Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

[Silva]

Amazingly powerful and emotional experience. I actually cried when she remembered the first time she met her lover in the flowered field. And the way it tackles the mental condition is clever and respectful. Mandatory game.

Between Senua, Soma, Automata and The Last Guardian/Trico, I've come to change my opinion on these story-driven type of games. I used t hate it but now I think it's a valid use of the medium when it's well executed and explore meaningful themes or ideas.

 

[Ivan]

I've yet to try Last Guardian, tech issues aside, is it worth?

 

[Silva]

How is this Edith Finch, worth it?

I've yet to try Last Guardian, tech issues aside, is it worth?

It's the weakest of those cited, but worth it on a sell. Trico is adorable and the message of respect and friendship between man and beast is moving.

Back to Senua, only now it occurred to me that...

Spoiler

some places she visits are from her memories: Valravn place is the woods she exiled at, Surt place is the villages burned by the Northmen, Gramr is actualy Dillion' sword, hidden inside the tree where they first met. The places from the Odin trial represent different events from her youth. While other places are based on the tales and myths Druth told her while in the woods. Still others seem to be a mesh of her own memories of real events and the tales of Druth (the barrow mounds, the sick village, etc). Really interesting what they did here.

One thing that's not clear to me is: did she actually travelled to the north, and then hallucinated here? Or even that is hallucination?

And the little documentary at the end explaining the production is very nice, too.

 

[TedNugent]

Going to force myself to complete the slog on this one eventually and report back.

Not recommending it after 95 minutes of playtime.

 

[Great Deceiver]

Why would you force yourself to complete this turd? Gameplay doesn't change at all, if you've seen the very first match rune to scenery "puzzle", you've seen them all. It's really a walking simulator with shitty, impossible-to-lose combat, toddler-level puzzles and incredibly tedious narration.

The only reason it got any attention at all is because of its self-important huff and puff and OMG MENTAL DISORDER tripe that soyboy IGN propagandists lapped up. It's garbage through and through.

 

[TedNugent]

Yeah, I have to experience the mental dosorder tripe firsthand so that I can confront their claims head on.

Honestly, that and the historical hook of ancient Celts experiencing a viking raid was what made me buy the game.

I'm disappointed on both fronts as well as the gameplay mechanics. I don't think they actually play out the historical hook or involve that heavily into the narrative at all. I'm disappointed by that and I at least want to see a flashback scene with real vikings instead of this toothless scarecrow bullshit.

The sack with the disembodied head and the threat of a real psychological experience of a viking pillage had me all excited. Don't tell me that isn't even in the game.

 

[Valky]

The mental disorder is thinking games like this are good.

 

[Silva]

Going to force myself to complete the slog on this one eventually and report back.

Not recommending it after 95 minutes of playtime.

If by the end you don't feel moved emotionally then you're a hollow husk of a human being. Commit sudoku to keep honor.

 

[Kitchen Utensil]

The mental disorder is thinking games like this are good.

Or better yet, "deep".

 

[Feyd Rautha]

How good is it? Worth a buy?

 

[Great Deceiver]

No. Read the thread.

 

[Ovg]

Bad gameplay, mediocre writing, the best portrayal of mental ilness in video games ever.

 

[Silva]

How good is it? Worth a buy?

Do you like walking sims? If so, it's great. If not, stay away.

 

[LESS T_T]

VR Edition, free to owners of the original on Steam:

 

[Adon]

I disagree about the combat being bad. The big problem is those segments are few and far between, and that it never gets any more complicated/harder once you get the hang of it. It also takes a long while before you go into the tougher fights where you're fighting multiple, different types of enemies at once. I just went through the Sea of Corpses and had a blast going through waves of enemies (FYI I'm playing on Hard), and it made me wish that the combat was more like this and more frequent.

 

[Ovg]

Me too, but the problem is they couldn't decide whether they wanted an adventure-ish game or an action game. So it ends up being as schizophrenic as Senua herself. I made it to the bridge part, and I just couldn't take it anymore. "Find marks" "Kill enemies" "Run". Rinse and repeat.

It's a shame since the game itself has potential and arguably is playable. Just don't play too much in one sitting.

 

[Boleskine]

 

[StaticSpine]

Well, I rage quit the game after 3 hours and deleted it from my Steam account. The gameplay is unbearable.

 

[vortex]

 

[DJOGamer PT]

I can alread see in the future doctors instead of giving insane people pills or throwing them to asylums, they'll instead givethem copies of Ninja Theory games.

If by the end you don't feel moved emotionally then you're a hollow husk of a human being. Commit sudoku to keep honor.

This summer a friend of mine that has a PS4, kept nagging me to try it.
I played for about 1 hour, and in the end I did feel emotionally moved... particularly boredom mixed with confusion that anyone thinks this is a "game", plus some frustation when I realised my friend couldn't understand how I didn't liked this and that this was the "future" of games.
Fortunately for me, her brother also didn't share her entusiasm and so to forget about this waste of time we played Soul Calibur 2, Melee and F-Zero GX for the remainder of the afternoon. And that was pretty good day.

 

[Silva]

played for about 1 hour, and in the end I did feel emotionally moved... particularly boredom mixed with confusion that anyone thinks this is a "game"

HA HA HA

Separate yourself from labels. "Game", "movie", "music"... all artificial borders created by ignorant fools like yourself. Enjoy something by what it is, not what people tell you it should be.

 

[DJOGamer PT]

Except there was no enjoyment to be found in whatever the fuck you wanna call this thing.

 

[Konjad]

Garbage edgy game that got lo0ts of 10/10 GOTY reviews from gaming "journalists" proves that to become a gaming "journalist" you need a prerequisite "manchild retard"

A lot of walking simulators are way more engaging than this trash.

 

[toroid]

Can't let this thread pass by without posting this gem

 

[perfectslumbers]

As a schizophrenic I felt unrepresented playing this game. I have never gotten in a swordfight with a demon and I found it ridiculous. It also portrays schizophrenia in a very negative light when in reality schizophrenia is only negative because of degenerate secularist medicalised society and is generally experienced as a positive thing in third world countries.

That said it would be extremely difficult to render psychosis in a game because you can portray the hallucinations but it is difficult to portray the intuitively understood context that you project on them.