January update
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Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice ⭐️⭐⭐⭐☆
Adventure Atmospheric Gamepad11,4 hours playtime, 14 of 14 achievements (100%)
- fluid controls
- nice combat system
- voices in your hear are creepy, but show what people with mental problems go through
Cons:
- no tutorial
- runes with lore (Nordic mythology) don't have fixed symbols. So it's possible to miss one and be unaware of this
- not possible to backtrack or pick chapter to go back an grab rune-stone. Ugh
- some environmental puzzles are annoying
Conclusion:
Story: Our beloved died in unknown circumstances. And we go with his skull (yuck) to underworld to recover his soul. Our guides are: memories of man that died some time ago, and voices in Setsuna head. Voices help mostly with combat and environmental puzzles, and man gives "life advices" by telling stories from Nordic mythology (i.e. that vengeance always ends badly). I did like this mix, as it both explains Nordic mythology (which I did not have in school), and is used as thing that drives us forward. At the end of the game we also learn who stands behind mental problems of protagonist.
Gameplay: It's story driven game with batman-style combat, environmental puzzles, inability to jump and one proper path. Only problem with this mix is that there is no combat tutorial, so someone without experience in "batman games" will die constantly and most probably resign quite fast. I did play on normal difficulty, there may be some sort of tutorial on easy, did not check. Puzzles focus on finding right rune shapes in environment. They can be created by trees, shadows, planks etc. Combat focus on either parry + counter attack or avoid + attack scheme. There are few different enemy types (including bosses), and each one need a bit different approach.
Graphic, music, bugs: Graphic is nice, and game worked fine on my R9 280X, even when I heard it can be resources heavy. Music is not really noticeable, game focus mostly on voices we constantly hear. Some encourage us, some pester and other chide us. I did not find any noticeable bugs.
- fluid controls
- really nice art-style
- nicely done simple environmental puzzles
Cons:
- no option to skip cut scenes
- achievements for beating the game unlocked after unskippable credits... ugh
- checkpoints are too far apart, so collecting mementos is annoying (I skipped it)
- game lacks story
Conclusion:
Story: Well there is no story. So not much to write here. No images showing main character past, no memories, no nothing. There is one cut scene after player collects all mementos and beat last chapter of game again. But IMO it's weak to hide only useful bit of information behind that much backtracking. Names of optional achievements points towards stages of grief, game does not hint why main character has depression.
Gameplay: Well made platformer with very easy environmental puzzles, most of them are skippable. Controls are fluid, and we unlock new abilities along the way - double jump, swimming, ability to smash things etc. But there are no metrovidania elements - it's not possible to backtrack and there is only one possible way at any time. Only after game is beaten it's possible to pick previous levels to look for collectibles.
Graphic, music, bugs: Strongest point of this game is art style, and I do think that game should not be rated based on story or puzzles. As both those elements are totally secondary. Game starts in black and white. With time we unlock colors, which fill world like water color paint fills canvas. Sound is ambient, game is bugless. This game is more of calm art experience, than story-driven or gameplay-based game.
- fluid controls
- good platforming
- proper co-op implementation
Cons:
- not many co-op challenges
- last boss is annoying
- map could be better
Conclusion:
Story: We're reincarnation of hero that trapped god-sisters long time ago. And surprisingly we must defeat them again. So nothing extraordinary or deep.
Gameplay: Our character has ability to change alignment. When we're blue we're protected against blue enemy attacks, and against red attacks when red. But at the same time we deal not much damage towards enemy of the same alignment. There are also alignment-dependent platforms and blocks, which are solid when we have the same color. This mechanic forces us to constant shifting alignment, often mid-jumps which can be challenging. Certain abilities are blocked behind story-important events. Killed enemies and pots drop down coins which can be used to extend health or energy pool.
Graphic, music, bugs: Graphic is simple, and all objects have yellow outlines. With exception for blue / red enemies or blocks / platforms. Music is hardly noticeable. Game is bugless, and only problem is that there is weird delay between pressing jump button and actual jump. Which requires bit of getting used to.
- hordes of zombies to kill
- good implementation of co-op mode, and game is quite hard in SP
- we can kill Hitler
Cons:
- small bugs, like when enemies get stuck in the ground or objects have bad ragdoll effects
- not many open areas
- it feels that game is dated and made on ancient engine
Conclusion:
Story: Hitler was close to be defeated, so he released disease which turned all alive and dead Nazi soldiers into zombies. And they wan to rule the world! We must of course stop them. During story we visit Berlin and some other areas.
Gameplay: Game is similar to Sniper Elite with exception that there are not many glory shots, as it'd be hard to have slow-mo shots in game for 4 players (when other player gets glory shot, other see it as well). Game is quite corridor like, and there is not much incentive to roam around. There are few enemy types, but in the end they all boil down to "shot in the head till it's dead" strategy. There are no mission challenges or optional objectives. We can choose how our character will look like and our weapons at the beginning of mission. No character progression or different abilities sets though.
Graphic, music, bugs: Graphics looks fine, but it is already bit dated. Music is nothing extraordinary. And game is mostly bugless, but there can be bad ragdoll effects of objects and enemies. Plus enemy can get stuck in half-dead state somewhere on the map, which blocks further progress.
Side note:
I am without PC at the moment, so I can’t play in anything demanding. Even Magicka was working with 20 FPS at my laptop :D So updates will be very smol for some time.
And damn, I don’t understand how people want to have kids. I have enough after 3 weeks of constant screaming :sweatsmile:
No chapter selection in 2018 is just stupid. Hellblade devs did got so much right, that it baffles me that they forgot something so basic. T_T
I used to agree with you about kids, but my niece changed my opnion. Even when she was a baby, she barely cried or screamed. Now she spends an entire day just quietly playing with legos or on her tablet. I only see her 2-3 weeks a year, but I wouldn’t mind having 10 kids like her around. on the other hand, my neighbor kids are the devil incarnated. >.< I guess, there’s some luck involved xD
Oh I wanted to lurk and see someone who played GRIS comment here.
The story is there but it is cryptic. So anyone could get their own story out of it.
I’m not a fan of cryptic games either but I enjoyed this one.
I agree though, it’s strongest point is it’s art and I’m really glad it shot up becasue we need more beautiful games like this.
Thanks V!
No star ratings for beaten games this time? :eyes:
Damn, they were lost when I copied HTML code from Notepad++ to preview tool.
Fixed :P
So I was playing with your “Click here to jump to the next update” button and stumbled across this. I just got Hellblade in the recent monthly, and it was #1 on my wishlist. But now I’m a little concerned. I’ve never played a “Batman game” and have no idea how the combat is going to work, and apparently there’s no way to learn except to die a lot and ragequit! Also, as far as the Nordic runes not having fixed symbols, apparently there’s a way to tell if you’ve gotten all of the runes in the current chapter, so you don’t proceed. See the beginning of this guide.
There is a lot of parrying… well basically all you will do is parry attacks, esp against the bosses. Need to wait for environmental clue “it’s time to parry” (or enemy position) and press a button. Then you can attack few times, move away and repeat. Most confusing for me was slow-motion mode, as it was not explained how to activate it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEklJnD1gXA - batman gameplay from challenge mode. So nothing with a plot.
Setsuna is not bad when you face 1 or 2 enemies. It may get hard when there are 3 - 4 enemies, and you need to switch between them, and be vary of their position. So just like in batman game - you must know where enemies are, you pick one, attack a bit, dodge other enemies attacks, pick another “open” target and repeat.
Wanted to download game, and start on easy to see if they have some combat tutorial.. but my laptop can’t run Setsuna. Sorrry :D
Thanks for the reply/explanation, Mskotor…I’ll check out the vids. Maybe I’ll just play on Easy. I’m not playing this game for the combat.
Considering you’ve almost finished all your games I dont think its going to hurt you even if you played nothing
I know :D And that was a plan more or less.
I was suspecting I won’t have ability to play for some time, as I was “planning” to go aboard to look for job. So I did try to play all my games, to not have pile when I’m unable to play.
Still, it feels weird that I don’t have my PC with 24’ screen and hardware that allows me to play in Rise of the Tomb Raider without effort.
I hope I will be able to find place for PC and buy something like Ryzen 3600 + RX 680 within 2 - 3 months.
I have absolutely no idea about anything to do with computers. I dont even know what my rubbish one is but good luck getting that