By Kelsey Cameron
First published October 25 2017, Edited 2023
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, developed by Ninja Theory, uses Norse mythology to explore mental illness. The player controls Senua, a warrior who ventures into Helheim to save her lover's soul from Hela, the half rotting goddess of death. As Senua travels deeper into Hell she is challenged by the "gods" who relentlessly test her sanity.
Throughout her journey, Senua endures episodes of psychosis and hears many voices. She lives in a world that doesn't understand her and therefore, casts her out. She believes her illness, referred to as a "curse" or "darkness", is caused because of a curiosity to listen to the gods in the underworld. Her father warns her that these gods;
"crawl into your soul and rot you from the inside".
Hellblade is mechanically simple. Although the fighting sequences have pretty great animations, they do feel choreographed as if Senua has no real control over the outcome, which perhaps she does not. This simplicity is welcomed because of the intense psychological weight behind the game. Hellblade was ever meant to challenge the player mechanically, but rather to challenge the mind.
Navigating through the linear underworld is fairly straight forward. The player has the option of interacting with lorestones that play audio messages about actual Norse mythology. Each lorestone provides context to the journey and establishes characters before the player encounters them. Hela is built up to be the final hurdle, but it is the idea of her established throughout the game that creates suspense and makes her frightening. These lorestones are a fantastic at offering extra content that also means something to the central story. I also enjoyed how Senua is able to move away from a lorestone and it will keep playing – she still has a degree of freedom and isn't bound to hear the entire recording while standing there.
At first, the environmental puzzles seem a little obtuse and a lot more complicated than they actually are. The game doesn't directly tell you how to play, meaning that it doesn't underestimate its audience. Part of the mental challenge is figuring out how the puzzles worked. Once I got the gist, they were entirely captivating and stretched my preconceptions about what digital gaming spaces are capable of.
Some puzzles include searching for gateways or inconsistencies in the environment to create stair cases appear, making walls disappear to create new pathways, and finding Norse symbols in the environment. These challenges became increasingly complicated and add to the feeling of being lost in a maze, or lost in your mind. I found the Valravn, god of illusion challenges particularly outstanding.
Hellblade's main purpose is to psychologically challenge the player and offer a sense of what it is like to live with mental illness. This is achieved by continuously confronting Senua with her own mental instability, which obstructs her and the player's grasp on reality. Senua's psychosis depicts her death in different scenarios that completely skew the plot so the player is never sure what to believe. These scenarios create a space of uncertainty and confusion where the player simulates Senua's circumstance. As the central voice that Senua hears explains to the player,
“If you believe Senua's reality is twisted, you must accept that yours is too”.
There are also two quieter voices that laugh and gossip about Senua, telling her she's stupid, that she should just give up, or not to continue. These voices represent insecurity and a lack of confidence in her own abilities, despite the fact that she is paraded as a strong warrior. I found it really hard to continue with the constant chattering, meaning the developer's did their job well. At the beginning when Senua kicks her boat away, defying the voices, I felt a little dread because they made me doubt my own abilities which highlights the tight grasp that negative thoughts can have on a person.
There is another deeper, demonic-sounding voice that talks to Senua in her darkest moments. In the first meeting with Hela, Senua collapses in fear and the voice shouts,
“What are you doing? You’re showing weakness! You’re a disgrace! The gods will punish you for this!"
While this voice appears to punish her, it also drives her forward by telling her to continue,
"Pick up the sword and fight! Fight the darkness!”
Although the voices attempt to stop Senua from succeeding, they all also encourage her in places so that she grows to rely on them to continue. Since these voices also address the player and act as loose "guides" throughout the game, the player also grows to rely on them too.
After this first scene with Hela, it is revealed that these voices are all facets of Senua as she talks to her "dark" self through her focus mirror. It can be interpreted that the player becomes another of Senua's voices. In the beginning of the game the central voice suggests that the player should come along for the journey which, signifies the entry point of the player as one of Senua's personalities. When Senua looks directly at the camera for the first time, breaking the fourth wall, she is confronting the player as another presence that watches and judges her. Since the player can make comments or thoughts outside of the game world, they can indirectly contribute to her journey as the other voices do.
The complex representations of psychosis and multiple personalities flood Senua with doubt, guilt, and fear. However, like the other voices the player as another facet of Senua also drives her to persist (literally). Her main fear is the failure to save her love Dillion's soul because he represents hope and is a metaphor for a greater support system. Perhaps the most heart wrenching line,
"You found your own way back, all you needed was a little help, a little hope" .
Dillion is compassionate, understanding, and kind as he reminds Senua of how strong she is and that she will only be consumed by the "darkness" if she lets it. I think Senua fights so defiantly for Dillion's soul because he saved her from herself.
Hellblade uses Norse mythology to explore mental illness in a brilliantly executed metaphor that sheds light on how destructive archaic attitudes towards mental health can be. The player not only watches Senua's story, but can experience it with her by "walking a mile in her shoes". This immediacy helps to transcend the bounds of empathy as you are thrust into Senua's mindset. The way that the player's actions philosophically link with the story is a phenomenal example of a videogames unique storytelling abilities.
Senua's suffering is highly confrontational and parallels the way mental illness is still treated today. I found the hardest part to swallow was that she didn't know what was happening to her and it was rationalised as her own fault – her "sins" caused it. The games psychological weight made it the first game I had continuously to remind myself was just a game. And at times I became extremely psychologically overwhelmed and had to take regular breaks; a luxury only someone without a mental illness has.
Hellblade is executed sensitively and doesn't vilify mental illness or reduce it to insanity. I thank the developers for creating such a poetic, emotionally raw, respectful, and empathetic game so that we can touch the surface of the toll these illnesses have on people.
If you feel you are suffering from mental illness or are struggling in anyway, visit the link here to find mental health services in your country. Know that you matter and shouldn't have to go through it alone.