Mental Illness is a massive issue in America that is often pushed under the rug. There are many individuals with mental issues who can not or simple do not get the help they need, and this can be for many reasons. Men in particular struggle more, as mental health issues, especially like depression, can manifest differently in men, and as a result they are often misdiagnosed. Men are also less likely to seek help, as they are afraid of seeming less masculine and being told to “man up” as it where, and often are. That is why Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, and its success is so important, as the success of a game where the protagonist suffers with a mental illness can help bring these issues to the fore front of mainstream media, and get people talking about them more. ”Computer games are more profitable and popular than ever before and are recognized as a significant cultural medium across a wide range of social, economic, age, and other demographic categories”(Flanagan and NissenBaum 181). Because of games recent wide reach in the mainstream, they can be a reliable method of getting interesting or controversial topics talked about when people may be too afraid too, and Hellblade is not afraid to utilizes its controversial topic in its gameplay.
Senua is constantly plagued with visions and voices, and the player will experience these firsthand. Senua suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, and experiences hallucinations that are both visual and audio. The game notably lacks a HUD, and these hallucinations are the games way of communicating systems and mechanics. For example, the player may here a voice telling them to dodge right before an enemy attacks them, but do not believe that these hallucinations are always helpful. Many serve to abrade the player, and to distract them. In essence Senua’s mental illness is constantly experience as the player plays, and cannot be ignored. This does an excellent job in brining what is a very important and controversial topic to the mainstream, and it got normal people thinking about those who are less fortunate, and thus, Hellblade is quite successful in conveying its social and political message effectively.
Flanagan, M., & Nissenbaum, H. (2014). A Game Design Methodology to Incorporate Social Activist Themes. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (p. 181). New York, NY: ACM.
