Garm's Eyes

For the million things... The combat felt heavy, I struggled to learn the moves for the first few fights but I kept getting better (beat the game dying once in a fight at the beginning and failing balance checks until I understood how to play and once... Anyway). It felt real and got real fun once I hit the bridge (figured out all moves and finally how to sprint into a fight) while the music was amazing. Then came the sea of corpses and there was this epiphany of combat and focus (which I didn't want to lean on but ultimately did, joyfully) and this ambient music like it was a spiritual journey of unending fights, akin to life in that we constantly have to hope and move forward. It is an unforgettable game and I was stunned that the developers/writers hadn't gone through an episode of psychosis themselves. It was their intrigue and willingness to explore our humanity that lead them to take risks... The voices were perfectly logical... Mocking, negative, fearful, paranoid, at times empowering (or in combat helpful) but ultimately just voices that served a narrative. The enemies were intimidating and the animation lifelike, except it was a life in the past. Oh and the whole permadeath thing... Happy that it was just outside of combat :)

/r/hellblade Thread