Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

Was cauciously optimistic about this. While Ninja Theory has had some rough patches in the past their games were always halfway decent - they just had the bad luck of having to make a Devil May Cry game.

Hellblade releases today as a digital purchase title on PC & PS4.
So yeah as I said I was cauciously optimistic...

One reviewer wrote wrote:Slowly but surely Ninja Theory has moved into film territory, but they can't let go of their need to shove action mechanics into everything they do.

...until I read the above, after which I immediately put the game on my ignore list.
Any other takers?

Another reviewer wrote wrote:The simple nature of the combat design struck me as obligatory for the sake of interactivity – giving you another way to interact with the world outside of perception – coupled with the fact a warrior should be defined by battle. But there were only a few fights where large groups of enemies were thrown at me that I ever felt threatened and it's only near the end of the journey when enemy numbers and difficulty spike unexpectedly that the combat depth eventually becomes more than the sum of its parts.
And yet, like most of Hellblade, combat is still a tense experience knowing that dying too many times (in or out of combat) will cause your save to be deleted and you’ll be forced to start from the beginning. While that might sound draconian in execution, its tie-ins to the story are concrete, reinforcing a system where failure carries meaning rather than simply acting like a gimmick to artificially inflate difficulty. And though I don't think I ever got close to having my save data destroyed, every time I got close to dying carried much more weight and impact with this knowledge.

I like the save-game system. But that pretty much punishes experimentation so eh yeah.
More and more I find that games need to find a different medium, like interactive stories - and leave this medium alone.

I can't say I have an interest gameplay-wise. I found the development process more interesting.

Stuff like walking dead, Dear ester  n now god of war r really more interactive stories/films yeh, not games, they fail to use the interactive part well enough to be called games, many don't even really have real failure states either, so it's more like films that force u to hit the play button every so often or just hold it down for a bit that's all u do really.

R those reviews positive or snarky? I can't tell what they trying to say.

is the first quote an insult to the 'game' or what? I'm genuinely baffled haha.

It's getting worse too, I play games, not films I don't watch them anymore.

We need to acknowledge these interactive stories as it's own medium instead of calling them games which sets a false president for what games r n then those Walky bits get shoved into actual games like fucking mgr n vanquish of all games plat why u do that? It just hurts everyone. Do u really wanna walk around as raiden or first person sam sections for no reason.

Even dmcboot had walky bits, not many but they r their, action games of all things r their combat nothing more just raw gameplay especially what dmc became, u can't style in walky bits m8.

Ninja theory did a decent job with dmc too, really it needed to be its own thing, like how dmc came from re4, if anything dmc is holding it back. I hate naming a sequel in a series the same name as another entry it's done by those lacking any n all hind and foresight.

LOOK AT DAH PRETTY GRAFFIKKS DOH, ITS SO SHINY.

Shhhh don't ask about the fps, not like it's effecting the gameplay n visuals at all.

I'll probably just watch it on YT.

STORY STORY STORY WOULD U LIKE SOME STORY.

what's a gameplay? Do kids know what gameplay is? Some ancient forbidden art lost to the annals of history.

Only decent review I managed to find: http://www.thejimquisition.com/hellblade-senuas-sacrifice-review-for-the-damaged/

Gameplay isn't anything special it seems. Might pick it up one day if it's on a heavy sale.

@Gabriel they meant it in a good way, which is scary...

I haven't actually seen it yet beyond some footage last yr I think. I'm being a dick here I hate games that pretend to be films.

Cutscenes r cutscenes n gameplay is gameplay, that should be game rule no.1 don't fuck with it unless u can make it work for both without compromising either.

Even mgs a series witch has exceedingly more cutscenes than gameplay u can still skip them if u want the gameplay. Mgs5 even has the most raw gameplay n a open world but still has walky bits.

Imagine if most films didn't cut from scene to scene n just followed the cast from place to place, how tedious n pointless would that be, that's what many exploitation films do since they saving money n time.

Matt daymon was in a film called Gerry that was him n another guy also called gerry just walking for about 2hrs in a desert. That's it. That's what these cinematic bags of boiled piss r. Useless n pointless.

Hey guys do u think when we r old farts that the new kids will ask us about what videgames r?

That's horrifying Roy, dear lord above what have we done to deseve this.

Remember games guys?

Funny how Jim shate on vanquish, to a satirical degree, I'm not sure if he has rectified that review.

Even platinum r off to the rpg salt mines now that automata has done so well, kids love the anime waifu wars n some 2b thighs. Fuck how does vanquish not sell well, what a cruel world ey.

Platinum said they want to do another nier or something taro related game, so even if it's broken at its core like automata at least platinum can pay the bills. I have some strong words against automata as a game, replay value is fucked for one.

Has kamiya stepped down from directing?
Scalebound was a big loss for them so they needed strong sales with automata.

I feel sorry for the kids growing up now.who is gonna culture them on games? do kids know what dmc even is? who Dante is? Jump/animation cancels? Imagine a casual trying to figure that out these days.

A fair but challenging game is so unknown in the mainstream now that souls spawned a whole meme n profit from it, even crash bandicoot is called the dark souls of gran turismo now.

Hey guys do u think when we r old farts that the new kids will ask us about what videgames r?

I'm pretty sure we already are haha and we're those guys who say "Back in my day games had gameplay". I really cannot wait for this walky-talky fad of games it going to blow over. I'd hoped that the abysmall Order 1886 would instigate this but I was wrong.

About what they know: they know what a Stamina-bar and stats are, maybe i.frames. That's it. Dark Souls for life for dem kids.

Kids think souls is the paragon for action games. So that's the standard, but film 'games' have buggar all combat nuance, or any gameplay nuance at all, or even really gameplay.

Damn we r old, fuck I'm only 20 just last week too I can feel the decay seep into me.

R.I.P gameplay.

It's not game design that's the fundamental issue, cutscenes r not gameplay really, core gameplay is.

Meaning through mechanics not cutscenes I can't interact with those. Look at papers please n how unique its gameplay is n how its message is tied into it, while still being a game with player agency n meaningful choices via player interactions.

I love action games because of all the ACTIONS u can ACTUALLY perform. It's always different each time I play god hand n vanquish due to how dynamic the combat is, all my offensive/defensive options intertwined with enemy offensive/defensive option.

Imagine telling dem kidz about replay value, like hey imagine if u played it again because u liked it or something so primeval of an idea.

Imagine telling dem kidz about replay value, like hey imagine if u played it again because u liked it or something so primeval of an idea.

I swear by that time replay is a DLC.

On principle I don't play games I don't like as games, so I don't play old survival horror stuff like re n sh, I watch them plenty they just not fun to play for me. So I really avoid interactive story things, it's why I hate it with a passion when action games n games with lots of player control get forced walking sections. For horror theirs no tension for me with them since it's so scripted I can't reasonably expect to do anything if a monster comes at me because I can't.

Fucken games as a service. Get out of here. Games used to have unlocks in place of Dlc, like re4 mercenaries, just beating a game again would give u extra goodies for your troubles.

You see it happen more and more, games like Zelda recently started adding "Hard Mode" as paid-DLC. It's these little things that slowly build to the point where we'll have to pay to replay.

On the topic of the game, don't buy it yet if you planned to. The game currently has a bug which prevents you from getting past a certain section. During this point you have to run from light-source to light-source, take too long and you die. But due to bad design you run too slow and can't make it. Pair this with the mechanic that dying too much deletes your save-file and voila: broken game.

do kids know what dmc even is?

They do, or they find out by getting the HD collection through PSN, but only on discount because everyone is too cheap to buy a game these days. They hate DMC generally.

Jump/animation cancels?

Generally they know or find out, and disregard it because it requires learning something, or another common view I've seen a lot, that if something isn't necessary to reach the end credits, it isn't worth doing.

Damn we r old, fuck I'm only 20 just last week too I can feel the decay seep into me.


Shut up lol I'm 32.

What a world, yeh pay to play a game mode, metro last light had that. I'm so cautious with my purchases now, I have to look at a genre I like n see if it has needless rpg stuff n open world.

I have some choice things to say against automata related to above statement.

Open world games with lots of CONTENT r big now, which is quantity over quality to a ludicrous degree.
Which is baffling since most gamers(like 95-99%) don't finish games, so why would someone want to play a game that's so long they know they won't finish? doing the same exact tasks over n over instead of a short linear game with tons of replay value with its mechanics.

Jim took his review down, he said he got pissy at the bug not the game, he enjoyed the game n said he would change his review score to about a 8/10 n even wants it to succeed. Makes me disgusted at his vanquish review which is on par with god hand ign review,he not all bad but he is a piss poor reviewer at times.
Fuck scores in general they defeat the point of a review or opinions of anything at all.

It's AAA western stuff mostly doing cinematic things mostly instead of games, won't they take a hint?
Didn't Sony fail with 1886?

AAA has all the funds but would rather make films, indie games r the real innovators now since they r forced to be creative with what little they may have, more focused games that r games at the end of the day.

re6 had a dodgy mix of that(Leon campaign is the worst for it) which is a shame since its core gameplay is good so best just play mercenaries.

God u r old bird man I'm a spring chicken compared to u m8 ;).

Mercenaries is a decent action game. I wouldn't mind that dedicated game they made. Isn;t it 3DS only though?

Had a pretty painful discussion in the comment section of this review:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-08-08-hellblade-senuas-sacrifice-review
(I'm haskerbrouwer) I complained that the review barely touched on the gameplay outside of 'you hit things' and got slammed. Great fun.

And outside of the main games Mercenaries only saw a seperate release on iOS and 3DS yeah.

I love how the little cowards just negative vote comments to make them invisible.

Good one roy. Got some good hits in m8.

Muh story.

Reviewers like these 'games' because they have buggar all actual gameplay n mechanics since they r just films with prompts attached.

Do they complain about length for film 'games', they certainly do for actual games. No one complains that films r too short, usually 1hr 30mins.

Arcade games r short. 30mins-1hr too short 3.46/100 needs more CONTENT.

I checked your comments, u got the stick too, just for inquiring about a game as a game, because apparently it can be assumed we know how all action games play ennit fam.

Re4 n god hand have a similar camera but r actual games, god hand being one of the most dynamic n complex to master.

Also the delete save feature is archaic it's what old games used to have to artificially increase the difficulty. Nothing new it's just needless tedium. I assume it plays like god of walk/child care reboot.

The deleted-save system isn't even tested and doesn't work. Again showing that reviewers have no clue what they're talking about. So far no-one has been able to trigger it.

And God Hand's camera, is not the friendliest. It works and works really well once you know how it works but it is far from ideal. I still feel Resident Evil 4 and Ninja Gaiden 2004 nailed the camera system. God of War had the right idea too with the camera being set. Less to worry about.

Have to note, I was pretty pissed after having my inbox flooded with hatemail. Even got a deaththreat PM. Good way to spend the night I guess.

Camera has always been an issue in action games especially. Like dmc1. I never had a problem with god hands camera but it does require knowledge to use effectively along with the radar to compensate for limited view. I would like a way to switch lock on like with roulette wheel, that would be useful.

I don't remember camera issues in ninja gaiden but I only played sigma1 once n ninja gaiden 2 a bunch of times, oh n ng3 but I haven't played that since release I'd get razors edge instead.

Written mainstream reviews don't do games justice, too eager to slap a number on some bullet points to get the pay check at the end of the day. U actually explain mechanics in games well n have a channel for said games, writing can only get one so far with games so it's best to actually look at games n not just writing which is what most base their purchases on. Not talking about actual gameplay of games in a review is useless, why even be a game or have genres then.

It's mostly a bunch of shallow vague nonsense thrown around so it's outright uninformative to even bother with them. If I interested in a game I will check raw gameplay n a few places that know what they r talking about. I'll buy the game n if I like it then I'll look up what can be done with mechanics presented.

It's clear why automata sold so well since it's about the story. Gameplay isn't everything in an ACTION game dem kidz love the story no assembly required. Cant juggle a story.

Stinger stories tm.

That sucks u got hatemail over a simple inquiry of what's even in this game as a game.

Other than this thread I'm gonna ignore hellblade:gameplays sacrifice entirely.

Have to note, I was pretty pissed after having my inbox flooded with hatemail. Even got a deaththreat PM. Good way to spend the night I guess.

Because you hurt their fragile egos. You have to be a real insecure psycho to send a death threat over comments on a game.

Calling it a game is too much of a complement. I'm not sure it wants to be one, I think it's too much credit to its name. It's a thing, a barely interactive story more than a game.

Also I care more for engaging art n animation with decent fps than simply graphics. Games have the advantage of not being live action, so they can be creative with its visuals, not imitate Hollywood n use the latest tech to print their famous faces into mah video games. I for one tend to find it a waste when games just copy paste a famous face instead of a unique character designs, it's more immersion breaking than anything for me.

Many 7gen games games look better than games made now, like dmc4 n vanquish, vanquish pc is what it could have already looked like, that's insane. That's due to a solid engine n great animators.

If games only imitated films visually then we wouldn't have killer7 trippy visuals.

I don't mind if famous faces show up along side a roster of original game characters, like yakuza which has many original characters juxtaposed with famous Japanese actors like beat takeshi(battle royale) in yakuza 6.

Because you hurt their fragile egos. You have to be a real insecure psycho to send a death threat over comments on a game.

Yeah I really don't get how people can be so defensive about a game they probably haven't even played yet to the point that they send death-threats. That said death-threats on the web are flies, annoying but part of life.

I don't mind a good story in games, hell I welcome it. But it should never be the defacto reason to make it. I can sometimes stomach story-driven games like Spec Ops, Life is Strange and Telltale's Batman - but other than that it just really bothers me. I'm also always surprised how...bad they look. You're a cinematic game yet you run at barely 30fps with crappy graphics, how?

Art, animation, solid engine n a whole lot of love transcend hardware limitations.

It's not about how many polygons a game has if it has shit art n animation.

Gene from GH still has some of the best mocap animations around, platinum love animation so it shows, they can be hyperbolic due to being games n not live action.

Look at dmc4 n vanquish, they look insane to the point I genuinely can't tell if they where made 7gen. Killer 7 is timeless due to its trippy visuals, killer is dead n other grasshoppper games look very stylish n thus not as dated due to aping real life aesthetic.

Graphics can change art style, such a crash remakes which look different than crash originals not simply better, personally I prefer old crash look it is far more impressive n I respect jaggy ps1 polygons as its own art style appeal.

Developers used to understand the hardware limitations of the current systems n have solid fps n some nice animation n art to compensate for lower poly count.

Developers aren't mostly using the current hardware to push game design like the leap from 5th to 6th, games like ninja garden n dmc1 used the latest tech to push action games to another lvl.

Mgs2-3-4 used the current tech to evolve gameplay also.

Plus tech limits forced devs to be creative n solve said limits such as dmc1 not having guns n swords wielded at once.

Ai is something that can be evolved with current tech but Ai hasn't gotten any better mostly.

Indie games r the ones innovating n experimenting with genres. They don't have to worry about focus groups n flow charts they make games because they love them n it tends to show.

Different graphical limits have their own artistry to them, I have an affinity for ps1 n ps2 look, re4 looks astounding, I like that simple texture work it's not all mushy too many textures like games have 7-8 gen, u know like how wall texture can look all mucky compared to say how simple god hand wall textures r.

Sometimes theirs such a thing as too many graphics, or not enough of the ones that matter.

God hellblade:game play's sacrifice looks just like god of day cares combat, graphics n art style. Boring real world look I hate it. Both have ugly bland art n slap famous faces in them in place of original character designs.

Just look how good alien soldier looks n runs on genesis, that's insane looking game.

Wonder when dem kidz will stop caring about the good graphics.

Mikekob's gameplay, so you know it's good. Doesn't look great, but I'm noticing a few little things.

Wonder when dem kidz will stop caring about the good graphics.

Doubt that will ever happen. Hell it was a thing even in the SNES days, people raging on the SNES for being ugly etc while the GENESIS had blast-fucking-processing. Graphics were always a big deal. What people tend to forget is that without good art-direction it's just temporarly good - games like Wind Waker look stunning even today while others like MGS1 look downright disgusting now.

@Birdman yeah I saw that video too. But after watching a stream by TheSeraphim17 I decided not to try it. The game sometimes has nearly 2 hours of walky-talky stuff before you get one combat scenario. And you can't skip those on repeat-playthroughs...so yeah not for me.

Ugh, unskippables.

It may not be worth picking up, but at least a good action player is showing what can be done even in a game like this.

I'm somewhat interested. Might grab it when there's a discount.

Hey guys our combat in this action game is simply ok.

Shame since they did a decent job with dmcboot

Hey guys! I'm not sure if anyone has played this since it came out, but I wanted to chime in with my 2 cents.

This has been one of my favorite games of the year, behind NieR: Automata and Horizon Zero Dawn personally. The storytelling and acting are beautiful and heartbreaking, and play to the strengths that Ninja Theory cultivated with their time with Heavenly Sword and Enslaved. The combat is very, very rudimentary if you are used to action games, but there's still fun to be had.

To tell if the game is for you, I've been using this comparison: do you like casual story games and walking simulators? This game has way more in common with games like Life is Strange, Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, Gone Home, etc. It just also happens to dabble a bit in decently satisfying combat instead of using quick time events like Telltale's stuff (The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us).

If that sounds to your liking I really can't recommend the game enough, but if you're hoping for an action game of at least DmC reboot caliber it's definitely just not that type of game.

Titles like Gone Home and Life is Strange (and some Telltale titles) always hit home with me, but I never paid for them directly (always got them via PS+). I am honestly waiting for this game to be the same, so I might get it one day. I like the concept of it, but I always also feel that games of this nature should need one big 'skip' button once you beat it if it has combat. Replay value is incredibly important to me, and I just don't see myself doing this more than once in its current state. I'd love to just tinker around more in Life is Strange but all the dialogue and cutscenes really make me go "yeah, I'll revisit that in a few years when I've forgotten a few things".

I had the same with Order 1886(?), fun games, fun combat and great levels and visuals, but the pandering and plodding around just made the thought of booting it up again a chore and I eventually sold it.

Still have to play Heavenly Sword. I bought it recently but never gave it a shot yet. I really want to like Ninja Theory but after DmC I'm still a bit on the fence. What would you say their best game is?