Hellblade Senua’s Sacrifice is looking to do something that few games have done. Hellblade is a 3rd person hack and slash game developed by Ninja Theory (the developers of the Devil May Cry series) so as far as combat goes this game is in good hands. But where this game gets really interesting is that its protagonist, Senua, suffers from mental illness, which very few games cover and usually do not result in the best outcomes. This game deserves your full attention and here is why.
The developers seem to really care about the subject and how it can benefit to be presented in a game if the message is properly conveyed. Senua suffers from psychosis, depression, and hallucinations, and Ninja Theory really wants to get it right by avoiding common tropes and stigmas, so they brought in experts on the subject and consulted with people who have psychosis. Ninja Theory wants to show how these disorders can truly affect someone in their day to day lives.
They are making a game that has the potential to change how mental illness can be shown in games and highlight a real issue often ignored. If Ninja Theory manages to pull this off it could have a big impact on Mental Illness awareness overall, which is welcomed by the gaming community. There seems to be something special here that Ninja Theory is striving for and hopefully they deliver an authentic and worthwhile story.
HellBlade appears to be a fast paced Dark Souls style of combat, and with Ninja Theory’s track record you should have no worries there. The game is described as a “AAA Indie” which means Ninja Theory will develop and publish the game but it will have many AAA qualities.
HellBlade will release at a $29.99 price point because the game is not as long as a normal AAA release. This seems like it can be one of those few games that is extremely fun to play but also has an impactful story. It is refreshing to see developers care about a serious issue and relay that message through a beautiful game.
