From the moment of their creation, video games have always been subject to criticism and prejudice. Although today there is still some remnant of that trend, the panorama has changed radically and now being a video game player is the most common thing in the world. But it wasn't always like this, and if any old school gamer is reading us, they will remember the stigma to which they were almost certainly exposed for simply throwing 5 dollars into the arcade machine. You're probably wondering why I'm telling you this, but that's what Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 is about: of the stigma.
After having been able to play for about an hour, my mind is abuzz. The new installment of Ninja Theory seems to have a narrative component as strong as its predecessor, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice. However, if in the first installment we saw how psychosis was placed at the center of the axis, here we will go one step further to explore the social component of people with mental health problems. The Senua of this installment, much more mature than before, will embark on a journey connected with the reality that surrounds her and, if something has become clear to me, it is that This can be as scary as any psychotic break..
The message of Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2
Talking about mental health is not easy. Misinformation and ignorance play against all those people who suffer from it. Therefore, when Ninja Theory decided in 2017 to launch hellblade, it was a risky move. With this, they not only intended to reaffirm themselves as a studio by creating their own independent triple A, but also to put the player in the shoes of a person who suffered psychotic episodes. Thus, we found ourselves with a delivery in which discerning what was real or not could be as overwhelming as the voices we heard in Senua's head.
In Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2, which is more than just impressive graphics, we are going to find a story much more anchored to reality. That doesn't mean that psychosis isn't present to alter the environment or whisper in our ears, but we will have more opportunities to observe the world around us. And this doesn't necessarily have to be more pleasant.
One of the elements that has impressed me the most about Hellblade 2 is the fact that there is a conscious decision to create a much more violent and explicit game. To achieve this, the photorealism on which it draws is essential, as it manages to show human depravity in the most direct way. Thanks to the level of detail of the environments, we will find contemplative moments in which we will just want to observe the world around us and, for this, Unreal 5 has had a lot to do with it. For example, I arrived at a town with stone cabins, settlements and an unpopulated forest around. The place was empty, so as I made my way through the maze of rubble and wood, I had time to enter some of those shanties in search of something of interest. And boy did I find it!
In reality, the place was not empty: inside each of the homes, the vision of mutilated bodies full of blood flooded every corner. If he went a little further, he could see a body impaled at the entrance of a bridge. At least from what I saw, Senua's visions seemed much nicer with fractal crystals that appeared everywhere and psychedelic shapes. Even the voices would occasionally whisper something positive or try to help me when I couldn't solve a puzzle. Furthermore, when Senua was connected to reality, on many occasions she had to face enemies, sword in hand, and kill them to rescue her people in a combat that, broadly speaking, feels much more fluid and organic than in the previous delivery. Curiously, the least brutality I have felt has been during them, since, although they have a somewhat less fantasy component, the use of the mirror mechanic makes these crystals appear when defeating enemies and lowers the level of explicitness.
By this I am not implying that experiencing a psychotic episode is pleasant. Don't get me wrong. But the contrast that the study presents us with has led me to reflect on what I told you at first: the stigma. Why do we live in a world in which we have a person with a mental health problem but, nevertheless, we have normalized concepts like war? In Hellblade 2the world that surrounds Senua may be more frightening than her own symptoms, and that does not make what she suffers good, but it does put before us a reality: we know nothing.
“People with mental health problems often suffer more from rejection than from the symptoms themselves,” Professor Paul Fletcher, the study's mental health advisor, told us. And although in the first installment we saw how Senua embarked on a journey to recover her love, with the emotional burdens and revelations that this entailed, here we will have to break down the walls that separate us from the people around us. Whether it succeeds or not is something we will have to see next May 21 when the game launches for PC, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S.
Now, I wonder: if in just one hour I have been able to understand this message, what else does it have in store for us? Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2? I have no doubt that the studio wanted to offer a sequel on par with its predecessor, which does not necessarily have to be bigger, but certainly more ambitious. After all, we are talking about one of the big launches of the Xbox ecosystem for this year and, at least for now, it seems that this one will not leave us indifferent.
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