There are moments in gaming that I'll likely never forget, from the minute you
first stepped foot in Majula in Dark Souls 2 to the opening sequence
of The Last of Us. Every now and then a new game enters the
stratosphere and cements itself among the aforementioned. When I was treated to
this cutscene in 2017's Hellblade Senua's Sacrifice, I knew I was playing a
truly transcendental piece of art. By the way, please ensure that you're wearing
headphones otherwise most of the stuff in this video will probably fly over
your head...
Do you hear the way that the voices cannon around your head,
mirroring the chaos in Senua's mind? It honestly had me shaking with fear. I
vividly remember shutting my eyes as these sounds poured in and out of my
ears. I don't think I've ever been rocked by a video game's sound design like I was
Ninja Theory's Hellblade. Here's the thing though, I've probably never been rocked
the same way because Hellblade is the first real time a videogame has utilized
binaural 3d audio for dialogue and environmental sounds... and, yes, I know that
games such as F.E.A.R have had moments of 3d audio but they were simply that:
moments. Hellblade's entire soundscape is comprised of binaural 3d audio. For
those unaware the best way that I can describe said audio is like this:
dev diary of Hellblade's creation to help you understand this further. Hellblade is a
full-blown exploration of psychosis and mental illness. It explores both things
respectfully but ensures that the chaos of the human mind remains. For anyone who
has battled with any stretch of mental illness, this is a tough game to consume.
I often found myself having to take a step back literally and spend some time
away from Senua's mind - its depiction of mental health is so accurate, and so
damn powerful, that it had me thinking "how on earth have they pulled this off?"
And that's when I decided to delve into the masterful use of sound in this game.
You see, the game doesn't excel in various facets that a typical video game
should: it's combat system is clunky, not fluid.
The story is incredibly short, not lengthy - and while these are things that
did not bother me personally, I can understand why it would bother others.
But when a game is attempting to be something else, to be an artistic
exploration of the human mind, I think it should be respected and played through
as such. The pure existence of Hellblade is to use the medium of video games to
teleport the player into the chaotic mind of Senua. You couldn't do this in
film, since there's always bound to be a lack of interactivity.. and you couldn't
do this in literature since there's no soundscape to be manipulated. Hellblade
feels like, more than most artistic video games, it exists to push the medium
forward. Hellblade feels like more than most artistic video games it exists to
push the medium forward and enlighten the industry to the importance of sound
design and honestly I suspect we'll see triple-a titles in the near future
implement facets of Hellblade's sound design eventually popularizing binaural
3d audio in gaming. Hellblade simply would not function without its
manipulation of sound. It would be a forgettable, disposable and likely
low-quality title. Senua's mental battle is something we'd simply have to suspend
disbelief for rather than experience her pain for ourselves; there would be a
serious disconnect. Thankfully this isn't the case. Every minute spent in Senua's
shoes is fucking torture. It's a heavy experience and that's how it should be.
As the voices circulate around Senua's mind, they begin to soar around your ears
and at that moment peak interactivity and emotional connection has been
reached. The developers of Hellblade utilized and explored the McGurk effect
to further draw the player into Senua's world. Essentially the McGurk
effect is a theory that demonstrates how sound changes based on what you see. The
illusion occurs when the auditory component of one sound is paired with
the visual component of another sound leading to the perception of a third
sound. The visual information a person gets from seeing another person speak
changes the way they hear the sound. here's an example:
As you can see the brain totally views things
differently when sound is paired to a different image. Hellblade utilizes this
phenomenon to further drive us into the rabbit hole that is Senua's mind. Due to
the McGurk effect, we are constantly second-guessing what we're hearing and
seeing, we are often in a state of mind where paranoia and fear are the dominant
emotions purely because we do not know how to interpret if what we're hearing
is real or not. Also most of the environmental sounds in the game were
recorded in real life with binaural audio, this essentially makes the world
of Hellblade feel more lived-in. It breathes with life, the wind intertwines
with Senua's footsteps. Clanking sounds during combat feel all the more
real due to this. Every hit is palpable. In fact here's a test of binaural sound
in a random car park:
Notice how every miniscule sound almost makes you jump or feel like you want to
turn around and scan the environment around you. That's how every single
second of Hellblade feels... and that's before the voices in Senua's mind
taunt you and talk over each other.
Now imagine those elements of sound penetrating your ears and mind. The chaos though is
controlled. And that's what makes Hellblade legitimately masterful.
Listen, Hellblade completely floored me and continues to do so in multiple
playthroughs. It's an utter gem of a video game - one that challenges the medium and aims
to advance it in a manner that completely revolutionizes interactivity
and how we experience video games...