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[SmartWaffles]

In case you did not watch Jim's review, he encountered a game breaking bug near the end of the game causing him not able to finish it and no way around other than restarting the entire game. He would give it a proper 7.5-8 if not for this bug.

 

[schnarf]

I won't be watching the video to avoid spoilers as I'm playing it myself. Was it the PC or PS4 version?

He does not say, but based on the button prompts and his talk about the game passing certification, I am thinking he was on the PS4.

 

[raven777]

I won't be watching the video to avoid spoilers as I'm playing it myself. Was it the PC or PS4 version?

It says PC on opencritic..

 

[Wishmaster92]

In case you did not watch Jim's review, he encountered a game breaking bug near the end of the game causing him not able to finish the game and no way other than restarting the entire game. He would give it a proper 7.5-8 if not for this bug.

I wonder how rare this bug can be when all the other reviewers have given nothing but praise. Hopefully it gets patched though so he can update its score.

Edit: hmm pc build

 

[Stilton Disco]

Ok, so the Problem Jim had with

Spoiler

the sections of darkness that kill you being just too large to cross before dying, no matter how fast he went

, was that an actual failure of design, a bug on his copy that made him die too fast, or was he doing something wrong and thus broke the game by doing something he wasn't meant to.

Because what he's describing sounds like it's simply unavoidable even before auto save put him in a death loop, and I'm not seeing any other reviews mention anything of the sort.

 

[LycanXIII]

Did Jim contact Ninja Theory about the bug?

 

[F0rneus]

Sounds like Ninja Theory bounced back nicely from shitty DmC. I'll get to this sooner or later. Right up my alley this one...

 

[EVA UNIT 01]

buying asap

 

[mollipen]

I'm going to have to assume that either Jim's copy, for whatever, reason, had a serious bug; he completely missed a part of that section of the game that was needed; or he just sucks.

That section for me was a bit tense, but in no universe anywhere near broken or un-winnable. It is absolutely, positively not a failure in game design.

I cannot agree with throwing up a review giving the game a 1/10 without doing due diligence to find out if it was something only you experienced or some bigger problem with the game. To me, that's unprofessional.

 

[Kenzodielocke]

Sounds like Ninja Theory bounced back nicely from shitty DmC. I'll get to this sooner or later. Right up my alley this one...

DmC is a better game than half of the other DmC's.

 

[SmartWaffles]

On top of that, it was a thoroughly unpleasant experience that was not meant to be seen more than once, and he got stuck in it for hours without any hope. In this case, 1/10 from him is completely reasonable.

 

[Savitar]

Was watching the review and decided to check out this thread, he was loving the game and said it would have been a 8 but he ran into a very bad bug it appears and it pretty much screws over progress. He tries and tries and tries and nope...it's a very broken situation.

Considering you get one save it's easy to see the issue. He reviewed the game as is........and if it's broken....well we've raked over past games for bugs a plenty or missing features. He does so here. When patched he says it's like a 8 but until then.....

 

[Jawbreaker]

Alright, so the reviews are great, and I want to dive in with everyone else. I'm sold.

 

[OrbitalBeard]

I'm going to have to assume that either Jim's copy, for whatever, reason, had a serious bug; he completely missed a part of that section of the game that was needed; or he just sucks.

That section for me was a bit tense, but in no universe anywhere near broken or un-winnable.

I cannot agree with throwing up a review giving the game a 1/10 without doing due diligence to find out if it was something only you experienced or some bigger problem with the game. To me, that's unprofessional.

Watch.
His.
Review.

 

[F0rneus]

DmC is a better game than half the other DmC's.

It's better than 2, kind of.

 

[MarineMountie]

Will buy to spite Jim. Also because I've been anticipating this game for many months and was always a day 1 buy! Glad to see the great reviews. Really excited to get home from my work shift.

Hellblade and the Paragon rework today! What a great day.

 

[shmoglish]

A walking sim with a few arena battles an "puzzles".May sound harsh, but thats how I feel so far. And the game is absolutely ok (more than that) how it is. Visuals are good, the sounddesign is amazing, fights are fun and the story is exciting.

 

[robotrock]

Ok, so the Problem Jim had with

Spoiler

the sections of darkness that kill you being just too large to cross before dying, no matter how fast he went

, was that an actual failure of design, a bug on his copy that made him die too fast, or was he doing something wrong and thus broke the game by doing something he wasn't meant to.

Because what he's describing sounds like it's simply unavoidable even before auto save put him in a death loop, and I'm not seeing any other reviews mention anything of the sort.

It's his review, so it's gonna be scored to his personal experience.

This reminds me of when IGN gave Prey a 4/10 because of a game breaking bug they encountered, even though they probably should have given it something like a 1/10 if it actually did make the game unplayable.

 

[mollipen]

Watch.
His.
Review.

I DID

The game is not a broken, unplayable piece of crap. If he had a bug that big and consequential to the game, he should have held the review back to find out why it happened.

 

[Peterthumpa]

Y'all realize he doesn't generate revenue through ads, therefore clicks don't matter to him, right?







This is going to sound silly, but maybe listen to the review to get context for the score he gave it. Sometimes review scores have words or audio attached that explain why a critic gave a game a certain score. Those attachments are actually called reviews.

Took less than 10 posts for the JS defence force to show up uh? He obviously uses his YouTube and site as just another way to get money via Patreon. You're fooling yourself thinking that Jim Sterling "works" for free.

 

[Jawbreaker]

Will buy to spite Jim. Also because I've been anticipating this game for many months and was always a day 1 buy! Glad to see the great reviews. Really excited to get home from my work shift.

Hellblade and the Paragon rework today! What a great day.

Well, there's no need to do anything to "spite" him since he really enjoyed the game. His problem — the reason why he gave it a 1/10 — is a game-breaking bug. I think that's fair.

 

[OrbitalBeard]

I DID

The game is not a broken, unplayable piece of crap. If he had a bug that big and consequential to the game, he should have held the review back to find out why it happened.

In his experience, yes it was. Are you saying he's lying?

I'm really not a fan of Jim Sterling, but he's absolutely right in giving this game the score he did. It'd be nice to see him update his score if it's patched quickly, but even then, I don't think he has an obligation to do so.

 

[ManUnkindH]

He literally calls the game "a broken, unplayable piece of crap" in the review. He ran into a late-game bug that ruined his experience.

Maybe the idiot didn't know there was a sprint button? He kept saying the game is broken because he couldn't reach a checkpoint in time.

 

[LycanXIII]

https://twitter.com/JimSterling/status/894823497557475328

Edit: You can see Jim run past the torch he's supposed to grab, twice, but it looks like it is a bug, that it didn't respawn the last time before the autosave.

 

[SomedayTheFire]

Will buy to spite Jim. Also because I've been anticipating this game for many months and was always a day 1 buy! Glad to see the great reviews. Really excited to get home from my work shift.

Hellblade and the Paragon rework today! What a great day.

You lot are fucking shameless hahahahah

 

[robotrock]

I DID

The game is not a broken, unplayable piece of crap. If he had a bug that big and consequential to the game, he should have held the review back to find out why it happened.

Not his job. He reviews the builds he is given.

 

[NightShift]

Telling the difference between the people who have and haven't watched Jim's review is going to be like day and night.

 

[NewDust]

I respect Jim for giving it this score due to his experience with the game, it's just a shame it had to happen to this game.

Guess the first respawn where he didn't start in "darkness" mode was what borked it. Wonder what would happen if he did go back to spot where you enter the darkness, but the autosave blocked his ability to do so.

 

[mollipen]

Not his job. He reviews the builds he is given.

As someone who has the same job, I 100% disagree.

 

[OrbitalBeard]

I respect Jim for giving it this score due to his experience with the game, it's just a shame it had to happen to this game.

Guess the first respawn where he didn't start in "darkness" mode was what borked it. Wonder what would happen if he did go back to spot where you enter the darkness, but the autosave blocked his ability to do so.

Stuff like this is why a game should never have a single save file.

 

[Script of the Bridge]

Ninja Theory are probably the most consistent 7/10 game creators ever.

 

[Barakov]

Just bought this one blind. Interesting how

Spoiler

the permadeath ties in with the story

. Wasn't sure about the combat at first but once you get the hang of it, it's pretty good.

 

[ron_bato]

Oh, ok. Thanks for answering so quickly. God I really need to get a Pro.

No problem.

If you're after more games in 60 fps, sadly, games like Hellblade are an exception rather than the rule (The Surge, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and Nioh have performance modes that come to mind).

That being said, I've got a Pro and I love it (have a 4k tv though so it helps a lot).

 

[Acquiescence]

1/10?! Oh god, it's like 2009 all over again with Jim Sterling resorting to hyperbole and shock tactics to get the attention he so desperately craves. I thought those Destructoid days were long gone.

 

[ManUnkindH]

I'm really interested what's the percent of combat vs exploration and puzzles. Could someone clarify?

 

[robotrock]

As someone who has the same job, I 100% disagree.

As someone who has the same job, I don't see why you would disagree. The build he encountered his issue on is likely the same one anyone can go out and pay $30 for right now.

 

[Stilton Disco]

It's his review, so it's gonna be scored to his personal experience.

This reminds me of when IGN gave Prey a 4/10 because of a game breaking bug they encountered, even though they probably should have given it something like a 1/10 if it actually did make the game unplayable.

I don't give a shit about him giving it a 1/10, I watched the review and agreed with his score based on his experience, but since it's a game I want to play, I'd rather not experience the same bug as he did, so I want to know if it was a case of it being an unavoidable design flaw that everyone risks getting stuck in a loop with, just his copy being borked, or something that could have been avoided entirely by doing something he missed (which would also be the game's fault).

The score is fine, it's that specific game breaking section that justifies that score I want more info on.

https://twitter.com/JimSterling/status/894823497557475328

Edit: You can see Jim run past the torch he's supposed to grab, twice, but it looks like it is a bug, that it didn't respawn the last time before the autosave.

Ah, there we go! Ok, I remember the bit I thought was another torch, I'd have headed straight to it myself, so that's ok!

 

[SomedayTheFire]

As someone who has the same job, I 100% disagree.

He did find out the reason though.

1/10?! Oh god, it's like 2009 all over again with Jim Sterling resorting to hyperbole and shock tactics to get the attention he so desperately craves. I thought those Destructoid days were long gone.

Watch the review

 

[MarineMountie]

You lot are fucking shameless hahahahah

It was just a joke. I have been excited for Hellblade for a long time and was always buying day 1. I'm just not a fan of Jim and if his stupid 1/10 score hurts the dev when it comes to metacritic bonuses he should be ashamed

 

[Marceles]

This will definitely be a love or hate game. I'm in the middle so far, the game looks great but it's keeping me interested for only so long. The

Spoiler

symbol puzzles

are heavily outweighing

Spoiler

the combat

for me. Hopefully the

Spoiler

combat opens up more than parrying and slicing

. Did I mention how great the game looks? And the audio...this is a crazy night game.

 

[NewDust]

Stuff like this is why a game should never have a single save file.

It's kind of intended design with it's permadeath. Perhaps it could have been remedied with a dual save setup, one for character state (how many times did Senua die) and a game progression state, which keeps multiple autosaves.

 

[Script of the Bridge]

It was just a joke. I have been excited for Hellblade for a long time and was always buying day 1. I'm just not a fan of Jim and if his stupid 1/10 score hurts the dev when it comes to metacritic bonuses he should be ashamed

Ridiculous.

 

[thekiddfran]

So glad I pre-ordered it can't wait to play it

 

[CortexVortex]

Jim's reviews are getting more and more embarrassing at this point. It's a shame because I used to like him but as of now, he's just a whiny bitch. If you want to be a professional, then contact the developer if something gamebreaking is happening to you.

Happy for NT that the other reviews are great so far.

 

[AcademicSaucer]

I'm hearing this game didn't need the combat, it's that true?

 

[SomedayTheFire]

It was just a joke. I have been excited for Hellblade for a long time and was always buying day 1. I'm just not a fan of Jim and if his stupid 1/10 score hurts the dev when it comes to metacritic bonuses he should be ashamed

Bullshit. Should a reviewer lie to protect developers?

Jim's reviews are getting more and more embarrassing at this point. It's a shame because I used to like him but as of now, he's just a whiny bitch. If you want to be a professional, then contact the developer if something gamebreaking is happening to you.

Happy for NT that the other reviews are great so far.

Holy shit.

 

[SimpleCRIPPLE]

I'm hearing this game didn't need the combat, it's that true?

Its too early to tell for me, but i could see that. The game has a run button, yet i’m still walking most of the time to let the environments sink in and allow time for all the voices to play out. If the game was simply exploration focused, i think it would likely still hold my interest.

So yeah, my early feeling is that this would work just as well if it was styled after Firewatch or similar “walking simulators”.

 

[BakedTanooki]

he should have held the review back

Or maybe they should have held back the release of the game, to fix an absolutely game breaking bug.

 

[Savitar]

It was just a joke. I have been excited for Hellblade for a long time and was always buying day 1. I'm just not a fan of Jim and if his stupid 1/10 score hurts the dev when it comes to metacritic bonuses he should be ashamed

It's not his job to protect the industry, he reviews a product. If you disagree with his stance it's one thing but in the end it's up to the developer to make sure a product is as good as can be, sadly in this case there was a bug and it came at a bad time that made the game unfinishable. If this was one of the big wigs like Ea or Ubi people would be cheering him on for it.

 

[OrbitalBeard]

I think it's pretty sad to see some in this thread more interested in appeasing developers than giving the best information possible to consumers. It should never be the job of a reviewer to hold a review back and give the developer time to fix a product they're selling to the public. Now, you might have a point if the embargo lifted prior to the game's launch, but that was not the case here. Once the game is available for purchase, the developer doesn't deserve the benefit of the doubt any longer.