10 Video Games That Literally Dragged You Through Hell

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice was for many an eye-opening experience. This deeply personal story sees the titular Pict warrior journeying through Helheim to, you guessed it, save the soul of her dead lover. Predictable though this plot summary may seems, it belies the complex story at the heart of Hellblade. The demonic visions she wrestles with are ultimately manifestations of her own torment, fraught with psychosis as she is.

Narrative is drip-fed to the player through narration and some of Senua's hallucinations alongside puzzle-solving and brutal combat sections. Her journey to confront Hela is fraught with horrific visions and enemies from Norse and Celtic mythology. These monsters come at the same time as Senua's own rather literal demons confound her; the voices in her head manifest to her as "Furies", and is plagued by some monstrous entity known only 'The Darkness'. She perceives her own mental health as a curse, something she must endure.

This makes the game all the more impactful; we empathise deeply with Senua, for her own personal Hell travels with her and confronts the player just as much as it affects the character.