It’s no secret that Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II has a lot of people excited, especially when news drops on the in-development game. The first game was not only wholly original, but it also delivered in ways we couldn’t even imagine. It was one of the best games of the year and it left no one indifferent. Well, assuming you were into that sort of genre-bending mind-blowing experience — the original wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea as it didn’t try to cater to everyone’s needs and preferences. And, well, the game was all the better for it!

We didn’t get to see much gameplay or Hellblade II news (only short pre-production glimpses), but it’s still more than enough to get our blood pumping!

“Hellblade was very special for us, and we didn’t want to do a straight sequel, we wanted to do something extra special, and so we’re making our lives as difficult as possible in that pursuit. The game is set in 9th century Iceland, so we’ve been sending our art and audio teams out there, doing photography, photogrammetry, and combining it with satellite data to recreate large swaths of the landscape,” said Ninja Theory Creative Director Tameem Antoniades.

In terms of character design, the folks over at Ninja Theory are hard at work making actual costumes and then scanning them for added realism. They’re also collaborating closely with Epic Games in order to create the most realistic digital characters ever made for a video game. Epic has acquired numerous industry-leading studios that have been making some mind-blowing facial and mo-cap tech, so it stands to reason that Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II will highlight these advancements in the best possible way.

Combat-wise, both the main actress and everyone on the animation team have undergone combat training so that they can translate the physicality of it all in the most realistic way imaginable. Ninja Theory is also aiming for “extra real and brutal” combat, so expect a fair bit of gore as well — not exactly DOOM levels of bloodshed, but a solid enough amount to make everything feel more visceral and legitimate.

All in all, the dev team seems to be hard at work, and we’re glad that they’re making headway with the sequel. This IP is obviously a labor of love, and it has garnered quite the passionate following as well (not to mention a boatload of awards and equal amounts of critical acclaim). It’d be a shame if they had to develop it in haste. Based on everything that they’ve shown, fans can expect mind-blowing visuals and unmatched levels of realism. 

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II will be released for PC and Xbox Series S/X, although there’s still no concrete release date at the time of this writing.