Topic: Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

[ShyGuy]

This may in fact be the prettiest game on the Switch!



Look at that. Here's the thing, it uses CGI cutscenes, but they use this new technology to integrate near seamlessly into the gameplay and it's very hard to tell. So what does the gameplay look like?



Looks good, framerate is pretty solid, I like it!

From what I understand, Senua is a Pict whose lover has died, so she has carried his skull to Helheim (Hell) to get him back? In the meantime, she appears to be having a psychotic break.

You run around, collecting lore and unlocking gates. Then you run into freaky enemies and get down to combat.
At first it seems simple, but it gets hard. There is actually a lot of combat depth, but they don't tell you about it. There a multiple combos with unique attacks, so play around with heavy and light hits.

I'm only a couple hours in and I am told it's a short game, so I look forward to what is in store.

[BranDonk Kong]

It doesn't use CGI cut scenes, they're actually FMVs (hence the game is larger on Switch than other consoles) - though they're based on the Switch version (just at a higher resolution). I've seen screenshots of this running on a Switch with an overclocked GPU (needs to be modded) and it actually looks pretty amazing, just like the FMV cut scenes.

Edit - ok now I see what you mean. I mean they're CGI in the essence that they're high quality videos using assets from the game.

[Stratos]

Was very close to picking this up this weekend. Held off because of the size of the download and the rumor of a physical release coming. Still on the threshold of going all digital, but in the interests of conserving my SD card space I think games like this would be more fitting as a physical card since I won't be playing it repeatedly and non-stop for large periods of time. Batter to save the digital space for multiplayer and co-op titles I'm more likely to want to play at a moments notice. This game feels like a modern take on Eternal Darkness and that is something I sit down and play for a weekend and then move on until a latter time.

[ShyGuy]

I beat the game, it was good. Not great, but very good. The story is solid, if a little too much tell instead of show at the end. The acting of the main character is excellent.

The game part of the game is smaller than I wanted it to be. It's divided into two modes, walking adventure/puzzle and combat.

The walking adventure throws a lot of dialog at you from various characters, "audio logs" and voice overs. This is generally well done. The puzzle types are a bit repetitive and the game isn't very long. A couple levels change  things up. Most of the time you are wandering around looking for rune symbols in the landscape to capture so the door to the next level will unlock.

The combat was my favorite part. You have a light sword attack, a heavy sword attack, a knock back unarmed attack, a parry, and an evade.  You can string together attacks for different results and there are a lot of different animations for how you are attacking. They throw in focus attacks and a weapon upgrade later on in the game. 

The difficulty gets a little crazy in some places. They throw multiple enemies at you, but the camera is zoomed in tight at all times and it's easy to get stabbed in the back. Learning how to position yourself in the "arena" against multiple enemies is crucial.

All in all, I think it was worth a playthrough

[Stratos]

Only thing keeping me from buying it is the file size. I already need to upgrade SD cards again, so I'll give it a minute to see if a physical release drops. Think I'll spend the money on Dragon's Dogma instead. Or I could cave and buy a 400-500GB card, but that is the price of a full price game, and with us attempting to buy a house I can't just buy everything I want right now.