Ciemna strona Selene. Horror przypominania, powtarzania i przepracowania w "Returnal"

Abstract

Returnal tells the story of an astronaut Selene Vassos after she crash-lands on Atropos — an alien planet full of hostile creatures. At least it seems so. The game presents itself as a roguelike third-person shooter in a science fiction setting and calls to mind many sci-fi horrors like Aliens or Starship Troopers. But as soon as Selene finds her own body on the planet’s surface and later comes back to life for the first time after dying in the game, we suspect that there’s a bigger mystery waiting for us in Returnal. In fact it tells a story that focuses on guilt, depression and trauma. And we have every right to call it a very unusual and intricately crafted psychological horror. Housemarque Studio, which developed the game, skillfully used the core mechanics of the roquelike genre to tell a deep, meaningful story of psychoanalytic therapy: remembering, repeating and working-through main protagonist’s trauma. In this sense Returnal is a truly unique creation showing the abilities of computer games to deal with serious topics in completely unconventional ways, especially when it comes to psychological horror. In this article I would like to take a close look at Returnal through a psychoanalytic lens as well as try to recognize this game as a retelling of an ancient Greek tragedy.