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2017’s ‘Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice’ was an emotionally impactful story, told through the psychosis of the main character Senua. The story while simple, was told in a way that was extremely artistic, dark, and at times beautiful. While the games combat and puzzles got repetitive, and didn’t offer much compared to other titles, they didn’t detract too much from the game. The games graphics, audio design, story-telling, music, art direction, acting, and cinematic direction, made it one of my favorite story games, and one that I’ve replayed multiple times, despite its flaws.


With the sequel taking this long to release, and Ninja Theory under Microsofts ownership, giving the studio a bigger budget and much more staff, you’d expect the game to reach new heights… I’m sorry to say, this is not necessarily the case.

Hellblade II’s biggest strengths are still the same as the original. The game is beautiful, and geniunely one of the best looking games I’ve played, up there with Star Citizen and Forbidden West. The audio design is impactful, using high-end ASMR equipment, and amazing mixing, to create a terrifying audio landscape. The music is beautiful and intense. Every scene and shot is expertly crafted to be as cinematic and movie-esque as possible. The acting is phenomanal. If you want to play the most cinematic game to date, one that rivals movie level quality, that in general feels like a playable movie, this is it. However as a game, it leaves a lot to be desired, just like the original.


The combat was talked about a lot before the game released, with lots of discussion about how many days they spent acting out scenes in mocap suits, and I got to say, it looks amazing. I mean every motion in combat feels incredibly cinematic, dynamic, with lots of different camera angle trickery that makes it again, feel like a playable movie. Compared to the first game the combat just looks and feels more intense and entertaining, with a lot more dynamic shots, animations, and finishers. When fully immersed I found myself on the edge of my seat, which I can’t say for a lot of action combat games. However when boiled down, the combat is much simpler than the first game, which was already quite simple.

In Senua’s Sacrifice you would have to listen out to voices that would tell you an enemies behind you, making you turn just in time. You’d have shield enemies you’d have to kick or attack right after dodging to deal with. Wave after wave of enemies left for extremely intense situations. There were multiple bosses, each with their own moveset and gimmick. You’d have times where you’d charge enemy after enemy, rotating between multiple moves depending on who you were fighting, similar to Shadow of Mordor’s combat, just from a different perspective. However in Hellblade II you have a heavy and light attack, parry, and dodge… And that’s it. You always magnet towards enemies, and each encounter is a forced perspective that you can’t move out of. You can’t switch targets, and when you do switch targets it’s because the game forced you to. While the combat is more visceral, cinematic, with a lot less repetitiveness to animations, with each move feeling unique throughout the fight… It’s too simple, and I’ve yet to find anything remotely challenging. The parry and dodge windows feel a bit tighter, but without feeling overwhelmed as you’re forced to fight one enemy at a time, it’s not all that difficult.

The combat is a let down, and if it was a combination of the first games moveset, and this games cinematic array of animations, I wouldn’t complain, as it geniuenly does feel less repetitive than the first, but there’s not enough to make the combat challenging. In general it feels streamlined to a fault.


The puzzles… Well there’s not much to talk about. They are okay, and there was maybe one puzzle I found myself spending extra time on, but overall they feel very linear; the game leads you to where you need to go, and which order to complete most puzzles. The first game had a bit of this, but I found the puzzles a lot more endearing in the first game, with a lot more illusions and confusion throughout.


The in-game settings and menu page is great. You can pause in-game, and manually tweak settings to see what the current pause looks like on different settings, with no need to apply. You also have a graph going over statistics like VRAM usage, fps, and other negative/positive effects each setting change is doing. You have chapters for each level, as well as each level breaking down what you’ve missed in terms of collectables. Compared to the first game, and a lot of other games, the menu/pause screen/settings is streamlined to an extremely high quality, and it geniunely makes the product feel a lot more premium.

As for UI, there is none. Like seriously, not a single bit of UI ever. No prompts, mash x button, arrows, compass, mini-map, inventory, or anything. The game is made to be a cinematic playable movie, so if you want to know how to do anything, just pause and look at the on-screen controls. Everything feels intuitive however, being a good showcase that gamers don’t need long-winded tutorials or to be told exactly what to do at any given moment.


For me the price is fine. It’s not necessarily good, but I value the effort put into making the game the most beautiful and cinematic game I’ve played. It doesn’t feel too lacking in combat and puzzles compared to a game like ‘Scorn’, which was another “expensive” short game, and this is a lot higher budget than that game. I mean even ‘Stray’ was extremely popular at a price point to hour ratio I wouldn’t say is great, with gameplay that was okay at best. You’re not getting the same amount of hours you would a long RPG, but nowadays you’re paying $70 USD + more if you’re getting microtransactions or deluxe editions for most RPGs, and most of the gameplay boils down to repetitive grinding. So it’s hard for me to say the price is necessarily bad, but the game is short, and you have to take that into account. It’s also on Game Pass, so if budget is a problem, get it there, or if you want it on Steam, wait for a sale.


Hellblade II is a great game if you want a playable movie. However if you want in-depth action combat and brain altering puzzles, this game does not offer that. A good comparison would be ‘Ryse: Son of Rome’, however in this case the games even more cinematic, and I personally enjoy it a lot more than that game which I really didn’t like. Hellblade II is an important showcase of what the future of gaming is going to look like, and how to expertly handle a story within the gaming landscape. While it didn’t necessarily evolve much from its predecessor, if you enjoyed the previous game, you will enjoy this one, and if you haven’t played the first game, I’d go play that first before even thinking of picking this up.

Overall my main takeaway is that this game was never going to have the same impact the first did. The natural progression of Senua’s story wouldn’t allow for that. So while I am not as deeply enthralled with this title, I still thoroughly enjoyed my time with it. Nothing overstayed its welcome, and what you’re left with is an expertly crafted piece of cinema.

Expect anywhere between 5-10 hours.

What you do:
-buy equipment
-go to liminal space
-record scary things
-escape
-watch recordings on TV with friends

Pros:
-free (currently)
-fun with friends
-nice stylised graphics
-proximity voice chat
-funny physics (character/equipment)

Cons:
-boom mic and taser stick get stuck in the ground constantly
-recordings are only saved webm, so very low quality
-sometimes mics don’t transmit audio for other players
-repetitive

The game is fine for the most part, until you play co-op.

Disconnection issues, crashes, tools not working, players appearing frozen in one spot... The works. Whenever you go to restart the game to fix these issues, there is no restart option. You have two options: quit the entire game, or enter a new map and then go back to the map you were working on. If you choose the latter option, it can’t be a map within the same category, or it overrides the progress of the map you’re trying to restart. To exacerbate the issue, when people try to rejoin your game, they have to download the dirt progress all over again, which downloads kilobytes at a time... With a chance to disconnect before you’ve fully downloaded. This whole process repeated itself over and over when trying to play with friends. We all had this issue on each of our ends. So either the game has issues with co-op, or somehow everyone’s internet connections suddenly decided to act up at the same time when we started playing this game, despite having a perfectly fine ‘Left4Dead 2’ session beforehand.

To add to the co-op issues, your progress towards better tools is only made when you’re the host, making everyone except the host lag behind in terms of progression. So while you could replay the same maps over and over for each individual friend, I find this to be a ridiculous ask.

In short, co-op feels like an after-thought, rather than a feature the developers expect people to play. I recommend ‘Viscera Cleanup Detail’ instead, unless you plan on playing this game solo, then I recommend getting it on sale.

“I’ve grown tired of the rogue-like genre”, is what I thought, until I played Balatro.

Balatro takes the addictive nature of poker and gambling, makes it risk free, and then adds in hundreds of variables that make each playthrough unique. One playthrough you might build towards making every card in your deck a suit of hearts, and then run into a boss that completely nullifies heart cards, ending your run. Another run you might have a combo built around flushes, and then end up getting an unlucky hand that doesn’t have a flush, ending your run. Essentially, Balatro plays into the same logic of poker, but allows you to enhance cards, and multiply bonuses of cards, through each of its different systems. Like other rogue-like games, you unlock cards as you go, further increasing playtime as you find new ways to play/strategise.

The main factor that draws me into the rogue-like genre, is how randomness meets synergy; how multiple items can synergize together, seemingly from complete random chance and luck. Binding of Isaac was the first game I noticed that took this to an absurd level, with 1000s of item combinations, making every run feel unique. However most rogue-like games only do this partially, and never enough to make each run feel truly unique, mostly with small bonuses to stats (boring). Balatro has 150 joker cards, multiple booster packs that each have several random card/hand modifiers, and 32 vouchers. While this isn’t as much as what a game like Binding of Isaac offers, for a simple poker game, it offers a lot of re-playability, randomness, combinations, and synergies, leading to a lot of different builds, decks, and scenarios.

In short, Balatro is a game that makes you say “just one more”. It’s simple, but deceivingly complex, just like chess or Tetris – just as addictive as well. A basic understanding of poker is all you need. Game is cheap, buy it on sale or full price, either way you’ll get your moneys worth.

Pros:
-decent art
-okay story
-4K support
-controller support
-good UI

Cons:
-slow auto (no fix)
-no sex scenes
-no nudity
-repeated use of full-screen art
-bad music
-no voices/sound effects

I think in large the vision of Dragon’s Dogma 2 (DD2) was initially confusing to me... Thinking back to Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen (DD:DA), I found myself thinking that the game was just a modern reskin with removed features... And while in some part that is true, I noticed that a lot of my concerns going into it, about things like weapon switching, having 1-less usable ability, not being able to throw items, and the removal of some vocations... Ultimately didn’t really matter. It could be a number of things, like visuals, timings, new abilities, new physics, the ability to stand on top of big monsters, weightiness, or all of those things combined... Whatever it is, combat feels better, and I don’t really miss the awkwardness of switching abilities/weapons and accidentally pressing a shield ability when trying to use a sword ability. Also classes like archer feel a lot more unique, being one of the only classes that can apply things like tarring shot, for example, without having to throw a bottle. Also having a quick menu for lantern, stamina, and healing options circumvents the constant inventory pausing of the first game. The main differences though, and the one that I think has the most impact, is the stamina regeneration/recovery rates, as well as stamina amount/usage. This alone makes combat more engaging, as you’re using more abilities, running around more, and not constantly stuck in an out-of-breath animation, like I was in DD:DA. The simplification of systems, as well as the quality of life changes, while on paper seems mostly redundant or worse, makes the whole experience a lot more enjoyable for me personally.


That’s not to say it’s directly better. DD2 struggles severely with performance, worse than any modern-AAA game I’ve played. CAPCOM’s monetization is egregious, with pre-order bonuses, deluxe editions, as well as a stealth drop of a several pay-to-win micro-transactions. The lower height limit was raised, removing goblin holes, as well as decreasing the extremity of weight/height related features. Certain creatures were removed, as well as certain vocations. There is only one save slot, as well as no way to delete your save in-game. You can lose a ton of progress by accidentally loading back into your last inn-save. Enemy variety quickly becomes stale/tired within the first 10-30 hours, with only some new creatures introduced. Micro-transaction related items feel too rare or are too expensive (more than first game), making me think that it was purposefully done to make more money. Talking to every NPC on the chance that they’ll be of use to you is frustrating, and adds very little to the experience of questing. There is bug where the physics on an upward punch of an ogre/Cyclops can launch you into the stratosphere (similar to Skyrim’s giants, except not intended). Underclothes being removed takes a lot away from transmog potential. Most importantly, Battahl prices are way too high.


By far the biggest improvement is the pawn system. While the core of it is the same, the pawns are a lot smarter this time around. You have several badges of expertise to work towards, with each big enemy felled making your pawn better at handling those situations. Not only that, but pawns will learn from your world and other worlds. So for example, if I found a chest, or a cave, then my pawn will learn that information, and pass it on to anyone that hires them, giving incentives for you to explore as much as possible, not only to find more loot, but also to train your pawn to be more helpful. This works vice versa between players pawns. Also some pawns will know elvish languages, where to find resources, and have other specific use-cases. This makes the pawn system feel more involved this time around, and with more interesting dialogue than the first, and pawn interactions between one-another and you, it feels closer to the vision of creating a single-player game that feels multiplayer.

Another neat part of this system is the gifts, likes, hearts, and recap of their adventures that you get each time you sleep. It makes you feel encouraged to make your pawn the best it can be, whether that be regarding looks, combat, or exploration expertise.


A lot of the intentional slow down of exploration/traversal, with things like air gondolas, oxcarts, stamina, ferrystones, port crystals, adds to the feeling of existing naturally within the world of Dragon’s Dogma. This is further exemplified by night time difficulty/low visibility, lanterns, glowing eyes at night, embers of fireplaces, camping, weight system, trip-preparation (items), limited wakestones (revives), save-overrides (can’t go back to previous manual save), and non-healable health, which creates a level of intentionality to how long you stay out in the wild, as well as how you prepare for that, and how deaths occur. Chuck on several potential ailments, cooking, crafting, physics, and unique creature behaviour and patterns, and you have an engaging ARPG that feels akin to an immersive survival game.

While it’s easy to criticise the vision Itsuno had regarding this, as monetisation puts a stain on it – in practice it feels really good. Think about how ecology, gathering, crafting, preparation, turf war, and all the other little features that the Monster Hunter series implements, and how that benefits the engagement of going out on a hunt, and apply that same logic to an open world with no loading screens. It’s great, and it personally deepens my connection to the world itself.

For some I’d imagine this section sounds anything but good, and if you’re one of those people, then it’s just not the game for you.


Dragon’s Dogma 2 is shy off being the perfect game for me, but what I’m left with feels akin to what I wanted out of the Elder Scrolls series, and in large part, what I tried to mod Skyrim into. It feels weird saying this, as I think that both series are incomparable at face value, but this is largely why I enjoy it so much... It feels like it appeals to my childhood fantasy that I never saw come into fruition – until now.

However, and I want to stress this, the biggest issue right now being performance, overshadows a lot of what this game is trying to accomplish. I can look past a lot of the issues I’ve listed, but this is one that simply cannot be overlooked. Not only do I run 20-40 fps in cities, but the camera doesn’t feel smooth even at 60 fps outside of cities. The optimisation in this game is atrocious, and I have no idea how long it will take to address this, or whether it will be addressed.

I also don’t think this game is for everyone, and if you’re on the fence, I would play Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen to get a feel of what to expect coming into this, as well as wait for a decent sale of at least 20%.

I’m leaving a positive review on the expectation that CAPCOM will fix the performance issues, but until then I advocate against buying into the hype of an unpolished experience. The game isn’t going anywhere.

The game was black screen for me the whole time. Verified integrity and reopened - no fix. When playing with a friend via his game, I got bored after one round. Not worth a single dollar.

-No loli/dwarf/halfling/gnome/goblin height (160 cm lowest height)
-No leg height modifier
-Can't adjust hand/feet sizes
-Boobs can't be flat
-Can't be underweight/frail
-Can't make toned females
-Limited face presets to build off of
-All faces are either boring or ugly, and everyone looks British
-No proper Korean/Japanese look
-No "cute" faces
-No "young" faces
-Can't flatten nose bridge (Asian look)
-Can't manually adjust lower and upper lip separately
-Can't swap out individual face features with other scans
-Skin textures have a base colour associated with it, reducing skin tones
-No twintail haircut (can't make Hatsune Miku)
-Removed a bunch of hair options from the original (some have estimated up to 30)
-Took me two hours to create two decent looking characters
-No actual gameplay demo

Dragon’s Dogma, an underrated cult classic, is over a decade old now. With time you’d think that the feats that Dragon’s Dogma accomplished would seem ancient, now outdated and reiterated/improved upon. However, many things that Dragon’s Dogma did for the RPG genre back then feel forgotten, left behind, like they didn’t improve upon the genre in anyway. With the upcoming release of Dragon’s Dogma 2, we’ll again see these features, but put in the spotlight, as if they were inventive, new, bringing attention to what was already solved over a decade ago.

Many RPGs were inspired by ‘Dungeons & Dragons’. A game that thrived on imagination and telling your own story. However most games didn’t give you the freedom that DnD did. If you wanted to pick up and throw an enemy, you couldn’t. If you wanted to climb upon a dragon, be taken up into the skies, as you slash the wings to try bring it down – you couldn’t. If you wanted things like weight and height to matter, you had to rely on mods. The ability to mix and match classes, swapping between weapons of other classes mid battle; skidding down terrain; stabbing out the eye of a Cyclops, tearing off his armour, and toppling him by hacking at his feet; creating your own fast travel locations, and needing a currency to teleport between them; quest able to be completed in a multitude of ways, with each outcome leading to different events happening later down the line; multiple status effects, such as being drenched, blinded, poisoned, slowed, and many more; needing a light to see through the dark of night or a dark cave, with enemy spawns changing depending on time of day; enemy types having certain immunities or weakness that need specialized classes to deal with them; a whole party that fills different roles: a mage that uses magic to deal with ghosts, a ranger to fight off flying enemies and bring them down for melee units to finish them off, with each member picking up materials for you, carrying your load, and helping you up in a downed state... All of this, and I mean all of what I’ve talked about, is in Dragon’s Dogma. If you want a game that is immersive, dynamic, and is true to a classical fantasy setting, similar to that of ‘Lord of the Rings’... This is your game, and there is not many games like it.

Monster Hunter has similar features, like being able to latch onto giant enemies, but even features like this are tied to jumping or clutch claw mechanics, and only have a few spots to cling onto... Dragon’s Dogma on the other hand is one of the only games I know where you can climb on every surface of a monser: from the toes of a giant creature, to the head, arms, torso, you name it. This is one feature, among many, that set Dragon’s Dogma apart from any other RPG on the market. While some games have some of these features, there is no game out there that currently has all of them (until Dragon’s Dogma 2 comes out). Dragon’s Dogma feels like the ‘Baldur’s Gate 3’ of its time. A game that did things differently, and was extremely experimental, creative, and tried to bring RPGs back to their roots.

However, despite all of this, Dragon’s Dogma isn’t perfect. Most of the open world feels overly barren, and it takes a ludicrous amount of time to get anywhere due to the unbearable stamina depletion and recovery rates. The UI, inventory, and map feels cumbersome to use, and there is no quick menu for health/stamina recovery items, lantern, or other features that you pause the game to use regularly. The combat, while good, doesn’t feels as good as Monster Hunter or the Soulsborne games, or other successful games that copied their formula (examples: Nioh, Lies of P), due to the hack ‘n’ slash nature of it. The crafting side of the game is so weirdly useless, as you can buy practically everything you’d need anyway, with no shortage of currency. The repetitive nature of enemy types, loot, and environmental visuals, makes exploration a bore at times. The quests and story is quite frankly boring as well, with only some high points during big cinematic moments. On-top of this, the game crashes every time I alt-tab, with no borderless-windowed mode natively supported.

I think you get the gist. Dragon’s Dogma is a flawed game, and despite being a cult classic, with a dedicated fanbase, and many YouTuber’s that will refer to this as the best game of all time, it’s hard to say that what it does good completely overshadows what it does bad. I find myself in awe of certain locations and set designs, and then I’ll spend a couple hours roaming through nothingness, finding locations that at first are exciting, until I realize it’s just the back-end of a dungeon I’ve already explored. I think that because of how long it takes to traverse in general, and the amount of times you’ll just keep fighting the same enemies, in areas that look the same as other areas, the game past a certain threshold starts to feel like a dementia simulator. Maybe its partly my fault for not placing fast travel spots more wisely, or not doing quest in a proper order, but this seriously weighed down on how much fun I was having.

There was a time when Dragon’s Dogma genuinely amazed me, and became one of my favourite games within a heart beat. However now, picking it up again 5 years later, I feel discouraged to call it that. That being said, with the sequel close by, I feel confident that Itsuno (the lead director) will finally succeed in creating the game he envisioned 20 years ago.