In this episode, We talk about the latest games to include out favorite rip and tear space marine Doom Guy, and the debt simulator Animal Crossing, then we wrap up our season one discussion on Star Trek Picard and finally Talk Console Wars with Xbox & PS
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Over the last few weeks, I’ve been spending some time catching up on my backlog of games and one I finally finished up was Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice
This Norse based story is extremely impressive but the story isn’t the only thing that immerses you into this dark world as the designers brought together an impressive sensory mechanics system for the game as well. During the start of the game, you are given a prompt to play with headphones so you get the full effect of the simulated three dimensional sound environment. Once you throw those headphones on you will be immersed into a mass sound of voices that haunt Senua who constantly talk to her and brings a very creepy aspect to the game.
These voices Senua hears are a crucial part of the story, and also gameplay throughout as they can help with advice, and also such things as arguing with her, tear her down, and pick her up at just the right time. This mix of voices, paired with the soundtrack and visual story brings an experience that is worth every minute put into the game. Hellblade is also a visually gorgeous game full of darkness, strange lights, and mixed muted colors that fill the world. All aspects of what the creators did tell a beautiful story that truly brings a chill to the bones while playing. One way the developers immersed you further into the story was the mix of audio and visual distortion that brings a frightening effect of psychosis and hallucination that Senua is dealing with throughout the story.
Combat was also a way that brought a lot of interaction with the world and things Senua was a part of. Hellblades combat was a great experience as well giving you multiple ways to interact with the world around you that paired beautifully with the story and progression system. I only encountered a few fights where I felt overwhelmed and unable to handle the battle but that was near the end of the story where enemy numbers and difficulty seemed to spike.
Let’s talk Destiny 2’s latest expansion Shadowkeep for a bit seeing how it launched just over a week ago and the community is quite busy with its current activities. Shadowkeep hit the market with one goal in mind and that was to make its place known it was a place for the hardcore community that’s been with the franchise for years.
That’s not to say there aren’t still hurdles and walls to climb because there are and on of the biggest is for new players entering the game for the first time, or even a returning player who has been out for some time. The amount of material that has been given for someone new in the game to learn and process is absolutely overwhelming such as the leveling systems, upgrade methods, power grinds, currencies and all the tidbits in between. Shadowkeep ultimately is the right direction for the game but only makes that problem of where do I start if I’m a new person worse…..I’ve been an avid passionate player of Destiny since the alpha days of Destiny 1’s launch so I’ve grabbed a hold of this crazy train and won’t be letting go anytime soon. But for a new player, I can see where it would be harder to jump in at this point and time and know where to begin or what to do.
When I jumped in for Shadowkeep’s campaign I instantly fell in love with the story as we get to walk alongside an old veteran of the game, Eris Morn. The story has us visiting Earth’s moon once again to stop a terrible evil that has been unleashed which turns into a story of suspense, and some extremely action-packed moments. With the moon being Shadowkeep’s main setting most of us veterans should feel right at home, but things definitely don’t look the same since the last time our Guardians were on the lunar surface. We first spawn in to see massive gray craters that have been split open, revealing these green ominous lights and rocky hills that have formed all over the surface. Along with the Hive doing their evil magic tricks around the moon, we now have ghostly phantoms located in every corner looming around and even calling out to you for missions which brings a fresh vibe to the new/old zones we all fell in love with from Destiny 1.
Shadowkeep also has a massive endgame list of activities to be had as well along with the new raid Garden of Salvation that just launched a few days ago, and the Vex Offensive which is one of the best events Bungo has ever made. Bungie has definitely narrowed the available sources of “powerful drops,” which dropped like candy before Shadowkeep and helped you level up, but now the systems are more focused on new content and the staples of Destiny which are Strikes, Crucible, and Gambit and that true endgame content. The new artifact system is a great addition that also makes understanding that endgame goal and power level just a bit more hardcore and confusing in a way. Again, Bungie is adding all this content in for a true RPG experience and honestly has done a fantastic job bringing the new systems into place.
The new raid, Garden of Salvation sends us back on a quest to take on the Vex once again and it looks to be packed full of new mechanics, puzzles, secrets and more. Along with the raid we now have a new Vex themed event called the Vex Offensive that I became a huge fan of. It’s a new arena-style event that is quick, fast-paced, and a decent loot grind for a team of six guardians looking to have some fun killing the milk infused aliens. Shadowkeep as a whole has done a ton to improve Destiny 2 and has given it’s fans a massive taste of what’s coming in future expansions and content updates. There is a massive grind at the end of that campaign and story so get ready to pull out those big boy pants and grind that endgame content. This will make things a bit tougher for those new Guardians coming in for the first time because of the added complexity that truly caters to the hardcore Guardians that like the grind game. I’m excited for the direction Bungie has brought things and has set the story up to develop over the next few years. I truly am excited to see where and how Bungie can continue to roll this crazy train out and what they have in store for all the Guardians out there.
Every once in a while the story did have some amazing moments that sparked a little hope for me in what was coming at the end. One thing that the voice actor Ellen Page who played Jodie did was bring an emotional connection for the audience to care for Jodie and connect with her. The rest of the cast seemed to struggle in bringing the level of emotion, and connection it took to really play the lines well enough for you to care for any of the other characters that were unfolding in this story.
Beyond’s choices you end up getting to make just never felt large enough to me as though you are just a passenger on a story you can’t actually be a part of. You can choose how Jodie responds in conversation throughout the game, but those choices just felt small and that the story is going to go on no matter how you play. To me, a dramatic story-based game like Beyond should have large and small moments that suck you into the story and make you feel as though your a part of the outcome.
I’ve waited a long time to write this review on a game series that has become one of my all-time favorite stories…ever!
On an episode by episode basis, I think the Final Season brings a good close to a great series and the studio that started it all. We get to see a mix of moments between dull and dragging, to cringe-worthy and exciting but the final destination of this game is well worth the time put in to get there. Each episode has at least two or three pivotal moments that made me feel like reloading my save and making the other choice, only to realize that either way would leave me with mixed emotions. When a story-based game can create hard decisions personally for you as the player then the developers have done an amazing job in my opinion! After knowing these characters in-game for so long it’s hard to make different choices aka break those cycles like we talked about earlier, but change is necessary for this game and the characters have a chance to change their ways and so do you as the player.
With all this said I think The Walking Dead: The Final Season does a fantastic job bringing you on a journey and discovering more about the relationship between Clementine and A.J. – Which honestly produced some of the craziest situations, and hardest decisions/choices ever in the game series to date. At times, the story gets clogged up with this new free-roaming gameplay feature, and the onslaught of new characters introduced that never get fully developed. Each episode though did have a very satisfying conclusion and wrap up that set up an amazing end to the final game. We ended the game on a bittersweet note especially since this was the last game TellTale worked on before shutting down, which really hit home in how they did the ending for Clem and this amazing story that’s unfolded over the last seven years.
A Hobbits Journey 