Finally batting for the big leagues!
'Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice' is one of those well received, lauded titles, dripping with accolades and draped in sashes, as the reward to long struggling developers who just wanted to make their mark on the world and seemed to just miss that peak several times over. This game about mythology and mental illness rewrote many's expectations as to what a high-production game could look like on it's best day, and some went to far as to call their depiction of the protagonist's psychosis groundbreaking. (Before those same people turned around a year later and declared it utterly and completely wrong, because that crowd tends to be very temperamental with their praise.) And for Ninja Theory, the company behind the project, this is the game that finally had the support and love they deserved after all these years. After 'Enslaved: Odyssey to the West' failed to make the success that would lead to it's planned sequels (and then seemingly got it's design ideas nicked by 'Horizon: Zero Dawn') and their DMC reboot which made so many contentious choices that Capcom un-rebooted the franchise, this is the game that finally stuck the landing.
And a lot of that likely comes down to the partnership with Xbox, which helped make this game look so impressive, as well as dominate marketing events that the base team probably didn't have the pull to swing on their own. Couple that with later support from Game Pass, letting the curious try this 'weird-looking game which reviewed really well' without doing the whole 'buy commitment', and you can see why Ninja Theory would feel indebted to them. And it's a relationship that goes both ways. Microsoft has gone so long without high quality, high-scoring console exclusive to combat the slew of personal developers Sony has in their stable, and though it's a basic ground to start from, Hellblade has the reputation to serve as the "high quality experience you can't get anywhere else." Proving that the ever-contentious market share wars between console developers might not be as bitter as it used to be, but is no less important to these companies for whatever narcissistic reason.
So it's no surprise that this specific series is getting it's sequel, just as it's no surprise that both Ninja Theory and Microsoft are dedicated to sinking as much resources as possible into the game in order to make it the best-in-class in whatever way they can. Ninja Theory have to ride their winning horse and probably put pains into upping their fidelity with metal illness and doing everything they can to please fickle self-proclaimed 'experts' for another 10 months with their research and adaptation, whilst Microsoft are getting desperate to prove the power of their new console and thus justify the absolutely ludicrous effort one still needs to undergo in order to get it. As such, it was no real surprise to see neither company waiting until next year's E3 event in order to show off their new work. They need to get the ball rolling now, get people thirsting over this game from the get-go, if they both want to inspire the devotion they're shooting for.
When 'Hellblade II: Senua's Saga' was bought out for the Game Awards, the intention behind marketing was clearly stated by talking corporate puppet mouth-piece, Geoff Keighley; 'I couldn't tell the cutscenes from the gameplay!'. This is an old foil of the marketing scene whenever a new generation of console comes around, from the Playstation 3 onwards, where people drum up the idea that graphical fidelity and animation systems have grown so advanced that active gameplay moves as cleanly and looks as incredible as professionally animated cinematic action. And a lot of the time it's more a trick, a bit of smoke and mirrors, or even a heavily choregraphed 'gameplay' sequence which best sells this effect. As for Senua's Saga, it was a little bit of both coming together to sell the gameplay (and thus the power of the ever elusive Series X) to the world.
If you've seen the gameplay then you likely know what I'm talking about. We have a scene of Senua stalking into a giant's cave with her loyal tribesmen flanking her back, and the introduction to the scene is synced with the start of the gameplay so that you don't get that brief flash of black screen or the even jittery shudder telltale of player's control. Of course, I think it's evident there's some sort of on-rails system going on here, because a player just naturally doesn't control a actor like a video game cinematographer does, and that sense only becomes more evident as the scene plays out. As the action unfurls, we're not really seeing any gameplay, but more of an interactive cinematic action sequence with lots of running, little cuts of aiming, and no real impact from the player's point. It's window dressing for a video game, the sort of thing that's novel the first time you play, but which you'll be wising to skip past on repeat playthroughs. It's an illusion.
Which isn't to say that there is no substance whatsoever to the gameplay we saw. Right away it's obvious, without a doubt, that the graphical prowess of this game is one of the best on the market. Or rather, one of the best due for the market, because this game isn't slated until around Christmas 2022. (Guess the team just has to cross their fingers that Sony isn't going to surprise drop something better in the time since. Ninja's Theory's biggest asset being touted right now is something as ephemeral as 'the best graphics for the moment', afterall) Animations do run incredibly smooth, and I have no doubt that'll continue onto actual gameplay without the training wheels, and the renderings of models, especially character skin, is almost indistinguishable from real-life. It's almost to the otherside of the supposedly unpassable 'uncanny valley', it's truly remarkable.
What I think the big next hill that Hellblade II needs to cross, comes down to the only thing which can't be proven until launch, the story. The narrative of the first title was conceptually straightforward but bled naturally into everything the team wanted to do with mental illness, with mythology, with player expectations and all of that. By it's very nature Hellblade II will have to aim higher than all that, but the team need to be careful that the soul of what made the first game so special doesn't slip away from them. We've seen this happen in seemingly inevitable slam dunk sequels like KOTOR 2 or The Last of Us 2. Both proceeded with a grand dreams and both got a little tangled up with execution in different ways. KOTOR tried to be more than the team had the resources to make in the time available and The Last of Us lost it's human emotion in favour of hollow spectacle which bled-out all the heart from the franchise. Ninja Theory have a tall order ahead of them.
As much as I conceptually hate the perfunctory role of Ninja's in pop culture, (that's a whole other thing, maybe I'll get to explain it here one day) I have a great respect for Ninja Theory and am glad they're finally getting that break the studio has deserved for years now. They've always seemingly been making great games and small circumstances here and there has just consistently cost them inevitable success. Senua's Sacrifice was well earnt and long overdue for them, and I'm hopeful that Saga can continue that ride into the future so that we may continue to see more from these ambitious minds over in that company. They're like an indie studio with bigger resources at times, and I love to see it. I'm just crossing my fingers that all the time dedicated to gilding the shell and making each shiny cave rock glitter for the 8K Game Awards screen hasn't cost the game some crucial engineering down in the main hood of the beast.
No comments:
Post a Comment