Why Hellblade 2 is more than a video game – BBC News

Visit any video game developer a week before their last major release and questions will be in the air.

Will people like it? What will the review scores be?

But when BBC Newsbeat visits Ninja Theory’s studio a week before Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 is released, another question arises.

Those teams’ games didn’t shift as many copies as a Call of Duty, an EA FC, or a Hogwarts Legacy, but they were loved by many. They were important to fans.

So what does that mean for Ninja Theory, a developer that very much falls into that category?

At least for now, studio head Dom Matthews tells Newsbeat they have something else on their minds.

“We are super focused on the release of Hellblade 2,” he says.

“We’re super proud of the game we’ve created, and we’re looking forward to spending the day together and letting fans get their hands on the game and enjoy what we’ve created.”

It is a day that has been a long time coming.

The studio’s previous game, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, was released in 2017 and was created by a team of around twenty people.

One of them was Melina Juergens, the company’s video editor, who eventually took on the lead role of Senua after the original actress quit.

“My job has always been to be behind the scenes,” she tells Newsbeat.

“So I was terrified of performing in front of people and being in front of the lens.”

Despite acting for Melina for the first time, she won a Bafta gaming award for her performance – one of five Ninja Theory took home for Hellblade 1.

It received widespread praise for the way it handled Senua’s psychosis – a condition that can cause people to hear voices, see things other people don’t, and have unique views about the world.

It’s also something Melina experienced herself in her early twenties, which she describes as “a time of pure terror.”

“I heard whispers and I could see dead people and things like that,” she says.

“So it was a very scary time.”

Melina says portraying Senua was an opportunity to “use my experiences to do something useful”.

“And it felt almost therapeutic.”

According to Prof. Paul Fletcher, a neuroscientist from the University of Cambridge who has worked on both games, the media has a patchy track record on psychosis.

While there are some good examples, he says there are also “a lot of cases where psychosis is used almost as a shorthand for someone who is behaving in a very crazy, potentially dangerous, violent way.”

“And I think that should always be challenged.”

Professor Fletcher says he was persuaded to work with Ninja Theory because of their determination to avoid misrepresentation.

He says he also recognized “how valuable video game experiences can be in engaging people and giving them experiences they might not otherwise have had.”

Both Hellblade games feature hallucination sequences and rely heavily on audio to recreate what it’s like to live with psychosis.

The Ninja Theory team worked with Prof. Fletcher and a group of patients with lived experience to ensure they created the image as accurately as possible.

The first game was more of a solo quest, but Hellblade 2 introduces new characters and explores the effect of Senua’s interactions with them on her psychosis.

Studio head Dom says the aim was to reflect that mental health is often a ‘journey’.

“It’s not static,” he says, adding that the first game was about Senua “experiencing psychosis and really understanding it for the first time.”

This time, he says, she has “a level of understanding and acceptance of those experiences.

“They are no less strong, but there is a different balance of power there. So that was very interesting to discover.”

Hellblade 2 is also a step up technologically. Since 2017, the team has moved to a new custom-built studio with its own motion capture stage and audio studios.

The first game also used motion capture, but it was shot in a boardroom of the old Ninja Theory office.

To underline this point, Dom says the team spent two days recording combat footage for the first game. For the second it was 69 days.

They also spent time creating and sometimes even creating real costumes and props that could be digitally scanned to increase Hellblade 2’s immersion.

And this time, the performance recording required a much larger team, including stunt coordinators and other specialists.

For Melina, it was initially a challenge to return to the role with a much larger team.

“There were a lot more eyes on me,” she says.

Some scenes, such as a swimming sequence early in the game, were physically demanding.

Melina remembers hanging from the ceiling most of the day.

“You really have to engage all the muscles in your body and you’re in a constant plank position,” she says.

Both Dom and Melina say the hard work is worth it to spread the understanding of psychosis.

As well as the Bafta trophies on the studio shelves and award certificates on the walls, Ninja Theory also collects accolades from fans moved by their games.

“There were some really nice quotes in there,” says Melina.

‘One person said her brother was always ashamed of her because she suffered from psychosis.

“And after playing the game, he said he could finally understand her and apologized to her.

“So things like that are very heartwarming to hear.”

There are hundreds of stories like this on forums and social media sites about Hellblade 1.

Dom thinks there’s now more focus in the broader games industry on “lived experiences finding their way into games and being used as a vehicle to tell people’s stories,” but he says he’s not sure if Ninja Theory is all about that. can claim honor. .

However, Professor Fletcher says he thinks Hellblade has had an impact.

He now uses the game as a teaching tool and believes it has helped raise awareness about psychosis.

While he feels like he’s never had much impact in fighting stigma on his own, he says the explosion of respectful, thoughtful discussion in response to the first game left him “extremely surprised and excited.”