Board 8 > Muffin Plays Overrated Games: Hellblade Senua's Sacrifice

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SmartMuffin
08/11/19 9:27:59 PM
#1:


Man, what a steaming pile this thing was. Slow, boring, lame combat. Just nothing to like at all.

I guess it has to get good reviews though, because it achieved the proper amount of Wokeness Points by having the first literally mentally ill female protagonist in gaming. As opposed to all the other ones, which just act like they are (Lightning is over in the corner like "seriously, I don't get credit for anything!")

Also wondering how much they paid the SEVEN "mental health consultants" listed in the credits who managed to tell them that crazy people... hear a lot of weird voices that express thoughts of failure and self-doubt. They literally could have just googled "common stereotypes of psychosis" and came away with the same result in the end.

But much like Assassins Creeds' mandatory diversity disclaimer, I suppose this was just to cover their ass, so that if anyone complains about how they wrote their character they can just say YOU CANT BLAME US WE CONSULTED THE PROPER EXPERTS!!!

Anyway, that was a waste of like 20 hours of my life. 19 of which were just holding forward and walking ridiculously slowly. I've honestly never played a game before where my thumb got so sore from constantly holding the left stick up and doing literally nothing else.
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Jakyl25
08/11/19 9:34:42 PM
#2:


I havent played it, but my impression is that people dont come to Hellblade for the gameplay
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SmartMuffin
08/11/19 9:38:23 PM
#3:


Jakyl25 posted...
I havent played it, but my impression is that people dont come to Hellblade for the gameplay


Eh, I'm totally fine with story centric games. But this doesn't deliver there either. The story is lame and cliche. The "twists" are predictable. There's really not much there besides the fact that they did a relatively decent job with facial expressions in the sense that they were able to animate a blank stare that actually does look insane without hitting the uncanny valley. So that's a reasonably decent technical achievement, I guess...
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SmartMuffin
08/11/19 9:40:32 PM
#5:


Also, I won't get into specific details for those who don't already know because I guess in some ways it could be a spoiler, but the game literally lies to the player about game mechanics, in an attempt to get you to more closely empathize with the character or something. That's just, like, unbelievably lame.
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banananor
08/11/19 10:28:45 PM
#6:


Hellblade is certainly an experience, and I can understand you not enjoying it. It's supremely unpleasant, I think intentionally. I own it via a humble bundle.

Did you play it while wearing headphones? The voices menacingly asmr-ing into one ear at a time are unnerving.

I'm slowly working my way through it, maybe a half hour at a time. It's intense.

Being unhappy that the schizophenic voices and text in a game about schizophrenia lie to you is kind of... on the nose

I do think the trailer with player testimonials was over the top, but I try not to hold the marketing department against the game itself

I'm glad when games are different from the tried and true formula. Hellblade is art.
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banananor
08/11/19 10:33:05 PM
#7:


I should say, it's art so far. Maybe it gets worse later on. But for now it sits in its own genre
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SmartMuffin
08/12/19 9:20:13 PM
#8:


Games can be art and ALSO be fun.

As I said, I have nothing against VNs or QTEs or adventure games or whatever. But if you're going to bother forcing me into a bunch of gameplay, it better be fun. Or at least neutral. Most of this game is anti-fun. As a non-interactive movie it would have been mediocre at best, but adding mandatory (but not cleverly designed) interaction makes it even worse

Also it's stupid to act like the text mechanic thing is AT ALL comparable to Senua's own experience with mental illness. She experiences a wide variety of voices, constantly, telling her all sorts of things, some of which are accurate, but mainly contradicting each other. The mechanic thing is ONE interaction with the player that states a blatantly false thing and never revisits the matter. It would be like if Senua heard one voice, one time, that told her one thing, that ended up being completely wrong.
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Drakeryn
08/12/19 10:01:31 PM
#9:


SmartMuffin posted...
Also, I won't get into specific details for those who don't already know because I guess in some ways it could be a spoiler, but the game literally lies to the player about game mechanics, in an attempt to get you to more closely empathize with the character or something. That's just, like, unbelievably lame.

lol what

I'm curious, spoil me
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