222 Reviews liked by Schafsinn


It's a masterpiece. The tone, the atmosphere, the constant push for more power to overcome every obstacle, the constant reminder of hope in a world marred by despair, the way the map loops and winds and wraps around itself in the most impossibly beautiful ways. Dark Souls is one of THE games of all time for a reason.

Hellblade: Senua Sacrifice and Senua's Saga: Hellblade II when compared together, feel like a give-or-take duology that beautifully bounces off each other in a symphony.

The first game has the better story, thanks to its singular focus on Senua and her psychosis, while the second game comes just close to overtaking Sacrifice as it takes Senua singularity, and gives her a purpose larger than life, an almost shamanistic task of taking down the giants and lead a group of people, which inadvertently takes away the story's focus on psychosis as that plot thread was already resolved in the first game

Gameplay wise, I knew what to expect and got what I was l looking for, a story led interactive adventure game, but as a sequel, 2 makes some sacrifices that are both necessary, but some confusing to distinguish itself from the previous games. The puzzles, for example, are few, longer and simplistic to the point some didn't need to be here, like that hour-long hidden folk trials, and combat, which I admire how raw, visceral and violent it is, feels a bit sloppy when trying to time attacks, read enemy movements and the lack of charge stabs and kicks makes it the more confusing why the simplification when it would've actively contributed to the presentation

Speaking of presentation, this game is nuts. I would confidently call this a digestible spiritual successor to Kane & Lynch 2 Dog Days, as the game employs a ton of post-processing to make it as filmic as possible, like an anamorphic lens, black bars, chromatic aberration, distortion, film grain, it's immense the number of techniques employed for this as well as the character's fidelity, which is industry leading.

Had they not simplified some crucial combat mechanics from 1 and expanded on the puzzles, I feel it could've surpassed the first game

“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.

Sequel to the acclaimed 2017 prequel, Hellblade 2 continues the story of Senua in very dramatic fashion. What at first feels loke a duller, less personal story compared to that of its predecessor, quickly becomes a great tale about redemption, forgiveness and carving one's own path in life. The strong focus on mental health and Senua's well depicted psychosis is back as well and it makes Hellblade 2 stand out among similar titles in its educational value which allowed me to better explore feelings like anxiety and self doubt which I, like many others, experience on myself.

Technically the game shines as one of the best looking titles ever made with photorealistic enviroments and top notch animations, albeit at the cost of the game being very linear and limited in scope.

This extreme limitation in the game's scope hits especially its gameplay with a combat system that feels satisfying to play with but that is also barely fleshed out and just added as a way to regularly interrupt the dull walking around that the game would be without it.

Puzzles are also another way in which Senua will interact with the world around her. Sadly, most of them are very simple even if not too tedious, with only a small section of the game offering an interesting and fun type of puzzle which never presents itself fully into the game again.

Overall, Hellblade 2 is a beautiful looking game that tells an almost equally beautiful story at the cost of having very little in the way of gameplay. I quite enjoyed my time with it, but it is not a game for everyone. If you don't care about Senua's journey or the pretty landscapes she'll explore, Hellblade 2 will not be for you.

"i was high on COCAIN while orgasming nonstop"
The gameplay, the 90's anime art style is goatest of GOAT.
The rush of dopamine u get in few mints is more then enough to justify its price point.
"Got freaking damn it these cutscenes ooozes so much charm and old ass anime coolness
Fucking hell badassness and coolness next level"

The only issue I have with it is that barring a few unique and funny boss fights, and some out of this world setpeace levels, the game level design 70% of the time remains the same, with similar powerups, wish they experimented more.

Edit: "But man replaying it over and over on hardest difficulties I just had to bump this up to 10, this game is outlandishly fun"

Solid 10/10


OLD Demo review
Hands down best Demo i ever played in my life, and GOT DAMN while playing it, I feel like i was high on COCAIN while orgasming nonstop.

“Souls like with spongebob coat of paint”
Game is solid concept wise, writing, level design, gameplay concepts are good with good enemy variety and great bosses but it do have that AA jank to it especially in gameplay department, its not as snapy or responsive as something like sekiro, BB or lies of P, but its serviceable ig

Story is also Very good, but holy shit the game dragged on the last act for some bs environmental message that came out of nowhere lol, even tho the main quest felt pretty much over it just goes on to introduce this new story arc and just make it a slog in last act.

7/10

Ico

2012

Incredible title. So glad I finally played a game that shaped some of my fav titles ever, and it turns out, it is amazing on it's own.

this game has a racist dog in it! what the hell?

OK so this game started out great, stunning looking but is a stutter mess better then launch tho, combat is fun with sekiro and BB gameplay integrated, artstyle and initial bosses also good, level design was pretty linear unlike any other souls like but it was still good, 2 world concept started out basic but then it become quite integral part to move around.
But holy shit this game have one of the worst and confusing level design as it goes on after the initial section, like I can't comprehend how horrible this shit is, the combat become stale after a while as new weapon drops and other shit are pretty generic, but the level design is so shit I just couldn't bare it and had to just drop it

Fun game for co-op, engaging combat and boss encounters, ridiculous story and banger soundtrack, my only complaints are the controls sometimes ruining tight encounters, the annoying cutscenes with out of nowhere QTEs, and the final boss fight being ass

Yeah man this is my "The Last of Us", in the way people adore it to death. Following the development of this game so closely up to release, experiencing said release moment, and beating the game is one of those experiences I still hold dearly, and this replay reminded me of that; This game is quite literally the reason why I pursued game design, and it put me on the path I'm in now

I finished Ghostwire tokyo really good game, addictive gameplay, unique lore and enemy design of , mythology are the highlights of the game, the visuals are not cutting edge but the Tokyo rendition is very detailed, the open world itself is very ubisofty like and sadly void of life, i wish it had that yakuza type crowd density to make it feel more lived in cuz once you do side objective kill all the enemies in a certain district it become empty.
Main story is serviceable the main character and KK relationship is quite good and it progress as the story goes on and ending is the most memorable part of the story imo, side missions are not the best and not the worst pretty okaish but the boss fight and unique enemies are really fun to fight in side missions.
the performance on PC is a mix bag it had some pretty heavy shader compilation stuttering at some instances. but 70% of the time game runs fine
7/10.

Lots of conflicting feelings when I think of the essence of Dragon's Dogma 2, but one thing for certain is that this game, just like the first one, is the definition of "It's about the journey and not the destination" and while that didn't click for me in Dark Arisen, I completely fell in love with the second game

Props to this game for trying out new ideas and concepts that I haven't seen other 2d games tackle before. Fun, entertaining and doesn't overstay its welcome