Thankfully the Kraken was more scary to look at than to fight. It has a lot of tentacles coming up through the ice. But I just ignored them and had everyone attack the head with everything they had. It didn't last more than a few rounds.


Sky Dragon

The Council of Stars

Final Battle

Good to hear about that kraken thing! That sky dragon is beautiful!

The Dead God must have been huge when it was alive.

The Kraken looks disgusting! Great scenery, though, I like the ship frozen amidst ice.

The sky dragon amassed quite a lot of bones during his life. Is it hostile from the start?

Are the two giants in the final battle the final antagonists or is the person standing opposite Persephone's party?

Acadian: I think the Sky Dragon might be my favorite creature in the game, purely for looks. It really does look the part.


Lopov: The dead god is Abydon, and he was pretty huge. The goddess of the moons and waves threw a moon at him. A piece of it is still lodged in his skull.

Thankfully you can talk to the Sky Dragon rather than fight her. In fact you can talk to all three dragons in the game, and depending on your stats and the dialogue options you use, you can avoid combat with all of them if you want. In the case of the Sky Dragon, it seems completely appropriate for her to be living in the temple of the Sky Goddess Hylea. So Persephone did not fight her.

The main antagonist is the "little" guy standing opposite the two giants. The giants are just his backup. When he dies he inhabits one of the giants. Then the other. So I killed the giants first, and saved him for last.


I started playing Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice and have a few pics:

Senua

Her BF

The gate to Hel looms

Really close up

Senua looks rather delicate - almost birdlike. Wow, the graphics do indeed look marvelous!

Acadian: I like her headdress, and love her long dreadlocks that hang down behind her back.

The game uses the Unreal 4 engine. So it is an excellent example of what a modern game should look like.



The picture is sharper with post processing down to medium and motion blur disabled

A mythology-telling runestone

A close up

There is a puzzle piece rune nearby

Burning

Surtur

Senua smites!

The killing blow

Now on to Valravn

That is not Valravn

Not Valravn either

Searching for the next rune

Facing Valravn

Splekt!

Valravn falls

Darkness

And Light

Your screenshots here really showcase the exploration with a bit of puzzles and combat. The game certainly looks good and sounds fun. So glad you’re enjoying it!

Acadian: So far it has been a fun game. Definitely worth the $30.



The light

Dillion

The Darkness

The Bridge to Hel

Dillion is quite the contrast of cheerful sunlight backlighting a decaying body. I notice on the right side of the shot, it looks like mirocu is there and has helped himself to a few bites of that poor decaying fellow.

Oh, Bridge to Hel looks ominous!

Stunning graphics!

Is Senua's appearance fixed or can you tweak it?

Acadian: The whole scene with Dillion started out really nice. Sunshine, plants, flowers, back home in the Orkneys. Then it all turned to crap, starting with Dillion in the tree. This game is very mercurial like that, as Senua's memories and moods swing from one extreme to another.


Lopov: Senua's appearance is fixed, and I think in this case it has to be. Her face came from a mold they took of the voice actress' own face. Even her body is based on the VAs. Here she is talking about it. In most games I would not like that. But this is most definitely Senua's story, and no one else's. In most games I feel myself in the role of the protagonist. But in this I do not. It is her story, I am just along for the ride. Which is not a bad thing in this case, because Senua is quite insane.


The way is shut

Memories of better times

Home sweet home

But those dreams have turned to ash

Broken dreams

Up in flames

Shores and swords

Can Senua draw the sword from the tree?

But it's not a sword at all

It's an illusion

Even illusion is painful in this place between life and death

Horror

I can see where you could really get pulled into Senua's story. Her emotions really project through her facial expressions and I imagine her voice adds even much more. Seems like a cool game!

Acadian: Senua rarely speaks. I guess you could say the voices in her head do most of the talking. She also does not look into the camera when you pan it around to look at her. Usually you can only see her straight on during the cinematic cutscenes. It is like she does not want to be seen or noticed. When you learn more of her history you understand why. It really does pull you in to her story.


Back to the bridge

Test of Blindness

Memories

Gramr has been reforged by Senua's trials

Through the darkness

Sea of Corpses

Sea of Corpses II

Climbing over the dead

Blue skies again

Fenrir

Dillion

Senua struggles on

Hela

The End

Senua Rising

Back to the Light

What a fascinating game and such great pictures to display it! Senua's face is amazingly expressive - able to capture what seems like a very wide range of emotions. And those big eyes help!

Thanks for sharing this neat game with us!

Loviatar stalks the Commonwealth once more

You can trust me

Taking aim

Yum!

Moonlight

Fresh air at last

Barbecue!

Yay, welcome back, Lovie! Are the red eyes new? That's quite a big gurl boxie gun she's totin'. Does it both kill and cook her prey? Ahh, nice oasis with plenty of healthy green fumes to ease her breathing.

Acadian: She had red eyes in the previous games. But this is the first game where I found glowing eyes for her. So now they really stand out above her mask.

I use a mod to prevent energy weapons from creating ash piles from corpses. So her rifle does indeed serve up a spicy hot meal.



Loviatar is eating her way through the Commonwealth

Enjoying a nice rad bath

I can see you

I never noticed these bottles up here before

Who's thirsty?

Having a ghoulishly good time

Dessert

Her pip girl shows she's a well-fed cannibal. . . but her rad bath shows that she somehow quite manages to maintain her girlish figure.

Acadian: Loviatar needs to start Pilates, she eats so well...


In the dark

A relaxing soak

All you can eat buffet!

Lots of good eating


I took a break from Loviatar. I cannot play an evil character for too long, as it just gets too depressing. She was more fun in Fallout 3 and New Vegas. In those games I could see how many corpses I could eat and still have Very Good karma! Plus I loved Three Dog dissing her on the radio.


Meet Aurora

Heavy Metal

Powered up

Big Bad

Eat light

Too close for comfort

That first shot in the tunnel is magnificent in its ominousness! I'm thinking of that big square-barreled gun thing Lovie carries as her toaster oven for cooking up her dinner/foes. And nice to see her face while relaxing in that wonderful toxic air. Well, the messy eater surely has racked up the 'corpse eaten' count!

Welcome to Aurora! Woman in white – even a white toaster oven gun. Don’t matter who is in it, that power/tank armor is simply. . . not flattering.

Acadian: Aurora never goes without a hot meal thanks to her microwave gun.



This is not going to work...

That's better

Would you like to play a game?

Dog day afternoon

Champion of Light

Aurora has a new pair of specs

Ominous

Somebody has a lot of gear to lug around! Clever to simply remove the overhead obstruction. I am struck by Aurora's shining incongruity to her grubby surroundings. Oh, she looks simply gorgeous in the new hat and glasses!

Acadian: Think of those poor Khajiit in Skyrim, who don't even have a pack brahmin to carry all of their wares!


Unstoppables

The first step is a doozy

Close up

Close up 2

Jet powered

Jet power vs statue power

Aurora's catching a lot of air time in this last batch of shots!

Acadian: Aurora's Flyiiinnn Soooo Hiiiiiiigh!


After two centuries of cryo sleep, Caitlin Snow is now Killer Frost

Twilight Ice

Surprise

Sad

Close up

Midnight on the firing line

Fabulous shots of the woman behind the ice. I must agree now that her Nano suit (I think) blue armor looks great. Absolutely love her eyes! Does her big cryogun shoot cold blasts or ice cubes?

Acadian: Her blue suit (under the white armor pieces) is the Vault Suit. I was going to go with blue eyes for her at first. But the lavender looked more striking, and colder. I also went and changed her hair color slightly, to add a little bit of purple as well.


A not even slightly faint smile

Commonwealth camoflauge

Stop! Or I'll fill you full of these little teal balls of light!

Feral!

Killer Frost

Cold as ice

Oh, that’s right – the Nano suit was the Star Wars Imp Trooper one. Sorry. I’m so glad you went with the lavender eyes – much more exotic.

Aww, what a nice smile!

Wow, that is quite the ghillie suit that Leaf Boy is wearing!

Put that ice cube machine on full auto!

The ‘Killer Frost’ shot is a nice character study.

Acadian: I have been thinking about an ice-based character since I first started F4. Killer Frost has really turned out much better than I could have hoped.


Rats in the walls

Close up

Office pool

Halloween festivities in Diamond City

"So, a ghoul walks into a bar..."

I'm so glad the ice theme is working out well and seems to be supported by the game. I also think you were very right about your armor choice. Still love those lavender eyes. . . and there is nothing faint about her smile!

Acadian: I also tweaked her hair color slightly, to add a some lavender streaks to go with her eyes.



Frozen

Ice Age

Cold shoulder

Ice to see you

Cold-Blooded

Neat! Love her little ice cube making cannon. Do the ice effects dramatically slow or freeze opponents? You and I probably share fond memories of playing ice maidens in Diablo II - either the ice sorceress or bowazon variety. Ah, the days of freezing entire groups of foes solid. . . .

Acadian: The ice effect can freeze opponents solid. Usually they are dead at that point. But some of the really tough ones, like bosses, will be frozen solid but still alive. At least until she shoots them a few more times. All those ghouls in the last batch of pics were frozen solid with one hit.

I never did play the sorceress much in Diablo II. I did love the bowazons in both Diablo I and II.


The beam splitter on Frost's backup weapon - Snowflake

Fire and Ice

Dog Day Afternoon

Frosty

Behemothsicle

Need a hand?

Deathclaw on Ice

Kewl!

Snowflake is also the name of the frost dagger that Buffy enchanted for Lothran (mirocu's Oblivion char). He still carries it!

Those lavender eyes stand out eerily in the dark - sort of like red ones do - neat!

Cooling down the area, one ice cube at a time.

Acadian: That is right, I forgot about Snowflake! Since it is her backup weapon, I wanted an ice-based name less threatening than Frost's main weapon - Frostbite.



Jet set

Pickman's discarded pieces

Smile

Serious

Nessie?

Nothing better than an ice cold nuka cola

Oh, Frostbite is a perfect name for Frostie’s primary weapon!

Nothing faint about that smile!

Serious is a wonderful shot.

Uh oh, who or what is that rising out of the loch?

Hee! Chilling her own nuka cola!

Acadian: I usually don't name my character's weapons. Except to call them Hecate's Rifle or Hecate's Pistol. That way it helps me tell them from other weapons they might pick up while looting. But sometimes a good name just jumps out at me. Like Persephone's sword Malediction.

That weird shape in the lake had me scratching my head for a while. In the end it turned out to be a Mirelurk Hunter

Killer Frost is always chillin'...


Flyin' High Again

Killer Frost teams up with Ada the Assaultron

In action

Iron Women

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? It's Ada?

Ada looks cool! No, scratch that - our girl KF is cool. Ada looks neat - and powerful! Love her shoes - well they suit her well anyway. Also love the semi-dark pic with KF's lavender eyes glowing and her sunnies perched up on her head. Ada can fly?

Acadian: Killer Frost is definitely a Tall Cool One

Ada can fly with her jetpack. But it is more like super jumping, and uses action points to do. It is very helpful for getting around though, and tackling locations from a different (vertical) angle.




Bouyed up

Sea Monster

Aye Aye First Mate

That first step is a doozy

What a great action shot 'Bouyed Up' is! I must say that I really look KF's look - hair, eyes, coloring. I'm also glad you chose that primary outfit for her from back when you were trying to decide - it works wonderfully for her.

Acadian: Frost jetted from bouy to bouy to reach the 'sea monster'. Otherwise she would have had to swim.


Oda Hidetaka walks the Nevada Wastes

Springing into action

Zen and the art of radio mechanics

No, I don't want to save money on car insurance!

Disarming a chinpira

Looks like a Hobo slept here

Welcome to Oda! I enjoyed reading her bio on the other thread - plenty of neat background there. Her look is fabulous and perfectly matches who you describe. Katana in the attack!

Acadian: I have been thinking about playing either New Vegas again for a while now. I was going over what kind of character I might play, and thought back to some of my FO3 characters who have not been to Nevada. Hidetaka won out, and so far she has been a lot of fun.


Badmen coming to town

The samurai charges out to meet them

All life is ephemeral

And more ephemeral than usual beyond this sign

Bad day to be a kobun

Hidetaka gets ahead

Cleaning up the local yakuza

Big or small, Takizakura chops them all

Head over heels

Kills bugs dead

Disarming a Raider

Hidetaka has a new arquebus

Zen and the Art of Solar Energy

This makes Noh dramas seem exciting

Now this is more like it!

A waterfall of cherry blossoms

Low blow

Shocking

Scratch one more 'demon'

Bad men

Hidetaka brings them redemption

On Benny's trail

Mongols!

Kamikaze

Oda the Samurai Surgeon is very adept at removing body parts with her katana! Heh, the fellow getting the low blow doesn't seem to be appreciating it. Oda looks like great fun to play and she coalesces the whole asian samurai thing very well.

Acadian: Hidetaka has come together really well in New Vegas. Writing the story helped a bit with that too of course. It made things in her head much more clear.


A classic Lopov shot

They lost their heads over Hidetaka

This won't require 47 Ronin

Samurai vengeance

Tell Caesar no

Things in Nipton look bad

The welcoming committee

Looks like Hidetaka's fame has proceeded her

But it was Hidetaka who hit the jackpot

Tell Caesar no. Reminds me of the iconic scene in Kill Bill where our protagonist stands victoriously drenched in blood after the climactic massacre.

I know exactly what you mean about the synergy between playing a character and writing for her.

Wonderful to see Hidetaka get her well deserved vengeance vs the checked suit dude who put a bullet in her head!

Off to Nippon Nipton - looks like Samurai’s work is never done.

haute ecole rider: I couldn't make it through Kill Bill. But Hidetaka is definitely the last woman standing.


Acadian: There is always plenty of killing for a samurai to do in Nevada...

The funny thing is Nippon is Hidetaka's real goal. Ever since I started her again in New Vegas, I can sense that she really wants to get back to Japan.



Hidetaka is now packing a Magneto-Laser pistol

Getting hot under the collar

Hot Asian Girls

Ashes to ashes

Welcome to Primm Pass

The way is blocked

Face off

Sniper's vengeance