I have a bit of a thing against so-called “art” games…or, I suppose I should say, games whose primary purpose is to convey a message or theme to the player, rather than deliver a high-quality gameplay experience. The two things aren’t mutually exclusive, of course, but there is this tendency for games like this to…get carried away with it. Or have the focus on the message try to excuse the poor gameplay. I had this issue with GRIS – visually beautiful, lovely message, absolutely rubbish gameplay, and therefore not a very good game.

Hellblade was…something else.

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