Another, much louder voice is also present and acts as a guide for both Senua and the player. They doubt the reason for her journey, scared she’s making a mistake they’re whispering, urging her to turn back before it’s too late. The game’s use of binaural audio really shines in game’s opening sequence.Īs Senua travels down a river alone in a small boat, her voices begin talking to her. From the beginning, you are introduced to the some of the voices - from the ones who doubt her, the ones who are fearful for her and the ones who understand Senua, guiding her along the way. It manifests in several ways throughout the game, but most notably through the realization that Senua is hearing multiple voices. Prior to the start of the game, Senua developed psychosis, a condition that alters her perception of reality. The developers thankfully have consulted with mental health experts to both approach this subject matter with respect and accuracy. Hellblade’s story centers around Senua, a Celtic warrior who has experienced a great trauma and not only has to battle fierce enemies, but her own mental illness.

The results are fantastic and spine-chilling. Some games may use this to help players better identify enemies and their position, but the game’s developer, Ninja Theory, use this technique to heighten the experience while tying it into the game’s plot. In short, the two microphones capture sound and their positions in 3D-space the same way your ears hear sound in the world. When we saw the game in motion a year ago, we were impressed with its incredible motion-capture technology - but I wager as folks actually play the game, they’ll be shocked by its use of binaural audio, a recording technique that uses two microphones to simulate a three-dimensional space. It uses a unique audio recording technique to tell a difficult story with equally difficult subject matter.

Hellblade, on the other hand, earns its request. I’ve played dozens of games that have promised me they were “best played with headphones on.” I usually take these games up on that advice, but I’m rarely blown away by the experience. I shivered in my seat and replied, “Okay, you need to play this and listen to what this game does with audio. After making my way through the game’s intro, I hesitantly removed my headphones, turned around and asked him, “Uh… you weren’t talking to me while I was playing that, right?” He gazed up from his Switch, looked me in the eye and shook his head. He was quietly playing his Switch on the couch behind me as I booted up the game. I could only play it for a moment before Polygon’s editor-in-chief, Chris Grant, and I needed to leave our hotel room. Yesterday, I popped on my noise-cancelling headphones to play a few minutes of Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice.

Binaural sound clips