I don’t get it. The original Hellblade was always a niche success, not exactly mainstream. It simply blew people’s mind about what an indie studio could deliver. I’d never expect a massive player base. Is this all because of Microsoft’s marketing?

I played a couple hours last night on game pass. I have a 3060 ti and a real cruddy cpu (ryzen 5 2600)

The game is absolutely gorgeous and I was surprised how well it ran on my machine. It's a UE5 game though so obviously there were plenty of stutters. Definitely not the worst I've seen though. Much better than any frostbite game. So thats good. The audio design in headphones is also probably the best I've ever experienced in a game. Shit had me genuinely crawling in my skin when a random scary ass voice would start whispering at the back of my neck. Really cool stuff.

The gameplay though? Boring as fuck. I had assumed they would evolve the gameplay somewhat from the first game. I would have thought the devs would have realized that finding symbols hidden in a gray ass environment is about as engaging as a dollar store crossword book. But nope. It's pretty much exactly the same as the first game. I don't get it. Why devote so much money and resources into a game that just isn't engaging to play? Sure, it's gorgeous and sounds incredible. But if that's all your game has going for it just make a CGI TV show or something.

I mean it's on gamepass. Why would people buy it on steam?

I can't financially afford the flood of games releasing right now.

I really wanted to like the first one but felt like the puzzles and movement were so tedious.

To be fair I generally play videogames stoned, which generally I always find enjoyable even on cerebral puzzle games like talos principle. in fact, I like being high cuz it makes it harder.

But senuas first game trying to walk around and match the pattern against the environment was absolutely miserable to do high, and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have enjoyed it sober either.

I loved the combat, but that was so infrequent it didn't keep me engaged. Finally after dying and having to restart and do a puzzle section all over again I said fuck it and uninstalled.

I mean, it looks like a movie. I'll just watch someone play it.

I mean who the fuck decided letterboxing the game would be a good idea?

Hellblade is in my opinion overrated. Sure great graphics, cool story but gameplay and controls were mid. Never finished it. I don’t have any interest in the second one.

Ah excellent, I've been waiting for this. Completely forgot it was coming out