Collecting My Thought on Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice—Hela Crazy

Tameem Antoniades and Ninja Theory have set a new standard with their action horror saga Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice. This gloomy tale is not only a very engaging telling of Norse mythology, it is also a shockingly brave attempt at depicting psychosis, an often stigmatised psychological condition where those affected experience various difficulties sifting falsity from reality. The player is strapped fast into the shoes of someone wider society would so readily describe as "crazy", and it is all done with such earnestness and effectiveness that the lay player will most positively come out of the game having some understanding of what challenges those with psychosis go through, and more importantly—that those individuals are otherwise not so different from the player after all.

Senua is a Celtic warrior hellbent on saving her departed lover, Dillion, whose soul she believes to be imprisoned in desolate Helheim. Along her quest, she will face some fearsome mythological figures including Valravn, Surt, and the half-mortified goddess Hela. She has to conquer them all while a symphony of voices simultaneously guide and mock her. These voices irritate, cast doubt and sometimes even entertain, but they also provide useful cues during exploration and combat. The combat is simple to pick up but varied enough to avoid getting too stale, and exploration involves the surprisingly enjoyable recognition of arbitrary patterns in the environment—a fitting mechanic to illustrate delusional beliefs. Together with eloquent writing and a visceral lead performance by Melina Juergens (originally to be just the team's video editor funnily enough), everything folds together to relay a wild yet affecting tale of pain, perseverance and retribution.

From here on out, this game will to me serve as the very exemplar of courage and ambition in video games. Not only does it succeed in thoroughly emulating the experience of psychosis, it also succeeds in raising awareness of the condition and evoking empathy for those affected, and in ways which are not accessible to other mediums. Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice shows exactly why video games can no longer be overlooked. And at the end of the day, I am just glad that a venture such as this was not done in a half-baked manner, because even within the thick swathes of epic Norse mythology and psychotic awareness-raising, there still lies one hell of a crazy good game.

#FavouriteBoss Hela.

#Nudity Hela.

#FavouriteHair Hela. But Senua's is pretty awesome too.

#SequelNeeded Hela no! I may love this game more than almost every other out there but what are y'all thinking planning a sequel?!