Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice
A new developer diary for Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice has been released and we get to see just how Hellblade will be creating voices in our heads
It seems like it has been a while since we’ve had a good update for Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice and it is high time that we had something. If memory serves, the most recent updates out of Ninja Theory on the game have all been about the same since back at GDC. They’ve all just been repackaged and sorts but I am pretty sure it is all the same. Thankfully though what we have here for Hellblade is something new and something amazing for all of you audiophiles out there. Or at least anyone who is interested in seeing how other humans deal with the neurological issues of hearing voices that most pass off as someone “being crazy.”
If this is your first time reading into Hellblade at all then you really need to dig into our past coverage and get up to snuff as it is a game that is not only aiming to give us an amazing story set in Celtic Mythology, but it is also looking to let us see how some of the other humans in the world live. Or at least those suffering from schizophrenia or auditory hallucinations and the very least. That is what the latest developer diary is all about too. Just how is the team able to capture these things and make us feel like we are in a second skin of sorts when we play the game? As with all of the other aspects it looks like they are doing their homework and getting passing grades.
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice — Hearing Voices
In this episode we explore how we’ve created the voices that haunt Senua throughout her journey, working with experts in the field and those with first-hand knowledge of voice hearing to produce a truthful in-game experience.
The most interesting part here is the fact that many of the people who used to deal with this form of disorder are claiming that Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is getting this aspect exactly right. The fact that the new spacial recording technology mixed with the performance art is blending so well that we can hear what the character is suffering through that it is on pare with the real world side of it all is both exciting and terrifying. It will do wonders to help others understand what some humans are going through but if you watch some of the people just listening to the Hellblade audio, it looks like it is fooling them as well. Could Ninja Theory be going too far with the experience?
Personally I think that so far the behind the scenes for Hellblade have actually prompted quite a bit of interesting tech and research that even if the game flops in sales it will have done some good elsewhere. Understanding an issue is extremely helpful in fixing it or at least beginning the soothing process. Unless all of this is just marketing bullshit to entice us to buy the game, I’m almost certain it isn’t, it does look like Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is helping others dig into everything. Wouldn’t it be interesting to see a video game help cure or soothe a real world dilemma? I know the prospect is interesting to me.
How do you feel about the “hearing voices” aspect of Hellblade that we’ve seen so far? Do you think that getting this aspect so real could cause issues elsewhere given the interactivity that video games inspire in the brain? DO you think all of this is marketing bullshit to help sell the game and nothing more? Let us know what your thoughts are down in the comments and feel free to discuss. As more on Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is released we will have it up on the site here. Be sure to keep checking back in for all of that in the hopefully not too distant future.
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