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[DenchDeckard]

There are critiques and critics. Calling out a game for being boring because the level graphics are not UE5 super nexct gen is desingenuous.

I bet Stellar Blade had a smaller team than Ninja Theory to make HB2. The more basic combo in Steller Blade has more work put into it by the team gameplay wise than the whole battle system on HB2.

Hellblade 2 was made with 80 people. I'll take that bet.

 

[yazenov]

80 people from mid 2021 onwards (full production) and seemingly 40 before that, so likely ~300 man years in total. For comparison, Alan Wake 2 was made by 130 people over 4 years, so 520 man years total, and Remedy consider themselves a "small" developer.

According to wiki, it's 120 people as of 2020. The size of the team must have increased due to ongoing projects. They are not small. No need for damage control.

Ninja Theory - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Mr.Phoenix]

80 people from mid 2021 onwards (full production) and seemingly 40 before that, so likely ~300 man years in total. For comparison, Alan Wake 2 was made by 130 people over 4 years, so 520 man years total, and Remedy consider themselves a "small" developer.

And if that were the case... that is not small. Especially if it took them 4+ years. Let's not start throwing that around as to why the game is under 6hrs long. That was a design choice.

The only reason I am not shitting on this game, is because I am not paying $70 for it.

 

[adamsapple]

Good scores to wake up to. Time to play this beauty today.

 

[The Cockatrice]

6 years for 5 hours and almost no gameplay. Paying so many people for 6 years sounds like an insane budget to me that, I just can';t see it being transformed into big revenue. I will support the devs and buy it on steam when its ~15 euros or so.

 

[Loope]

Looks gorgeous but also seems to lack a lot of gaming in, well, a game. At this point people should expect this, right?

Wasn't the first game something like that?

 

[kikii]

Good scores to wake up to. Time to play this beauty today.

have fun with left stick

 

[yazenov]

Good scores to wake up to. Time to play this beauty today.

Nice, now post the Metacritic score for our reference.

 

[RoboFu]

You can easily see how having a bad product image affects people bias with the scores all over the place.

 

[DenchDeckard]

6 years for 5 hours and almost no gameplay. Paying so many people for 6 years sounds like an insane budget to me that, I just can';t see it being transformed into big revenue. I will support the devs and buy it on steam when its ~15 euros or so.

4 years and 80 people...probably no more than a 50 million dollar budget.

 

[Zheph]

I will support the devs and buy it on steam when its ~15 euros or so.

interesting sentence, more power to you tho

 

[TheGodfather07]

5 hours of playtime is actually a good thing because the gameplay can't carry it any longer. It would be too boring.

 

[yazenov]

4 years and 80 people...probably no more than a 50 million dollar budget.

From where do you guys get the 80 people number? link?

 

[DenchDeckard]

From where do you guys get the 80 people number? link?

It was all over here a few days ago. From a dev diary video interview or something.

 

[GHG]

Maybe it is, but based on your posts, you were going to post that no matter what the actual game was. Absolutely laughable.

 

[adamsapple]

From where do you guys get the 80 people number? link?

From the developers of the game.

Kinda Funny Games: Developer Interview with Hellblade 2 Studio Head Dom Matthews

- Development is complete, no day 1 patch but they will look into updates post-launch - 100% performance captured, every movement, combat animation is captured. For comparison, HB1 required 2 days of performance capture. HB2 required 69 days of performance capture. - Consulted with psychosis...

www.neogaf.com

edit oh .. oh no .. I just scanned the last 3 pages of the topic, I can't say I'm surprised

 

[damidu]

not great, not terrible

 

[DryvBy]

Can we remove all of these weird review sites? And Xbox sites? The true number is hidden under.

 

[Banjo64]

This can’t be serious. Is this Xbox’s new approach to reviews?

 

[Chiggs]

PC Gamer's score is just bizarre.

 

[Lokaum D+]

Looks gorgeous but also seems to lack a lot of gaming in, well, a game. At this point people should expect this, right?

Wasn't the first game something like that?

apparently this game is more shallow than the first one, first one had even more gameplay and puzzles some reviewers said.

 

[The Cockatrice]

probably no more than a 50 million dollar budget

I've played indie masterpieces with no budget at all. Sorry, but MS has given its budget to the wrong team and they probably expected the female version of God of War.

 

[winjer]

Some benchmarks for those who care:

Hellblade 2 im Tech Test: Umwerfende Grafik, bodenständige Performance

Hellblade 2: Benchmarks und Fazit

www.pcgameshardware.de

 

[JackMcGunns]

keep in mind that the Xbox shill sites will average between 88-95.

fair, objective and trustworthy sites will need to engage the "Xbox tax" to bring down to reality those hyperinflated scores. Just saying... I don't want people crying about it.

Someone explain to this man how Metacritic works and how the same applies to Sony exclusives.

Hellblade Senua’s Sacrifice was a fine game, until it became Xbox exclusive, suddenly massive controversy. I would argue that since there are MORE PlayStation fans, there’s a higher chance for the score to get knocked down, not up.

 

[FireFly]

According to wiki, it's 120 people as of 2020. The size of the team must have increased due to ongoing projects. They are not small. No need for damage control.

Ninja Theory - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Last I heard it was around 200 people. That's not enough? And I don't even know why people are saying this game took 4 years to make as if they weren't making the game before they even revealed it.

On another note, games like Black Myth had a dev team of about 30 people.

From April this year:

"The core team working on Hellblade 2 is around 80, a massive leap compared to the 20 or so who staffed the original game – but low by most AAA standards."

6 years after its acquisition, Ninja Theory is ready to set a new standard for Xbox Series X exclusives with Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2

I visited Ninja Theory to get behind-the-scenes insight into one of the most important Xbox exclusives of the year

www.gamesradar.com

From 2020:

"Ninja Theory reveals that the development team for Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 will be twice as big as the team that made the first game."

Hellblade 2 Dev Team is Twice as Big as First Game's

Ninja Theory reveals that Hellblade 2 has a larger development team than the first game, suggesting the game could have much more gameplay.

gamerant.com

So I make that 40 as the starting team size.

 

[digoutyoursoul]

This can’t be serious. Is this Xbox’s new approach to reviews?

Why else would they give him a code?

 

[Draugoth]

Can we remove all of these weird review sites? And Xbox sites? The true number is hidden under.

They are from the auto opencritic generator

apparently this game is more shallow than the first one, first one had even more gameplay and puzzles some reviewers said.

I played the first one, presentation is incredible but felt the game was extremely linear and puzzle focused.

 

[Mr Moose]

According to wiki, it's 120 people as of 2020. The size of the team must have increased due to ongoing projects. They are not small. No need for damage control.

Ninja Theory - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

40 people doing that other thing they have.

 

[SJRB]

Fightincowboy says 3/5 - graphics and sound are great but the gameplay is non-existent.

> "very limited combat"
> "very limited puzzles"
> Puzzles are extremely basic
> entire thing is basically on rails
> no exploration
> no UI causes confusion at times because the game expects you to press a button but you don't know you're supposed to press the button because there's no UI so you stand around like an asshole
> literally says the gameplay is "non-existent" and "very lacking"


3/5

 

[Kilau]

Is all the "woke" being thrown around online just because of wahmen and mental health or is there something else?

 

[GHG]

This can’t be serious. Is this Xbox’s new approach to reviews?

It's just an evolution of the direction they were already headed in with the Redfall and Starfield reviews. They sent Gaz a review key for fuck sake and he's not a reviewer:




Poor guy sounds like he's being held at gunpoint throughout the whole thing.

Becoming increasingly insular by the day.

 

[FIREKNIGHT2029]

Not looking great on Steam as far as player count....

 

[MisterXDTV]

XboxEra 100
TheXboxHub 100
SomosXbox 100
MindoXbox 95
Generacion Xbox 93
Xbox Tavern 91
Windows Central 90
Xbox Achievements 90

This is absolutely hilarious

 

[Zheph]

> "very limited combat"
> "very limited puzzles"
> Puzzles are extremely basic
> entire thing is basically on rails
> no exploration
> no UI causes confusion at times because the game expects you to press a button but you don't know you're supposed to press the button because there's no UI so you stand around like an asshole
> literally says the gameplay is "non-existent" and "very lacking"


3/5

(this one for my french gaffers)

 

[touchfuzzy]

I’m sure Xbox fans will have fun playing the game today. And I mean only today.

 

[Little Chicken]

Good scores to wake up to. Time to play this beauty today.

You MUST play with headphones. The audio is wild.

 

[Dazraell]

Come on. With all the best will in the world, if the game can only get to a five hour run time, with simplistic combat and puzzles, there is no way in hell the graphics alone can push it up to a 10/10. That's Elden Ring/BG3/ToTK territory.

This is shilling at its most extreme.

One review I watched mentioned that you can set automatic combat in the settings and skip all of the encounters by having them replaced with an animation. So yeah, it sounds like they simplified combat a lot

 

[adamsapple]

You MUST play with headphones. The audio is wild.

100%, baby.

A shorter game like this is great, I don't want that cray white lady screaming in my ears for 20 hours.

 

[Aguero9320]

This game is not for me, but to the majority of people on this thread I have to ask… can you show me on the doll where Microsoft touched you?

 

[Dibils2k]

Is all the "woke" being thrown around online just because of wahmen and mental health or is there something else?

i mean 1st game was same lol

 

[adamsapple]

Has climbed up to #6 on Steam top-sellers as well.

GG, Ninja Theory.

 

[JimmyRustler]

Is all the "woke" being thrown around online just because of wahmen and mental health or is there something else?

Which MS backed game released lately has not been overly woke?

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

Someone explain to this man how Metacritic works and how the same applies to Sony exclusives.

Hellblade Senua’s Sacrifice was a fine game, until it became Xbox exclusive, suddenly massive controversy. I would argue that since there are MORE PlayStation fans, there’s a higher chance for the score to get knocked down, not up.

oh boy. we have a Starfield moment with this game.

 

[DenchDeckard]

I've played indie masterpieces with no budget at all. Sorry, but MS has given its budget to the wrong team and they probably expected the female version of God of War.

I think microsoft and anyone involved knew that with an 80 person team, this was going to be hellblade 2 and not God of War.

 

[digoutyoursoul]

It's just an evolution of the direction they were already headed in with the Redfall and Starfield reviews. They sent Gaz a review key for fuck sake and he's not a reviewer:




Poor guy sounds like he's being held at gunpoint throughout the whole thing.

Becoming increasingly insular by the day.

Another phoney , just what the Xbox community needs.

 

[Porticus]

It's just an evolution of the direction they were already headed in with the Redfall and Starfield reviews. They sent Gaz a review key for fuck sake and he's not a reviewer:




Poor guy sounds like he's being held at gunpoint throughout the whole thing.

Becoming increasingly insular by the day.

Who the fuck is this guy?

They really give keys to a guy that made a meme bs song?

 

[digoutyoursoul]

This game is not for me, but to the majority of people on this thread I have to ask… can you show me on the doll where Microsoft touched you?

The heart . They broke it.

 

[rhodesianshepard]

You can easily see how having a bad product image affects people bias with the scores all over the place.

Nah, it's just a very unique game. It has some of the best graphics, motion capture, and sound design of any game ever, but the level design and combat are linear and sparse. The game will immerse some people and completely bore others

Honestly, the low 80's was the worst I ever thought this game could review. Usually good leaker, NateTheDrake, had Microsoft internal reviews saying it was scoring in the "low 90's" earlier this year. IDK, just by reading reviews, it comes across as an incredibly safe sequel to a great "indie" game

 

[Ass of Can Whooping]

Has climbed up to #6 on Steam top-sellers as well.

GG, Ninja Theory.

I can speak to dead people. They said thank you

 

[adamsapple]

I can speak to dead people. They said thank you

They already has their next project green-list.