A Sincere Portrayal of Mental Illness
At its core Hellblade is a story about mental illness, more specifically how psychosis affects young Senua. Her journey starts as she makes her way to Helheim to retrieve the soul of her dead lover, Dillion. Things start out normally enough, but soon take a dark and twisted turn.
As Senua travels toward Helheim her mind begins to fracture more and more, making you question exactly what’s real and what isn’t. Much of Hellblade’s story can be left open to interpretation, but that’s intentional. Senua’s mental illness is the primary thing that the entire game’s story revolves around, and it’s more of a character study than anything. Bright lights disorient you, Senua constantly talks to herself, voices chime in out of the blue, and more. Ninja Theory constantly consulted people that suffer from various types of psychoses as well as Paul Fletcher, a neuroscience professor in Cambridge’s Clare College. Even if Hellblade doesn’t get everything right, it’s one of the most sincere stories you can find about mental illness in video games.
