Hellblade : Senua's Sacrifice

[DisturbedSwan]

I liked the combat too from what I can remember. This looks and sounds great but the way it plays (when not in combat) is like a PS2 game in terms of game/level design. Couldn't wait for it to be over. 

[Maryokutai]

The combat was fun, the "stand in a certain spot to make those three branches look like a symbol" puzzles not so much.

 

I keep meaning to go back to it though. It's interesting enough to warrant playing through it all things considered. I'm just wondering if I should restart or continue where I left off (somewhere next to a big tree, have to reassemble a sword or something?).

[bellow]

What the feck is up with that Valravn boss? That was like something out if demon's souls. 

 

If it wasn't for Gnasty Gnorc I'd say that was the hardest thing I've done all year.

 

Well, at least I've opened the gate to Helhime?

[bellow]

Sort of an illusion type fella. Definitely not a wolf. Fast bastard, though.

[bellow]

A 90 minute session on this tonight, and that's pretty epic playtime for this monster. It's exhausting. But exhilarating at the same time. And fecking horrific.

 

The bit I've just done, 

Spoiler

Grabbing the shards of a magic sword in unsettling puzzle rooms, then wading thru an ocean of writhing, skinned bodies while having to fend off wave after wave of enemies (and returning bosses)

has left me in need of a stiff drink.

 

God knows what depths of hell these guys are going to raise in the sequel with all that Xbox cash. Hope those extra funds pay for a bit of downtime. Even Kratos got to pick flowers in his last outing.

[bellow]

Another 2 hour session took me thru the mountain to that wolf boss @Nag. And then I had to assemble a long bridge to the very gate of Helhime. I managed to get thru this lot relatively unscathed (right arms a bit dodgy, but those deaths have come thru wrong turns in puzzles rather than combat), and I ended the session opening the gate and looking at a light that I believe represents the endgame.

 

Any other game I would probably have gone in, but it was such tough going at times to get there, I think I'd rather go in fresh. Or at least drunk.

[bellow]

They should sell the game with a voucher for one of those seasonal affective disorder lamps.

[bellow]

Credits rolling!

 

Well, that was certainly different, a game truly like no other. Heavy going, maybe too bleak and unrelenting, but an experience I'm going to have a hard time forgetting.

 

I actually wouldn't mind playing thru it again, maybe on the XSS to get further into the lore and the strange tales told by Druth, that were hard to concentrate on due to the sound of my knees knocking in terror for most of the 7 hour playthru.

 

I wonder if it's been enhanced in anyway. Although I've been playing everything on a launch PS4 for years so everything will probably feel massively upscaled to me.?

 

Pretty good Halloween game though. No doubt about that.

[bellow]

Yeah, it was great. God knows what they're going to get up to in the sequel. This Celtic mythology angle certainly exudes all kinds of atmosphere. And they nailed it here.

 

I don't think they could retread this road again, though. And a straight up Celtic warrior action/RPG might seem a cop out. Be very interesting to see how they tackle the problematic 'sequel to a game that shouldn't have a sequel' problem.

 

Even naughty dog managed to split the fan base when they tackled that thorny question. (Although I loved TLoU2, personally).

[Sly Reflex]

I think it'll be fine, mental issues don't just vanish, they're a work in progress. I think there's a lot they can still do.

[Nag]

 

I'll be going back to this at some point...

[DisturbedSwan]

Unless they've miraculously improved the gameplay tenfold I won't be touching it, boring as fuck. 

[Maryokutai]

I wish they'd made a comparison video, it doesn't look any different than I remember.

 

I do still need to finish it but at this point I wonder if I shouldn't just restart. Maybe wait until the second one is closer to release?

[bellow]

Forum playthru!

 

I'm up for it. Best game of last gen, with God of war and TLoU 2. 

 

30fps can sod off tho. It was the same with watch dogs legion. The ray tracing just wasn't worth it for me.

[mfnick]

Perfect. I’ve still not played this yet, so this is great excuse for me to finally play it. Agree with Bellow though, 60fps without ray tracing over 30 with it every time. Wish more devs would do a lower res 60fps RT mode like Insomniac do. 

[Maf]

Framerate doesn't really matter in a game like this does it? It's such a low impact, slow moving narrative/character based thing I'm not sure what 60fps really nets the player. I think a game like this is built to be as cinematic as possible. 

 

Having said that I'm mostly with @DisturbedSwan anyway. I don't hate this game but once was enough. Technical improvements are not enough for me to want to play this again. 

[mfnick]

Regardless of the game type, it just feels a lot better. Doesn’t matter if I’m walking or shooting n the game. Plus OLED problems - 30fps is a stutter fest. 60fps is clear and smooth. 

[Maryokutai]

How does OLED have trouble with 30fps? I've actually never heard of that and don't remember it being an issue on the Vita.

[one-armed dwarf]

LCD/LED screens are laggy or something, but it means that motion blends together.

 

tbh I don't think it's a big deal tho, I thought it looked bad at first but then I realised that the thing that looked bad was the motion smoothing, cause it causes such irregularity/inconsistency with what gets smoothed. Turn that off and it does look choppy, but you also adjust anyway and it stops being noticeable as much. Whereas it's constantly noticeable with the terrible tru motion stuff

 

(Example: panning the camera in FFVII Remake is smooth but Cloud's sword is choppy when swung, an absolutely terrible effect).

 

OLEDs are annoying though tbh, I don't think I'll get another one. Whenever this one burns in I'm done with the tech, the fact you can't play a single game on it or watch repetitive content for a long time without worrying about destroying it is so silly to me. Every time I'm done with Strive if I go on a white background or dark blue I see dark splotches on the screen where the focus/tension stuff is on the HUD (image retention). It goes away but it tells me that is the thing which will probably burn in first

[Maf]

If you use OLED in game mode it takes all the motion smoothing off for better input/response times. But then it is trying to refresh/display frames so fast but 30 fps is so slow and there's no smoothing to hide it. So the screen, backgrounds in particular, look like it's going tatatatatata is the best way I can write it. 

 

I didn't notice it at all on the Vita or my first OLED but I think it's because newer OLEDS have faster 120hz panels. So it looks bad. But you have to take if off Game Mode and put it on something else and it stops the issue. 

 

Or play in 60fps which mostly solves it but you can still see it a tiny bit. 

 

Also depends on a game's own motion smoothing techniques too. 

 

I get what @mfnick is saying I would mostly go with 60fps too. In a game like Hellblade though I think I'd just take it off Game Mode and play with ray-tracing. Not really sure what faster FPS adds to this (For me at least)

 

EDIT: Oh, @one-armed dwarf posted first. Wrt to burn in I agree that having to baby the TV stinks. For something to cost this much it can't look after itself? In fairness though I've had two of them now and never burned in at all and that's after playing some games for a very long time (Never thousands of hours, though, I don't know what the wear and tear is like after that long) but I'd say for "normal" game experiences it's fine. I even like that a lot of modern games have dynamic HUDs which help relieve worrying about it too. I played Demon's Souls Remake earlier this year and the health bar and stuff only pops up when it knows combat is happening so it cuts down on static images by a lot.