August + September 2020 report

I just love Supergiant games! <3 Their games are so different, strange, lovely, emotional.
Red, a young popular singer in Cloubank, gets attacked by a shadow group named Camerata. But things don’t go as planned and as a result Red gets a hold of a peculiar device called Transistor. With it in her hands she travels through the city to find the answer on what is happening and why exactly.
Storytelling is done in a peculiar way and you are not told much, just hints about that or that, but you are still captivated and you just have to push on. Characters, even though there are just few of them and there is not said much about them, are just perfect. Voice acting is exceptional!!! <3 Beautiful graphic and totally amazing soundtrack creates an awesome game in all aspects! Combat is great fun and can be pretty challenging, especially if you set yourself some limiters or try your luck in special challenges. Also there are countless possibilities to create your best skill combo so fights never get old. Can only recommend, we have played through it four times in total. ;)

Cooking saga continues!
We have enjoyed the first game and have to say that this one is a very good successor, maybe even better in some aspects. Some things are new, some are changed for better and some stay untached. Sooooo, one of the best things is that you can make your own restaurant as you level up and get new furniture, decorations, lights and so on. This adds a great touch to the game as you get even more attached to your restaurant, also it’s really awesome to see your patrons sitting at tables waiting for their order. :D
Your cooking space changed a little and now you have a prep station where you can (or have to) prepare food in advance and then serve it right away, this adds other possibilities to your cooking. There are many recipes and they just look so delicious!!! We got rather hungry preparing all the dishes. XD Few of the hard recipes got simplified which is great, but many new very hard recipes got added which isn’t that great! XD
Next great aspect is that besides cooking in your own restaurant you can help in the others, each of them have a specific menu. It’s a great way to practice, level up and get more nice stuff for your restaurant.
What was changed is how co-op works. Now everyone is taking care of their own meal, you pick it up you have to also prepare it. Truth is that in the most hectic moments you mostly don’t talk to each other as you concentrate on the work, but it’s still great fun! After playing a little it growed at us quickly despite initial concerns!
It’s a great game, funny, cute and also challenging. Can only recommend! :)

So, I am little bit torn apart about this game. When I first heard about it, all I knew was that some girl succumbs herself into hell in search for her dead loved one. All of it shrouded in Northern mythology, filled with Viking warriors and that sold it for me. After some time later I have learned that our main heroine is also struggling with psychosis. And in this point I feel a little bit of wasted potential.

Whole game is visually absolutely stunning, especially Senua's emotions are clearly visible on her face. Next thing I would say is that the game is a combination of hack and slash, walking simulator and puzzle solving. It works well together and puzzles offer good diversion from the fights, although be the game longer it could get too repetitive as there aren't enough variations. Fights are from the simpler ground (don't take this as an insult, just a statement that there isn't countless combos you can perform), but can get challenging if you get overrun by enemies or you are playing on auto difficulty (after completing the game I have learned that I have played on the hardest setting as it adapts to your performance, sometimes it was truly a hell). All in all you have light strike, heavy strike, block / counter, kick (took me some time till I figured this one) and evade and that's all you need. I have enjoyed the fights, even the very hated locked view and the inability to see behind you (yes it can be frustrating). The best part of the fights are the moves of Senua and her enemies. The motion capture is truly brilliant and it's a joy to see how their abilities and moves change according to their wounds! Also the music during fights was pretty good and created an intense atmosphere, as the whole soundtrack after all.

Through the game you can collect runes with myth stories, when you collect them all you will see additional cutscenes before the end. If you miss some, you have to play it whole again as you can't go back or load a chapter save. That happened to me and sadly the second run is completely the same, nothing new added.

Now to the point. So Senua is living with psychosis. She sees things, hears voices. You are just a passive watcher of her struggle. And here comes my disappointment. You know, I think that what happened to Senua (death of her loved one in a peculiar way and so) would push anyone to insanity. Voices of self loathing, full of an accusation, hatred or overall confusion rather correspond with the situation. But she is living with it all her life, inherited it by her late mother, as this is shown to us by few visions. Too few. For me it doesn't build enough connection with her, most of the time I was rather indifferent. But let's say that they actually allowed us to be one of her voices, to influence her for the worse or for the better. That would add another level of immersion. I understand that you can't actually win over the disease, that it's a never ending fight, but there are things that can make it better… or worse. I know that the game would offer only an illusion of choice and influence and the ending would be basically the same, but it would be much better to live through her past, to push her towards the light or to pull her deeper into the darkness…

Another point that slightly disturbs the immersion is the Hela mark. When you make it to the hell gates you are marked and told that when you die, the mark will spread and once it gets to your head your journey will be over. That got me really hooked up and nervous when the fight turned for the worse. So I did my best to not die, to keep my mark at bay. Sadly the mark is growing on it's own. I understand that for some plot twists it was important to have a particular level of the mark, but I still felt it as betrayal you are actually safe, you can die as many times as you want, even on the hardest difficulty, I would say it’s a wasted opportunity.

All in all, I think it's a good game that has some flaws, but it's still enjoyable. Also I am curious about the second game.