Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice

[danielpholt]

Got my fingers crossed for this one. I've not seen much in the way of hype or footage, but I've really enjoyed Ninja Theory's previous works, and I'm confident this will hit the mark once again. 

Edited August 5, 2017 by danielpholt

[TheMightyEthan]

It looks neat, I'm waiting to see what others think.

[TheFlyingGerbil]

It seemed interesting when I saw it but then just dropped off the radar. Hope they do OK with it

 

[danielpholt]

Picked it up this morning.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-08-08-hellblade-deletes-your-save-file-if-you-die-too-much

Guess I'll be playing on Easy.

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[TheMightyEthan]

Yeah, my take on the permadeath thing is it seems like a neat integration of the games themes into the mechanics, but at the same time it completely puts me off wanting to play it.  But that's okay, not every game has to be for me.

[danielpholt]

https://www.pcgamesn.com/hellblade-senuas-sacrifice/hellblade-permadeath-bluff


This stuff has been wild. Apparently the whole perma-death thing? It's not real?

We've got no confirmation either way at this point. None of the reviews that mentioned the system thought it'd be a good idea to you know...see if it was actually in the game or not.

As of right now I think we're assuming the perma-death messaging is in the game to place a little more emphasis on the games themes without actually doing any long term damage to the player.



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[TheMightyEthan]

Huh.  Now I feel the opposite of what I did before: I'm far more likely to play the game, but I'm kind of disappointed that the mechanic isn't real, because it was a neat idea.  It's a very odd feeling.

[danielpholt]

I'm not really sure if the system is in the game at all at this point. That being said, I'm not going to take it for granted as I move forward through the game. The game itself isn't all that difficult, but the threat of having my save deleted if I fuck up too many times certainly brings something new to the table. The combat feels so much more desperate when you know you've got your back against the wall and are beginning to lose a fight. 

I hate the idea of losing my save, but at the same time, the threat of it makes the game feel so much more interesting. 

[deanb]

I'm still pissed off years later that the implementation of Steam Cloud (still early days) of Rock of Ages meant my save got accidentally deleted. Never mind if a game was to do it on purpose.

[danielpholt]

I think this game may end up placing on my end of year top 5. Technical issues aside, the actual game is absolutely fantastic.

It's unlike anything else I've played this year and some of the things it does with audio design seem almost unique to games as a whole.

I must be getting close to the end now, and you know what? I'm kinda bummed.

Or as bummed as one could be about seeing the back of a game about mental health issues, an abusive parent and a fuck load of death.

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[CorgiShinobi]

I finished the game last night and even got the Platinum. It's not terribly hard to Platinum with only one missable trophy. There's 44 of these fascinating runes/stones that tell you stories/legends in Norse mythology. I almost missed one so I found a guide for the endgame ones as you can't always properly backtrack. Also, there's no chapter select, so you'd have to go through the game again, which honestly would take away from the experience.

 

The actor they got to narrate the stories does a fantastic job, and truly the audio work for this game is by far it's shining star. There are many other aspects that are excellent, but the audio carries you through the environment and makes those environments feel so oddly surreal. So if you're still unsure what to expect in this game, it really is only about 25% combat while the rest is exploring the landscape and trying to get past these obstacles that are almost assuredly all in Senua's head. I say almost because the game does a fine job of weaving actual physical world forces with that of the supernatural.

 

The only flaws might be that if you try to get the game done quickly, you're either going to miss the fine details of Senua's psychosis on the environment, or you're going to become unnerved with experiencing Senua's psychosis. She has moments where it seems she's beating or winning against The Darkness, but there's always something that brings it back and reveals more of what drives Senua's pain. Throughout the game, there will be varying forms of gameplay that represent the different experiences of failing mental health. To me it's a positive because of how inventive and dedicated Ninja Theory was to exploring mental health. However, the differing gameplay could annoy you because you personally have to adjust in-game to exploring the world in a new yet hampered method.

 

So there really isn't any permadeath, but there's a reason why the game states The Rot will consume Senua after many deaths. I won't spoil it, but death plays a very important role in this game. If you didn't bother reading online about it, you'd have more concern for Senua and what seeks to do her harm. Now the game isn't terribly difficult. I did die a few times though, but it wasn't until over halfway into the game when there are instant death mechanics based on fear and panic. For those that have played...

 

 

The swamp trial where you have to run away from the flaming... people/crowd? First I thought maybe it was for show, but then I saw I really died. Second time was in the same area after only getting 2 of 3 runes. That area made me really anxious because when I did find all 3 runes, I couldn't find the door for like two minutes.

 

Thinking on it, I guess another flaw would be that later in the game, I felt almost deterred to explore the environment because of those potential death traps. As such, it became a little less intuitive to solve some of the puzzles. One that seems to get people online is the M rune door leading to one of the bosses. You have to stay in the light, but to solve the puzzle you need to knock down a bridge that's way down a dark pathway, a.k.a. potential death. Thing is, unless you had visited the other side where you can see the bridge and light a torch, you wouldn't know it was even there from the other side because of having no light.

 

But even with moments like those, I still highly recommend getting this game, especially because it's $30 and does so much for the medium as both an artform and method is educating those on mental health. Dan kinda spoiled a plot point, but there's a depth to this game I fear that reviewers have been missing because they're in such a rush to get through a game. The ending was slight confusing, but after some minutes it all clicked and I was stunned by how it all connected.

 

9 Runes outta 10!

Edited August 13, 2017 by Atomsk88