Page 93 - BBC Focus - August 2017

AUGUST 2017

THREE MORE
GAMES OUT

THIS MONTH

TACOMA
PC/XBOX ONE
( 2 AUGUST)

Tacoma is the latest release from
Fullbright, makers of the
critically-acclaimed Gone Home.
Tacoma is a narrative adventure
set in an abandoned space station
200,000 miles from Earth. Its
crew of six have been evacuated
in mysterious circumstances,
and it’s your job to piece together
exactly what happened.

SONIC MANIA
PS4/PC/XBOX ONE/
The portrayal voices, and so the player hears that people can experience NINTENDO SWITCH
of Senua’s these too. The voices take on hallucinations and delusional
psychosis is based (15 AUGUST)
on solid science different characters, which are beliefs without it being a problem
sometimes harsh and berating, – the illness comes when those Welcome back, O blue one! Sonic
sometimes friendly and helpful. experiences cause suffering. Often the Hedgehog returns in full 2D,
We worked closely with a group of the recovery is not about curing pixellated glory with this
voice-hearers to try and get these yourself of hallucinations, but homage to the Sega games of
sounding as realistic as possible. finding ways to live with them. yore. There are reimagined levels
She also experiences flashbacks That was a revelation to me. from the iconic titles of the 1990s,
as visual hallucinations, and there as well as entirely new zones and
are subtle changes in the game’s PF: It’s been refreshing to see a bosses, plus a welcome return for
environment as she moves around, representation of psychosis in Tails and Knuckles.
based on people’s descriptions of which the person isn’t just a sort of
how delusions manifest in real passive receptacle for madness.
life. So trees might shift position Senua is the hero of her own story,
slightly, or you might see a hidden trying to make sense of her
pattern in a shadow or a reflection. experiences and work her way UNCHARTED:
THE LOST LEGACY
It’s these patterns that the player through them – that’s incredibly PS4
needs to find in order to progress de-stigmatising. (22 AUGUST)
in the game. In representations of mental
illness onscreen, you usually Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End was
What else do you hope to achieve have the illness first, and then a many critics’ game of 2016. This
with the game? two-dimensional character standalone expansion, set six
TA: First and foremost, it was attached to that. In this case, the months after the main game,
about creating a compelling, adult, character is fully-formed, and they follows new protagonist Chloe
fantasy game. But the deeper we’ve are not defined by their condition. Frazer as she explores the
gone into development, the more It’s been exciting to see Senua southern tip of India in search
we’ve seen that there’s also an received so positively by those of a priceless relic. Expect a
opportunity to raise awareness of who have lived with experiences typically cinematic treat from
psychosis. For my part, I’ve learnt of psychosis. developers Naughty Dog.

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