Finished this dlc for the second time today, and it's still peak.

Pretty sure I only had three deaths to bosses; one to Demon Prince and two to Midir. Actually did Lapp's quest for the first time, which was a fun look at a classic character and his armor was a nice reward. I summoned him for the Spear of the Church boss since it felt like his quest wouldn't be truly complete otherwise.

Slave Knight Gael was just as fun the second time, and effortlessly defended his spot at #2 on my "Best FromSoftware Bosses" list. I used the Great Corvian Scythe this time, which turned out to be a really fun choice. In the end I was out of Estus, one hit from death, and managed to close it out with some tightly timed attacks in between one of his combos.

Couldn't ask for a better conclusion to the series.

Having rolled credits, I still don't understand why this game exists. What was the intention behind this game? When you make a sequel to a video game how do you evolve from the original? What do you fix, what do you do differently, what do you add? Hellblade 2 does none of those things and instead doubles down on the design template of the original game - which was released 7 years ago. What we're left with is essentially the first game again yet somehow worse in some areas.

I understand the desire for something like Hellblade. Yes, the game is gorgeous. It's a visual showcase of Unreal Engine 5 tech, I liked looking at the shiny rocks and trees and volumetric fog tech. But underneath all that is a hollow and nauseatingly linear "game" that refuses to attempt anything new.

I think my biggest gripe with the game is the writing and narrative devices. The first game was novel and unique in how it presented itself, however in Hellblade 2, they use the same voices in your head and the same 3D audio trickery to the point where it feels gimmicky now. It also feels like they've upped the frequency at which the voices are talking, to the point where I was subconsciously ignoring them, even if they were expositing key narrative information.

I also feel like this doubling down on the original themes and usage of psychosis or schizophrenia comes off as hokey or juvenile, rather than whatever I assume the devs intended. I don't think that presenting Senua's mental illness as some sort of in-universe superpower that can help save the land and its people is a smart decision narratively, and I think can be rather insulting depending on how you view the game. With the first game, it was Senua coming to terms with herself, which is a much more honest and natural way to explore the themes they wanted to present. The doubling-down on this narrative device becomes the game's weakness. How do you write a sequel while still relying on these themes and growing the character past the first game? You don't. It's just not the right decision to make.

As a game, it's the same as the first just with more production value behind it. Nicer animations for the shallow combat. The puzzles are the same albeit easier than the first as they removed a lot of the originals jank and the voices in your head help you solve them. The music is fun, and the performances are great. Ultimately the writing is what falls flat for me and because the game relies on it so heavily it drags the whole experience down with it.

I think Ninja Theory is talented, there are moments in this game where I was seriously impressed by the animation work or some of the cinematic sequences. I just wish they would spread their wings a bit and deliver something more rather than limit themselves like this.

I pray they don't make a Hellblade 3. Please just make Enslaved 2 or something I don't know make a video game again for godsakes!

“This is a great cinematic experience but a bad video game”
What I mean by cinematic Experience is that this is hands down one of the most movie like and cinematic stuff in video game platform(which is also its fault more on that later).
The CINEMATOGRAPHY, DIRECTION, the PHOTOREALISTIC visuals, top of the line MOTION CAPTURE, SOUND DESIGN, minimalistic OST that just goes with vibes and the way NARRATIVE is presented is PHENOMENAL to say the least, and the ACTING on screen certainly one of the best, it can easily be translated to a film or a high budget mini-series, the way COMBAT ENCOUNTER and big SET PIECE moments played out are just CINEMATIC as hell.
But on the other side of things the basic LEVEL DESIGN, BAISC PUZZLES(not repetitive like 1st game thankfully), the COMBAT don’t have any kind depth at all encounters played out same get boring quickly, GAMEPLAY is just pushing the stick forward, STORY is not as personal to sauna as 1st game but its serviceable which all comes together by the end so it kinda deliver in that part, the only good thing is its phenomenal looking visuals which comes at high cost u need a monster of a pc to play it at reasonably good FPS.
As a cinematic experience its one of a kind and solid 8/10
But as a game its like barely a 5/10.
I recommend u watch 4k60fps version on Youtube, for folks expecting Ninja Theory to reinvent the action genre yea this ain’t it, its baffling that NT took 7 year with this game and they just manage to make it just 5-6hr long and in this state, they should’ve better take that time to make a small 6 episode tv show imo.

The 1.5 stars are merely for the presentation, and even then I didn't enjoy a bunch of it. To be fair, I did not finish the game, but it definitely feels like I experienced a lot of the content there is to experience.

Alright first thing. Art style is kinda cool? It's very much supposed to evoke the era of 90s anime but not fully committing? It's good quality art but it all feels like it's clashing especially when you're getting your 90s shoujo looking woman at the top right of your screen between checkpoints and seeing very harsh and thick lines on enemies on environments almost to feeling cell-shaded? The main protagonist doesn't even feel like he really fits in this game's art direction.

The gameplay loop is an enticing concept on paper but needs way more then this game gives. Has a Post Void type loop of having your time constantly tick down and the only way to replenish time is to kill enemies and the game adds variation to that loop. With not just guns being the way to kill enemies but also to kick them or other upgrades relating to pushing enemies around and throwing them into obstacles in the environment. Where the game loses me is that Post Void at least has this simplicity of being an extremely bite sized game that has you running through it at crazy speeds with small levels. This game is trying to stretch that loop out into longer levels that do not have variation. Post Void also doesn't have a lot of environment variety but at least they aren't trying to make you sit there for longer then needed/wanted. Each floor feeling visually the same with some variation, the enemies changing every once and a while. You can't have a game that is built for constant replays feel so consistently same-y. A good game to replay always offers ways for you run through the same levels with your own approach and have more depth. This game has only a handful of ways to approach each situation. Overall just a very short gameplay loop stuck in a game that does not support it overall. Just feels like an extreme nothing burger.

This game's writing feels like a terminally online person who only hangs in twitch chats would think is funny in a post-ironic sense. Where the butt of a joke is like "haha guys what if a chat moderator was this ultra badass character, also heres themes about over consumerism. Can't go wrong with throwing in a streamer as the damsel in distress to get easy internet joke points" Just feels so fucking bland. I give White Noise a pass for the annoying writing but atleast that game had a really good gameplay loop which this game cannot be given as a way to overlook the bad writing. Extremely safe and boring writing meant for online people to get a laugh out of.

Overall just a very disappointing package of a game. Don't know what I was expecting but certainly something way better then what was handed to me. Skip out on this one, I don't get the hype.

HOT TAKE OF THE CENTURY - METROID PRIME 2 IS JUST AS GOOD AS THE FIRST ONE.

Now granted - this is assuming some stuff about the way you're playing. There's three pretty massive issues that can stop plenty of people from enjoying this one.

1) AWFUL save placement in Agon Wastes - I just used save states during that part, but if you don't use them this is probably so much more painful.
2) Dark World draining your health - Don't wait until your health is all the way back up!! There's health pickups everywhere!! Don't be a coward!!
3) Both starting areas are pretty gray - If you can't have me at my Temple Grounds, you don't deserve me at my Sanctuary Fortress. 😙

But aside from the above? My GOD I loved this game. There's so many little improvements from the first.

Big open rooms that make the planet feel less claustrophobic, while still keeping things tight and tense when the devs want to mix things up. Dramatically more unique area theming, meaning you get way more than just the "ice area" or "lava area" of Prime 1. World design that uses ESPECIALLY creative vertical and interconnected maps compared to the "hallway" approach of the first game. Different beams that actually require some on-the-fly strategy to mess with. World progression that's convenient to navigate AND avoids having the solution be a room you forgot about on the opposite side of the planet (most of the time). Tons more focus on kinetic movement! Making Samus feel so much more powerful at the end compared to the start!! The Dark World genuinely making you feel powerless and spooked!! Actually fun bosses!!! (most of the time).

Even the ability to use mouse and keyboard on PrimeHack was such an improvement for my overall immersion...I wish I could use this control scheme for the first game's remaster. It's SO good.

I think there's some totally fair points against Echoes, like the Dark World's areas totally blending together, dimension hopping being fairly underbaked, the love-it-or-hate-it implementation of Zelda elements, and some pretty tanky enemies here and there. I also can't ignore the fact that emulation and some minor cheats - like automatically skipping the world transition cutscenes - definitely impacted my time with it, and in a more "vanilla" play-through I probably would be much more annoyed.

But even with those in mind...I still think Echoes deserves way more love. It's easily the most underrated entry in the Metroid series, and with some minor fixes, it's JUST as fun as the first Prime entry. IMAGINE what this game could look like with an official remaster!!

I'm eating SO good as a new-ish Metroid fan wowwww.

Supergiant don't miss, the game is stellar and while I slightly prefer Hades 1 combat (two dashes are more fun than a sprint) the game is almost entirely upgraded from Hades 1. The game loses points just for general unoriginality. Hades is the studios most clean game but it is also the least interesting and that trend continues here. Supergiant are amazing world builders and I was really looking forward to exploring a new world with unique gameplay but this isn't that. A great game lacking any major flaws besides the fact that its all been done before. Where other Supergiant games feel like they innovate and permutate on what games have done and what they have done, Hades 2 is disappointingly trite despite its undeniable quality. Brilliant, but conceptually disappointing.