Combat tips

[clumsy_catbird]

I started out on the door with red marker and got to the first fight where 2 spawn at once.
She wouldn't dodge/move properly so I got cornered and died twice.
Having changed some settings fixed movement and I struggled through despite setting to Easy.

I am using key bindings with no problem one on one.
The reason for rebinding is that my left middle and ring finger move as if bound together. My thumb quite restricted as well. Other issues not worth mentioning.

I use much the same bindings on games with similar combat where I can play on medium, some on hard.
Games where numerous enemy spawn at once.
Games where timing, combos are critical and mashing will never work.
Other, more seasoned, gamers have given me a lot of pointers of what I used to do wrong.
I mostly choose to play Easy to avoid RSI.
Despite persisting with numerous controllers I've never found half the results of keyboard and mouse.

Googling Hellblade combat hasn't told me anything new.
Take this page for example. https://www.primagames.com/games/hellblade-senuas-sacrifice/tips/hellblade-puzzles-and-combat-tips
Does anyone have any extra pointers?

Otherwise, if combat is going to get any harder than those 2 then I will have to return the game.
I love the graphics and story but if combat is going to ruin both of those I don't want to take one more step.

[clumsy_catbird]

Just to clarify, I really enjoy the one on one combat.
The problem is when the 2nd appears.
It stands back for a while so I try to finish off the first.
Before I get 2-4 hits/blocks it stabs from behind, she drops, stops moving and battle over.
The voices gives plenty of warning as something like "Watch out, he's behind you" - plenty of time to roll, attack, block as required but she refuses to move.
In a number of games, on medium, I could take out, at least manage, several enemy in that time - this is just on easy?

There has to be some other problem here.
It defaulted to 1024x768, Windowed/Fullscreen, all Very High and VSync On.
When it wouldn't change resolution I realised Fullscreen required for native resolution of 3840x2160.
After trouble I dropped that to 1920x1080, all high and VSync off.
The game, even with combat, is running very smoothly.

Maybe native res would be better?
Maybe there is something I can tweak in an ini?

Gigabyte 797X-SLI
Intel i7-4790S @ 3.20GHz
32G RAM
GeForce GTX 1080 8G VRAM

[Kleerex]

You can cycle between enemies with Tab or right stick. Initiated attacks can be canceled with dodges (except running/jumping attacks), and both dodges and parry ripostes have plenty of invincibility frames.

I suggest keeping V-Sync on because camera sensitivity is tied to framerate.

[clumsy_catbird]

Thanks Reloaded, I'll try that.
Even if I have to struggle through I'd much rather keep going.

[Lars]

One thing I found fairly helpful is that you don't have to face the attacker to do a riposte. You can often land a parry just going by the "behind you!" warning, since the timing for the warning is consistent with when the attack will land. The heavy counterattack gives you a ton of iframes and will knock down basic guys, which I found helpful in getting you a bit of a breather when it gets crowded.

Just making sure, did you see that you can get up again after she gets knocked out? I've seen some people play through the entire game without noticing it's a thing.

[Kosmozuikis]

Just dodge whenever voices tell you to dodge. And use controller.

[Canigua]

You know you can focus to slow down the speed in battle right?

[Kleerex]

It's better to save focus for when you're staggered. It shortens recovery time and stops enemies from attacking you while downed.

[KA*sino]

Just switch focus so you always hit the baddie closest to you. I even saw a review claiming you cant switch targets. Well, you can. You can also use the run button to rush attack the baddie furthest away to get some distance between you and the other enemies. Listen to the furies to time your blocks if you know you have baddies behind you. Your focus attacks also charges up rather quickly, use it in small portions to finish off injured enemies. =) The combat is described as rather shallow, in my view this is because you only have 1 weapon. Can use most of the games mechanics to string combos together together with perfect block attacks. =)

[clumsy_catbird]

Thanks for all the help here.
I fired up Fraps to record and write on the video where keys seem to fail.
It seems the Fraps overhead fixed/overcame whatever issue(s) as the keys started responding as I would expect.

I'll upload the video and post again shortly.

[clumsy_catbird]

The game glitched on the area with multiple runes.
When I went back in, I could not cross some bridges or use Focus - no hanging runes lit up.
Not to worry, I'm in no rush, restarted and backing up saves now.

I found that I need VSync off - on results in weird delays such as 1st enemy onto 2nd hit before Senua has her sword half drawn.
Of course, that could depend as follows...

In order to demonstrate the problems I fired up Fraps and was going to write the keys that were either failing or lagged onto the video.
The recording overhead seemed to resolve whatever problem(s).
The difference is oil and water.
Suddenly the keys were responsive except for one point where they became unresponsive for around 1-2 seconds - where the closest gets 2 clean hits on Senua but at least the other is across the room. I just kept pressing block every 1/4 second or so till they resumed...
* Damage seems low as those 2 hits would have previously taken me out.
* This is the first time I could dodge backwards - in fact repeat any movement that quickly.
* The keys are responding as I expect with UE4 engine on my hardware.
* I'm having no trouble tracking enemy movements - previously there was a lot of blur and eventually one strobes across the room for a 1 hit kill.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtfgKElgWyA&feature=youtu.be

As you can see I make a lot of mistakes and miss a lot of opportunities.
The fact is that despite limited use of my left hand I can get by.
Anybody interested in this game should have no problem on easy.

The question is what do I need to change (rather than leave Fraps recording)?

I have all of Microsoft Windows 10 game stuff turned off.
NVIDIA drivers with just PhysX and driver. There are a number of other games/things where I do not want GeForce Experience messing things up.
I've just updated to latest drivers and tried again.
I've been restoring the save from just before the fight and again, oil and water.
Fraps needs to be recording, not just idling.
Otherwise key and video response is quite slow during combat.

[KA*sino]

Very weird glitch indeed

[clumsy_catbird]

It's been about 2.5 years since I first built this rig and I'd forgotten.
It has an unusual problem with motion blur where I've got into the habit of turning it off.
Just to clarify, my previous rig had no such problem for the same games, I would rather have Motion Blur On.

Again, it is purely a problem with my rig and not any games.
I updated the videocard, monitor and OS drive (SLI Express) around a year ago with no success.

I turned motion blur on for a few games today and most just lag/stutter a bit. At worst rendering is terrible, NPCs strobe across the room and keys fail. I'm guessing it's mainboard and/or processor.

Considering how Fraps overhead helped I tried loading another UE4 game before Hellblade.
It helped but not as much.

I then decided to have both Fraps and that game idling ready for next combat.
That is a solution, I had no need to press the record key - combat is running excellently with this workaround.

I got past Valravn and the next battle first go - even on easy it was a challenge due to my left hand problems but I thoroughly enjoyed it - I'm really enjoying this game.

Whether the workaround is stopping motion blur or something else I really don't care.
For the rest of the game I can run native 3840x2160 Very High until combat then apply the workaround.

I'll sign off and say thanks for a really great game and everybody's support.

[JohnTravoltage]

The video you posted before still has motion blur, not sure why motion blur is being brought up. I think its very strange that this would occur, I don't see why motion blur would cause this, unless it was an old pc where it would cause issues (maybe on your old gpu, I assume, unless you have a 2.5 year old gtx 1080 somehow)

If you want to remove motion blur to fix this issue, go into %localappdata% > hellbladegame > config and continue going through the folders until you find scalability.ini.

If you run everything on very high, then add this to that .ini file:

[PostProcessQuality@3]
r.MotionBlurQuality=0


If you want to remove stuff like chromatic aberration, or the anti-aliasing (which I would suggest trying at 4k, could look much sharper and actually look 4k, but it does do some weird stuff with the hair dithering/screen space shadows, then you can add more lines to that.

r.SceneColorFringeQuality=0
r.PostProcessAAQuality=0

This is what mine looks like just for reference https://puu.sh/xa5Fk/b2196b49c6.png

[clumsy_catbird]

Thanks John, r.MotionBlurQuality=0 fixed the problem and combat is better than ever.

As I was saying, I built the rig around 2.5 years but...

I upgraded the videocard around 1 year ago.
Along with the videocard, an SLI Express drive and Win 10.

The upgrades did not fix the problems so I'm guessing there is something wrong with processor and/or board.
As I listed 2nd post...
Gigabyte 797X-SLI
Intel i7-4790S @ 3.20GHz

[s7ian]

Originally posted by Canigua:

You know you can

focus to slow down

the speed in battle right?

Originally posted by Kosmozuikis:

Just dodge whenever voices tell you to dodge.

And use controller.

I did not know your could use focus in battle. Im getting hammered now, and stuck, on easy... so maybe this feature is what I need to progress. Obviously this game is designed for controller, as keyboard and mouse is almost useless. Or maybe I just need better hardware.