The anticipated Xbox Games Showcase has come to an end, and we did not get to see any new trailer for Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2, but we did, not directly though.
The reason is that Ninja Theory recently confirmed that Hellblade 2 will kick off in Iceland as covered by Aaron Hans. Hence, the team released a development video showing some of the real-life scenarios showing Senua’s most recent journey.
Having said that, it’s not a trailer exactly; however, the video does hint at many of the visuals and sounds you’ll be experiencing in Hellblade 2.
You can view the video below:
After watching the video, Hellbalde 2 is likely going to be a much larger game than its predecessor. On that note, the original Hellblade 2 could be completed around 6 to 7 hours, while the sequel will entail Senua travels, which amounts to hundreds of miles seamlessly across Iceland.
The question still stands; will Hellblade 2 be a fully open-world game?
It definitely should be a thought-provoking visual feast, as Ninja Theory acknowledged that the game would run on Epic’s Unreal Engine 5 tech. Also, Ninja Theory’s Tameem Antoniades depicted everything the studio plans on doing for Iceland’s impressive visuals.
According to Tameem Antoniades response, here’s what he had to say:
Rather than using Google Images or concept arts, I thought it would be much more interesting to take the filmic approach and location scout. So, we contacted Saga film, and over two weeks, we went to 40 different locations, and we narrowed those 40 locations down to a journey Senua could take across [Iceland]. I returned there a few months later with our core creative team. Representatives of every discipline were there — Art, Audio, Design, and Melina [Juergens] herself came along. I wanted everyone to experience the full immersive feeling of being in such a strange, beautiful, and dangerous country.
While we were there, we also coordinated with Quixel [Megascans], who happened to be up there with a few teams traveling across the country, scanning different biomes, creating assets we could use in our game. We went further, we also took our audio team out there along with Heilung, the band that we’re collaborating with to capture the sounds and soundscape of the land.
So, the goal here is to capture that sense of awe and epic of Senua’s journey as she travels hundreds of miles seamlessly across Iceland and reproduces it. A ninth-century version of Iceland that is quite real and immersive as possible is the approach we’re taking with everything in Hellblade 2. Everything should be based on something real.
While Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 has been confirmed for release on Xbox Series X and PC, an official date is yet to be known.
