The big Xbox Games Showcase has come and gone, and we did not get a new trailer for Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II, although in a way, we sort of did. Ninja Theory has confirmed that Hellblade II takes place in Iceland, and have released a new development video showing many of the real-life locations they scouted for Senua’s latest journey. So, not a trailer exactly, but the video does hint at many of the sights and sounds you’ll be experiencing in Hellblade II. You can check out the video for yourself, below.
It definitely sounds like Hellblade II is going to be a much larger game than its predecessor. The original Hellblade could be wrapped up in around 6 or 7 hours, while the sequel will apparently see Senua travel “hundreds of miles seamlessly across Iceland.” Whether that means Hellblade II will be a full open-world game is unknown, but it should be a groundbreaking visual feast, as Ninja Theory has reconfirmed the game will be running on Epic’s Unreal Engine 5 tech. Ninja Theory’s Tameem Antoniades detailed everything the studio is doing to capture Iceland’s unearthly beauty…
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 2 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 really 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 from here is to capture that sense of awe and epic of Senua’s journey as she travels hundreds of miles seamlessly across Iceland and reproduce it, recreate it. A ninth-century version of Iceland that is as real and immersive as possible, and this is the approach we’re taking with everything in Hellblade II. Everything should be based on something real.
Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II has been confirmed for PC and Xbox Series X. A release window has yet to be locked down.
