Short Game Reviews

"In addition, there is so little environmental reaction. When I look at all those things going on in Borderlands 2 on PC with PhysX enable, it looks phenomenal! After finishing Control, where everything is so interactive and dust and bits and pieces are flying everywhere and where it's even fun to miss enemies, Borderlands 3 looks so OLD."

Had my first two hours on a PS4 Pro and it was the worst splitscreen experience, from a technical point a view, I've ever had. If I had paid for the game to play it in splitscreen I'd be mad. The game's graphics options offer two modes: favor resolution and favor performance. Favoring resolution runs the game with 20-25fps, favoring performance with 30fps. It's not Horizon: Zero Dawn or Uncharted 4-like 30fps with ultra-smooth frame times and pace, though. Mini-stutters are practically everywhere. Then the whole game mini-freezes from time to time, and all the time when one player is using the inventory. Everything's sluggish and laggy—it makes the game almost unplayable in many scenarios. Even selecting a skill tree is delayed and sluggish. The way the value number of items in the inventory is changing also makes it hard to quickly assess your item's value.

Then the image quality is the worst I've seen on PS4. And this is no hyperbole. I mean, I've literally never seen such bad image quality in any current gen console game. There's ZERO antialiasing. Everything's jagged and shimmering. Favoring quality just bumps the res a bit, but still doesn't do anything about the edges. Then there are some texture pop-ins, too.

In addition, there is so little environmental reaction. When I look at all those things going on in Borderlands 2 on PC with PhysX enable, it looks phenomenal! After finishing Control, where everything is so interactive and dust and bits and pieces are flying everywhere and where it's even fun to miss enemies, Borderlands 3 looks so OLD.

So, in conclusion: splitscreen on a PS4 Pro with half the resolution, 30fps in performance mode, no AA at all, frame times all over the place, mini freezes in normal gameplay and at all times when one player uses his inventory/skill tree, and also delay in selecting things in the inventory and skill tree. This so far below any standard.

That being said, I couldn't try single player on the PS4 Pro, though. For people not playing splitscreen I do hope it runs and looks better by a huge margin! Gameplay-wise I find it more fun than BL1 and 2: your character can finally climb which makes traversal much more fun. I didn't stuck at tiny things like in BL2. Finally the protagonist is voiced and talks to NPCs; I can't stand silent, lifeless dolls. Co-op action itself was fun but was constantly hampered by aforementioned technical issues. First characters I encountered were great and fighting goons with other people is generally fun and some weapons sure are awesome. I could imagine playing this with 60fps on PC, but right now I don't want to spend full price.

What I would have wanted, after playing hundreds of hours games like Diablo 3, is an optional salvage and crafting system. Don't just let me pick up the loot, compare it and equip or sell it. Let me do stuff with unnecessary stuff. Let me re-roll specific traits, let me customise my weapon in stats from all the crap and loot I collect on the way. The simplistic approach is totally fine if you want to beat the story, just like in Diablo 3. Pick your weapons you find most fun to play, equip a better one when the need arises and just have fun. But as someone who likes to tweak his characters AND items ad nausea, it is a bit too simplistic for my taste and I'd love to do more with my equipment. I have to say that I can't tell for sure because I only played for two, three hours tops, but according to what I've heard about the game there's no such thing. I wished they would have done more so many years after BL2 instead of delivering "more of the same". Not saying they should have changed their whole formula but merely expand on already existing ideas within the genre and incorporate it to offer more viable gameplay options that won't limit the fun gameplay people used to have in BL1 and 2.

"Hellblade tells a story about suffering, sacrifice, darkness and endeavor. Following the story of Picts warrior maid Senua, you embark on a nightmarish and mind-twisting journey to Helheim, to save a beloved one’s soul."

The quick and dirty recommendation guide (pick as many +/- points as you like and make up your mind if it's worth buying):

+ strong narrative + outstanding sound and visual presentation + responsive, intense and simple combat + nightmarish horror atmosphere (without jump scares) + superb voice acting + frightening and well-designed end bosses +/- combat lacks complexity and may be too simple for some +/- no replay value (it may have for a revisited experience) +/- bit short, which is compensated by fair price and gameplay without tedious and lengthy grinds +/- high stylized presentation of events and plot may not be everyone's taste (totally mine, though)

- gameplay doesn't offer much variety - not much to explore apart from lore stones telling you about Norse mythology (which is quite important, however!) - lack of variety in enemies and their appearance

The details

Hellblade tells a story about suffering, sacrifice, darkness and endeavor. Following the story of Picts warrior maid Senua, you embark on a nightmarish and mind-twisting journey to Helheim, to save a beloved one’s soul. However, for Senua, many things aren’t what they’re supposed to be, for she’s suffering from severe psychosis. While you often can’t decide what’s real and what not, you must overcome many obstacles and enemies – the latter seemingly coming right out of Hel(l).

No other game, up to this point, managed to devour me – getting me so immersed – like Hellblade did. This game just pulled me deeper than any other game has accomplished in recent years, and I, mentally, switched off everything else around me and Senua’s reality became mine. The sound design and visual presentation is outstanding.

I was always a fan of non-linear storytelling and Hellblade totally nailed it. Its presentation is intriguing, captivating and keep you ever so interested in what happened (to Senua) and how everything will turn out.

As for the gameplay I was kind of surprised of what they came up with: There's a level where there is nothing but darkness and you have to find your way out, without fighting, only using your senses, as Senua's reaching out with her hand to frisk her surroundings, or running from one light source to another to not getting devoured by darkness. In other parts, cynically spoken, you could call it 'walking simulator', but, as for myself, I was so immersed in the world that I didn't mind. It doesn’t deliver any boredom even when ‘nothing’ happens.

There is one thing to explore off the main paths, however: Lore stones. These stones – telling you about Norse mythology in appearance of an old friend – are optional but critical in further expanding on the whole game’s story. At first one might not see the entangled meaning of Norse mythology and it seems rather random, just to give this game a Norse touch although you're not playing a viking heroine. Certainly, Vikings are involved in the story but that doesn’t necessarily explain why you keep hearing stories about the Northmen. But keep your wits about you and you’ll come to realize the importance of those stories.

I also enjoyed the combat, although it lacks complexity and deep mechanics. So, what is to like about it? Its responsiveness and simplicity made it a blast to play. It is quick, brutal, intense and it just works without any clumsiness. In that regard it is sort of 'flawless', straight on point. Don't expect anything near like Dark Souls, though.

Visual clues were used in a clever way and weren't spelled out boldly for you with exclamation marks, compass needles and the like. Even in one given situation where acting under pressure and time limit was required, I managed to find all the necessary clues at the first try without said compass needle or other HUD markers pointing out where to go – there are voices telling you to "focus" or to look in another direction. The lack of (almost) any meta information fits the theme of the game and it is an enjoyable change in a video game. That being said, there's no "meta game" telling you how to do things (apart from the game options menu). No HUD, no text boxes or pop ups. Everything you need to know to beat the game is offered by the environments and from 'within' the game.