‘Fractured Minds’ Is A Short But Essential Game Pass Experience

Developed by just one person, Emily Mitchell, when she was 17 years old, Fractured Minds will take you maybe 15 minutes to finish - it's not a game designed to challenge you, in terms of its gameplay. You'll solve simple puzzles like finding the right key to leave a room (and in doing so, complete chapter), or crack the four-digit code on a locked door. There's one section where speed is of the essence or else you sink to the darkest depths and have to restart the level, but there's no game over screen to fear, here.

Nothing is strenuous, too complex to overcome at the second or third time of asking. The whole point of the game is that you finish the game, that you complete the journey that Mitchell has laid out for you. Because its message is incredibly important - especially during a time when so many of us are finding things tough going, and perhaps we're unable to start a dialogue about our situation.

Mitchell made Fractured Minds to serve as an illustration, an interactive demonstration, of how mental ill-health affects the lives of countless people on a daily basis. And so it puts the player in situations of discomfort; of anxiety and incredible self-doubt. Paranoia rears its head, and depression. It creates a monster that pursues you - and yet, is it a monster at all?

Says Mitchell of her game: "It's designed to give the player a genuine insight into the experiences of those quietly living with mental illness - the feelings of isolation, of being trapped, of everyday situations being distorted beyond recognition. My own anxiety has been very debilitating, and I wanted to create a game that shares my experiences and provokes real discussion about a topic that is often misunderstood and rarely spoken about."

And if that doesn't appeal at all... Well, it's an easy 1,000 gamerscore, I guess.