Witnessing a new journey
Seeing often won’t be believing in Hellblade
EVERYTHING SENUA SEES IS SHAPED BY VISIONS AND MYTHOLOGY.
After spending two years developing new tech and gameplay to bring to life the cut and thrust of Viking combat, the Ninja Theory team realised there was more to Nordic life than bloodlust and violence. Not much more, but enough to warrant focusing on the emotional impact of being so battle-scarred.
Playing as warrior Senua, you’re on a quest to save your mother’s soul. This frames the game’s deeper subject matter: our heroine suffers from schizophrenia, which means her adventure may not be playing out in quite the way we believe.
Senua’s quest into the heart of Viking darkness will be littered with illusions and shifts in perception, but everything will be historically accurate. Viking expert Dr Elizabeth Ashman Rowe, from the University of Cambridge, has been drafted in to steer the Ninja devs in the right direction. She revealed the myths and legends of the infamous hornhatted explorers were often based around paranoia and psychosis.
Actress Melina Juergens, who plays Senua, explains Hellblade is “a journey that can be quite dark. Everything Senua sees is shaped by visions from her past but also Viking mythology”.
In terms of gameplay, this boils down to some interesting The Witness-like environmental puzzles in which you’ll need to activate Senua’s Insight mode and scan the scenery to align trees and branches to form new pathways; the face of Senua’s mother appears to whisper cryptic advice, and forest floor patterns unlock new story secrets.
FACE TIME
To enhance your affinity with the subject of mental illness, the devs struck on the idea of immersing you in their heroine’s world – you are Senua, so you see the world as she would. If Senua is anxious, then the environment will change to match her perception of the world. In one sequence, Senua needs to navigate a pathway of mud and blood. Walls made of human figures paw at her as she struggles to find the exit. Is it real? Is it Senua’s anxiety altering her perception of
the world? We’re not sure, but what you can be certain of is there’s a dirty great fur-clad Viking waiting at the path’s end.
Sound too will play a big part in the game. Taking the ‘you are Senua’ idea to its limits, your sense of the world will be affected by the sound you hear. Is the wind rustling the leaves in the trees or is it an unseen enemy? And is that a harmless deer or, as Senua’s fear takes hold, a dreaded fire-cloaked brute?
The ultimate conclusion to this concept of seeing and hearing the world as Senua is a stage set in complete darkness, influenced by catatonia, which can leave you feeling completely cut off from the world. If Senua can’t see the way out of the room, neither will you. It means you’ll need to listen closely to the sporadic noises of the environment for clues to move forward. When recording the animation for this sequence, Juergens was blindfolded and had to react to sounds and objects (such as grubby old boots) being hurled her way to achieve a realistic performance.
“When I did the body mocap for that section I tried to perform with my eyes shut so I could get a sense of fear and anxiety, and hopefully you feel this when you play this section,” she says.
DEPTH DEFYING
Every time we see and hear more of Hellblade we’re impressed. After all, this is a self-funded indie game with the depth and quality of a triple-A title. Ninja Theory’s ambition to bring the subject of mental health to a wider audience is welcome, but there’s a fine line between delivering a thoughtful dive into the issues surrounding psychosis and simply opening the Big Book of Filters and making the screen spasm. However, Ninja Theory’s history of delivering mature, tech-focused games gives us hope that Hellblade will do more than nod towards hidden depths, and offer something more worthwhile.
Come back next issue (on sale 9 May) as we pay a studio visit to Ninja Theory.