Some of the best indie games of the last decade have soared by exploring mental illness but how can we really gamify that struggle?
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice gets a free PS5 upgrade with a 12.4 GB download size, launching alongside Hellblade II.
Admittedly, Hellblade: Senua's Saga is far from perfect and won't be a game for everyone, but now with a multitude of accessibility options it has made itself much more palatable for a wider audience, and with constant sale prices between $2-$4, Hellblade: Senua's Saga is too good to pass up for a unique experience that has stood the test of time and will do so once more with its even more robust and epic sequel.
The Hellblade games looked nice but they were essentially walking simulators with a minimal amount of combat tracked on.
At long last, it’s about time they upgraded it !
I didn’t like hellblade 2 at all, which lost all its mystery and originality in this graphically superb but extremely boring sequel. But I loved the first one. And I was pretty annoyed it was stuck on ps4 version on ps5. Bugs and didn’t run that well.
Now I’m going to play it all over again !!! In its nicest version on PlayStation.
Last Word on Gaming takes a look at ten games who treat mental health issues as respectfully and seriously as they ought to be in real life.
Titles that handle these themes well can genuinely help people feel seen or understood. Anyone interested in going beyond games and looking into real-world support options might find helpful resources at https://uvtreat.com/ especially for understanding different approaches to mental health treatment and recovery.
Weird way to phrase it, but yes games likely have the highest potential for allowing others to better understand certain mental illnesses. A really good example (not necessarily a mental illness, but very similar) is playing co-op in dead space 3.
While you and your friend are trecking through this station the 2nd player sees remnants of what looks like a party cut short. Decorations, party favors, and plates of cake are littered throughout the station increasing in number as you progress. Wasnt till i just started seeing full layered cakes sitting around a few hours in that i mentioned "man these people were partying like crazy" to my friend who responded "What the hell are you talking about?", "with all these decorations and cake everywhere looks like they were having a big party here". Was about 1min of silence till he responded "theres no party decorations anywhere dude" to which we chaulked up as maybe some weird network issue where i may have triggered an event he didn't, till my character got dragged into a mental hellscape while my friend had to defend my unconscious body till i broke out of it and it all clicked that this was some sneaky and very clever storytelling snd my characterwad obviously psychologically compromised.
That's an experience i dont think film or books could have pulled off as effectively. Not to mention it makes the player experience a parallel experience whereas other mediums just show or tell you from a separate perspective.
Eternal Darkness and Dead Space 3 handled it in interesting ways. While less of a mechanic, it was the driving force behind the awesomeness behind Senua's Sacrifice.
Why not? Various other aspects of life have already been gamified, why should mental illness be left out?
In addition to that mental illness has been portrayed across a variety of different mediums, so why shouldn’t the gaming medium be allowed to handle that concept!
As long as you’re not too sensitive, yes we can.