The voices in one's mind can become dangerous if they get too loud.

Set in the dark scenes of the Viking age and blended with Nordic mythology and Celtic culture, the 2018 videogame Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice offers an original, authentic experience with its storyline that is structured hypercorrectly upon the skeleton of Scandinavian mythology.

Ninja Theory developed the game with a team consisting of only 20 people. The small size of the team behind the title surprises gamers as its quality is seemingly unaffected by the low headcount. Even though Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice claimed victory in five categories of the 2019 Bafta Game Awards, including in the Artistic Achievement, Best Performer and Best British Game sections, it didn't truly catch on in the gaming world. It's worth remembering this title, which I truly believe should have more credit, before the second edition – Senua's Saga: Hellblade II – is launched in late 2022.

Taking place in the land of Norsemen, gamers control the fate of Senua, a Celtic warrior torn by past trauma and guilt, who ends up experiencing severe psychosis. During the creation process of psychosis moments in the game, expert neurologists and professors contributed to help create a real experience. It is also important that users play the game with headphones to fully immerse themselves in the vividity of the hallucinations.

Packed with mythology, symbols and allusions, the game starts with Senua gliding through the waters of Norsemen in a boat. While the character talks to herself at the beginning, the skull hanging on her waist catches the eye. Actually, the skull is the reason for her journey, as she wants to save her lover's soul from Helheim from Hela, who rules hell. Though the story of the journal through hell is quite familiar, Senua's path is to change forever.

Her village is nearly destroyed by the Norsemen, causing the death of her parents. Considered ominous and the culprit of all evil, Senua is troubled by her inner voices, and blamed by them too. Her severe hallucinations foreshadow that you will not be alone. In fact, as the gamer, you become one of those voices. For this very reason, the game warns players before embarking on the journey.

The scenes in the game function as a leitmotif throughout the journey. It is full of mist and fog just like Senua's mind. Therefore, the separation of good and evil, innocent and guilty for the player is completely a slippery slope leaving them unable to trust their five senses. On the other hand, Senua's chorus-style inner voices evoke the feeling of a Greek tragedy. This emotional vehicle of thought is emotional, usually functioning as a tool in summarizing the story, informing the audience about morale, in some cases warning the character of what is to come, and in the moment of catharsis signals how Senua's journey will be.

Usually, the journey motif transfers the characters in the fiction. The most absurd example of this in literature, Edgar Allan Poe's short "A Descent into the Maelström" takes on a narrator and a companion who ascended into the maelstrom and spent six hours in the whirling madness. Ironically, the companion's black hair turns white because of the experience.

Even though Senua's hair doesn't experience any color changes after her first journey, we can see that she has grown more fierce in the second edition's trailer. Her face is covered in blood, she chants a ritual to awaken the ancient gods with experimental folk music band Heilung's "In Maidjan" song and she totally gives you the creeps. This time she is more mature, she accepts her fate, realizes her own flaws and becomes stronger to get revenge. After coming to terms with herself and letting go, she is becoming a fierce warrior who is ready to write her "saga."

Apart from the ingeniously woven storyline, the mechanics of the game don't stand out. Lighting and graphics are cleverly used to support the poetic storytelling and expressive atmosphere. However, the game doesn't offer any gameplay tutorials at the beginning. You have to find your way through the dark swamps and among the corpses of sacrificed people. For this reason, although it offers an original game experience, it can challenge players in this respect. Still, these elements don't get ahead of the game's impressive texture.