Recent reviews by Sygyzy

I wanted to play this game for a while now, and now that its on sale, I finally got around to doing so.
What an amazing decision.

This game is absolutly FILLED with amzing story telling, foreshadowing, allegories, and some good combat sprinkled in. At first the game seemed fairly scary, especially in the first couple of minutes when you have no idea what is going on, but after a while I started to get the hang of it. The payoff is immense.

First, I would like to preface this review by tackaling the horror element of the game. The game tries to make you feel like Senua at every turn, and her world as it stands, is a terrafing, dark place. This theme may be slightly disturbing for some, but don't be fooled - this game does not use jumpscares or any other kind of cheap scaring tactics. The scares and spooks are used only as a visualization tool to Senua's condition; for example, the dececrated bodies found around the world seem pointless at first, and like a cheap spook, even though you get used to them. But after seeing the extras the point became clear - this is a real part of her condition.

This game is a story driven game. The whole point of it is to help you understand Senua's condition, and how she and other people in the real world with similar conditions may try to deal with their experiences. However, dont think the spacifics of the story are not relevant! the story is filled with interesting detail and historicly-accurate themes. The story isn't told outright, and you are tasked with piecing it all together, and since you see everything through Senua's unique perspective its hard to truly understand whats real and whats not, since Senua herself deosn't seem to know.

The story at certain points may look unrelated to the main story, but remmember this: things that may seem to have no impact on what truely happened in Senua's life, may have an impact on Senua. just like us, we may draw connections when they are not really there. The game even has an entire mechanic in the form of collectible story scenes, with Senua imagening her mother's face on rocksides and cliffs. Its not realty, but to her, its totaly real. The voices in her head are not real, but to her, they can be heard lound and clear. The dead bodies are not there, but to her, they can block her way.

As you can see by my incessant rambeling, the story is filled to the brim with literary genius. I can talk about it on and on, but this is something you have to experience by yourself to truly understand, and to form your own thoughts and theories.

The combat is fine.
I mean, dont get me wrong - its pretty good for a story game, but there arent a lot of tactics or strategies I developed that helped me better myself in combat. its just try to perfect-parry as much as possible, press 'f' on the shield guys, and roll away from heavy hits. The rest of it is just demage boosting, like when to strike and when to focus.

Senua is indeed a capable warrior, and there is this very intersting mechanic where the voices help you in combat. Other than that, its some nice melee combat. Enjoyable, interesting, but not that outstanding.

There is this 'rot' mechanic, which thretans to wipe your save if you die too much. throught my playthrough I died like three times (small spoiler warning about death in the game) (there are some forced deaths), but even after those deaths, I noticed my rot level was not consistant. it was increasing and decreasing throught the game. Not sure if this is a bug or not, but it just goes to show how little the mechanic effects your gameplay.

Some constructive criticism: the skill cap can be raised a little, maybe by adding more capabilities to the focus mechanic, like being able to choose between diffrent abilities. If this is done, there could be more scaling difficulties, adding more use to the rot mechanic. The rot's punishment can also be introduced slowly, making it feel more like something that is slowly growing from within. Maybe taking increased demage could be a good way of making you feel more threatened as you progress and give more weight to rot.

Story games are known for usually having puzzles in them. Id say, in this game, its about 60% puzzles and 40% combat. The puzzles are increadbly creative, unexpected, and symbolic. The focus mechanic in puzzles is great, and the scenery that helps you get to the solution... its amazing. There isn't too much diversity in the type of puzzles, but almost every time each puzzle brings its own thing to the table. Each one of them is unique and creative, and the game would have been nothing without them.

They force you to think outside the box, and after solving one you feel like a genius, kinda like how it feels to finish a hard level in Portal. I never got stuck on one puzzle for more than like 20 minutes, and because of the way they get introduced, its a very smooth experiance. They all give you a new perspective, and, despite my best effert I feel like I have to point out the connection to Senua's condition and how the puzzles work.

The game teases you to play it more than one time, and its clear this is the point behind all of the collectibles. It gives a lot of motivations, and even for a guy like me that wants more story, there are still more collectibles to be found and story to be discoverd. does this game have infinite replayability? probably not. is it worth it to play it like 4 or 5 times? absolutely.

A truely beutifull story. Good combat. Very replayable. Now that it is on sale, its an absolute steal. Can't wait for the next one!
10/10