What were people expecting?

[Rawrxd]

As someone who played and enjoyed the first game I very enjoyed playing through this and can't really get what people were expecting from ninja theory to do with the sequel. Many say that the story is not as good as the first but imo I liked it more. I was pretty interested in the world of hellblade from the first game and seeing more of it via the environment and the addition of actual people as characters was cool to see. I do agree that the puzzles are too easy, I wish they did more intricate ways to find the correct angle for the looking puzzles. The waterball puzzles were mostly painfully easy except maybe a couple where that required a little bit of thinking. But comparing the gameplay in hellblade 2 with the first they're pretty similar especially the combat. I didn't even notice the decision of making all the fights be 1v1 since the enemies attacks are faster this time. I also did like how the transitions between fighting enemies was done. Ultimately I do believe the game is a solid 8/10 and will most likely buy it on a sale as I do agree that it is a bit much for a game that takes around 6 hours to finish.

[SmellyWrestlingGeek]

Yeah, not sure what people expected from this game. Both price and length can be minimized by just subbing to Game Pass for a day and playing the game for under $20.

[Slave of Bills]

You get more combat action from Euro Truck than this.

They need 2 add a ARENA WAVE SURVIVAL MODE

[Demystificator]

Trailers sold me the wrong story imo.
You can see in the reveal trailer that she's some sort of shaman with people behind her, leading them to slay the giant.
So all the game, I was just waiting for this to happen... And it created some frustration on my 1st run.

Also I expected camera stares and more emotion from Senua. I feel sometimes she should have had a reaction where she didn't and the fact, as least in my mind, we see her face less often.
I have this feeling she's more a classical hero from a video game in Saga whereas she felt so human in Sacrifice.

But replaying it with accepting more what the game offers rather than looking on what I was expecting makes me understand the game is actually good, it is just different in the way it tells its story.

[####### CSOUND1 ########]

Welcome to the spoiled brats generation.

[Rawrxd]

Originally posted by SmellyWrestlingGeek:

Yeah, not sure what people expected from this game. Both price and length can be minimized by just subbing to Game Pass for a day and playing the game for under $20.

Tbh I think it was microsoft's intention to make it more appealable for gamepass and I feel like this game wouldve been worse if microsoft didnt pick up ninja theory. Also they liked to show off this game alot in gamepass ads

[Dude Guyman]

"What were people expecting?"

About ~3-5 more hours play time. (it took friggin 7 years to make...with a ready made engine, come on)
About ~$29 price tag.
Same or better combat mechanics, not the watered down, unresponsive, pre-scripted, long animation, garbage we got.
~60 FPS without using scaling to "up-blur" 1024×576 to a 1920x1080 butter smeared mess @56 FPS.
NO BLACK BARS!!!1 EVAR!

That pretty much sums it up.

[nya[dc]]

Originally posted by Demystificator:

Trailers sold me the wrong story imo.
You can see in the reveal trailer that she's some sort of shaman with people behind her, leading them to slay the giant.
So all the game, I was just waiting for this to happen... And it created some frustration on my 1st run.

Also I expected camera stares and more emotion from Senua. I feel sometimes she should have had a reaction where she didn't and the fact, as least in my mind, we see her face less often.
I have this feeling she's more a classical hero from a video game in Saga whereas she felt so human in Sacrifice.

But replaying it with accepting more what the game offers rather than looking on what I was expecting makes me understand the game is actually good, it is just different in the way it tells its story.

To your spoiler criticism I'm not sure what you're talking about because that's exactly what takes place in the game

[Demystificator]

It does, but too late.

I expected the reveal trailer like being the middle scene of the game.
On my first run I felt like the beginning was too long... When actually it was the whole game.

I was expecting her having a little band of soldiers very soon in the game and the rest of it would have been slaying several giants with them until something bad happens, like the loss of one of their members that could put Senua back into flooding psychosis like the Plague did in Sacrifice.

But I know its a personal thing, it doesn't mean the game is bad. I was just expecting that and my first run had then a bitter taste.

[Rawrxd]

Originally posted by Dude Guyman:

About ~3-5 more hours play time.
About ~$29 price tag.
Same or better combat mechanics, not the watered down, unresponsive, pre-scripted, long animation, garbage we got.

Valid

Originally posted by Dude Guyman:

~60 FPS without using scaling to blur up 1024×576 to a 1920x1080 butter smeared mess @56 FPS.
NO BLACK BARS!!!1 EVAR!

I found the performance to be pretty good considering the graphics with my system
avg 70 fps 1440p everything high except shadows and lighting on medium without using fsr/dlss. I have a R7 7700x CPU, RX 7800XT GPU, and 32 gb 4800mhz ddr5 RAM.
I do hope ninja theory does add an option to remove the bars because it is pretty ridiculous to not have that option on PC.

[Dude Guyman]

Originally posted by Rawrxd:

I do hope ninja theory does add an option to remove the bars because it is pretty ridiculous to not have that option on PC.

In case anyone has not found that "how to" elsewhere yet, add at the bottom of "C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Hellblade2\Saved\Config\Windows\Engine.ini":

[SystemSettings]
r.NT.EnableConstrainAspectRatio=0

[/script/engine.localplayer]
AspectRatioAxisConstraint=AspectRatio_MaintainXFOV

[Oforfs]

I sure as hell did not expect my thumb to get tired of pushing forward for 30 minutes just for the intro cutscene to progress.

[Coinkydink]

there is a large key on your keyboard labelled ENTER...

[Prince Ian]

What were people expecting? It depends on if Sony or Microsoft releases the game. Sony gets a complete free pass and endless PRAISE for releasing games like this. While on the other hand Microsoft does not.