Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice - The Combat System, Lack of HUD, & Conveying Psychosis
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- Опубликовано: 23 сен 2017
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All Hellblade footage are our own recordings.
Hellblade Dev Diaries:
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Hi all, thank you so much for watching! I'll be creating a (higher quality) sequel critique in the future once it releases, so subscribe and hit the bell if you want to be notified!
Still planning on doing that once it comes out?
@@alex-qn5xp I'm hoping to!
Great analysis! I knew nothing about this game but am now going to look into it! Thanks!!! - Jordo
Definitely one of 2017's bests. You're in for a treat :)
That's definitely an interesting take on the combat, one that I haven't paid much attention to before. Nice video.
Okay, I checked out some of your other videos and they are really good man. Hope you keep it up.
Thank you :) I'll be making a comeback soon, no worries!
Great analysis (also the text on your webside), I really love the combat system they came up with, it does the important things really well and you covered most of the things I also adore on it.
In my opinion, this should really be a blueprint for future combat systems, everybody is trying to be more "souls" now and some games (for example: The Surge) improve on that formular.
In case of the camera position, I've waited for a camera like that! I never understood, why many games zoom out in combat situations, like the Witcher 2, 3 and many others. Anticipation and reactions of the oponent should be your focus and so the camera. So you could argue that the other (zoomed out) perspectives are, in a way, unfair, because I have no clear view on the thing I'm aiming at, my oponent. Sure those games have a really forgiving combat, very in favor of the player, but is this really a plus? When your in battle or a sport like Boxing or even Tennis you focus on what's important and so does this game. It's not unfair or broken and it wouldn't even need the inner voices to work in terms of combat.
The last point is, that this represents the natural viewpoint the best, we have a greater field of view on our surrounding than in first-person, where we don't even know what our body does, but not so good like in the most third person games and definitely not the zoomed out combat camera of these games, Hellblade has a very plausible view to me. More of that, please!
3 years late but I must've missed this comment. Thanks for commenting! I'm super excited to see how Hellblade 2 improves on the combat even further.
Hellblade is proabably the next game I'll play. Seeing how it conveys with no HUD makes me even more excited for it. I love the immersion no HUD adds to games.
I just posted on r/truegaming raving about the combat. I ran a quick search and found your (much more extensive) post, which led me here! Agree with everything you said. By chance do you have recommendations as to other games with similar combat?
Btw about to watch your Sekiro & Edith Finch videos now :)
Thank you so much for the comment! Wow, I can't believe you found that post! This is seriously cool, thank you for letting me know! My videos have improved since then, so hopefully you'll enjoy the channel :)
Hm... I'm not entirely sure about games with similar combat, but that makes me think of a few ideas we can go off of here.
Combat that feels immersive and intense (which may just be Hellblade's amazing atmosphere, but the game does that on purpose anyway, hence the over-the-shoulder view).
- Souls does intense combat pretty well, like Bloodborne and Sekiro.
- I know this is also typical but Hollow Knight. The overall presentation leaves this game at the top of my list of atmospheric 2D games. The combat is also intense.
- This game doesn't have combat, but if we're going off of pure atmosphere, SOMA is one of my all-time favorites. I played it in Safe Mode as well.
- I may or may not include Control here. The combat can get intense and the overall presentation is pretty good. I might as well throw Alan Wake in here because of its unique gameplay and moments and it's made by the same studio, but I also think the game missed some opportunities for potential horror atmosphere.
- If you're looking for an intense multiplayer experience, check out For Honor. Or I guess fighting games in general, since that 1v1 fight against someone of a similar skill level can get super intense and is pretty satisfying, but I mention For Honor for its over-the-shoulder view and its combat that's more fleshed out than Hellblade.
- One that I played recently was Inscryption. If you're into card games, I can't imagine one that does a better job with its atmosphere.
- Certain co-op SWAT-style games really hit that intense life-or-death feeling. I'd suggest Police Stories (highly suggest to play with a friend) and Ready or Not (with friends). I have a partial script finished for Police Stories as well so that'll be coming out at some point.
- Games with limited resources, like Resident Evil. I know nothing of Tomb Raider but I heard that might be worth checking out. Or Prey, since Prey has monsters that hide as objects so it can get intense. One game I'm seeing mention of online is Edith Finch, and I'm just gonna include it here 'cause it's a good game. Same with NieR: Automata. I'm also seeing mentions of the Metro games and The Medium (haven't played them).
- Last but not least, a really interesting one is A Plague Tale: Innocence. It has that over-the-shoulder view and every shot counts. I want to replay this since some of my friends weren't huge fans, but I think it could tick some boxes for you.
This is an oddly specific idea (I can only think of one example right now), but combat that can be more involved if you want to but can be abused otherwise (it's been a while, but I seem to recall that Hellblade's combat can be cheesed with the time-stop mechanic, so I think I remember purposefully trying not to abuse it).
- The main game that comes to mind is Elden Ring, since the game loop with the guard break mechanic is the best Souls combat has been (Bloodborne still might be better). Trying to be aggressive with heavy attacks and guard counter attacks to break the enemy stance Sekiro-style is very satisfying. But I overall wouldn't recommend the game, and you can ignore the guard break stuff unfortunately.
Another idea is how Hellblade has no HUD but rather incorporates those elements into the assets, like the enemies gaining scratches.
- Bloodborne's combat can get intense and it's also satisfying to visually break limbs. It only has minor gameplay implications but it's a satisfying way to indicate that you're affecting the enemy. I haven't really seen games do this besides Bloodborne and I think it's an underrated detail.
- I know this example is sorta obvious, but Dead Space is a classic example of an amazing HUD. The game is super immersive and intense with its atmosphere, HUD, and gameplay.
@@DesignFrameCaseStudies My gosh you gave me better suggestions than if I had posted on Reddit hahaha!
I very much enjoyed your Edith video. You caught wayyyyy more things than I did in my playthrough. Will definitely enjoy it even more if/when I replay it! I ended up not watching much of the Sekiro video since I hope to play that someday and the video was spoiler-heavy. Ditto why I didn't watch the Control and Outer Wilds vids, but I'll come back after playing the games. ;)
So going through your recommendations:
- Souls games & Elden Ring: on my list! I've been learning to use a controller in the past couple months specifically to play them. Right now I've worked up to playing AC Origins on Nightmare difficulty, next step will be Fallen Order, and then I'll start with Dark Souls 1.
- Hollow Knight: hm I keep hearing great things... I'll have to try it! It's on Gamepass so I'll get to it hopefully soon.
- SOMA: too scary for me lol :D
- Control: I loved Quantum Break and just upgraded my PC, so getting to this soon! I'll be sure to visit your video after going through it.
- For Honor: I probably would've loved this earlier on but am hesitant about getting into a niche multiplayer game 5 years after release, especially such a technical one with a learning curve. Had a friend who was really into it though! Have you tried Kingdom Come: Deliverance? I'd be curious if they play similarly.
- Inscryption: love card games (play a lot of MTG Arena), Inscryption is on my list!
- Police Stories & Ready or Not: Police Stories is probably not my thing but Ready or Not has been on my radar... now to find friends! lol
- Plague Tale: Innocence: already played! To be honest, I thought the combat was somewhat restrictive despite having creative systems, but I'm looking forward to the sequel just because of the unique setting and story. :)
- Limited-resource games: Resident Evil too scary, Tomb Raider I'll check out, Prey on my list already, Edith Finch I've played, Nier I'm buying soon, Metro games kick ass and you're right, the combat is spot on Hellblade with guns... but too scary for me hahaha, The Medium too scary eek.
Well, I guess I'm sad that even someone who's played as many games as you can't point to an exact Senua's Sacrifice equivalent, but on the bright side, we have the sequel to look forward to! And in the meantime, a lot of your recommendations are on-point so I'll chew through that list. 😎😎
Thanks so much!
Very nice ^^ first no headphone jacks, then no hud ? Has science gone too far ?
Hey, loved the video, but wondering why no post on r/truegaming?
I had the tab pinned but was working on Hellblade and it slipped my mind. I'll definitely post to it. Thanks again for the suggestion, and I'm glad you liked the video! :)
Edit: Posted. Thanks again.
Pontiff Sulyvahn’s moves are telegraphed, it just happens really fast. The combat in Hellblade is very easy as a result of how everything is handled. It’s a pet peeve as well, but I feel it would be more immersive if Senua had more muscle. Seeing her swing around that big sword with noodle arms just took me out of it for a bit.
I mentioned Joseph Anderson's video because he proves that Pontiff isn't properly telegraphed. There are too few frames between the beginning of the attack and contact. Some telegraphs correspond to more than one attack as well.
I agree that Hellblade is easy, mostly because of how the time slow mechanic can be abused. I purposely only used it when the game called for it because of that. Now that I think about it, I do wish the enemies retaliated more. They can become punching bags and I would have loved to see that fleshed out. Despite its problems, I still loved the intensity of everything.
Huh, I never had that problem, especially since they took a more aesthetic than realistic approach (her pose is all wrong). I could see that though!