Hellblade Is As Much About the Mind As It Is Murder

Hellblade may look like your average character action game, but developer Ninja Theory has greater ambitions for the forthcoming PlayStation 4 release. The trailer embedded below – which includes a quick glimpse at several gameplay sequences – offers us a proper introduction to protagonist Senua, who suffers from a mental illness known as psychosis. This means that she's afflicted by regular bouts of anxiety and depression, and is prone to various hallucinations. And you'll witness it all through the character's eyes.

"Developing Hellblade independently gives us the freedom to tackle a subject as challenging as mental health," explained Dominic Matthews on the PlayStation Blog. "It's a subject that we are handling with all of the respect that it deserves, ensuring that our portrayal of Senua's condition is both accurate and sensitive." In fact, it's working alongside University of Cambridge boffin Professor Paul Fletcher, and has teamed up with the Wellcome Trust, a charitable organisation dedicated to bringing greater public awareness to various health issues.

Despite its blockbuster visuals, the title is being built by a team of just 15 people, and we've outlined in previous articles just how the British studio is achieving that. Are you looking forward to this intriguing Celtic adventure? Fight your inner-demons in the comments section below.