?

Yeah that part was f*cking sh*t.

The numbers game of approaching foes towards the end also seemed to get rather ridiculous, but in some ways it worked. I'm curious if, towards the final stretch, they started dropping in fewer hits for anyone else?

In the end it's definitely a game I'll want to return to one day and get some deeper use out of it. I'd use the desire to Platinum as an excuse only I already did. Oooooh snap!

Good stuff, but I don't think it'll make my top three this year. However, I do hope Ninja Theory has proven that it is possible to make a "AA" quality game that doesn't have to be overly clunky. Be careful with your ambitions and do something different.