Hey all,

I couldn't resist anymore. I kept myself from reading spoilers, but I had to have this game. I'm going to keep this post relatively short, but there's two points I wanted to post if anyone's on the fence:

1) This game is very very accurate when it comes to psychosis as well as aspects of schizophrenia. Like, I don't see flames shooting out of the ground like you might see in certain trailers, but the general vibe, tone, pace of life, and senseless confusion (Trying not to spoil anything) are all VERY accurate.

2) Apparently it is not a heavy action-based game. It's a little bit of a few different things. Just be aware you're getting the game primarily for the experience, not for chopping down Nords. It's also worth noting that if you suffer from mental illness, this game can and in some cases will trigger your symptoms. Be aware.

Yeah, Ninja Theory really tried to do some good research on the subject matter.

Also, every person experiences hallucinations differently, of course. Their realization of voice hearing alone is worth playing the game, I would say.

I can imagine a lot of players may get annoyed by the constant barrage of voices, muttering, snarky comments etc. by disembodied voices, but I think this is done masterfully and puts the player in a similar situation to a voice hearing person. They can’t choose when they want to listen to the voices, either. There is no loudness knob to adjust the voluem of the voices, no way to influence the mood of comments by these voices and so on. It’s a game that puts you under constant stress of all kinds and modes, even in the calm moments of the game.

The binaural recordings make the whole experience extraordinarily intimate in a very unsettling way.

Yeah :) Some people on here know I have schizophrenia, and I forget not everyone on here does, so that's why I typed my original post the way I did.

For me, the way she hears the voices and what they're saying, the way some of them try to be helpful and some of them are just annoying, some of them are mean, condescending, play by play, that is all very accurate and a depiction that closely resembles what I hear when I'm symptomatic and having a bad day. It's usually not nearly as bad as it is in the game, unless I'm having a psychotic break, as she does in the game.

I am just happy that people can finally get a taste for what those of us with schizophrenia go through. Granted, I'm only about 2 hours in, but I can't wait to finish it. I am having to take my time because it's triggering onsets of symptoms if I spend any more than a very brief time with it every couple days.

Just a heads up. I had to stop playing the game. As much as I love it, and its representation of mental illness, I was hearing room-level voices (as in the voices were presenting as though they were in the room with me) - Fortunately, as fast as this huge spike in symptoms happened, it's starting to wear off. Been 2 days since I decided to stop playing Hellblade, and I'm not quite back to baseline, but I'm not feeling like I'm having a psychotic break anymore, either.

tl;dr - Use caution if you want to play this and you have a severe mental illness

It's super interesting to read accounts like these and I feel it highlights how much people are missing they point when they want a mod to turn off the voices, or look up spoilers to see if there really is permadeath to get rid of the tiny bit of simulated uncertainty and anxiety.

I don't suffer from any psychoses myself but the game definitely made me think how the player has the luxury to just exit out when things get even the slightest bit annoying or unfun. I can't remember the last time I sympathized more with the main character.

If you do pick it up again, I'd be keen to read what you think of the rest.

As bad as it sounds, but I think this shows what a good job NT did at doing their research and how seriously they took the subjet matter.

My best wishes for your well-being, Leucius.
I have/had family members with a history of psychotic episodes including severe hallucinations.

I love how a computer game can lead to such great insights for people who never had to experience these things, neither first nor second hand.

With only minutes into the game, this is already incredibly impressive. I don't get why it's so rare for developers to get how to have actual emotional impact on their players (Spec Ops The Line also did it amiably well, as did the more controversial Katawa Shoujo).

Despite the comparatively small budget, this blows many many larger games out of the water.

Well, I've watched the film Split in the theatre and despite not having more than one personality, (against the 23 different ones that the character has), it was an amazing film. I'd say the same applies to this game.

Thanks :) I would hate to mod out the voices, but as much as I hate the word "Triggered" it's what they did to me. I watched some gameplay on Youtube, and I don't want to spoil anything, but for the average person with this type of severe mental illness, things as simple as going to the coffee shop for the day seem like an epic quest you're undertaking. I don't mean that in a "oh goodie something to do" I mean in an "Oh good, I can lead the spirits down the river as I drive/walk/bike to the coffee shop, and they can reattach to someone else hopefully." Thanks for the well wishes :) I am in pretty good control of my reality most of the time, but when my symptoms spike I have to either change what I'm doing, lower my workload, and/or sleep 10-12 extra hours a day till I feel better. I basically did all three things, so I'm no longer hearing room-level voices, but I'm still a bit squirrelly.

It's just something to consider that they did get it so right that it actually triggered me. I don't know how other people feel, if they even tried to play this game with an SMI (severe mental illness) but for me I couldn't handle it.

I understand some people feel the game is a waste of time and don't see the purpose in the visions, in fact one reviewer called the voices "annoying and pointless". Those people sadden me and leave me with less hope for the human race.

Hey Leucius!

At the moment another person who suffers from CPTSD/psychosis is giving an AMA (ask me anything) on reddit and he also describes especially the voice hearing simulation in Hellblade as amazingly accurate.

Here is the direct link to the Hellblade game thread of that person.

I thought you and others here might be interested in it.

Cheers!

oh man ... I thought the developers were exaggerating a lot.
To me the effects were just cute things that developers do when they want to create silly puzzles and other nonsense.
So yeah, ... just your usual run-of-the-mill PR nonsense.
Kind of like the bits in Batman:Arkham Asylum where Scarecrow starts messing with your head.
It's a neat gimmick and couldn't possibly be based in reality.

But then I read your comments (and the reddit link).
That definitely is an impressive feat by the developers that they really got to the heart of the thing.

Even if only a tiny sliver of the effect within the game is remotely like this sort of stuff in real life it is creepy as heck.
It's good that there is serious research into this sort of thing, because it must be hell to try and explain these things to anyone.

I know I'm just another random person on the internet, but I wish you and others like you the best of luck with everything.

This means a lot to me. I really appreciate the kind words. I put on an act IRL so that most people won't notice anything's wrong, or at most they find me eccentric. Very few people in my day to day life know what I have or what I deal with on a daily basis.

This illness has taught me to be more compassionate whenever possible - because if no one knows what I'm going through, I most likely don't know what most other people are going through.

Have a good one, and thanks again.