Ninja Theory is going big with its upcoming Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2, which aims to improve on every aspect of the original, including a much larger overall scale. The studio's creative director says the sequel is so ambitious it'll "make Hellblade look like an indie game." And it's hard to argue given how impressive the last project's trailer was.
Hellblade launched back in 2017 and was the studio's self-published and self-marketed project, often referred to as an 'AA' title. The halfway stage between the classic big-budget triple-A and indie games, Hellblade won several prestige awards for its artistic and audio achievements. When working on the follow-up, the team shifted its established approach from creating smaller and more personal stories to bigger questions and themes.
In a recent interview with NME, Ninja Theory's founder Tameem Antoniades revealed what to expect from the sequel, which was announced in 2019. Hellblade 2 will touch upon the topics of religion and society, linking psychotic episodes to the religious visions of historical figures.
"Hellblade 2 moves away from this being a personal affliction for Senua and more about how a person like that can change the world," Antoniades said. "The goal with Hellblade 2 isn't to perfect it [the studio's format], but to create an experience that feels more believable and more refined. Its ambition in terms of scale is bigger. I think Hellblade 2 will make Hellblade look like an indie game."
The game is using Unreal Engine 5 for the concept of "capturing reality" with its unaltered in-game locations of Iceland. As Antoniades explained, the idea here is total believability, and "the best way to do that is to base everything on real things." With that aim in mind, the team made and scanned real costumes for the game's characters, created high-quality textures from scanning pieces of ancient material like leather, and even hired a combat trainer for Hellblade 2's lead actor Melina Juergens performing Senua both in dialogues and during the action sequences.
How far away from the original the sequel will go we'll hopefully learn sometime in 2023, when Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 will finally arrive across PC and Xbox Series X/S.