Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice
May is Mental Health Awareness Month , and advocates of mental health sentience face the same challenge twelvemonth - on - class . Sharing knowledge is easy , as is list off statistics about mental health and genial unwellness . What ’s more unmanageable is build an understanding of what it mean to have a mental health issue , since it ’s hard for outsiders to even recognize an invisible illness - let alone understand how it feels to live with one .
This is an field where media representation matters . order stories around mental wellness can break away this roadblock , allow for disfranchised or forgotten voices to have a place of their own , and explore themes of genial health in unique and compelling ways . It ’s here thatHellblade : Senua ’s Sacrificetruly excels , and although it ’s not perfect it provide an excellent blueprint for stories of mental malady in video games .
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Developed by Ninja Theory , the BAFTA - winningHellblade : Senua ’s Sacrificerevolves around the journey of Senua , a Pict who is trying to rescue her beat lover from the clutches of a foreign god , journey into dangerous lands and fighting terrific foeman along the manner . It ’s a brutal , powerful game , and Ninja Theory took a gamble by eschewing the traditional publishing model to go it alone , allow the studio to forge a tale without extraneous interference . The death result is not onlya grand sullen fantasy tale well merit of its stellar review , but also one that dig deeply into genial illness .
In short , there is a intemperate subtext of psychosis inHellblade . Throughout the plot , Senua will have auditory and visual hallucinations , whether the torment of ' the iniquity ' that pursue her or the voice of the Furies that narrate her alternative . As a metaphor for mental illness , Hellblademakes players question precisely how much of what they are seeing is real , and whether the title ’s supernatural overtones are instead all in Senua ’s mind .
Importantly , Ninja Theory backed this up by developingHellbladein line with genial health professional and those who live with psychosis . Included in this were professors from the University of Cambridge and the University of Durham , as well as the integral aid of The Wellcome Trust , so as to present psychosis in as accurate a way as possible . A last physical body ofHellbladewas also shared with those involved in this process before release , and the game ’s site evenlinks off for mental health support .
Other games attend to emulate theHellblademodel could do well to check this lesson . Ninja Theory took care with its delegacy , avoiding the overly dramatic tone that video game can all - too - easily slip into when discuss complex topics . However , it ’s not just this external influence that makesHellbladesuch an crucial game , with Ninja Theory splicing psychosis into the very gameplay .
Senua will see runes pointing her in the next direction to go , find out voice that are on the face of it guiding the way , and recollect the words of wise man figure Druth that tell the history of her people and her own personal past . These moment are full of half - trueness and outright Lie , and even the game ’s pith permadeath mechanic - should the player die enough times that ' the Darkness ' assume hold then Senua ’s story will go back to the beginning - is a fabrication in itself . Hellbladeis full of the unreliable , weaving together into this tapestry of closing off and paranoia .
Hellbladeunderstands the medium of the video recording game , and the singular quality that consist within . Unlike celluloid , telly , or literature , the interactional nature of gaming open up whole new pathway in terminus of represent the world . you could find an approximation of what it means to live someone else ’s life sentence , if only for a moment , and within it share viewpoint that otherwise would not have been possible . This is the key to why games are so immersive , yet it ’s rarely been explored to initiate difficult subjects by major studio .
Ninja Theory was one ofmany studio produce by Microsoftlast year , and Microsoft ’s handling of the developer will be interesting the follow . The protection offered by being a first company studio apartment could allow Ninja Theory to continue push the envelope , or instead be an extraneous influence that forces them into safer decisions . At the very least , Hellbladepoints the way forward for other game and mental health internal representation , disregardless of Ninja Theory ’s next move .
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