Sea of Solitude review - a dazzling and cathartic exploration of mental health

PC, Playstation 4, Xbox One; Jo-Mei Games/Electronic Arts
Despite artless visual metaphors, this is a rare and audacious game that tackles depression and its causes head-on

Video games tend to lean heavily on metaphor when they tackle themes of mental health. In 2018's Celeste, the journey to the top of a mountain symbolises a path to inner peace; in 2017's Hellblade, the demons out for your character's blood can be seen as stand-ins for an internalised trauma. Sea of Solitude sails the same route: protagonist Kay wakes inside a boat in an unnamed city, ravaged by storms and almost entirely submerged in water. Feathered and with glowing red eyes, Kay judges herself monstrous. Using a flare, which functions as a source of light and a waypoint marker, Kay begins her search for a way out of her trappings as an ominous sea-creature follows her every move, ready to strike.

Sea of Solitude could easily have fallen into the trap of clumsily equating depression with a darkness that you fight with a source of light from within. The first monsters you meet call Kay worthless and ignorant, and you fight back by clearing dark distortions around light-filled beings.