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Hellblade’s permadeath is a bluff - PCGamesN

Hanmik

Member
Yes, the game promises you that the rot will increase with every death, eventually killing Senua permanently. It just, well, doesn't. The rot will grow to a certain point - which we think is governed by how far through the game you are - and then stop. In fact, this happens fairly quickly after a couple of deaths. Details, and fifty of our own deaths, in the video above.

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

More at the link..

Direct youtube link to the video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JM3sxy21j3k

So it looks like the Permadeath stuff is being blown out of proportion..
 

Alienous

Member
I thought it was just intended as a threat more than a mechanic, sort of like lives in a Mario game.

This makes sense.
 

kiyomi

Member
We'll let a few more people finish the game before we discuss how the ending plays into all this, but needless to say it was a clever decision, even if it may have backfired with a portion of the playerbase.

Well, that's one way to tease a spoiler. :\

I'd rather people kept this to themselves but I guess that was never gonna happen.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Thanks for the clarification. That Eurogamer article makes it sound like it's a be-all-end-all perma death situation.
 

FelipeMGM

Member
a lot of people prob feel real dumb right now

It was a cool story thing and but now clueless internet hot takes and rage ruined the thing for many
 
Wow. Didn't actually expect it to be a bluff. It seemed completely plausible for them to just jam in a permadeath option to give the game a special artistic quirk.

The most entertaining part of this has been people getting mad about Totalbiscuit's take though.
 
As someone already posted in the review thread:

Yo! Can a mod please put this at the top of the thread (or the title lol)?

Permadeath:
* it's not one life
* the game has an easy mode
* it requires a LOT of deaths to trigger (beyond the scope of normal play, you'd honestly have to go out of your way)
* the game "resets" the mechanic based upon checkpoints (it will only allow you to have X amount of the mechanic at certain points, so if you have X+N after entering a new chapter, it will reset to X)
* if all else fails...just cheese your saves

So it's not a bluff, it exists, but it resets to a different minimum baseline at certain points and requires a much higher than average number of deaths.
 

th4tguy

Member
Stupid developers lying about features
It may be the version they have to media doesn't have it enabled. Wouldn't be the first time devs have given media an easier version so they can get through more of the game in the time they have. I've seen media releases where characters were in god mode.
Do we know if this is for media preview or is it a review copy? I wouldn't expect anything to be dialed back for review copies.
 

axisofweevils

Holy crap! Today's real megaton is that more than two people can have the same first name.
Well done, Internet on ruining what could have been a pretty cool mechanic.
 

Hektor

Member
Wow. Didn't actually expect it to be a bluff. It seemed completely plausible for them to just jam in a permadeath option to give the game a special artistic quirk.

The most entertaining part of this has been people getting mad about Totalbiscuit's take though.

People "getting mad" at a "professional" journalist calling developers stupid because they make games he doesnt like are definitly the dumb party in this affair.
 

sasliquid

Member
I don't mind if it's a bluff but now we know it is all the magic is gone.

I blame people like totalbiscuits whining.
 
Well, that's one way to tease a spoiler. :\

I'd rather people kept this to themselves but I guess that was never gonna happen.

Hey, I wrote this.

I wouldn't worry about that being a spoiler tease - it's not.

I agree that it would be better if people didn't get the mechanic spoiled until they worked it out for themselves, but once people started blowing it out of the proportion we kinda had to work it out.
 
It's a shame they copped out. Pointless half-measure really. Either go all in or don't bother touting it as a feature at all.
 

wrowa

Member
Better off knowing it wasn't tbh.

Yuuuup. It's an interesting mechanic that mainly is used to cause a sense of uneasiness. It's not meant to punish the player but to make them connect to the protagonist's state of mind. Once you know it's just a bluff, though...
 
People "getting mad" at a professional journalist calling developers stupid because they make games he doesnt like are definitly the dumb party in this affair.

Never said they were the dumb side of this. I just found it entertaining.

Of course that's also because with zero context I found the idea of a game deleting my save file because I died too much to be an incredible stupid mechanic.
 

kiyomi

Member
Hey, I wrote this.

I wouldn't worry about that being a spoiler tease - it's not.

I agree that it would be better if people didn't get the mechanic spoiled until they worked it out for themselves, but once people started blowing it out of the proportion we kinda had to work it out.

Thanks for the heads up. And yeah, I realise that once the genie was out of the bottle there was no way to get it back in. Kind of a shame but I don't blame you.
 

Savantcore

Unconfirmed Member
Kind of upset that the fixation on this one thing has led to this article totally debunking it.

No magic left in anything anymore. Internet can be right shit sometimes.
 

tesqui

Member
Yuuuup. It's an interesting mechanic that mainly is used to cause a sense of uneasiness. It's not meant to punish the player but to make him connect to the protagonist's state of mind. Once you know it's just a bluff, though...

Yeah, now I feel like my playthrough won't be as impactful as I assume it would be otherwise..
 
The report kind of ruins it for people playing it normally which kind of sucks.
Funny in retrospect with TB being a tool and others praising being so bold comparing it to MM's timer and Alien Isolation's Alien
 

iavi

Member
Yeah, this is one of the scenarios where ignorance actually is bliss. This isn't something that needed to be debunked
 

Hektor

Member
It's a shame that this had to be made public, but I suppose it was inevitable.

I blame people not being able to cope with things that deviate from the norm tbh

Never said they were the dumb side of this. I just found it entertaining.

Of course that's also because with zero context I found the idea of a game deleting my save file because I died too much to be an incredible stupid mechanic.

He hasn't played the game yet called the devs stupid and moronic among other things.

Like, i legitimately don't get what's so funny about people calling him out on his bs.
 
Real permadeath deletes your save and uninstalls the game when you die.

Have to re-buy it after that.

I played a game once that locked me out of my account when I hit the game over screen. Had to contact customer services and answer a bunch of questions before I could get it back.

Really upped the ante when it came to my second attempt.
 

CookTrain

Member
A shame that all this got exposed. I'll reflect on this every time people whinge about rehashed tripe and nothing new under the sun.

This was a clever ruse that is changing the way people experience the game. Good on Ninja Theory for the bluff.
 
I blame people not being able to cope with things that deviate from the norm tbh

I completely agree. I played through the game during the review period, and was lucky enough to not know the situation about "permadeath". Thus my playthrough was one fraught with worry, without any "real" consequences for my failures -- but I didn't realise it!

I thought it was fantastic, and it's a shame that others will not get to experience that now.
 

ultrazilla

Member
Kind of upset that the fixation on this one thing has led to this article totally debunking it.

No magic left in anything anymore. Internet can be right shit sometimes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvTNyKIGXiI

19e8b5d33db0e398f232b455dc35e878d444756e27d2af979b43e8c4fe00f05b.jpg
 
Never said they were the dumb side of this. I just found it entertaining.

Of course that's also because with zero context I found the idea of a game deleting my save file because I died too much to be an incredible stupid mechanic.

There was once a PSX racing game (can't remember which one) where you could race head-to-head with someone else. Winner gets the loser's car, meaning that car is permanently removed from the memory card and transferred to the winner. You couldn't even pull out the memory card mid-race because both cars would have already been removed and placed in system memory.
 
He hasn't played the game yet called the devs stupid and moronic among other things.

Like, i legitimately don't get what's so funny about people calling him out on his bs.

I just personally it doesn't matter if someone plays the game or not. For me and and most people I've talked to about it they were immediately uninterested in trying Hellblade when the "permadeath" system came up. The idea of a video game punishing you for not being good enough in a insane to think of.

On paper the mechanic sounds terrible and at first glance.

I also saw plenty of reactions beyond GAF (not just singling people out here of course) though of people taking his comments way too seriously. I'm not gonna say they weren't harsh and terribly blunt (as usual for him)

There was once a PSX racing game (can't remember which one) where you could race head-to-head with someone else. Winner gets the loser's car, meaning that car is permanently removed from the memory card and transferred to the winner. You couldn't even pull out the memory card mid-race because both cars would have already been removed and placed in system memory.

I don't really have an issue with that since it sounds like it's a separate mode to the game. It also sounds really interesting, wow.
 
I kinda wish it wasn’t a bluff because I really enjoyed seeing people pissed off about a game not being built to their specific whims
 
It was a cool concept that was ruined because of people crying on the internet instead of playing the game. The gaming industry is full of non gamers. Rather talk than play.
 
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