I finished Plague Tale: Innocence today (12-21-19). No spoilers, but I've got a few thoughts on an issue that I thought also affected Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice and in a less direct way, The Last of Us. This is long. No one is going to read this. It's fine, I just felt like writing it out.

I'll just talk about Plague and come back around to the other two. First, I really enjoyed this game. The one issue I had was that they added in too many gamey elements that I feel took away from the immersiveness of the story. I get why they have to do it. This game was story first, but they have to give you things to find and enemies to kill because it's a video game, right?

But did they? Early on, I felt searching every corner for collectibles and crafting materials didn't fit with the story, which was of two kids trying to escape murderous soldiers who were searching for them. I crawled over dead bodies, dragging my brother behind me, because I wanted to see if I could find some string or fabric in that back corner. I braved the previously mentioned soldiers to sneak around and break into someone's house to see if I could rob them of their rocks and leather scraps. Hell, maybe I'd find a flower!

I can't help but poke around for that stuff. About half way through, I realized I didn't need a single upgrade and there was always more than enough crafting material in an area to do what I needed to do and still get the few upgrades I did want, so there was no reason to search. I still did it, though.

The thing is, I'm there for the story and I want to be immersed in it. I feel like the more gamey elements took away from that and were also not very fun. Especially towards the end of the game there were several somewhat frustrating sections that I had to repeat multiple times.

I'm not sure adding in these gamey elements adds any value to the game for people looking for a "fun" game. People who are gameplay-first gamers will probably not like this game much at all anyway. The stealth is simplistic. The few boss fights are literally do a thing three times. I found myself very frustrated with the final encounter. It wasn't hard, I just managed to bork it up several times in a row and kinda ended up hating it. Visually it was awesome, though. If I had managed to do it all in one go, it would have been a fun ride. Instead I found myself annoyed and just glad it was over.

I plan on replaying Hellblade this week (in VR this time). It is another game that I really loved when I played it the first time. Again, though, I felt like the gamier elements detracted from the overall experience. The puzzles were fine, but not too interesting overall. I would have liked to have seen more there, personally. The combat, though... I could have done without that altogether. At least Senua is a warrior, though. I was really put off by how many dudes I had to kill as Amicia in Plague Tale. In Hellblade (and it's been a long time since I played it last), I remember the combat feeling bad and tacked on. Visually, it was cool, but I'd have liked to see it just be a quicktime event or something simpler so I could get back to the story.

But then it wouldn't be a video game, would it?

So, I mentioned The Last of Us. I doubt anyone has read this far but I'm going to keep typing anyway. TLOU is one of my favorite games of all time. I actually DID enjoy the gameplay here. I played multiple times over, including a run on Grounded difficulty. I played the whole thing as stealthily as I could, rarely shooting and almost never using a shiv to kill (except a few spots where it's forced on you to do so). I know a lot of people hated the gameplay, this is one story focused game where I really enjoyed the gameplay elements. I was fully immersed in the stealthy, tense situations. The amazing soundwork in that game goes a long way, especially with a good set of Dolby headphones.

However, there is one thing that I felt they could have done without. I'm sure there are a lot of folks who would disagree. These are the folks whose chief complaints were that they ran out of ammo all the time, etc. There were too many guns and too much ammo. Even on the hardest difficulty. By the end of that game, Joel is loaded down with a bunch of guns, throwable, shivs, etc. By the end you even have a (minor spoilers) flamethrower and assault rifle. In all of my playthroughs, I only used the flamethrower at the very end and then just because I had it and may as well use it up at the end. It takes away from the realism of this apocalyptic wasteland where there are very few resources that somehow this dude is packing all of these weapons on his person. A bow, pistol, long gun, and maybe a handful of throwables would have been plenty.

My one worry for TLOU2 is that they will double down on this and give into those who want the game to be more shootery. I'm a bit put off by the addition of the dogs in TLOU2 because, first I don't want to kill dogs in games, and second they are there to break up the stealth gameplay, which is what I loved about the first one. Taking my time, watching. Learning the AI patterns in each area.

The point of all of this is that sometimes less is more with gameplay. If you have a good story and an immersive world, I don't feel like you need to force in all of the gimmicks that come to be expected in video games. Just like we no longer have to collect coins or have a score in the corner, we don't always need collectibles. We also don't always need to be able to kill everyone, especially in a case like Plague Tale where it kind of made no sense that this teenage girl was murdering her way through the Inquisition with a sling.

I'm not knocking these games, as I'm a big fan of all three and heartily recommend them all. I just kind of wish they would have let the story be the thing that kept you playing rather than trying to add challenge for challenge's sake. I'm not suggesting that they should have been "walking simulators", but maybe more of a focus on puzzles and light stealth (with less room for failure and repetition) would have served the experience better for the audience that would appreciate the stories the most.

I just played Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice in VR on PC for the first time. I have played the game before, but on PS4. I loved what they were going for with this game and it is still one of my favorite things on PS4. I get that it's not everyone's type of game, but I really enjoyed it. I will say that I hated the combat, though, and felt like there was too much of it.

I have wanted to check out the VR version of this game for a long time. Man... it is something special. First off, let me say I am encountering a bunch of little bugs. Some suck, like climbing up a ladder and hitting an invisible wall and having to climb back down and up again a few times before I can progress, or clipping through a wall into a space I'm not supposed to be in. Luckily, I was able to clip right back out. Other bugs, though, were very interesting and I'm still not even sure if they were bugs. This game is about a woman suffering from psychosis. She hallucinates. Right in the very beginning as you are driving a boat down a river, I noticed the trees... at first I thought it was texture popping in, but it never seemed to happen where I was looking. It made me very uncomfortable. It's hard to describe, it was like seeing something move in the corner of my eye but when I looked it was just a tree. If it was something weird with the textures, then it's a bug they should leave in because it absolutely made me question the world around me.

That out of the way, the effect of playing this game in VR takes it to a completely new level. It's the same game that you play on a screen, and the VR implementation isn't even all that special. Cutscenes play out in a window, like you're watching on a screen. The camera blinks as Senua climbs up and down from places. But the feeling of being right there with her, especially with a good set of headphones (which are essential for this game, as the sound is a huge part of what they are doing) is one of the most affecting experiences I've had in VR. Hell, in video games.

Early on there is a scene where Senua is pleading, but she is right in your face. It's like she is right there, talking to YOU. Later, when I was doing Valraven's area, I nearly had to stop because I found myself becoming very uncomfortable. The sound, the constant voices in Senua's head, the halucinations... Valraven himself is a creepy fucker. All around the area are his effigies. The thing is, sometimes you see Valraven himself. Then you round a corner and he's gone, replaced by an effigy. It keeps you on guard, always looking for him. At one point I rounded a corner and one of the constant voices in Senua's head shouted "THERE HE IS!" There was nothing there, but it legitimately scared me. I don't normally get that from video games.

I'm still not a fan of the combat, but it is definitely more intense in VR. I remember disliking the combat the first time, and I likely had it set on hard then. I chose "Auto" under combat this time, mistakenly thinking that meant that the combat would be automatic, but I think it is just dynamic difficulty. Upon reading up on it, I think I'll slide that over to easy when I play next. There are no tips or anything when you are playing this game, I can't recall but I think in the plain version you are told how combat works. In VR, there are no popups or anything so I struggled to remember how to fight. For example, I forgot I had a kick which is necessary for killing shielded enemies. In the Valraven fight, you hear the voices telling you to "FOCUS!" which took me forever to realize they meant "pull right trigger!" because the boss in invincible in this part of the fight until you use your focus ability on him. I didn't know I had that ability in combat.

One thing that this game does that is very effective, and another reason to use headphones, is that the voices will help you in combat. For example, if you're about to be hit from behind a voice might shout "BEHIND YOU!" or another might shout "EVADE!" It feels very natural and you learn to listen to them. They often taunt you, but sometimes they can also be helpful.

I do wish there was more of a 'story mode' where the combat was trivialized. The mind-fuckery that goes on in this game is something that should be experienced, but if you're not good at games then the excessively long combat sequences could be a deal breaker for some.

You do need a beast of a PC to run this thing in VR. Minimum requirements are an i5-3570k and GTX-1080. I remember reading folks saying they had it running on 1660s and 1070s, though, at low settings. I'm on a 2080 Ti with an i7-9700k and it runs well for me at max settings and 140% scaling. It looks really good, but there has been some hitching. Nothing too bad, though.

I'm putting this at the end, and I won't spoil this. If you don't care, you can look it up because I think it's kind of neat. If you really do, skip the rest of this paragraph. I'll just say that the Dark Rot thing is interesting. Most developers wouldn't do that. I get why some people don't care for it, and I NEVER play games with permadeath if I have an option not to, but this was interesting either way. The truth of Dark Rot, I think, is a spoiler if you haven't played the game, though. I think it plays well into what they are going for in this game as a whole, and adds a bit of tension. Also, I get why people hated it.

The image shows Valraven/his effigy depending on when you look. You really need the birdlike head movements and the sound to sell it, though.

If you have the hardware you should absolutely play Hellblade in VR. With the second game in development, now is a good time to play for the first time. It's fairly short, just go in knowing it's not an action game, exactly. If you've played before, as I have, I'll say that I am really glad I decided to play again in VR. This is up there with my all time favorite VR experiences so far.