T
TheMythOfSisyphus
Guest
Playing Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice from a little back. So far, the story - albeit vaguely told as it gets filled in from your head voice - is really good and the execution of it is very well done with the whole psychosis thing. The fighting mechanics are not great. Switching from opponent to opponent is clunky and I find myself dodging backwards/running to put space to juggle multiple enemies rather than blocking and deflating enemies gracefully. But...I don't think it is the fighting that is going to end up carrying this game. It's the atmosphere and the story-telling and the mental health vehicle that is going to be doing the driving. I usually don't wear headphones when I play games because 1) My Audioengine speakers I use for my PC are nice and 2) I don't really like cutting myself off from the world when playing a game. But....I heeded the suggestion from the gamemakers to use cans for optimal experience. Verdict: worth it. I played at first with just the speakers (before I saw the notice about cans) and the voices were cool and I liked how they would pan from left to right to disorient you. But with headphones it really drives home that immersion and at times maddening effect of the voices. I also like what they did with the fact that, in one way, they're looked at as a sickness and something to be overcome but there are times when they are the only thing warning you of danger or giving you clues to what to do next (even if they just finished berating you). You can't just tune them out as chatter but actually need to pay attention to them (which is the point). Good game so far. Some of the execution is weak but you can tell a lot of love went into making it.