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Hellblade 2 | Review Thread

What Scores do you think Hellblade 2 will get?

  • 50-59%

    Votes: 2 0.9%
  • 60-69%

    Votes: 6 2.6%
  • 70-75%

    Votes: 23 9.9%
  • 76-79%

    Votes: 44 19.0%
  • 80-85%

    Votes: 90 38.8%
  • 86-90%

    Votes: 47 20.3%
  • 90-94%

    Votes: 10 4.3%
  • 95-100%

    Votes: 10 4.3%

  • Total voters
    232
  • Poll closed .

ungalo

Member
The first boss is much stronger than you and could have killed you numerous times but gets beaten by Senua because he toys with her.
This is kind of ridiculous and it's not just with this fight. I don't point out ludonarrative dissonance often because even immersive games are games, but it doesn't really work when the devs push both the "vulnerable" and "strong" cursors to their maximum.

This kind of "on the edge" desperate vibe can only work for a moment. It's even weirder in a game that has no challenge.
 
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Crayon

Member
I can think of a few other substances that would be a better match for this motion picture

https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.cnn.com%2Fcnnnext%2Fdam%2Fassets%2F160418190502-saturday-night-live-heroin-skit-outrage.jpg
 
Maybe you’re blind I guess? 40 minutes of walking when your own link shows puzzles and combat. Nothing more I can tell you.

Not embracing the walking talking sim at all, there’s a difference between one every now and again versus nothing but. And it’s not a Sony or MS thing, as you can clearly see I also criticize Gears of War, which became too walking sim for my tastes as well.

Now I will stick to my word and stop replying to the clowns 😁👍


Leo Inception GIF
 
If I liked The Order and Ryse, I’ll probably like this one too.

@James Sawyer Ford is in this thread.

Or did you mean only green rat shills?
I also liked The order and Ryse - shame that we didn't receive sequels.

Ryse was a XONE launch title so its problems could be excused, The order though...even though I loved it for what it was, i couldn't blame people shitting on it due to its very one and done nature, super short running time AND that fookin' full price tag.
I only rented the game for 2-3 days and finished it, had I spent 60-70 euros for it though I'd be livid to this date.

Which brings me to :
Ryse could have been MS's God of war-type franchise ffs, there definitely was potential for a franchise, you had great characters, beautiful graphics and nice sound production and as for the gameplay, they just needed to spruce it up, give it some variety, and BAM, multi million seller right there, instead, what did they do ? They bought and (obviously) backed up a hack company (Ninja Theory) and this is the result, a 5-6 hours press forward for awesome®.

Same thing about the Order, it had so much friggin' potential that it's not even funny (Steampunk Victorian era + Knights of the round table shit + Vampires+ Lycanthropes thrown in ? sign me the fuck up) and the little gameplay that was there was actually oomph-y, "meaty" and nice (talking about the shooting scenarios/bits and not the G'awful Lycanthrope QTE fests) but unfortunately, in the end, Ready at dawn released a product that felt more of a tech demo than a game.
All of its problems could easily be addressed by a sequel but no, Soony decided that it was not worth it and instead we got games like Horizon (derp) and a 2nd, bloated GOW (with that MCU levels type of writing).

As for the shilling friend, if you know you know.

Cheers
 
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Bernardougf

Gold Member
Holy fuck ... imagine have been in the glory days of classic Halo's MP and shooting monsters on kick as Gears of War to now have to be here defending a 5 hour walking simulator with almost no gameplay as a last straw of hope for a studio that probably will be closed in less the one year... You did this to yourselfs. Now enjoy I guess. At least is for "free".
 

Oppoi

Member
Another polarizing game just like Starfield. Game of the year material some say but i wonder if that will last until the actual awards...
 

nial

Gold Member


Matty has been facing the wrath of the Xbox fanbase which can’t handle hearing that a first-party game might not be the best thing since sliced bread

I don't even know why Xbox fans care so much about defending this game; it's GP filler, XBL-esque all-around.
Does it have anything to do with the fact that it's the first MS Gaming release in the entire year? It must feel bitter.
 
They were right.

We will never know though since there never was a sequel nor will there ever be.

Horizon and GOW obviously sold well for them to greenlight sequels but, it's solely their fault for releasing The order, a 6-7 hours game with no replay value whatsoever at full price and expecting it to sell gangbusters.

Same thing with MS and Ryse.

Moral of the story : improve on your products as a company and the sales will come.

I firmly believe that both Ryse and the order sequels would sell well if they actually fixed and improved on the problems the 1st games had since their foundation is already strong.
 
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King Dazzar

Member


Matty has been facing the wrath of the Xbox fanbase which can’t handle hearing that a first-party game might not be the best thing since sliced bread

And this is part why, my love for Xbox got eroded away. Why defend something and not push for better instead? Its self defeating. And as for Matty, Bumblebollox called him an idiot here today just for calling out the lack of gameplay. Which is a fair point for a walking simulator.
 

ShaiKhulud1989

Gold Member
I don't even know why Xbox fans care so much about defending this game; it's GP filler, XBL-esque all-around.
Does it have anything to do with the fact that it's the first MS Gaming release in the entire year? It must feel bitter.
As the one who actually finished the game (I wrote my review in the OT) I can perfectly see where the harsh reviews like GameSpot and PC gamer are coming from. Once the visual splendor wears off you’re finding yourself one on one with a pretty tedious slog of a game.

It’s not a bad experience per se, but too much was riding on HB2s success. And honestly, now I can see why MS chose the muted PR campaign.
 
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Grildon Tundy

Gold Member
Re-started my PC Game Pass subscription and downloading it now. For $10, it'll be worth it to me to see the gwaffix and Jedi: Survivor that I only just now realized is on GP.
 

Pedro Motta

Member
This is why I refuse to play this game until I can take an edible. All that walking filler is incredibly boring, but do it after the edible? All those voices and visuals enhance the experience and get me through the low points. I'm about 90% sure I wouldn't have liked the first Hellblade if I didn't take anything prior to playing.
oh so that's why you're delulu.
 

Pedro Motta

Member
Holy fuck ... imagine have been in the glory days of classic Halo's MP and shooting monsters on kick as Gears of War to now have to be here defending a 5 hour walking simulator with almost no gameplay as a last straw of hope for a studio that probably will be closed in less the one year... You did this to yourselfs. Now enjoy I guess. At least is for "free".
I think Ninja Theory is extremely valuable as a motion capture studio. Microsoft should take advantage of this as they could provide support to other studios.
 

simpatico

Member
XBro’s, listen, I know the past couple years have been rough. Horrible even. The temptation is real to convince yourself this is a great game. One worth defending on the internet. Look, we don’t know what’s going to happen to our internet post history. You guys might be young single men now, but one day you’ll have kids and there’s a non zero chance that one day they could read those posts.

Just think it through is all I’m saying.
 
XBro’s, listen, I know the past couple years have been rough. Horrible even. The temptation is real to convince yourself this is a great game. One worth defending on the internet. Look, we don’t know what’s going to happen to our internet post history. You guys might be young single men now, but one day you’ll have kids and there’s a non zero chance that one day they could read those posts.

Just think it through is all I’m saying.

The only thing i'm leaving in my will for the kids are my neogaf posts
 

Mortisfacio

Banned
XBro’s, listen, I know the past couple years have been rough. Horrible even. The temptation is real to convince yourself this is a great game. One worth defending on the internet. Look, we don’t know what’s going to happen to our internet post history. You guys might be young single men now, but one day you’ll have kids and there’s a non zero chance that one day they could read those posts.

Just think it through is all I’m saying.

This is how I feel when anyone says Horizon is a good game.
 

GHG

Gold Member
XBro’s, listen, I know the past couple years have been rough. Horrible even. The temptation is real to convince yourself this is a great game. One worth defending on the internet. Look, we don’t know what’s going to happen to our internet post history. You guys might be young single men now, but one day you’ll have kids and there’s a non zero chance that one day they could read those posts.

Just think it through is all I’m saying.

It's me they have to worry about first.

872
 

Topher

Gold Member
This is funny because they held him up with high regard when he was one of the prime apologists for Starfield.

turntables GIF

I would not call him a Starfield apologist. He had plenty of negative things to say about the game. He, like me, thought the game was very good overall, but that doesn't mean there were not some pretty glaring flaws and he pointed those out in his review.
 

twilo99

Member
alright maybe I was a bit harsh.. the way the character is presented here is, how to put it, delicate... quite a bit of care. At times you can almost feel her agony, which was the point I guess. There is an "atmosphere" in there..

But regardless, the audio mixing is the star of the show for me. Bravo.
 

FoxMcChief

Gold Member
I would not call him a Starfield apologist. He had plenty of negative things to say about the game. He, like me, thought the game was very good overall, but that doesn't mean there were not some pretty glaring flaws and he pointed those out in his review.
TZo4uX.gif
 

Jigsaah

Gold Member
First Impressions. I've played the intro. It's too long. Landscape is beautfiul. Senua's screeches kinda annoy me. I was a bit turned on by the ladies whisperring in my ear. Then I remembered the preview of them waltzing around the ear microphone...kinda ruined it for me a lil bit if I'm being honest. Combat is somehow worse than what I remember. More soon.
 
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Bernardougf

Gold Member
We will never know though since there never was a sequel nor will there ever be.

Horizon and GOW obviously sold well for them to greenlight sequels but, it's solely their fault for releasing The order, a 6-7 hours game with no replay value whatsoever at full price and expecting it to sell gangbusters.

Same thing with MS and Ryse.

Moral of the story : improve on your products as a company and the sales will come.

I firmly believe that both Ryse and the order sequels would sell well if they actually fixed and improved on the problems the 1st games had since their foundation is already strong.
Agreed.. Both were very nice tech demos and ideas that could have been a franchise. I really liked them for what they were and should have been much more.
 
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JackMcGunns

Member
This is kind of ridiculous and it's not just with this fight. I don't point out ludonarrative dissonance often because even immersive games are games, but it doesn't really work when the devs push both the "vulnerable" and "strong" cursors to their maximum.

This kind of "on the edge" desperate vibe can only work for a moment. It's even weirder in a game that has no challenge.

Don’t set the difficulty to “Dynamic”, change it to Hard instead.
 
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