Recent reviews by AverageSpacePope

I enjoyed the base game well enough, not as much as most people but enough to entice me to reach the end. If I was to rate it, I'd give the base game an 8/10. As for the DLC, it looks amazing, has some great music and has some really neat new weapons and builds. However, I can't recommend this DLC due to the buggy hitboxes for larger enemies, poor performance on PC, terrible camera in certain boss fights and the over use of enemies from the base game.

Besides the reuse of enemies, the other issues I mentioned can and will likely be fixed in future patches. But until these issues are addressed, it's a thumbs down from me.

Disclaimer: I refunded this game just before the 2 hour refund limit. The rest of the game I have simply watched elsewhere. So if that is enough for you to write this review off as nothing more then rubbish, more power to you. However, if that doesn't bother you, then please read on.

Just gonna get this out of the way, I didn't like Hellblade. Before I get into why, I wanna say that Hellblade is an interesting game, not just in it's setting but also in what it's trying to do within the AAA landscape. I admire the devs for making this game and really trying to create a great product.

With that said, onto the pros and cons:

Pros:

- Graphics: The graphics are cutting edge. The facial expressions made by the main character are extremely accurate and just show how far games have come, at least in terms of graphical fidelity. The enivroments look pretty too, with a few stand out areas here and there.

- Voice acting: The voice acting is also great too. I especially liked how they meshed live action and in-game visuals together in certain scenes. That combined with the impressive voice acting and you get a great result.

Cons:

- Length: Okay, here is what will seperate a lot of people. I honestly, couldn't justify spending £25 on a game with only 6 hours of content. Now if said content was absolutely stellar, I would have been happy to spend that money. However, for me the content that was there was kinda dull. Why? I'll explain in the following points.

- Story: A lot of people are praising this games story. Unfortunately for me, Hellblade failed to pull me into the story. I was bored throughout the first 1/3 of the game. The pace was simply to slow (which has a lot to do with the gameplay). Now I'm fine with a 100-200 hour game/experience like The Witcher 3 having a slower pace but for a 6 hour game?

I didn't want to risk pushing further into the game just to end up not liking the other 2/3 (which I didn't after watching the other 4 hours online). I like the idea of Senua having voices in her head and that aspect of the game is well done but it's the parts in between the cutscenes and story sections that kills all of the momentum for me.

- Gameplay: This is what killed the game for me. Now, just for the record, I find the combat okay, albeit quite repetative and average. But I don't like how most of the game consists of non-interative cutscenes and walking around. I like cutscenes and the odd puzzle to break up the action but for a 6 hour game to consist of hours of cutscenes and minutes of doing nothing... it feels... boring (at least for me).

The puzzles themselves are passable. They're not challenging but they're not fun either. They just end up being really tedious, basically "spend 10 mins trying to align enviromental objects up in such a way that it forms a shape that unlocks a door with magic".

Verdict:

I liked the imagery and graphics and the way they portrayed the subject matter was very interesting. The spurts of combat were okay but, at least for me, not much else stood out. There are a few stand out scenes in the game that I won't spoil here. If you just want a short story focused game/experience that tackles a unique subject, go for it. However, if you want to make the most out of your money or if you want a game containing deep gameplay mechanics and/or a plentiful amount of content, it may be best to look elsewhere.

5 years later and this game (along with all of it's DLC/Expansions) is still entertaining me to this day. With Rome 2 and Attila being big disappointments for me and Warhammer being just okay, this game has remained, in my opinion, the best game in the Total War series.

Pros:

+Amazing Graphics
+Deep and Tactical Gameplay
+Cool (but now kinda dead) Multiplayer Campaign
+Interesting Historical Missions
+Well Done Micro-management

Cons

-Inconsistent AI
-Lackluster Diplomacy System

Final Score: 9/10

Before I give you a run down of what I think of this game, let's go back in time to early September; I was dying to play a new game but it was a whole month before any of the big name games were to be released. So I went hunting for a new game to pass the time... but what I found was a game that has almost completely taken over all of my free time for the past month.

Honestly, for a free-to-play game, Warframe offers a lot of content. Yes, the game is really grindy and definitely repetitive but the gameplay, graphics and the awesome community easily make up for that. Now, there are timers and yes, you can pay for stuff. However, since the game doles out rewards and items frequently enough to make the game feel less grindy then it actually is, you never feel forced to buy anything.

Having played this game back in 2013 and after playing it for the past month, I can definitely say that this game has seriously come along way in the past 3 years. Definitely a step above most free-to-play games out there.

Plus, the game has space ninjas!

9/10.

Edit: 700 hours later, I'm still addicted :)

The main character (Max) likes Final Fantasy: Spirits Within. See! I'm not the only one who likes that movie! Well... maybe in real life. Oh, and the rest of the game is pretty good too.

10/10, would cry again.