Psychosis on Demand – Hellblade : Senua’s Sacrifice Review

Max Radó / May 26, 2020

Game: Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice (2018)

Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch

Hellblade : Senua’s sacrifice offers a one of a kind deep dive into a mind of a person suffering from mental illness. It is absolutely astonishing that, while playing a story-based video game, a player can come as close to actual psychosis as someone living with it. To be able to get such an extraordinary experience the game developers had to work alongside neuroscientists and patients with past and present experience of mental disorders, particularly schizophrenia. This critically acclaimed piece of art was released in 2017, first as an PlayStation 4 exclusive, nonetheless, it has been released on other platforms. The game was played on PS4 PRO with a surround sound headset.

The story follows Senua, a Celtic shield-maiden, who ventured to Hel to redeem the soul of her lover. She will do anything to achieve this goal for he was the only one throughout her life who did not treat her as an outsider. The main character was tagged as a ‘gelt' which  in Celtic means a person that has gone mad and, therefore, was condemned to live as an outsider in a forest in search of penance. The schizophrenic nature of Senua’s mind stems from her tragic past, which will be slowly revealed as the game progresses. 

Throughout the game there are obelisks with glowing runes scattered all over the realm.These, upon interacting with them, Druth, a fellow ‘gelt' with a very interesting backstory, appears and will further enhance the experience of the player by providing background information on the Nordic mythology and even about Senua.

Get used to the dark, yet beautifully designed environment, where light is either deception or a real place of comfort. The game is shot in a way that resembles ,the previously reviewed, God of War where the cutscenes and action flows smoothly, adding that extra layer to already amazing experience. Aesthetically speaking, the game is stunning, when its puts the player before jaw-dropping landscapes worthy of a screenshot. Also, the way the developers and the actors combined the face-capture technology with acting, makes the characters so real you would you would stop to think you are playing a video game. Most importantly, the main (and the creepiest) feature of the game is the sound. Captured by using a 3D surround system, it will definitely give goosebumps to anyone that plays the game using headphones. Without them, the player will not play the game for the purpose it was designed for. I recommend using a surround sound headset for the best possible experience.

Paul Fletcher, professor of health/neuroscience at the University of Cambridge was on board with this project and helped the developers with their goal of making their game as close to a real experience of psychosis as it is possible. According to Fletcher, psychosis is a mental disorder which can be described as a loss of contact with objective reality and it is accompanied by two basic sets of symptoms, those being hallucinations and delusions. There is plenty of that waiting for the player in-game.

The combat and overall control of the character is very user-friendly which makes the game great for newcomers, but not for long. The simple combat controls consisting of only a few actions, such as light/hard attack, blocking, etc., is almost as if it was there for the sake of interacting. Nevertheless, once the player gets accustomed with the controls, the game will throw at him multiple enemies of multiple variants. Then timing your blocks and evades become the key to survive in a game where not dying is everything.

The value of this game is simply priceless. The combination of mechanics, story-telling and what is most important, it teaches and reminds us that people with psychosis exist in our society, and even though this is a video game, it provided the player with an experience that cannot be found elsewhere. As I have said before, there are games which should be played by everyone everywhere, and this is one of those. So you should buy and play this game, not only for the sake of being entertained but also because you will learn something you would not otherwise.