At the Developer_Direct show Ninja Theory has shown more gameplay for their upcoming third-person action game Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II.
Besides new footage, the studio, based in the United Kingdom also revealed the release date for the game, proving earlier rumours to be true! Hellblade II will release on May 21st, 2024. In an interesting move, they’ve been very transparent and upfront about what exactly Hellblade II will be.
Instead of another drawn out, bloated 3rd person action-adventure with “RPG-lite” mechanics, instead the game is aiming to be very similar (but far more accomplished) than the first. Hellblade II is aming to be approximately 8 hours long, and even more interestingly, will be a digital only release, much like the recent Alan Wake II.
Curiously, all the footage also rendered black bars at the top and bottom of the screen, suggesting a very cinematic 21:9 aspect ratio. This wouldn’t be the first game to do this – on Playstation, The Order 1886 went for a similar presentation method to really push the graphics as much as possible.
We’ve seen a lot of Hellblade II since it’s initial reveal alongside the Xbox Series X console at the Game Awards before it launched, and there’s been a hefty amount of discussion on just what the game is – and isn’t. It’s nice to see a development team come straight out and share all the information, and therefore setting reasonable expectations. As studio head Dom Matthews states – Ninja Theory is all about one thing – “to craft life-changing art with game changing tech.”
The team at Ninja Theory also released a blog post on the game over at the official Xbox Wire page. The game will be available on Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC’s, Xbox Cloud Gaming and Game Pass.
If you want to watch our live reaction to the Developer_Direct, look no further!
