Topic: Games you've recently beat

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Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

First off, thanks to @Th3solution for his writeup of the game which made me finally pick up the game. I actually completed this in one sitting! (I'm working night shifts this weekend so often have an all-nighter before them to shift my body clock and this game is only 6-8hrs long).

And so on to my first attempt at a pushsquare forum review!

Story

"It’s funny. We all want to see behind the veil, don’t we? But once we do...we mostly just close our eyes again and pretend what we saw was never really there."

This is where this game absolutely excels. The battle to reach Helheim and rescue the soul of her partner whilst battling her inner demons is brilliantly written and done with real insight into what living with psychosis is like. The game has deep roots in Norse mythology and it was interesting playing this after God of War as the lore stones here go into the mythology really well and tie it all into the game.

The multiple facets to the story involving Shenua's parents, Dillion, and the side of the story of her as a Celt blended with the Norse mythology works so well. The fact the game is only 6-8 hours long means that the tempo of the story keeps going and that there never feels like there's too much filler going on. The script itself is beautifully written and there are so many poignant lines that are beautiful without any context but really thought provoking in the context of the game.

I know the previous review of the game on here described it as a horror and at times it certainly feels that way but it's more psychological than that with the state of apprehension the games looks to build, along with the uneasiness of not knowing what's real and what isn't all the time.

Gameplay

"You might think she’s brave to go on this journey on her own. But it isn’t bravery that drives her. Bravery only means something to those afraid of death. Senua’s fear runs far, far deeper."

What really intrigued me with this game is the complete lack of handholding. No tutorial. No hints. No map, compass, objectives. The closest you get is a list of the basic controls when you pause the game but other than that you're on your own.

Well, apart from the voices anyway.

Shenua controls really well and moves so fluidly through the map. Similar to GoW, so much of the game is done almost as one "take" with the camera following Shenua around the whole time other than for the beginning of some cut scenes. For such a big world, the game never really hits any loading screens so immersion never really breaks.

The puzzles in the game are the right level that some thought needs to go into them but never enough to frustrate you. The ones that used the "gates" to alter reality (for example, creating a door in what was previously a wall) particularly stood out. The repetitive "find the runes" puzzles could get a bit frustrating, especially when you could see it but couldn't quite line the camera up how the game wanted. Overall, these niggles didn't matter too much.

And for a game that likes its combat (more on that shortly!), it was impressive how the middle third of the game had zero combat. The trials in the middle of the game were quite unique although a little hit and miss but the one in almost total darkness was really quite haunting.

Combat

"The hardest battles are fought in the mind."

I thought the combat in this was really tight. You have just the one weapon and only a small skill set but the combat feels really fluid and once you suss out the best way to take on each enemy, you can feel pretty badass as you pick them off one by one. The parrying window is generous but still so satisfying. As mentioned before, there is no guide to combat so it is about finding it out for yourself so it feels even better once you "git gud".

That said, the range of enemies is pretty limited and the late game does resort to the "just throw loads of enemies at you" tactic which does feel a little cheap.

Boss Fights

"And in the end we all fall. Even the gods have their time.

I'm putting these in a separate category as epic boss fights are some of the best moments in games for me. There's not many of them in the game but they all feel suitably important and the fight with the beast (pictured above) is one of my favourite battles of recent times as you take on this monster in near complete darkness. One of the best moments of the game for me.

Graphics and Sound

"Even in darkness, the wonder and the beauty of this world, never leaves us, it is always there, waiting to be seen again.

Goddamn, this is one gorgeous game.

Senua herself is fantastically modelled and looks great both in game and in cut scenes. The world is also a thing of beauty going from epic grey landscapes like above, through to fiery pits of hell and the claustrophobic tunnels later on. I didn't want to play around with photo mode too much to distract from the game but too many scenes just looked too good not to capture.

I know @Th3solution found the FMV in some cut scenes quite jarring but I thought it worked really well as it was only used to represent people talking to Senua in visions and some of the emotion being portrayed would have been lost if it wasn't an actor playing it. These visions always had some sort of filter on them though so, for the most part, it wasn't just a person appearing on screen.

As for sound, the music is mostly understated during the game but really kicks in for combat to get the adrenaline going. But the music for the final battle swings the other way with beautiful ambient music playing as you fight which made the final sequence really memorable.

Obviously, the most important part to the sound though are the voices. I played the whole thing with headphones (no thanks to my dog who has chewed most of the foam off one side) and the voices are really disconcerting and distracting to start with but by the end you almost forget they are there at times. It works well with the different volume of voices there mocking/supporting you and they're most noticeable in combat when they even warn you if an enemy is behind you but also tell you to just give up at times.

Overall

This was a really unique experience and one I'm glad I finally got round to playing. It's one of the few games I've played that really sticks with you after the credits finish and playing it through in one sitting really was quite the experience!

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I finally feel comfortable writing up some thoughts on BioShock Infinite as a whole. I've taken some time to process that insane ending, as well as read up on some of the criticism the title has received that made it the more controversial of the three entries. I don't think that changed my outlook on the game at all however, since I found myself disagreeing with most of the criticism I came across. It somewhat boggles my mind that certain people will tout BioShock as the worst of the franchise, let alone a bad game.

The story in this game is bloody fantastic. It has one of the very best openings in any video game ever from the very start up to the logo. For the first few hours, I was in complete awe of the setting of Columbia. I'm pretty sure I spent a good 1 or 2 hours just walking around the city before I even got to the raffle, where stuff actually starts to hit the fan. The game is absolutely gorgeous, only helped by the resolution uptick on the PS4. I don't know if I've ever had as much fun with looking around, just admiring the view as in this game. It really is one of my favourite settings I've ever gotten to play in.

As for the story, it does hit a bit of a rough patch midway through where it feels like it's running out of steam a bit. The game has a lot of similarities to the first two BioShock, up to but not limited to it's level design. I know a complaint is that the levels in BioShock are a lot more linear, but I don't believe that to be a negative. I didn't enjoy the constant backtracking of the previous games, so when Infinite wanted me to start doing that in the Fink Factory I was less than pleased. The whole tear business did put a whole other spin on it however, so I can't say I didn't end up enjoying it. This is also the point where it ran out of steam a bit for me, since at that point we were simply going from find this person to find this person to find this person. Luckily it picked up immediayely after and didn't linger long enough for me to start feeling bored.

Elizabeth is also an obvious highlight in the story. It's a great character who I fell in love with more and more throughout, until the ending solidified her place as one of the best gaming companions. That's a sentiment I've heard repeated often, but I did get a somewhat wrong expectation thanks to it. Like I just said, Elizabeth is one of the best gaming companions when related to the story of the game. She is not, in any way, a great companion in gameplay, which was a bit of a disappointment. She doesn't fight, the things she gives you are simply spawned in and the enemies won't acknowledge her at all, even when I'm hidden and she's standing right next to them. When the game told me early on that I wouldn't have to protect Elizabeth because she could take care of herself, I figured she actually would as opposed to just being a prop on the battlefield. The only thing of value she contributed during gameplay was the tears, but that could've been done in addition to fixing my earlier complaints. Luckily, her character makes up for it in the story.

I loovvveeerd the soundtrack in this game. Something like hearing Girls Just Wanna Have Fun through a tear out of nowhere was a great, yet fitting surprise. The lyrics sung in the tear are oddly relevant to what's going on in the story, and the game does that with many more songs than just that one. The game capping itself off with a Beach Boys number was also perfect. And since I'm talking about songs, I loved the little moment in the Vox bar where Booker gets to play the guitar and Elizabeth sings. I'm a sucker for characters singing in any medium, but this one felt particularly special knowing the characters' journey. To have a behind the scenes clip of Troy Baker and Courtnee Draper singing the song over part of the end credits was an extra treat.

Speaking of Troy Baker and Courtnee Draper, what fantastic voice talent. We all obviously know Troy Baker as one of the most prolific voice actors in current times, so I didn't expect anything less from him. I was not aware of Courtnee Draper in the slightest beforehand though, yet she blew me away. She played Elizabeth with such passion, yet subtlety. Conviction, yet fear. Everything that came out of Elizabeth felt like it meant something. I truly think that's one of the best VO performances I've heard in my gaming career. I'm glad they managed to find someone who perfectly did the character justice, and I'm saddened to see she's been in barely any games since!

As for the combat, which I saw was one of the main complaints from critics, I really enjoyed it. I don't think it was very different from the first two games. You've got a gun in one hand, a vigor in your other: go to town. The one change I did notice was only getting to carry two guns at a time vs. BioShock 1/2 giving you the full arsenal. I played most of the game with a pistol and a shotgun, which I felt like was a good combination. I loved using the vigors. They all felt satisfying in their own ways. My favourite to use was the Charge vigor. It reminded me a lot of Mass Effect's biotic, and it was just as satisfying here. There's just something really great in getting to charge into your opponent supernaturally. I also kept the gear that gave you the 50% chance to set an enemy on fire while using melee on him for the entire game, since I love going melee and I love setting enemies on fire even more. The skylines were a great addition to the gameplay, and I loved messing around with them. Going on a skyline and having multiple enemies follow you only for you to tame them out while jumping around the skyline was a really badass feeling. All the skyline strikes were also great to use, even if it was a bit clunky to select the enemy you actually wanted to strike. The gunplay was tight, and the auto-aim on point!

The ending. Wow. You guys warned me that it was one of the greatest ending in video games, and you weren't wrong. It manages to blow your mind as it's happening, quite literally, yet all makes sense when you start to think about it afterwards. All the foreshadowing that was done throughout the game was so clever, because prominent moment that seemed to mean nothing at the time ended up tying into that whole narrative. The Luteces were impeccably mysterious characters throughout, and when you finally find out what their role in your story was at the end... just perfect. All the other reveals, the most prominent of which I won't mention considering spoilers, were equally incredible. This is an ending that will probably stay with me for the rest of my gaming career. I don't think many future games will be able to top this. And that doesn't just go for the ending, but also the game overall. I'd say BioShock Infinite was a solid 9/10 experience. It blew me away in a way a game hasn't done in quite a while.

That's my thoughts for now, but who knows... maybe I'll return to mention some things I'd forgotten.

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inFamous: First Light

Platform: Playstation 4

Level of Completion: Everything. Got the platinum trophy after three days of intensive play (7+ hours a day)

What is it?: The prequel to early PS4 title inFamous: Second Son. You play as a mutant(coughs excuse me... a "conduit") named Fetch who joins forces with a drug lord to help save her brother from the clutches of Russian mobsters.

What I Liked:

• So, the most immediate thing that comes to mind when talking about this game: the method of locomotion you'll be employing the majority of the time. Running around at supersonic speed is extremely fun, and, as you upgrade your abilities, you'll be flying through the streets, bounding off of rooftops, and generally treating the city of Seattle like your own personal playground very fun. This sort of seems like it would be a good model for a Sonic the Hedgehog game to follow, considering you collect items in your environment, pass through energy rings of sorts dotted throughout the city to boost your speed, and the momentum based movement and combat flows really well.
• Combat involving your powers is decent fun, too. How could someone not like blasting bad guys with hand lasers, shooting energy missles to blow up cars, or using gravity manipulation to hold your enemies in the air while you run up to punch them?
• The facial animations during cutscenes are legitimately stunning in terms of how authentically they convey real human emotion. There are games with more photorealistic characters, but I don't think I've ever seen quite so realistic a depiction of human emotion (behaviorally, that is) as I have in this game. When the main character cries, for example, her face scrunches, her mouth trembles, and it all adds up to the effect of feeling like you're watching a real person struggle with grief. I'm often critical of realistic visual design in video games, but it's used extremely effectively here.
• So, this game can run at either an unlocked framerate or at a locked 30fps, depending on what you toggle in-game. I love that this is an option for those of us who don't appreciate varying framerates. The small moments when the game gets closer to 60fps are nice, but it's annoying that the framerate drops so obviously when anything happens and starts taxing the system. I say "locked 30fps," but it's not REALLY locked. When you're in one of those arenas and you're on higher wave levels (30+ especially get pretty crazy), you'll have dozens of enemies spawning and gunning for you at any one time. So, understandably, when 50 enemies are out in force at once, jumping around and shooting lasers and bullets at you constantly... this all starts to tax the PS4 a bit, and it starts dropping to the low 20s or even lower pretty frequently. Performance, overall, stays pretty glued to the target when you cap the framerate, though.
• Environments are pretty awesome, too. I had to have spent a few minutes or so just watching the realistic way in which the rain hit the pavement around my character. Very cool.
• The game does a good job of balancing the meat of the story, which are had in flashbacks the main character is having, with modern-day segments in a government training facility that act as tutorials of sorts for your various combat abilities.
• Like Gravity Rush or Super Mario Odyssey, there are collectibles EVERYWHERE, are they're good to hunt down. Given that you use them to help upgrade your abilities, there's also good incentive to grab them early on.
• At one point in the game's story mode, you have to hack into police drone feeds and figure out where they are by looking at the environments so you can destroy them. I really enjoyed this sort of light puzzle-solving gameplay.
• What really elevates this game for me is the depth and challenging nature of its arena challenges, which see you facing off against increasingly huge waves of difficult foes in giant artificial environments. These allow you to fully explore the nuances of the game's cool traversal mechanics and combat system, which, unfortunately, just isn't possible in the fairly basic campaign mode.
• Arena battles also have better enemy diversity. You're stuck with fairly basic human enemies in the story, whereas you get to fight drones and, for some reason, projections of various types of demons (when you're bouncing around shooting demons in the face and doing melee takedowns left and right, it starts to feel a bit like a weirdly bloodless third-person take on DOOM)

What I Didn't Like/Was Disappointed By:

• While the presentation is great in some ways, it misses the mark in others. For example, Fetch frequently calls people on her phone, but the character model never actually takes out a phone and holds it up to her ear. It's weirdly lazy.
• As pretty as the world is, and as fun as it is dashing around it like The Flash... it's a very empty world as well. There's little interactivity with the environment to be had. Nothing to find outside of little red orbs everywhere and races where you chase something called lumens (they're like sentient balls of gas) around the city in an effort to catch them. Beyond those, and some random encounter types that are needed for achievements, it really doesn't feel like a living world. It's lacking even a rudimentary system where mass destruction attracts the attention of authorities, for example, despite the game telling you that the government is tracking down Conduits so ruthlessly that the main character didn't even use her powers for years on end. You can run around Seattle blowing up cars and killing people willy-nilly, but the only thing that attracts attention is when you actually start messing with soldiers. There's no escalation to conflicts even in scenarios like this: you kill a vehicle full of soldiers and... that's it until you happen across the next one.
• The story missions in the main story mode are pretty shallow and forgettable. There's a very low level of difficulty, and they mainly encompass escort missions of sorts that you can find in many other open world titles.
• The writing frequently falls flat for me. The villain is a boring stereotype, and there's not really a compelling emotional arc regarding the main character. Nobody really shines in this game.
• I know I praised the arena mode, but we have to have a talk about some of the challenges you have to complete to 100% the game. Now, some of them are great and make perfect sense, such as scoring a certain number of points in each arena, or surviving a certain number of enemy waves. Others are... grindier than I like, but once you know what to look out for, they're mostly OK, and accumulate over time anyway, like the challenges that ask you to kill a certain number of enemies. But there are some trophies here that just... don't work right. Or the requirements for them are weirdly specific in ways that the game doesn't tell you. For example, the one where you have to kill a certain number of airborn enemies whilst in the air as well. Well, I probably sniped hundreds of flying demons over the course of my time with the game, but that counter kept failing to tick up. Apparently it ticks up if you use your power to make a landlocked enemy float in the air, jump, and then shoot him while airborne, though. But it doesn't count if you hit their weak spot and you've already grabbed the perk that brainwashes them for a time when you hit their weak spot, because they're not technically dead yet. So I kept having to stasis them, jump up, use my focus to slow time, and then desperately unload tons of lasers into the rest of their body in a big to kill them before the stasis I gave up or I landed from my jump. And then you have the one that wants you to blow enemies off of platforms... except this doesn't work with melee attacks, and stasis just makes them float in the air, so my only real hope was missiles. But... well... missiles generally latch onto and kill my targets, so that wasn't going to work. I had to exploit a glitch in the store mode where baddies in drive-by encounters would be slightly tossed away from their car when I stasised their vehicles, which would make the counter tick up each time. The cars seem to show up randomly, though, so I spent a good hour or so randomly wandering the map looking for more drive-by encounters so I could clear this achievement. There were a number of other annoying, somewhat glitchy, poorly-designed achievements, but these were the most annoying.
• I eventually adjusted to letting the game auto-adjust the camera as I dashed, but I never liked it. I want control of the camera, and having it mapped to O makes it impossible to control the camera and dash at the same time unless you pull off some extremely uncomfortable contortions with your hand (I did, initially). Not a huge problem when you're just running forward, but I HATE rounding corners without being able to adjust the camera to see where I'm going. Again, the camera adjusts for you, but I don't like it.
• Actually, a lack of any sort of button remapping is a sore spot in this release in general.

Conclusion: While the game undermines itself somewhat with a lack of polish in mission structure, writing, and many of the challenges in the arena mode, the core experience is quite fun, and I'd recommend it to anyone looking for an addicting little third-person open-world action game.

Verdict: 7/10