Posted on: October 16, 2023

Louard_le_Barbare

Игр: 294 Отзывов: 124

Masterful narrative, awkward gameplay

With its high production values and daring narrative, Hellblade is as interesting as it is hard to categorize. Its main appeal is its powerful story: using Norse mythology as a background, it is a pretty frontal and uncompromising depiction of mental illness, and the toll such a condition (and the way society treats it) takes on a person. It’s kind of “artsy”, but both the writing and actor performances are so intense and sincere that you won’t blame the game for it. With its beautiful environments and breathtaking character models, it also looks gorgeous for a 2017 release by a smaller company, and seems decently optimized too (I experienced occasional stuttering, but that was on a laptop with some settings maxed out). The art direction is more than eye-candy, and plays a big role in carrying the themes of the story. The issue with H:SS is that its gameplay is… functional, but not much else. The combat has satisfying quirks, but since hostiles encounters are repetitive and drag on for WAY too long, I ended up really tired of it after a while. The puzzles are also a mixed bag, as the whole “finding hidden motives by aligning pieces of scenery” gimmick quickly overstays its welcome. Overall, everything is slow in H:SS: moving from place to place, battling wave after wave of foes… It feels less like you are controlling the heroine, and more like dragging her along. Clearly this is largely deliberate to match the contemplative atmosphere and heavy themes, but still, it’s a constant point of annoyance. In the end, it really feels that much of the gameplay is here as padding, so that H:SS is more than a walking simulator... but maybe a walking simulator would have been better, as the story would have sufficed to carry this game. While its base price is reasonable, I would recommend getting it on sale and playing it on low difficulty (and perhaps with a guide in handy), which should let you enjoy the great storytelling while minimizing the frustration of the controls.

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Posted on: January 8, 2021

glasratz

Игр: 521 Отзывов: 30

Good basics, but not much of a game.

This game seemed amazing in the first two hours or so. It built a great atmosphere and managed to visualize the mental problems of the protagonist in a way, that made me really feel it. It also features a solid fighting system and a small amount of impressive looking enemies. But, that's it. That's all! The largest amount of gameplay time is take up by puzzles that don't deserve to be called that name. You walk around very, very slowly looking at things until you find the right spot to look at things. Then you can go on to do exactly the same over and over again. There's no problem solving or even thinking involved. When you have to fight, it's always in a seperate arena and generally goes on for so long that you are fed up before half of it is over. It's not very difficult, but very tiring. What little, weak story there is, is only told through disembodied voices, making it even more forgettable. It can all be summed up like this: There's about forty-five minutes of great content that is repeated over and over again. Sadly none of this content is very much fun done more than once.

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Posted on: January 21, 2021

Metalmeyer

Владелец игры

Игр: 46 Отзывов: 3

A double-edged sword

*Unique and mindblowing Sound Design *Beautiful graphics with exciting imagery *The (rune)-puzzles are a little bit annoying after solving a few. *The fights are repetitive and kill the buzz of the game a bit - there are just a few enemy-types with repetitve movesets which respawn for what feels like eternity... Especially in the late game are at least three fights which lasted for over 15-20 minutes without being interesting enough. This game is stunningly beautiful and has incredible and unique sound design. These two points alone justify to buy and experience this game. But I wished they would have been a bit bolder in their concept. The puzzle-solving and fights are not exactly the strong suit of this game. Though they take the majority of playing-time. They seemed a bit forced, like they thought that a video game has to have these sort of things in it to be considered a proper game... The strongest moments (for me) were when they let you walk through the world, let you experience it through Senua's eyes and ears. They could've easily stripped down the amount of fights and puzzles and focus a bit more on the things that make this title unique.

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Posted on: September 1, 2023

OCD_Monkey

Владелец игры

Игр: 523 Отзывов: 15

Was great until the ending

I don't feel like going too deep into it, but this game was really great and atmospheric, and I'd say was at least a 4 star game until the ending cutscene kept playing. Like, seriously, up to and including the first half of the ending cutscene this game was great, but it kept playing and went on to ruin the entire game because due to the topic matter this game cannot stand without a well made ending, and they decided to make a nonsensical, weird in tone plot twist with forced sequel bait when the way the story had been going it should have been impossible to make a sequel. Anyway, I gave this two stars to acknowledge how good it was up to that point, but dang that ending ruined it so bad.

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Posted on: August 24, 2022

SargonAelther

Владелец игры

Игр: 5793 Отзывов: 12

An undeniable proof that games are art!

The story is about Senua, a Pictish female warrior on a quest to save the soul of her deceased lover. The world she inhabits, as well as the enemies she faces along the way, feel like they've been pulled out of a dream. The world is dark, gloomy and somewhat surreal, though there are a few moments of beauty and light. Senua also happens to be suffering from psychosis. Her illness takes the centre stage, as you are constantly surrounded by voices in her head as well as various patterns and visions in the world. The fact that the game is set in the late 8th century also creates some interesting interpretations for her condition. It also makes Senua a somewhat unreliable narrator. The game features some basic combat, but it is NOT the focus of this game. There are difficulty settings in the game, one of which is adaptive difficulty. The only thing that difficulty seems to control is the health pool of enemies, so if you are very good at fighting, the game will increase the health pool of enemies way too much and, as a result, later section of the game may start to feel tedious. I would recommend setting it to something static, such as Normal. It's not a horror game, but it uses some clever trickery to create suspense and dread for the player. There are a handful of puzzle types throughout the game and while they do repeat, they never overstay their welcome. The game features collectibles in the form of rune stones that act as audio stories, all of which are interesting and do not feel needlessly tacked on. The soundtrack is good and fits well. The games leaves you with a lot to think about as well as raises awareness for psychosis and mental illness in general. It is an amazing achievement, especially considering it was made by a team of about 20 developers on a relatively small budget. Games like this make me think that limitations of any kind bolster creativity. I highly recommend this game to everyone who likes great story-rich games. It's worth every penny!

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