Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

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I agree. I watched the making of video after finishing the game and it's impressive how they put this game together with a small budget and crew. I was thoroughly impressed.

Yeah, 300K sales to break even. At $30 a pop, that works out to a 9 million dollar budget. Since Sony and MS take a percentage from each download, it is probably more like 10 million. But that's a small budget in today's terms. I remember the lead developer (Antonaides) saying AA games had disappeared, he wanted to find a way to bring them back, but with AAA production values. They had to keep it fairly linear and short, to do that.

I'm glad it's been successful. Hopefully it will inspire other developers to try the same approach.
 
Finished it, loved it. Great story, stunning graphics, and I actually enjoyed the combat and puzzles. So glad I picked this one up!
 
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Finished it, loved it. Great story, stunning graphics, and I actually enjoyed the combat and puzzles. So glad I picked this one up!

Awesome. Glad you liked it. :)
 
Yeah thanks for the positive impressions!! Seriously thought about canceling my preorder at one point lol

I went back and forth on buying it, too. It's hard to know what you're getting into.
 
Here are the bullet points for the DF analysis, for those who don't feel like watching the video:

  • Three modes: High Frame Rate, High Resolution and Enriched Visuals.
  • Solid performance in all modes, with the exception of loading hiccups in the 60FPS mode.
  • Enriched Visuals features better shadows, view distance and foliage over the other modes.
  • All modes are dynamic resolution with a ceiling at 4K with a great TAA solution. High frame rate mode averages at around 1080p but often goes up to 1296p. High resolution mode spends the majority of the time at 4K but can occasionally dip. Enriched mode hits 4K often but sits at just below 4K most of the time.
  • Base Xbox One is 900p at a solid 30FPS.
 
Its in my backlog. Probably won’t start it for a few weeks. Think this is a game I want to commit a weekend to. Which mode seems better between resolution and enriched visuals?

I’m hoping to see a return to games like this. AAA production values but shorter more focused gameplay. Microsoft needs to find out how Ninja Theory pulled this thing off on their budget.
 
Ninja Theory's acclaimed adventure game that deals with mental health, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, launched last week for Xbox One--and it sold more than 50,000 copies in its first week. That's good news for the game and for charity, as Ninja Theory will donate $25,000 to the Mental Health America charity.

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/hellblade-for-xbox-one-sells-50000-copies-dev-dona/1100-6458343/
Must be a good game if MS bought them. I haven't played it yet, but now I will.
 
I was surprised to learn they did Enslaved. I tried that but didn't like the style of combat enough to hang with it. Incidentally, Enslaved was the game that sidelined Horizon Zero Dawn's concept for a while. Guerrilla heard NT was making a game with a lot of the same features that Horizon would have (e.g, post-apocalyptic setting, robots, etc.), and they didn't want to make a game that would be so similar, so they put the Horizon idea on the shelf for a while.
Was perma death experienced by you or is it a bluff?
 
Andy did you find the game EASY on EASY?

I found it more enjoyable, although still not a cakewalk. It was too frustrating for me on normal -- I died too many times with Valrayn. So I turned it down to Easy. Some of the boss encounters were still tough, but at least I could handle them. It made the normal combat encounters pretty easy, which was fine with me, because it allowed me to experiment more.

However, my skills are pretty limited with this sort of combat. You might find it too easy, if you've played a lot of these sorts of games. I know I heard a lot of people say Normal was too easy for them, whereas for me, it was too difficult. So, YMMV, depending on your experience/skills.

You can change difficulty on the fly, so you can always start out with Normal, see how you do, and dial it back to Easy if you die too much.
 
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I found it more enjoyable, although still not a cakewalk. It was too frustrating for me on normal -- I died too many times with Valrayn. So I turned it down to Easy. Some of the boss encounters were still tough, but at least I could handle them. It made the normal combat encounters pretty easy, which was fine with me, because it allowed me to experiment more.

However, my skills are pretty limited with this sort of combat. You might find it too easy, if you've played a lot of these sorts of games. I know I heard a lot of people say Normal was too easy for them, whereas for me, it was too difficult. So, YMMV, depending on your experience/skills.

You can change difficulty on the fly, so you can always start out with Normal, see how you do, and dial it back to Easy if you die too much.
Thanks Andy. See the thing is I suck at games like Bloodborne, Souls and Nioh. No difficulty levels and I cant even beat the first boss.

I feel like if there is an easy option then I might have a chance.
 
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Thanks Andy. See the thing is I suck at games like Bloodborne, Souls and Nioh. No difficulty levels and I cant even beat the first boss.

I feel like if there is an easy option then I might have a chance.

I don't think it's as hard as those games, but yeah, Easy might still be the way to go. I might've given up early if it weren't for that option.
 
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Just finished the prologue. Wow, this is pretty different. It's a cool start but not what I was expecting. Just walked through the first door and had to leave to work.

Can't wait to see what's next.
 
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Still got to get stuck into this. Completed one of the 3 areas. Boys fight was nice and I messed him up big time
 
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Finished part 1 of 3. Just starting part 2 now, and I am getting my ass handed to me right at the beginning, and I am playing on easy. I am still trying to figure out the right trigger timing where it uses the focus where it pauses the enemies for a short duration so I can hit them. Ugh. Good thing there isn't perma death. If there was, I would I have perma died about 10 times now.
 
Finished part 1 of 3. Just starting part 2 now, and I am getting my ass handed to me right at the beginning, and I am playing on easy. I am still trying to figure out the right trigger timing where it uses the focus where it pauses the enemies for a short duration so I can hit them. Ugh. Good thing there isn't perma death. If there was, I would I have perma died about 10 times now.

Yeah, that sounds familiar. I struggled with Valravyn in particular. And those shield guys are tough, too. Kicking them helps.

As for focus, watch for the mirror to fill up. It's hanging on your belt. That's the game's way of telling you that your focus is full.
 
Yeah, that sounds familiar. I struggled with Valravyn in particular. And those shield guys are tough, too. Kicking them helps.

As for focus, watch for the mirror to fill up. It's hanging on your belt. That's the game's way of telling you that your focus is full.
YES! The guys with the shields are killing me man. So the "B" button (red) is the kick button. So I think I need to "A", which is to roll, kick with "B" and block with "RB" on those guys I guess. Less X and Y for quick and heavy melee.

Thanks Andy.
 
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YES! The guys with the shields are killing me man. So the "B" button (red) is the kick button. So I think I need to "A", which is to roll, kick with "B" and block with "RB" on those guys I guess. Less X and Y for quick and heavy melee.

Thanks Andy.

No problem. I was probably 80% done with the game before I figured out I could kick those guys. Happy to save you some trouble. The game doesn't tell you about some of the moves. I think I read about the kick on a forum. Before that, I was always trying to roll away and hit them, but the game locks you into such close quarters, it's tough.

Keep at it. Once you get a feel for the combat, you won't have much trouble. I ended up having fun with it. The slow-mo effect when you time the parry right is pretty cool.

I'm going to need to play this game again (3rd time), now that I've got an X. How are you liking the visuals?
 
No problem. I was probably 80% done with the game before I figured out I could kick those guys. Happy to save you some trouble. The game doesn't tell you about some of the moves. I think I read about the kick on a forum. Before that, I was always trying to roll away and hit them, but the game locks you into such close quarters, it's tough.

Keep at it. Once you get a feel for the combat, you won't have much trouble. I ended up having fun with it. The slow-mo effect when you time the parry right is pretty cool.

I'm going to need to play this game again (3rd time), now that I've got an X. How are you liking the visuals?
Thanks Andy, I will keep at it. BTW, I don't think I received your friend request for XBL, unless you didn't want to request me.

Graphically it looks good. I mean, I am not like OMG I can't believe it. I do love her character animation and facial features. I guess for an indie game (would you consider it indie?), it looks really good.

Sometimes when you die and then start walking right after dying, my character floats forward instead of walking and then the walking kicks in. Atmosphere is great, voice overs are great. Sound is great.
 
Thanks Andy, I will keep at it. BTW, I don't think I received your friend request for XBL, unless you didn't want to request me.

Oh, sorry, I must've overlooked you. I thought I got you. I sent out a few friend requests, but I may have missed you. I probably missed a lot of people. I just quickly sent out FRs to the people who gave thumbs up to a couple posts about me getting an Xbox. I figured they were some of the friendly ones. I need to go back and do a more thorough job of sending out FRs later. It's somewhat pointless because I'm not actually online much at all, but what the hell, I want you guys on my friends list anyway.
 
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Hey Hedon I just checked, and it looks to me like you're on my friends list. Can you double check?